Zenimax v DoomRL

[amv2k9]

For anyone who didn't already see it on Term's twitter, Zenimax Media Inc is now demanding that Kornel Kisielewicz take down DoomRL:

https://twitter.com/epyoncf/status/804482084702187520



So, I guess get it while you can.

[Nems]

Saw this both on Twitter and Tumblr. Upsetting, for sure. Zenimax must be allergic to money because I sure as shit ain't giving them another dime after this.

I also asked this on Doomworld but I figure it's safe to ask here too: what does this C&D on DoomRL mean for sites like Doomworld and the forums for various ports like (G)ZDoom, Zandronum, ZDaemon, Eternity, and so on?

[Jaxxoon R]

What I get from this (just in an unprofessional assumption), is that it looks like more of a takedown request for the website itself due to the url name. I'd wonder if starting with "http://doom." would be a big contributing factor, as in their mind people could mistake it for the official doom.com domain. I guess it's an attempt to prevent phishing or domain squatting, but obviously the effects of the decision won't be in anyone's best interest and it could've been handled way better.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

[Nevander]

Why isn't it doomrl.chaosforge.org instead of just doom? I agree that seeing just doom would confuse me, and it did when I read that message.

[Nash]

Looks like The Enclave AKA Zenimax have sent their Vertibirds down... sad indeed :'(

[dpJudas]

Zandronum and ZDaemon should be safe, as they don't have Doom in their names. For the rest, we'll just have to see.

There is still the chance that the notice wasn't done by Zenimax intentionally, as such large companies often outsource the work of protecting trademarks to third parties. If there's any trace of actual gamers left at Zenimax, they'll quickly realize a move like this, attacking your fans, is [censored word] at best. There is no commercial value in doing what they are doing here.

[shotfan]

Attacking completely free and new Doom fan games now, Zenimax? This solves my dilemma whether to get Doom 4. Thanks for the notice, amv2k9.

[Gez]

They're quite explicit about their beef.

You are using a ZeniMax trademark as a meta tag on your website. Please stop doing that.

Looking at the source code for https://doom.chaosforge.org/ what do we see?

Code: Select all

<meta name="keywords" content="doomrl roguelike doom chaosforge rpg games" />

Can you people please tell me what the third meta keyword is there? That's right, it's "doom".

What they're asking him to do is to remove "doom" from the list of meta keywords. They're not asking him to pull off the game, just to stop using the Doom name to advertise it. And it's very probably in relation with this little thing which is unsurprisingly linked to on the DoomRL site. I notice that on this kickstarter page they refer to DoomRL as "D**mRL", as if they somehow knew mixing fangames with money is iffy.

I'm pretty sure he can solve this amiably if he doesn't go confrontational with them.

[4thcharacter]

For a second I thought they were planning to take down DRLA. My heart skipped a beat right there.

The thing I'm worried about is the wiki that has plenty of information listed for the game. If it's remove, it's less cues and ideas to take from.

[Graf Zahl]

They are using a nearly unaltered Doom logo, that surely is grounds for a complaint as the logo is clearly trademarked. No idea what else they have problems with, but the message looks like boilerplate legalese written to cover all eventualities (like, if they do not mention 'hidden elements' and later find out that there are hidden elements that violate their trademarks they may have a problem because they didn't do something immediately.

But whatever, that logo alone is reason enough to invite the laywers to the party. And the sister sites aren't any better.

[leileilol]

There's a bit of Streisand going on with the news in the steam library page of the new Doom. ;P


(similarly this is kinda why I avoided using the word "quake" on the OA site)

[60dollartechdemo]

I find it funny/sad that they listed "The Evil Within" (a shameless rephrasing of "Resident Evil") as one of their big trademarks that no one can use but them. I guess this is exactly the sort of US legal-system abuse one can expect from a company with Donald Trump's brother on the board of directors.

[Jaxxoon R]

I find it funny/sad that they listed "The Evil Within" (a shameless rephrasing of "Resident Evil")

I... don't see how you'd think that. It's no more a "shameless rephrasing" than Halo is of Discworld or Alone in the Dark is of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Besides, Evil Within was directed by the original creator of Resident Evil.

[Gez]

I find it funny/sad that they listed "The Evil Within" (a shameless rephrasing of "Resident Evil") as one of their big trademarks that no one can use but them.

You don't understand what trademark is.

Yes, "The Evil Within" is a perfectly valid trademark, fully distinguished from "Resident Evil". You cannot confuse one for the other, even though they have a shared word. It's not like you're talking about something called "Residant Evil" or "President Evil" or "Resident Eval" or something else that could at a glance be confused.

Perhaps you need to take a refresher on what a trademark is? Just like the copyright is literally "the right to copy"; the trademark is literally "the mark of a trade", an identifier that shows that a product or service does originate from a specific company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark

Basically if you make a game called Doom in which you fight zombies and demons that invaded the UAC's research complex, you're going to attract lawyerly attention. Not because you have demons, zombies, and the UAC. Not because it's called Doom. But because of both together. It's clearly a game "from" the Doom franchise, so it's trademark infringement. The way for the authors of that fangame to resolve the dispute and cover their ass is basically to simply put some disclaimer boilerplate on their site footers, you know something like "Doom is a registered trademark of ZeniMax LLC. This site and the DoomRL game are not endorsed by nor affiliated with ZeniMax, id Software, Bethesda Software, or any other of their subsidiaries."

[wildweasel]

If you want a good example of what a trademark dispute is, look up the legal history of Apple Corps v Apple Computers, which initially settled out of court under the terms that Apple Computers never enter the record industry, a settlement that was allegedly breached several times since then.