yes.... because copyrights cover visual likeness as well as written material.

See trade dress lawsuit against Echo1 by Cybergun behalf of FN Herstal.

Echo1 was forced to disassembled their booth at Shotshow 2012 because of the litigation on the Advance Squad Carbine aka SCAR
http://everything-airsoft.com/blog/2...ng-on-fn-scar/

You'd think airsofters would boycott Cybergun... But it's less than likely in any large numbers. I want my goddamn SCAR-H and I don't want my money going to the French

Give what time?

well it would be tough to boycott cybergun, since they hold the licenses to many guns, and if a game features their gun under their control, like in CoD Cybergun gets paid a cut. I'm pretty sure I saw their name int he CoD credits before.

Umarex gets the same deal, this is why they went around buying up licenses from the gun companies for the likeness usage rights I imagine... they saw profit in it, and all they need to do is go to a company like FNH and say "hey, everyone wants to use a likeness of your product in their thing, and you don't have a legal team or department to deal with that, how's about our company take care of that for you. We negotiate the deal to use your stuff, you get paid, we take a cut."

IT's the same for vehicles too... ever look in the credits of a game like Ace Combat? All the plane manufacturers are listed there, logos and full deal... it's because they get paid a cut in licensing fees.

Yeah but it's not that cut and dry. Copyright law is a very complex animal.

Among other things, you need to prove you've created a unique and distinctive work. Example: if someone takes a picture of the CN tower and copyrights it, does that mean no one else can take/sell pictures of the CN tower? No. That specific picture may be copyrighted, but there's nothing significantly unique about it.

But if you create a very specific work... lets take TRON for example, it has a very unique and recognizable look and feel to it, with the discs and the skintight suits with the glowing circuit-looking patterns on them, etc. Now if I hire some model with short dark hair and set her up in an outfit like etc and try to market this image, does Disney have a case against me?

Maybe.

At first glance, if I really plagiarize their shit, then yes. But suits with glowing patterns and glowing discs by themselves aren't enough, and if I manage to create something which is distinctive enough (and probably introduces its own originality) then I might get away with it. Assuming I have deep enough pockets to fight Disney in court -- so yeah, I'd probably just yield when I got the first Cease And Desist from their lawyers.

Which brings us back to airsoft.

Cybergun is basically Disney. Most likely ECHO1 didn't want to get into a protracted legal battle and even if they did Cybergun may have won an injunction against them for the trade show.

And I think this is more of a Cybergun thing than any of the actual manufacturers (although H&K has tried suing some other firearms manufacturers for MP5 look-alikes).

I'm no expert on copyrights and legal mumbo jumbo, but we're not also talking about copyrights, we're talking about trademarks too... like in the case of new york city's skylines with named buildings:

http://www.photosecrets.com/photogra...and-trademarks

there are actually rules to follow about using photos or likeness to them in any process that involves making money.

Disney may not come after you for creating a likeness of tron, but the minute you start charging for it, they'll be on your ass faster than a smart kid on a fattie... or is that a fat kid on a smartie? :D

Now I do know of a story about disney going after a little kid who drew a likeness of one of their characters... sued the family in some preposterous lawsuit. So cybergun "protecting" their "clients'" intellectual interests is not so far fetched as long as there's money and a lawyer involved.


As for how TM, CA, KS and KA can make their p90s without being hassled, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with how the GBB version might operate close enough to the real thing that they could be infringing more on just copyrights and trademarks... maybe getting into patents as well which I think deal more in the functionality of something?

It's a shame that such an underhanded cash grab had to happen in the airsoft world, although these things are inevitable. They put a huge dent in innovation, because now there can only be one internal system (KWA) in the likeness of a G36 legally, for example, and they can and will try to litigate their competitors into oblivion. I'm partial to WE gas rifles, because they seem to consistently strike the ideal balance between cost, novelty, and functionality. But if every gun they model is licenced only to one company, I'll be stuck having to use that system even if the quality is less. This is not an example of a capitalist market.

The only way to counter selfish business is to vote with your dollar; unfortunately most people can't be bothered these days. I don't like the idea of a future where we alternate between playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 37 and shooting eachother with potentially equally lazily designed airsoft guns because Cybergun or Umarex shot down other brands with lawsuits.

It's only a matter of time before those two put their heads together and become the Activision or EA of airsoft...

Does that count as this year's "sky is falling" post?

Its about freaken time. =p

not sure... either the corporations will start figuring out the money involved is worth their time and they put a guy in charge of licensing talks, or they keep farming it out to the likes of cybergun and umarex. It just depends if they feel like it's worth it or not. The idea of licensing likeness of firearms seems to be relatively new.. whereas car and plane manufacturers have been doing it for so long they have PR departments that deal with this sort of thing... at least that's what it seems like, since we don't see an equivalent of cybergun pushing around content creators who are making flight or driving sims.

Incase you guys don't know Cybergun manage to trademark name such as
Western Arms
ICS
KSC
Hop-up
Airsoft
Soft-Air
Gas Blowback
etc

How did they get it? I don't know but Cybergun is destroying airsoft in France because they copyrighted the stuff they shouldnt be allowed to in the first place.

Who knows, maybe umarex will get FN trademarks...

No, no they won't.

Umarex vs Cybergun I gotta go with Umarex.

Atleast those guys don't go copy right stuff that is already in the public.

I'm still fairly new too this sport, but I still don't get why there are no other companies are working on getting these gbb P90's out
I have had a few AEG and last yr got a WE M4 and will never go back too AEG....and I really want a damn P90 for CQB