Homages ...

[GM Crumpet]

I do love a good homage or parody character. I can't name names, but some really make me chuckle. Then I get sad when someone reports them as it's obvious they aren't copying an existing IP. I see the name, the costume and the bio and it's obvious where they got the inspiration from, but it's not the IP and is almost always different enough to pass with a "nothing to see here" from me. Actually, a bio can make or break a character too. "The raging Wolverine" could pass if the costume was different and the bio said they got their powers because they were abandoned as a baby and raised by a colony of wolverines in the wild. Or they were on a camping trip and got bitten by a radioactive wolverine. But without the bio making it transparently clear it's an original character "The raging Wolverine" would get hit with the generic hammer without a second thought. Comic companies own the rights to the image and story of the character, they can't own words themselves. Harley Quinn was a one off side character that took off and now nobody can think of the Batman franchise without her name popping up in the top 10 most popular character lists. But Harlequin is an old word used for centuries. As long as it's not Harley adjacent you're good to go.

Edited March 7 by GM Crumpet

[twozerofoxtrot]

13 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

IIRC, on Live, Jim Butcher, writer of the Harry Dresden stories (and the great Furies series) kept getting reported and genericked. For playing Harry Dresden.

 

Pretty sure he's still playing this character on Everlasting. 

 

Or... someone else took the name, because they're online as I post this.

[GM Crumpet]

33 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

Pretty sure he's still playing this character on Everlasting. 

 

Or... someone else took the name, because they're online as I post this.

If the creator of the IP contacts us with proof of who they are then they are free to play any of their characters as they wish. A lot don't, simply because they want anonymity and to play and interact with other people as "normal folks". They are free to do so though as it's using other peoples IP that's forbidden, not using your own IP 🙂

 

[sbloyd]

3 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

Pretty sure he's still playing this character on Everlasting. 

 

Or... someone else took the name, because they're online as I post this.

 

No WONDER the next book is taking so long!

[Oubliette_Red]

I've also seen posts recently about their "cosplay" character, to which I link to the above mentioned IP infringement thread.

 

[sbloyd]

I have a "cosplay" character, too - Monster Movie, a necro/dark MM whose costumes are all based on Universal movie monsters.  If they didn't want a Frankenstein's Monster look-alike, why give us neckbolts?!

[Herotu]

39 minutes ago, sbloyd said:

I have a "cosplay" character, too - Monster Movie, a necro/dark MM whose costumes are all based on Universal movie monsters.  If they didn't want a Frankenstein's Monster look-alike, why give us neckbolts?!

I did a bit of digging. It seems the neckbolt version of Frankenstein is ...

Quote

The flat-topped, neck-bolted monster we know and love was born in 1931, when Boris Karloff starred in Universal Pictures’ film version of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. Sure, the copyright in the original Frankenstein story had already fallen into the public domain, but by then Universal’s movie (and sequels and derivative works) resurrected a whole new era of Frankenstein copyright and trademark rights based on the film’s visuals, especially Karloff’s appearance as fixed on celluloid.

Source: https://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/2018/10/frankenstein-and-copyright-5-things-you-should-know/

If that's true, then we have to wait 2 years to copy neckbolt-flathead, because ... 

Quote

Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in the year 2024, almost 95 years after his creation on 1 October 1928 – the length of time after which the copyright on an anonymous or pseudo-anonymous body of artistic work expires.

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/03/mickey-mouse-disney-copyright-expiry

 

What does the word "anonymous" mean in that context, though?

Edited March 7 by Herotu

[Scarlet Shocker]

21 hours ago, drgantz said:

We can do homages, but not clones.

 

There's probably a joke about Dolly the Sheep there.

[Ukase]

I have made a couple of homage characters that, thus far, haven't got generic'd. Candidly, I don't think they will be or should be, but I don't make those decisions. 

I made Mr. Warmth, an Homage to Don Rickles. I have a couple of kind-hearted insults on a couple of macros should the opportunity present itself, and I have Carol Burnit an homage to Carol Burnette, who is one of my two favorite female entertainers, the other being Betty White - no homage to her yet, but as soon as I can think of the proper name for the character, I'll get right on it. 

The thing about those two, the costume creator is a bit limited on creating any kind of clone for them. I mean, a bald old guy for Rickles. That's fairly generic. And a red head for Carol Burnette. That's about as close to resembling them as I could get with my limited creativity. 

[drgantz]

On 3/6/2024 at 2:20 PM, ZacKing said:

 

Why would that get generic'd?  Did you say in the bio he's THE Al Bundy from the TV show with a costume that was a direct copy of him?  If not, that's overkill to generic it.

 

Part of the reason was that it had the name Bundy.  I was also told that his background story was too much like MWC.  The story had the name Peg in it.  He also looked as much like Al Bundy as  possible.

 

This is my updated bio:

 

 I'm the greatest athlete, after all I played High School Football and scored 4 touchdowns in a single game, winning the 1996 Championship for Statesman High School. Unfortunately, my football career ended due to a career ending marriage.  I married a lazy redhead, had two worthless kids and spent the rest of my life selling women's shoes. One day, I was hungry after work and I knew that my wife wasn't going to cook anything, so I stopped at a restaurant, hoping to get some food from the trash. After I walked in, a guy walked in with a gun and said this was a robbery. I didn't want to wait for the police, because then I would miss Hondo again. He then pointed his gun at my face. If someone puts something in my face it had better be food, so I brought out the Marines and Special Forces (my fists) and pummelled him into the ground. The restaurant then gave me a free meal and I was on the news. I realized that I could get used to this, so now I am a superhero.

[cranebump]

I have at least 1 homage (to Cap). And then I have a toon that is “suspected” to be the alter  ego of an on-game contact. A second toon is an homage due to the fact that he, too, is suspected to be an in game contact and that contact is definitely a nod to Black Panther.