Vault Boy Now Delivering Pizza in Massachusetts Area

The Vault Dweller

The Vault Dweller

always looking for water.
A comment posted on Reddit has led to a strange and silly legal situation. Apparently a Massachusetts pizza parlor is using Vault Boy as an advertising mascot unaware of its ownership by Bethesda. Joystiq in fact relayed this to Bethesda and received a surprising response:

<blockquote>"Well he is a big part of our Fallout brand and is copyrighted, so, yeah, deciding on your own to use him to promote your business or product, or to sell stuff, or whatever, without getting permission from us ... not a good idea."</blockquote>

Ausir of The Vault wiki is to be thanked for this news.
 
Kinda reminds me of this:
Fallout-2-vault-boy-totally-looks-like-dutch-tile-selling-boy.jpg

Which came first? And is he really copyrighted?
 
Reconite said:
Kinda reminds me of this:
Fallout-2-vault-boy-totally-looks-like-dutch-tile-selling-boy.jpg

Which came first? And is he really copyrighted?
Click to expand...
Yes. Everything you create is automatically copyrighted, you don't need to go through any procedures for that to happen. The rules are a bit more complex than that, but you can't just copy anything you like if it doesn't say "copyright xxxx" somewhere.
 
Are you sure that's how copyright works? I thought you had to put the date on it, etc. The only reason I question this is because George Romero never put a copyright date on Night of the Living Dead title credits, and thus, it's public domain. I suppose it could be different for movies, but they're more expensive to produce than a drawing.

*EDIT* I suppose I should have researched this BEFORE posting. :D

Copyright law in 1968 when NotLD was released was that way, but has since been amended. Romero also didn't 'forget' to copyright it, that was done by the distributor when they changed the name of the film, and Romero says they "ripped us off".
 
Yes, that's how it used to work, you had to register stuff for it to be copyrighted, but the copyright law has changed since then.
 
Well, I'd order from Vault Boy. :lol:

I foresee a "cease and desist" letter arriving at that pizza establishment in the near future.
 
UnidentifiedFlyingTard said:
there is a plumber service here who has permission to use the cartoon version of Superman as their mascot.
Click to expand...
Actually I believe that the emblem on the chest is different (it's not Superman's S) but I could be mistaken.
 
UnidentifiedFlyingTard said:
yeah, but its the same design.
Click to expand...
It's similar enough that it could go to court, that's for sure.

The University of Oregon, on the other hand, has the rights to use Disney's Donal Duck for free, forfeiting the rights only if they cease to use him (they got the rights back before Disney was big because Disney felt it was good free publicity).
 
I think what's worse is the sleazy graphics company that used the image to make a quick buck off the pizza place.
 
K.C. Cool said:
I think what's worse is the sleazy graphics company that used the image to make a quick buck off the pizza place.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I'm now curious to find out if the Pizza shop even knew the Vault Boy image was stolen? If not, then it's very shady on the part of the graphics company, that can't even use their own artwork for clients.
 
he isnt wearing anything close to a vault suit...

and that style of imagry is pretty common...

i would say it could go either way, more in favor of the pizza place if they do not play computer games.

i believe the law is if its at least 40% different, its legal.
 
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