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Activision calls its lawyers in a domain name dispute
THE SPOOF WEBSITE ModernWarfare3.com has had us in fits of laughter for several days now but it appears one party is not amused. Not amused at all.
It's been revealed today that Activision, the gaming giant behind the Call of Duty and Modern Warfare series, has weighed in to the PR disaster with the full weight of the law behind it.
Fusible.com, a website dedicated to reporting domain name and trademark news, has published a complaint filed with the US National Arbitration Forum by Activision demanding that ownership of the URL be transferred to it.
The parody web site, which has uploaded Modern Warfare 3 trailers, a video of a disgruntled Call of Duty non-fan and a hilarious Monty Python sketch adapted especially for Activision also rather cheekily links to the web site of the rival first person shooter Battlefield 3.
This apparent connection must have sent Activision bosses' blood pressure through the roof as rumours started to circulate as to whether the website was an elaborate smear campaign by Electronic Arts to redirect hype and interest onto their product.
The documents give the illusive holder of the ModernWarfare3.com domain name 20 days in which to respond to the official complaint once they receive it from the NAF. It also points out that they might like to seek legal assistance to help with the fees now totalling $2,600. How thoughtful.
Activision's argument for disputing the domain name is pretty solid. The American publisher believes that due to the immense success it's enjoyed from the Call of Duty games series it effectively owns the right to be the sole representative of the franchise.
The milkers of the FPS go further by saying whoever registered the domain cannot possibly make any rightful claim of ownership. Ouch!
Let us know in the comments box below what game you'll be investing in come the Autumn and whether the mock Modern Warfare web site has persuaded you to seriously consider defecting to Battlefield 3. µ
Tags: SoftwareNumb thumbs
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Man, if your sticking to a franchise based on frames per second you are seriously missing the point. Being sick of COD:MW and how things game play wise panned out after the first one I will be jumping on the B3 band wagon that's "hopefully" going to offer something different. It remains to be seen yet but I will be making my choice based on whats fun not the bottomless pit of a debate over frame rates.
"Modern Warfare" as a concept belongs to the U.S. government, since it actually goes out and -does- modern warfare. So, did they license the official video game rights for twenty-first century warfare to Activision? I hear that the U.S. needs all the money it can raise.
Not only me, but probably 99% of all Call of Duty fans play the game for it's crisp 60fps. If anyone of the Battlefield games had that, I might play it, but still, I don't personally like the massive maps. Don't get me wrong though, I HATE Nuketown in Black Ops!