Movies advertising guns

[Spartan198]

Well, the 1911 design and name is over 100 years old now, so any copyright on it has been expired for some years (in the US, I think copyright duration is the life of the creator plus 70 years).

As far as Colt and the M4 carbine go, the Supreme Court ruled Colt's trademark of the designation "M4" invalid because the term has more or less become a generic name for AR-15/M16 carbines. And "M4A1" is a military designation and as a work of the US federal government, is in the public domain. AFAIK, that is.

Often, though, it is copyrights that prevent usage of a weapon's actual name. The F2000 in Splinter Cell being renamed SC-20K is an example of such.

[Mazryonh]

Thanks, but that's info I already knew--maybe someone else here like MPM2008 can answer my other questions.

I have the sneaking suspicion, however, that while H&K and FN gave their blessings to Kojima to use their copyrighted names for their weapons, Colt probably told hime to screw off, or else asked for too much money to use their company name. That's why in MGS4 they're not COLT M1911s or COLT M4A1s, even though Colt is probably the most well-known American firearms manufacturer, even to people who don't know guns.

[k9870]

Why wouldnt brands let their name be used? Its free advertising.

[PersonOfInterest]

Originally Posted by k9870

Why wouldnt brands let their name be used? Its free advertising.

My personal theory is that it's more of an assumption on the part of the game developers that firearm manufacturers would enforce their copyrights without there ever being any precedent of them doing so. Video games were not the entertainment powerhouse in the early 90's that they are now, so it would make sense for them to just skirt the issue entirely by just making fake names for everything instead of taking the risk of potentially raising the ire of the entire weapons industry.

As far as I know, the first game to use realistic looking firearms was Goldeneye 007, everything in that game had a fake name while still remaining identifiable. I'd bet that if there was anything released before that, it too used fake names.

And as far as using real names, I think Rainbow 6 was the first, and nothing happened to them.

If I'm wrong about either, I'd welcome the correction.

[k9870]

If i was in charge, id make sure that video games were allowed to use my brand, then all the video gamers would buy my guns

[Mazryonh]

Originally Posted by PersonOfInterest

My personal theory is that it's more of an assumption on the part of the game developers that firearm manufacturers would enforce their copyrights without there ever being any precedent of them doing so. Video games were not the entertainment powerhouse in the early 90's that they are now, so it would make sense for them to just skirt the issue entirely by just making fake names for everything instead of taking the risk of potentially raising the ire of the entire weapons industry.

And as far as using real names, I think Rainbow 6 was the first, and nothing happened to them.

If I'm wrong about either, I'd welcome the correction.

It's not relevant to this wiki, but I could take a screenshot of one of the opening screens to SWAT 4 where there's lots of legal screed showing how the use the Colt and Benelli trademarks "with permission," which means Sierra Entertainment (now part of Activision, which merged with Blizzard to form Activision-Blizzard or Acti-Blizz) had to approach those two companies to get permission to use their product names.

Why Glock and H&K didn't also approve of their product names being used for SWAT 4 is beyond me. Aren't Glock pistols and the H&K MP5 two of the most prevalent and therefore the most symbolic examples of police weaponry?