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  #11  
Old 08-03-2010, 02:08 AM
Jcordell Jcordell is offline
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One of the most famous examples of gun/movie product placement world would be the S&W Model 29 44 magnum in Dirty Harry . I know big surprise.

Anyway the Model 29 was not a real big seller in the fourteen years prior to that movie (I believe it was introduced in 1956). As a matter of fact S&W hadn't made any any for about a year prior to the movie's release because the demand was low enough that there were still plenty out on the market from previous production runs.

That movie changed everything. Not only did it catapult the 44 magnum into the mainstream (it was (originally) a very specialized load for hunters), but the unreal demand for Smith & Wesson's Model 29 revolver encouraged Ruger to develop the Super Redhawk. No doubt it also encouraged other gun companies to develop their own 44 magnum revolver.
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  #12  
Old 08-03-2010, 02:14 AM
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John Milius should have gotten royalties from S&W.
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  #13  
Old 08-03-2010, 04:41 AM
Mazryonh Mazryonh is offline
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Default How exactly do game developers and movie makers get permission for real gun names?

Movies advertising guns? U.S. Marshals is nothing if not a feature-length Glock commercial!

Still, there's something that has been bothering me for a while now, and I'd like to see if anyone here has the answers. What does it take for game developers and movie makers to use real gun names in their media?

The fee to use real gun names must be steep (anyone have a ballpark figure?), or otherwise more game developers would deign to use the real names of (realistic-looking) guns rather than using assumed names or creating fictional weapons. One of the pages I've created for a game, SWAT 4, even has the rather interesting situation of having real gun names only for Colt, Benelli, and AK firearms. Another page (not created by me), Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, has the real name for the Colt Anaconda and the Steyr AUG, but not the Colt Police Positive or any other firearms. I take it that each company has to be consulted before you can use the real names for its products, then? Do you have to negotiate with each company separately too? Are the requirements different for movie makers than they are for game developers?

Finally, sometimes I feel that super popular games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 or Modern Warfare 2 sell so much as to be advertisements for firearms companies themselves. Do those companies then offer the game publishers a discount for using the real names of certain weapons? There's still that strange feeling I get when I see in the MGS4 page that there are no Colt weapons but still M1911 pistols and an M4A1 carbine, since those count as types of firearms and are not copyrightable terms.

Last edited by Mazryonh; 08-03-2010 at 10:17 PM.
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  #14  
Old 08-03-2010, 12:39 PM
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Spartan198 Spartan198 is offline
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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.
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  #15  
Old 08-03-2010, 10:22 PM
Mazryonh Mazryonh is offline
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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.
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  #16  
Old 08-03-2010, 11:57 PM
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k9870 k9870 is offline
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Why wouldnt brands let their name be used? Its free advertising.
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  #17  
Old 08-04-2010, 12:12 AM
PersonOfInterest PersonOfInterest is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k9870 View Post
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.
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  #18  
Old 08-04-2010, 12:43 AM
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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
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  #19  
Old 08-04-2010, 01:44 AM
Mazryonh Mazryonh is offline
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Question Strange things

Quote:
Originally Posted by PersonOfInterest View Post
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?
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