Hybrid has a Bad Day

[rabidchihauhau]

for the guy who wants to see IOI's statement of copyright, here's one of them:

http://www.ioi.dk/games/hitmancontracts.htm

go down to the bottom of the page; "All contents copyright 2005..."

That's ALL CONTENTS nimrod.

Its called 'doing the right thing', period. If more people did the right thing, more folks would be making more money and spending less with the lawyers.

Its also called 'doing business the right way'. Like calling up IOI and finding out how much it would cost to license the image. One lousy phone call and a few pennies out of every sale - or maybe not event that much.

Some smart person is going to steal someone else's thunder by going to the movie companes and getting those licenses, and then will make a royal killing by selling their licensed grips and helping the movie companies police the paintball industry,

Its always the whistle blowers that get it in the chin (even though Slarty was not really a whistle blower). I just never got the logic: 'hey officer, those guys over there are raping that woman' 'that's it sonny, turn around, you're going to jail for being a goody two-shoes'

where's the exit, I want to get off the planet...

[Lohman446]

Hybrid is a small company, had they done this right IOI may have given them permission to use that image in a limited fashion just for the exposure to the demographic.

Instead they decided to ignore there legal obligation to get permission, they did not. To me its the same as the SP intellectual propertly issue, however, not everyone will agree with me on that.

This is not a poor hybrid situation. This is a stupid hybrid if they balanced there company on something illegal.

This is likely not the end of hybrid, as has been noted the grips were not the entirety of there operation. Maybe now they will have to hire a graphic designs artist, and pay someone for the work they sell at a profit - what a novel idea

I'm sorry the owners were retarded, I'm sorry the AGG kiddies cannot understand the purpose of copyright laws. I'm sorry I cannot register on PBN to tell them what I think of them. I'm sorry none of them have threatened me with a baseball bat - oh, I do hope something comes out of Yaks "libel" whining. HINT - best defense against libel / slander is truth - if its true your fine. I hope its a glance towards those threats against someone which will never happen.

[paullus99]

Well, I think some of the PBN stuff is definitely in the realm of litigation (death threats, in writing no less, yeah, real smart in this post 9/11 world).

If I saw someone break into a house across the street, recognized the person who did it, and called the cops of him, would that be snitching? Come on folks, a question was asked & it was Hybrids' fault for not talking to IOI in the first place about licensing their image.

These companies all have legal departments whose job it is to ferret out these kinds of infringements & send out "cease and desist" orders. Heck, there are whole law firms out there who do nothing but litigate patent & trademark cases. It was only a matter of time before someone got to this, so I certainly don't blame the messenger.

If I spent my time and money coming up with a certain logo, game, well, just about anything, I would take great offense at someone taking my work & making money off of it, regardless of the reason. One phone call is all it would take, before the process even started, to make this all go away - so blame Hybrid for not doing its due dilligence.

Unfortunately, its the PBN attitude of "well, their cool, so it doesn't matter if what they are doing is wrong" - same as " well, that team is cool, so if they cheat, that's cool too" that really bothers me & where this sport has gone over the past few years.

[chefstevie]

.

wow, a canadian ruining business in the US. Why do you have to email reps and start trouble? Asking the question on a forum is one thing, but sending emails to them and actually starting a potential lawsuit? wtf. One word for that. weasel. You came across as that kind of person to me before in the past too. good job

no one likes you. go away.

[Lohman446]

wow, a canadian ruining business in the US. Why do you have to email reps and start trouble? Asking the question on a forum is one thing, but sending emails to them and actually starting a potential lawsuit? wtf. One word for that. weasel. You came across as that kind of person to me before in the past too. good job

Nice personal attack on the man and his country. Way to sound intelligent. Perhaps you should register for PBN and spend more time there

[phantomhitman]

while me and slarty have never agreed on anything paintball related I am giving you hero of november 2005 award.

Yakityyak, you are an idiot if you think hybrid has any creativity or legally obtained their work. They straight up copied almost all of their designs from games, pop culture, and knock off fabrics. Please just say you were on drugs and might forgive you in the year 2015.

Here is the run down people, you cannot change an image any percentage and it becomes yours. Intellectual property laws cover all artwork, especially something like this. It is quite obvisous that hitman, kill bill, and bruce less were famous, as well as created before, hybrid got their grubby little hands on them. As someone stated before I am sure those companies would have worked out a deal with hybrid before hand but it shows the greed of hybrid for even risking this move. Now that slarty stirred it up it shows the young, misinformed, idiotic, no clue about the real world pb players that jump out to defend hybrid. You guys make me sick, for real. A company is blatantly using other peoples popularity to make money WITHOUT even letting them know and more importantly doing it illegally making money. This issue is a little closer to me than anyone else on the board because I have had this happen to me, except with MY MONEY on the line.

Do you think Bruce Lees widow, or whoever owns his rights, is happy a chump pb company is making oney off of their late friends life?
Do you think the 3d modeler that spent hours modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, and rendering the hitman character is proud to see his work stolen and he, or his company, does not get a nickel?
I am sure Uma Thurman, Quentin, and Miramax are also %100 fine that Hybrid is using their images to sell Hybrid products.

[yakitori]

I didnt attack a man and his country. I said that a canadian is ruining american business. How is that an attack. Its a FACT.

[yakitori]

in case you havent noticed, those grips are the old style grips from like 2004. They dont make them anymore.

[phantomhitman]

Doesnt matter, they made money off of them. I am actually going through all of their grips now, and the more rip offs I see the more I want this company to burn.

[DWill]

I didnt attack a man and his country. I said that a canadian is ruining american business. How is that an attack. Its a FACT.

Should the American buisness just be allowed to rip off an image from a company in Germany? SBF didn't ruin the company, if it gets ruined hybrid only has itself to blame. Him being Canadian has nothing to do with anything, so please stop bring it up, thanks.

[slade]

Looks pretty identical to me. Hybrid knew exactly what they was doing when they made the grips, no point in arguing about it.

hmm, ive never seen those grips before. i thought it was about these grips:



i was wondering what everyone on AO was smoking.

considering its a complete copy of the image on the hitman game, i think they have every right to ask hybrid to stop and hybrid should have asked permission before using the image. That being said, i have an issue with what you said on PBN, SBF.

If they're lucky they'll be able to continue business after becoming an official licensee. Otherwise, they'll be lucky if they haven't sold many and don't get sued for damages.

...what damages? i dont think IOI has any grounds for suing for damages; perhaps legal grounds, but no ethical grounds. Its one thing if a company directly copies a product from another company, say if i reverse engineered a DM6, made a ton of my own with exactly the same specs and sold them. That would be stealing from DYE because its a direct ripoff of their product, if a person did not buy mine they would have likely bought a DM6. If i took a picture of a DM6 that was a really good composition and sold it to an art gallery, i would be using an image DYE created and slightly altering the image and its medium. but you cannot argue it would be to the detriment of DYE. They would not lose a single sale; if anything, it would generate interest in DYE. I would not have "damaged" them, but would have profited slightly off of an image they created.

the same thing is true with the hybrid grips. Hybrid is not "damaging" IOI or depriving them of any sales, if anything they are generating interest in the company.

[Gunga]

Despite his apparent age (Birthday: December 19, 1979), it seems Yakyak doesn't have much sense (if any) of how things work in the business world. But then his 'Location' of "allupinyamama" casts some doubt upon his apparent age of 25 as do his inane posts and e-mail to Hybrid.

Ah the joys of the Internet, for it gives voice to idiots worldwide.

Hope you get some sense for your birthday as it seems it is coming up soon.

[phantomhitman]

By damages I think slarty means back pay. If ioi sued and won hybrid would have to pay a fee for every grip they sold with that logo on it. Those are indeed damages. It doesnt matter that they help advertise and they are not selling video games, but it does matter that hybrid took ioi's copyrighted images and used them to make money.
Keep looking through hybrids grips, I have found many others that infringe on other work.

2 for hitman
1 for bruce lee
1 for scarface
1 for kill bill
1 for the trucker lady

Multiply that by the fact they make about 5 different grip for each of those versions (such as timmy-dm-ego-ebalde) and you get alot of money very quickly.

[Steelrat]

I didnt attack a man and his country. I said that a canadian is ruining american business. How is that an attack. Its a FACT.

Don't give Slarty any ammunition, bashing the US is his favorite hobby.

That being said, Hybrid is dead wrong. They apparently ripped off the image, and got nailed. Looks like they also ripped off the image from scarface to use on the other contract killer grip.

[OfficerGoat]

Hrmmmm..

What I see the issue is that most of these kids have had everything given to them and havent had to go out and make a living yet. Having someone steal YOUR hard earned work tends to change folks opinions. Just have to see I guess.