AfterDawn: News

EA drops licensing deal with arms vendors

Electronic Arts has said it dropped licensing deals with the manufacturers of weapons, citing constitutional rights.

The publisher was criticized for offering links to real-world weapons ahead of the Medal of Honor: Warfighter release, and responded by removing all links to external arms vendors and purging blog posts that endorsed firearms.



EA executive Frank Gibeau told Reuters that its gamers are "telling a story and we have a point of view," and points out that a book author does not need to pay to use the word "Colt."

EA is already engaged in a simial legal battle in U.S. courts, after it received a cease and desist letter from Bell Helicopter for "using" the AH-1Z Viper, the UH-1Y, and the V-22 Osprey in Battlefield 3.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 9 May 2013 12:15

• Previous article

• Battlefield 3 servers hit by DDoS

• Next article

• Facebook Phone price cut to 99c by AT&T

• 3 comments

• Qliphah

  Umm not sure how they think the copyright system works but anything that has a trademark requires permission to use. That includes guns, septic tanks, catheters, and every other thing EA probably thinks is fair game because people feel squeamish about mentioning them. Because a book author can mention particular model is fair use, taking blueprints of said gun then replicating it in game is not fair use.
  
  As a side question, has EA ever included a trademarked item in their DLC and if so did they pay proper royalties to the holders? I see EA paying out the nose for this one.
  

  9.5.2013 14:43 #1

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by Qliphah: Umm not sure how they think the copyright system works but anything that has a trademark requires permission to use. That includes guns, septic tanks, catheters, and every other thing EA probably thinks is fair game because people feel squeamish about mentioning them. Because a book author can mention particular model is fair use, taking blueprints of said gun then replicating it in game is not fair use.
  
  As a side question, has EA ever included a trademarked item in their DLC and if so did they pay proper royalties to the holders? I see EA paying out the nose for this one. But, do movies and TV have to pay royalties? If anything, I see more often where computers have the Apple logo blacked and cards have the Chevy logo blacked out. Those companies should be happy with the free publicity/advertising. If they aren't shown in the show, then they should have to pay to be represented, not the other way around.

  9.5.2013 15:54 #2

• cart0181

  Yes, if EA had asked permission ahead of time (and in the right way) we might have seen the arms manufacturers paying EA to get their weapons into the game!
  

  10.5.2013 21:14 #3