Malik
(11/19/04)
There's a sort of
theme with today's Bitchings. It's not that I'm trying to be
overly cute or some crap, but rather that the geek world is consumed
with a rather weird situation this week; named legal woes. I'm
sure most of you have heard of the shitty worker treatment at EA,
but it goes beyond that. There's a new tool (I read it as:
scheme) from major Hollywood movie studios, and some stupidity from
Marvel (the comic company) towards NCsoft (the CoH people).
So, let's get this rolling...
They Didn't Do It,
But They Must Be Responsible
So, for those who
haven't heard this yet, click on this
link to Gamespot.com. Basically, Marvel, the company behind
Spiderman, The X-Men, The Hulk, Daredevil, blah, blah, has decided
to take NC Soft down a peg. NCsoft was stupid enough to offer games
a virtually limitless number of options for customizing a character
for their MMO, City of Heroes.
At the same time,
NCsoft was kind enough to give gamers enough options with superhero
creation that we could pick a wide number of the most commonly seen
superpowers from different comics; like super speed, strength, invulnerability,
regeneration, claws, radiation powers, fire blasting, empathy, etc.
However, this is as far as NCsoft went with the concept. Basically,
they threw out a bunch of great tools and options for us geeks to
enjoy playing around with to make our own unique custom
heroes.
Yet, not all of us
have a sense of creativity. Therefore, while some people exercise
too much creativity and create such gaudy superheroes that not even
their own creators could love them, there are those of us who feel
that the best heroes are the ones that have already been designed.
Therefore, we see a lot of Marvel, DC, Darkhorse, and other
companies' properties being imitated. I've personally seen a good
half dozen different Wolverine (Marvel) rip-offs, Superman (DC)
clones, imitation Hulks (Marvel), etc. The list just goes on and on.
However, we must keep in mind that the players are the ones creating
such imitation heroes and NCsoft did not tell us to make rip-off
characters (in fact, they keep insisting on creativity everywhere
from their web site to the instruction manual for CoH), but rather
to express ourselves as we see fit.
Well, this large
CoH population of Marvel inspired clones has inspired Marvel to do
something of it's own...they are suing NCsoft for copyright
infringement because of something NCsoft didn't do. This would be
the first instance of a major lawsuit taking place due to the
content created by an online community and not caused by the content
provider.
Basically, this
whole situation leads to two things. The first of which would be
that if Marvel does succeed with it's baseless lawsuit, then a new precedent
will be established in the courts that would allow a content
provider to be sued over user created data. This means that every
MMO on the market, and every future one, would have to be re-tooled
to block all possible copyright infringements. Not only that, but a
new precedent would need to be established in which users would have
to sign off to take legal responsibility of their actions for all
their avatar designs, what words they type in, their screen name,
their behavior, etc. All of this would be needed since no filter in
the world would be good enough to catch all copyrighted material and
block it from appearing on the online community.
The second thing
that would come about from this...even if Marvel loses...would be
the fact that Marvel is showing how small-minded, petty, and greedy
that they have become. Consider it like this; if you do anything
online that could be seen by the masses, make sure you leave Marvel
out of it, in all forms, unless you want the risk of the lawyers
coming after you next.
Solution
This is the type
of frivolous lawsuit that I thought had passed by our culture over a
decade ago. You know what lawsuits I mean...coffee being hot and
burning some dumbass, a robber being shot and suing for pain and
anguish, a doctor tried to the best of anyone's ability and still
failed to save a life so the family of the deceased sues and raises
the cost of medical care for all of us so they could get an uncalled
for $25 million. It's all bullshit, and it's all directed at the
wrong people. If you get burned by hot coffee because you're holding
it in your lap with the lid off while driving, then you deserve a
lot worse than to get some 2nd degree burns. If you rob a house and
get shot by the resident, you should have to pay the resident for
the bullet he planted in your sorry ass (bullets may be relatively
cheap, but they aren't free), and if a doctor does his best and
doesn't botch things due to poor technique, you should thank him/her
for trying so damned hard (it sure as hell isn't easy for the doctor
to cope when they try so hard only to see their patient
die...doctors are not unfeeling asses and they do a job that many of
us would never have the courage to do).
In other words,
Marvel is suing NCsoft for something that some 12 year old in his
parents' basement is doing. Am I the only one to see how greedy
Marvel must be to be doing this bullshit. If Marvel sees someone imitating
their property in a way that doesn't cause a loss of profit (hell,
some people may actually go out and buy an X-Men comic after they
see a fake Wolverine in CoH and think how cool that character is) or
any loss of face, they should consider it both free advertising and
as a compliment. I'd be complimented if I saw a character on an MMO
based off of something I made that actually took pride in being like
my property.
The only reason
for Marvel to sue would either be if the rumors of Marvel trying to
make an MMORPG are true (in which case, they will be shut down by
NCsoft's massive fanbase), or if Marvel is just getting greedy and
out-of-touch with the public. Either way, the solution is simple.
Marvel needs to stop crying over nothing, quit being so damned
greedy, and enjoy the fact that they are no losing money like they
were just 10 years ago.
Enslavement to
All
There are a lot of
crappy jobs out there. Even a good job can turn into an experience
that makes one feel over-worked, under-paid- under-appreciated, or
like a slave to their jobs. In fact, many people who work in what
are often viewed as "dream jobs" by outsiders are some of
the most over-worked people in the American workforce. Usually an
employee at a game development studio had to put up with strict
schedules that would make an average geek cringe. Plus, the nature
of how difficult it is to program on many of today's consoles
doesn't help. Then, when a major deadline starts to draw near, the
workload only increases to make sure the final product is out when
the PR statements say it will be.
However, after
reading the
web journal of Joe Straitiff, a former Software Engineer III at
EA, I think EA takes the prize for the most f%$#ed up working
environment possible.
In a time when
jobs are still scarce, and permanent job placement is almost becoming
a fantasy, people will put up with a lot of hassles to ensure they
don't end up unemployed. No matter how much people say, "I'll
quit my job if they don't treat me with some more dignity", we
live in too harsh of an economic situation to just follow through
with this plan. In fact, this plays perfectly into the hands of
employers since they know that they can abuse their employees (as
long as it is only to the legal limits of acceptable abuse) in
countless ways and still keep a solid workforce.
Therefore,
employers can easily make their employees put in extra time, throw
away their personal lives, degrade themselves, and pay far below
what should be acceptable. However, there is a certain line that can
be crossed to make this situation go from just being a crappy job to
being immoral and unethical. EA, from the sounds of this web journal
of Mr. Straitiff and another
one (from an anonymous EA Spouse) have not only crossed the
line, but they took a big shit on it, blamed it on their employees
who had died of exhaustion, and then proceeded to fornicate their
dead employees with a jagged metal rod.
When people are
dismissed for no reason beyond working their asses off and going
well beyond the descriptions of their jobs, and when people are
putting in the same amount of overtime as regular hours and not
seeing an extra dime for it, and the over-worked employees don't see
any comp time or extra sick/vacation hours for this sacrifice on
their personal lives and sanity, and the employees are constantly
lied to about the expectations that are placed upon them, it is
nothing beyond amoral and inexcusable. These are people with
families, friends, social lives, real commitments (a job should
never, in my opinion, amount to more than your family and
friends...period), and only so much stress that can be taken before
serious harm is done.
Plus, when you
consider what the EA Spouse said;
Never should it be an
option to punish one's workforce with ninety hour weeks; in any
other industry the company in question would find itself sued out of
business so fast its stock wouldn't even have time to tank. In its
first weekend, Madden 2005 grossed $65 million. EA's annual revenue
is approximately $2.5 billion. This company is not strapped for
cash; their labor practices are inexcusable.
There is simply no
excuse for this behavior. A company that is turning such large
profits every year due to just a few major franchise titles (like
Madden, The Sims and expansions, etc) has no reason to treat it's
employees so badly. When a company turns a profit from the hard work
and diligence of it's employees, the moral, ethical, and just plain
right thing to do is to reward the hard working employees...not to
punish them. In fact, the best selling EA title each year doesn't
even require such a high level of work...how much work honestly goes
into a new Madden title when compared to a game like GTA:SA, a new
Final Fantasy, or any other game that has a large amount of new
content with each new incarnation (Madden gets a single new play
mode, slightly tweaked visuals, and new stats for each player)? Are
you saying that by having a successful business with far less
required maintenance in it's best selling games (when compared to
the competition) requires working their employees into the ground? I
say, f$%# no.
Solution
I don't know about
anyone else, but this recent outbreak of news about the nature of
EA's human resources and employee relations makes me see things in a
new light. I can assure you that the Need for Speed Underground 2
that I was wanting (from EA) is off my must-get list...I was
thinking of eventually getting The Sims 2 (the first one was so
boring but too addictive to quit), but not anymore...I was
considering, when the RPG market becomes dry again, of getting LotR:
The Third Age, but definitely not anymore. In fact, my personal
solution for this load of bullshit is to boycott EA's games.
However, beyond
myself, the first step towards a solution was taken by brave
individuals such as Mr. Straitiff and the EA Spouse, who came
forward with their person stories. To bring this situation to our
attention was a brave and wonderful beginning to (hopefully)
bringing about some sort of change. Plus, a class-action lawsuit is
being brought about on behalf of the EA employees who got cheated
out of overtime/comp time to get compensation for their sacrifice to
their jobs.
The biggest
changes, however, need to be brought about by EA. They need to see
how their actions are immoral, and probably illegal (and if not,
they should be). Hopefully EA will feel enough repercussions from
their horrible actions that they will reverse their attitude towards
employees before other major development studios take on the same
characteristics.
Can You Trust a
Faceless Lawsuit-Happy Entity?
I know I can't.
However, according to a
news article at MSNBC.com, a consortium of 7 major movie studios
have joined together to initiate lawsuits against file swappers who
trade in movies. However, if this was not enough, they are getting
ready to sue for as little at only one downloaded movie file, and
they are going to sue for a possible $30,000 to $150,000 per movie
(yes, that is tens to hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars per movie).
Plus, they are not planning that half-asses amnesty deal that the
RIAA had offered (in which you sign up, promise to never download a
song again, and delete all of your copyrighted songs from your
PC...which was not legally binding and could easily be turned around
as a method to find people to sue over copyright infringement).
No, it still gets
more insane. This consortium of Hollywood studios (let's just call
this entity Hollywood, in the same way The Simpsons made fun of the
greed of Hollywood movie producers and lumped them all together as
"Hollywood" in the Radioactive Man movie episode) is
offering a free downloadable program for Windows users. This program
from http://www.respectcopyrights.org/
will search your computer for illegal music and movie files on your
computer, along with searching out all of your P2P software. What a
great idea! Wow! My sarcasm is flowing now.
Basically, this
program can be, depending on any agreements related to it's
download, a great tool for parents to check their PCs and make sure
their little children are not going to cause them a legal headache.
However, if any agreement is not correctly worded, it can go the
other way...
A program, from a
group of Hollywood people that are only interested in making some
money via suing, that can search your hard drive for material to sue
your sorry ass over...hmmm...this is a perfect doorway for Hollywood
to enter your life, find your illegal movies, and sue you. Or, they
could agree to not sue you over movies and have it worded just right
(like the RIAA amnesty agreement was worded and handled) and you
have still thrown out your legal rights. Best of all, they could
always not sue you but they pass along to the RIAA what illegal
songs you have and then they nail you. Maybe they could just find
what P2P services you use and what your online name/account is and
then watch you like a hawk.
True, they could
not track your information they could easily retrieve from your PC
that has to be Internet-ready to get said program...yup...and they
could decide that you're so damned cool that you get to star in the
next movie made in Hollywood because of your commitment to stop
movie piracy, and then you'll be a millionaire! Holy poop! I better
download that obvious entrapment immediately! Woohoo!
Solution
This type of
bullshit needs to just be ended. It's one thing to worry about your
intellectual properties (even when the supposedly
"intellectual" things are piles of crap cranked out by
Hollywood on a regular basis that is more regular than the rate an
average regular person takes a shit), but it's another to give out
tools that can easily be used for evil means or to offer very poorly
worded amnesty deals that would condemn you to lawsuit hell.
Also, this type of
trigger happy behavior of lawsuits by Hollywood and the RIAA only
amounts to more increased time wasted by the US legal system.
The real solution
would be for more work to be done along the lines of what Microsoft
has been looking into lately about finding ways to secure
copyrighted works from digital distribution. In other words,
prevention is a better solution than punishment. It's one thing if
you get slapped around after doing something that's free, easy, and
not often caught...it's another thing if this just becomes difficult
and out of the reach of normal people.
Conclusion
It's pretty rare
when I can't just bitch about the stupidity of the gaming industry
and actually have an entire week worth of bitching dedicated to the
US legal system. I hope this is not a trend, for myself, to be more
yuppie and legal minded...nahhh...I think it's just some of life's
irony that all of the stupidity in the geek world seems to be so
focused each week on on thing or another (laws this week, piracy a
couple weeks ago, blah, blah). Anyway, with the release of the DS
coming in a couple of days, and with the PSP looming on the horizon
in Japan (of course we're getting bitched in the US...like usual), I
know it will soon be time for a nice shift away from the legal
minded state of this week, and the piracy laden bitching of last
month. In fact, beyond GTA games, the best source of fresh Bitchings
is always a major product release. Anyway,
feel free to write
me or put it on the forums,
if you think you've got something to say about all this legal fun.
Malik
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