3 ms·

>hen, after being warned by Carmack not to do it, Luckey creates a Kickstarter that prominently features id games. Just idly wondering... If I created a fancy

by KVFinn 12y ago

>hen, after being warned by Carmack not to do it, Luckey creates a Kickstarter that prominently features id games. Just idly wondering... If I created a fancy gaming mouse and wrote some software integration with a popular gaming series at the time, could I not offer that as a reward tier for a Kickstarter? I would think as long as I can get resellable boxed copies I could throw it in?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
adventured 12y ago
Companies can usually - one way or another - legally control whether their products are used in a promotional manner. For example, if you create a gaming mouse, buy ten retail copies of the new Doom 7 right off the retail shelves and offer them for promotional purposes at no cost along with your mouse, the publisher (or sometimes game creator) can ask you to cease and desist. The lawsuit, were one to occur, might argue that you're causing misrepresentation (have to be careful not to make it look like your gaming mouse is being endorsed by the game creator or publisher etc), or claim that you're damaging their game's brand through commercial association they didn't approve of, and they could also go the route of claiming you're commercially benefiting from association with their game / brand and seek monetary compensation. Way back when, circa mid to late 1990's I ran into these types of problems in the gaming industry with a company I operated. The gaming world was a lot more legally benign back then and it was still a serious problem. Back then you could often easily get permission from the company to do a promotion, but you properly would check in with their PR / marketing group and get formal approval. id Software was often decent about these types of things. They did a zillion community promotions of all sorts.
- cookiecaper 12y ago
  I'm not a lawyer but I don't know how they could legitimately win a suit for something so innocuous. This sounds like one of those things that people tell you to try to scare you out of doing something that the PR department doesn't like but really has no authority to control. There's nothing illegal about giving out free copies of something that you bought off the shelf, whether or not you have the vendor's authorization to do that. They could claim some type of fraudulent misrepresentation, but I'd think the violations would have to be flagrant and egregious for something like that to fly.

by KVFinn 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

adventured 12y ago

Companies can usually - one way or another - legally control whether their products are used in a promotional manner. For example, if you create a gaming mouse, buy ten retail copies of the new Doom 7 right off the retail shelves and offer them for promotional purposes at no cost along with your mouse, the publisher (or sometimes game creator) can ask you to cease and desist. The lawsuit, were one to occur, might argue that you're causing misrepresentation (have to be careful not to make it look like your gaming mouse is being endorsed by the game creator or publisher etc), or claim that you're damaging their game's brand through commercial association they didn't approve of, and they could also go the route of claiming you're commercially benefiting from association with their game / brand and seek monetary compensation. Way back when, circa mid to late 1990's I ran into these types of problems in the gaming industry with a company I operated. The gaming world was a lot more legally benign back then and it was still a serious problem. Back then you could often easily get permission from the company to do a promotion, but you properly would check in with their PR / marketing group and get formal approval. id Software was often decent about these types of things. They did a zillion community promotions of all sorts.

cookiecaper 12y ago
I'm not a lawyer but I don't know how they could legitimately win a suit for something so innocuous. This sounds like one of those things that people tell you to try to scare you out of doing something that the PR department doesn't like but really has no authority to control. There's nothing illegal about giving out free copies of something that you bought off the shelf, whether or not you have the vendor's authorization to do that. They could claim some type of fraudulent misrepresentation, but I'd think the violations would have to be flagrant and egregious for something like that to fly.