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Honestly, the store in the kickstarter footage does not even look like an IKEA to me - the floors in the game are much more open and less claustrophobic than an
by kleiba 4y ago
Honestly, the store in the kickstarter footage does not even look like an IKEA to me - the floors in the game are much more open and less claustrophobic than an actual IKEA.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ziggygamedev/the-store-is-closed-infinite-furniture-store-survival-game https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ziggygamedev/the-store-...
- macspoofing 4y agoCome on, it's an obvious IKEA parody ... but so what, it (should) fall under free-speech protections.
- groovybits 4y agoWould such protections still apply if money is intended to be made? That is clearly the case, since its on Kickstarter.
- bombcar 4y agoParody for money is protected BUT you have to be parodying the thing iirc. So Weird Al could have made all his songs without permission (but he gets it to be polite) - though he’d still have to pay licensing to use the music iirc. There’s case law about it. Barbie Girl may be involved. Snoopy vs the Red Baron also.
- georgeecollins 4y agoMaybe. Both cases you mention are songs, not video games. From a modern perspective you would think the laws about intellectual property for video games would be the same as for film and music. I think the long run that will be true. But some of the early precedent has treated video games more like "toys" with less speech protection. If you are really doing this check with a lawyer who works in the area (admittedly few).
- bombcar 4y agoYeah, and this one is a bit more spicy because the whole point is that you're in a horror IKEA and so the fact that it's clearly an IKEA is part of the "sale value" of the game. Compare to Carl & Phil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJEN1pvZ60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJEN1pvZ60 - that's clearly a Costco/Sam's Club parody (and they also have FedUPS as a delivery company) but it's not being used to "sell". It's very complicated and involves trademark AND copyright law, so it could go either way. Also see Sosumi and BHA ;)
- yamtaddle 4y agoThere's a nerd-famous one involving Penny Arcade using (IIRC) Strawberry Shortcake to parody the style of American McGee's Alice. I think PA ended up caving because it was too hard to defend the use of a character from one owner to parody something about another property entirely. The strip was definitely intended as parody, but including elements from something that wasn't the subject of the parody made it much harder to defend under that exception.
- bombcar 4y agoYep, the famous banned PA comic (you can still find it, of course). But this response comic was parody of the subject matter, so it is fine: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/04/28/read-it-before-they-take-legal-action https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/04/28/read-it-before...
- mikepurvis 4y agoDoes it matter if parody is for money? Comedians need to eat too.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoIt's rather funny (funny: strange) to me that we live in a day and age when "the look of a store" is a recognizable thing. How did we manage to steer this ship into such strange waters?
- CodeSgt 4y agoWhy is that strange to you? What would the alternative, "less strange", reality be?
- micromacrofoot 4y agostores are owned and operated locally and aren't copied and pasted global monoliths
- JKCalhoun 4y agoIt used to be fun to travel, even locally within the U.S., and see new stores and places you did not have back home. I never thought I would say this, but this Western world is becoming a downright boring place to live.
- Gud 4y agoThose stores exist too, though.
- hacym 4y agoIt’s funny you’re saying that on a site accessible within fractions of a second form pretty much anywhere in the world.
- chrisseaton 4y agoIf they're all selling furniture why do they need to be any different? What's different between the requirements of a low-end furniture store like Ikea in New York and one in San Francisco that would mean there's any sense in running them differently?
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
- pwinnski 4y agoThe exterior clearly does, but yeah, the interior doesn't seem particularly familiar. Fortunately, the letter in question lists the element IKEA finds objectionable: "Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical striped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage." No question that the building exterior and signage are based on IKEA. They might actually violate a trademark. The shirts, sure, not sure that's trademarked, though. Some of the furniture designs might be.
- FormerBandmate 4y agoThe whole thing seems like a pastiche of SCP-3008, even down to the title and enemies, which is literally a horror story about a dimension that’s an infinite IKEA. It’s definitely IKEA. It’s also fair use, no one in their right mind would ever think this is an IKEA product and it doesn’t compete with IKEA in any way Edit: Apparently the Kickstarter says “Explore the underground SCP laboratories and build towers to the sky to find a way out”. Gee, wonder what company was directly mentioned in the corresponding SCP story
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoFair use doesn't apply to trademarks and patents.
- FormerBandmate 4y agohttps://www.trademarklawyerfirm.com/what-is-trademark-fair-use/ https://www.trademarklawyerfirm.com/what-is-trademark-fair-u... Yeah, it does. This isn’t a traditional parody on the surface, but IKEA being a labyrinth of horrors can pretty clearly be read as a parody on their unorthodox store design (no one’s making a horror game about being trapped in a Best Buy lmao). The Creative Commons horror story this is ripped off of is officially named “A Perfectly Normal, Regular Old IKEA” on the site (although no one uses the names of SCPs), which adds to that.
- thih9 4y agoStill, the maze like path, the style of the products, as well as the blue yellow branding make it clear to me that this is happening in an IKEA.
- someweirdperson 4y agoThe unicursal path of Ikea would skip an interesting game-play possibility, therefore I guess it is not Ikea-like.
- thih9 4y agoWhich game play possibility? Also, Ikea path isn't actually unicursal, there are shortcuts (famously hard to spot but otherwise accessible for all shoppers).
- some_random 4y agoIt is extremely obvious that this is an IKEA, what are you talking about?