Minecraft Forums

Madera's comment all the way.

Honestly, who types in "The elder scrolls" into google to look for Skyrim, oblivion, or morrowind? It's not like Bethesda OWNS the word "scrolls". Anyone can say it; look, scrolls. C'mon, sue me, Bethesda. Dare ya.

But nobodies going to NOT buy Skyrim, the sequal to the RPG Game of the year. Are you really going to get mad enough to not buy it? Course not. Bethesda's just making fools out of themselves, and anyone who knows about Oblivion knows exactly how to find Skyrim. If anything, Bethesda's the company trying to get publicity, not Mojang.

In short, ever heard of the game "Risen"? Nope. Made by Bethesda. Any lawsuit associated with it? Nope. I see a connection here...

I loled at the elder scrolls website. "Please select your country: North america/International." Typical Americains. Anyway, so they're suing over 1 word, just because scrolls is more popular. Sorry Bethesda, but you lost out, you just weren't popular enough to retain your position on google search. At least go down gracefully!

Quote from Maderas

I have a feeling that Notch posting the details of the lawsuit all over his twitter is going to come back and bite him in the ass. It's extremely unprofessional to say the least, and frankly, he's been acting like an arrogant cock about this lawsuit from the start. I won't shed any tears if he gets brought down a peg or two. Also...



I'm sorry, but you can't be serious. Yes, I'm sure ZeniMax and Bethesda are jealous of Notch's success. Every Elder Scrolls games grosses about five times more (at the minimum) than Minecraft will ever earn.

Posts like this are exactly the reason I think the court is going to look highly unfavorably on Notch's attempts at whipping his legions into a frenzy over this case.

Quote from Tycholarfero

Madera's comment all the way.

T_T fail.

This is exactly why I hate how this site rewords things. It's worse than my local newspaper (which is a highly opinionated load of crap... I want NEWS not "THIS IS GOOD, THIS IS BAD, THINK HOW I WANT YOU TO THINK, NOW! BOW BEFORE ZOD!"). I understand that talking about a lawsuit so publicly is probably not the best idea, but the fact of the matter is that he did nothing to "whip his legions into a frenzy." If you actually read the twitter posts rather than the overzealous re-wordings that were posted on -here-, which related VERY loosely to the actual posts Notch made (and often left out very key points in the his word choice, which would have shown that his outlook was quite level-headed, to say the least), and honestly were more attributed to stirring up trouble than anything, you'd see that Markus Persson has not been attempting a violent revolution, as you apparently believe he is.

If anything, notch should've disciplined the people who posted that crap (not to say he didn't, just I'm not aware of any such disciplining). If you noticed, he defended Bethesda the whole way, and defused any oncoming arguments with statements like "I have a feeling this is just lawyers being lawyers. I can't really say I blame them" and the like.

I guarantee you, if you go to ANYWHERE where there is massed media production done on a large scale, and you happen to know someone who works as a producer, director, or even an actor, sometimes, they will be painfully aware at how early and often lawsuits are slung back and forth between companies and studios, and always over the silliest things.

They're not afraid to talk about it, generally, either. When it comes right down to it, a lawsuit over something like this is not in the slightest bit unheard of. Sure, Markus is a bit forward about some things, but he's not STUPID, nor has he been the arrogant sod everyone seems to be making him out to be based on words that weren't even his (the "telephone" effect that results from over-eager fans running your primary PR campaign *cough* here *cough*).

Now I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but if we're talking about a professional veneer, the minimum to be expected, that is, this site is far from it. While it is well set up, the protocol is god awful. Why is there an entire sticky explaining how to set up copyrights by copy/paste, when none of that crap would hold up in court worth a damn?

Let's just get one thing clear here: Copyrights are given at the time of creation. If someone disobeys copyright law, they either know how not to get caught, or they're too young/stupid to realize how easy it is to get caught, or they simply don't know what copyright law is, or how it works.

This is how people denote a copyright, in the real world:

(c)<year the copyright was established><name of owner or presiding entity of ownership>

for example

(c)2011 Joe Shmoe

If a piece is a work in progress (more commonly known, here, and on plenty of other internet venues, as WIP), that which has been completed at any given time is copyrighted, for the year that it has been worked on in.

However, if you "edit" a work that you already finished, then it is considered a "derived" work, and receives its own copyright, and is designated as a separate piece from the original.

This is the sort of professionalism I would expect of a site like this, if that's what we're going to start discussing. Brown nosing and over-eager conclusion-jumping are not.

Elder Scrolls franchise went sour after Morrowind. I'm surprised Bethesda is still holding on to it so tightly :tongue.gif:

Quote from geniusbean

Elder Scrolls franchise went sour after Morrowind. I'm surprised Bethesda is still holding on to it so tightly :tongue.gif:

never played oblivion i see. its like night and day compared to morrowcrap.

publicity is publicity. negative or positive. zenimax is genius for tapping into the minecraft market to freely promote skyrim to 3+ million people a month before release.

if they could sue blizzard, they'd do it. and now would be the time.

I don't understand why people are blaming Bethesda? Blame ZeniMax for the stupid lawsuit.

While I wish that copyright didn't work like this, I fell that Mojang will lose. The whole system is flawed. This happens to be one of them. There isn't too much you can do about it though. I assume Mojang will lose in court and have to pay them a small fee. I just hope they will be able to find a new name for the game before Minecon.

Quote from ironbran

never played oblivion i see. its like night and day compared to morrowcrap.

publicity is publicity. negative or positive. zenimax is genius for tapping into the minecraft market to freely promote skyrim to 3+ million people a month before release.

if they could sue blizzard, they'd do it. and now would be the time.

sueing blizzard would be suicide lol blizzard is relentless once they get around to whatever it is they are supposed to do lol

Quote from DanSparrow »

Big companies are simply full of idiots. Last time someone tried to copyright a common use word, it ended up losing a lot of money and even rights.

which word, the word "the?" OH NO I SAID *** I SHOULD BE ARRESTED lol that would suck.

Quote from bethesda »

You copied us. We are going to sue you.

Quote from notch »

No. TO THE COURT!

that is pretty much what happened.

This is just plain sad on Bethesda's part. I dont think its going to defeat Mojang, and I REALLY hope they dont. Being able to claim credit to one word would be a blow to everyone.

Quote from mh_mini

This is just plain sad on Bethesda's part. I dont think its going to defeat Mojang, and I REALLY hope they dont. Being able to claim credit to one word would be a blow to everyone.

As opposed to Mojang attempting to claim ownership of one word?

The Scrolls trademark application covers:

Entertainment services in the form of electronic, computer and video games provided by means of the Internet and other remote communications device; internet games (non downloadable); organising of games; games (not downloadable) played via a global computer network; education and entertainment services in the form of cinematographic, televisual, digital and motion picture films, radio and television programs and shows; preparation, editing and production of cinematographic, televisual, digital and motion picture films, radio and television programs; entertainment services in the form of electronic, computer and video games provided by means of the Internet, mobile telephone and other remote communications device.

Quote from milly_rainbow

if i recall, daggerfall isnt bethesdas. its a very old game, that most certainly predates bethesda. i cant remember correctly, but if i had to guess, it would be interplays game, since thats where bethesda originated from.
you would think that the entire Elder Scrolls series would have been shipped over to Black Isle (also spun off of interplay), since thats more down their lane than it was bethesdas.

They might have been able to get the names though, its hard to tell, since alot of copyrights were lost when interplay died out completely.

Bethesda Softworks has been a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment content for over two decades. Founded in 1986 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland and moved to Rockville, Maryland in 1990, the company has a long history of PC and console games. In 1998, Weaver decided to expand the company beyond PC games and into multimedia and invited Robert A. Altman to help manage the budding company. Weaver and Altman co-founded ZeniMax Media Inc. in 1999.[2]

Daggerfall('96) was the sequel to Arena('93). Seriously--try researching a little before letting everyone know you are an ignorant child.
As for Interplay

it essentially said the Bethesda bought ALL rights to the
"Fallout" name and all materials, and Interplay had given up all
claims.

So it's Interplay who is trying to get money out of "Fallout" that
Bethesda is making out of newer (Bethesda branded) releases of Fallout
games.

Some tweets for the kids.

chrislamb Chris Lamb
@
@Wej00 @notch I think hee tried to do a thing, got called on it over something he potentially didn't realize, & is playing victim.

@chrislamb Not true. notch.tumblr.com/post/10990169

chrislamb Chris Lamb
@ That would be twice now you've linked me to a tumblr post with nothing backing it up.

DocDarson Edward Darson
@notch Can't believe you're going through with this lawsuit, Notch. Get off your high horse and change the name of your game.

notch Markus Persson
@
@DocDarson Why?

Aprime Alexandre Potvin
@
@notch Because you're acting like a 12 year old troll who has no idea what he's got himself into making bomb threats on 4chan.

@notch
Markus Persson
@Aprime You seem to be misinformed.

Aprime Alexandre Potvin
@
@notch That would be correct to some extent, as I've been getting all my information regarding that lawsuit of yours from you until today.

chrislamb Chris Lamb
@
@Wej00 @notch They don't care if "scrolls" is in the name of your game. They care if you want to trademark the word.

@notch
Markus Persson
@chrislamb @Wej00 Then why wouldn't they accept us dropping the trademark?

@chrislamb
Chris Lamb
@notch @Wej00 Again, what do you have that says you offered, other than a tumblr post?

http://kotaku.com/5846111/mojang-v-bethesda-or-i-hate-it-when-mommy-and-daddy-fight

Quote from WarBarney

While I do feel its stupid of them to sue them for naming a game *scroll* (unless ofc everything in the game is a replica of the elder scroll games as well and theres no reason to call it scroll at all except that they saw that name) I think notch should have taken it more seriously than challenging them to a game of quake 3... seriously dude law suits are serious and could destroy minecraft if they succeed, don't take the **** out of it

Try reading the post above yours.

Quote from killer10125

why would bethesda lawsuit them for using scrolls thier series is named the elderscrolls not scrolls thats dumb of bethesda sorry for being rude

When will these threads/post stop?

Quote from Daedroth

When will these threads/post stop?

When people actually start reading rather than reacting.

Eh, as much as I hate to see Mojang lose, Bethseda is most likely gonna win. Bethseda is an established cooperation with tons of money to spare. Mojang is just a small indie-game developer. I've never played Elder Scrolls actually, though I plan on playing one of them soon. Also, a bit dumb of Notch's part naming a game "Scrolls." Whats ironic about this is that Notch said in interviews that he loved the Elder Scrolls series and now he's getting sued by the company.

Sad, sad tale.

Quote from 4Players1

Mojang would have loosed anyways, Bethesda is better at playing Quake

loosed
loosed
loosed
loosed

There is a simple way to nip this in the bud.

We get as many people as we can to sign a pledge to boycott Skyrim if Bethesda and Zenimax don't drop the suit. We then send this to said parties and see how long these shenanigans last.