2019-08-29 - The LEGO Group: Unauthorized Use of the LEGO Group Intellectual Property - kiwifarms.net [Case #652509]

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ToroidalBoat said:
I believe that in China, "intellectual property" is an "alien Western concept" the Chinese never really adopted.
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Can confirm. From what I recall from my Computer Science seminar course for graduating seniors, Asian cultures believe imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery and that someone wanting to copy your work is a testament to how much they like it or are otherwise impressed by it. I imagine this is why so many knockoff products (software, toys, purses, etc.) come from Asian countries.

Further. Asian cultures see copyrights, patents, and such as Western concepts intended to stifle creativity. That's why these countries tend to thumb their noses at them and turn a blind eye to the large volume of counterfeit merchandise being made. Even when Western countries complain loud enough and demand action, the most we'll see is a token, insignificant raid that makes it look like something is being done when in reality production rarely decreases despite said raids.

I can see Lego wanting to keep as tight a reign on its properties as possible, but the images were fairly used as part of a bona fide critique focused on poking fun at and criticizing the package and Disney's version of Star Wars as a whole. I don't think anyone here is endorsing these overpriced, unimpressive Lego sets in any way.
[Edits for clarity]
 
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Kiwi Lime Pie said:
Further. Asian cultures see copyrights, patents, and such as Western concepts intended to stifle creativity. That's why these countries tend to thumb their noses at them and turn a blind eye to the large volume of counterfeit merchandise being made. Even when Western countries complain loud enough and demand action, the most we'll see is a token, insignificant raid that makes it look like something is being done when in reality production rarely decreases despite said raids.
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This is true especially of China, but you're leaving out the caveat that they are perfectly happy to abuse intellectual property systems if they can. All rules go out the window if they can get away with it. "Poorly Made in China" touches on this sort of thing a bit (edit to clarify: I mean that trend of convenient exception).
 
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Yeah, Chinese companies are totally not above sending DMCAs themselves when it suits them or they can fuck with something they don't like that way. They're not any better. The only difference between chinese and western companies is that the chinese usually are more willing to balantly break western laws because they know it's hard to get at them. In the territory of Hardware and Software, they basically also pretty much non-stop violate the GPL and other such licenses. That basically means that they often steal creative, free work without contributing back and even making it proprietary. Western companies rarely if ever go that far.

Iwasamwillbe said:
Now this is getting spicy. I never thought that the LEGO company of all things would try these underhanded tactics. How will they escalate it further from here?
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Corporations are fucking great at underhanded, "legal grey area" and sometimes downright illegal (usually in third world countries) shit. How do you think they get so rich?
 
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Dingo said:
Lego™ needs to send a takedown notice to thisvid.com, there are videos posted of people doing sexual things to Lego™ man including scat.
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with what legal reason?


To be fair, i can understand Lego, they dont want their shit on this webspace and try everything to get it down.
their legal argument is weak since kiwi farms is the number one outlet for news in the world, the home of real journalism.
 
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stakenifes said:
The DMCA is the fucking bane of the internet. How the fuck did we get to this? I wish more people/services would take this path rather than bend over to the 'law'.
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It's not the DMCA in and of itself that's the problem, it's the abuse. When used as intended the DMCA allows copyright holders control over their IP by removing infringing content.

As long as you're covered under the fair use doctrine, you're golden.
 
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If I'm being honest, there's no reason for intellectual property to even exist, as it just keeps getting abused constantly by corporations (or exceptional individuals in the case of DMCA claims) to shut down things they don't like by way of computers (bots).
Lets not forget that there are far less victims of the MPAA/RIAA's "Six Strikes" system than there are active P2P pirates.
There's also the fact that companies that tend to tolerate pirates do better in their fields (see: every boutique anime label and independent film studio/music label to date) than those who don't tolerate pirates (MPAA/RIAA members, Lego).
 
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JinzoCrash said:
Those Lepin (and other bootleggers) on aliexpress are the shit. Their quality has gotten up, at times, to even be superior to Lego. You do still have some bumblefuck bootleg companies out there of poor quality, but there's not as many now. I can't even remember the last time I bought an "actual" Lego set that wasn't discounted to death.
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I’ve been watching to see if King (formerly known as Lepin) will be able to have the same quality levels as they used to after their factories were raid in the spring and the molds were destroyed.

As for LEGO, I bought a lot of sets for 50-70% off during a recent sale.
 
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AmpleApricots said:
Yeah, Chinese companies are totally not above sending DMCAs themselves when it suits them or they can fuck with something they don't like that way. They're not any better. The only difference between chinese and western companies is that the chinese usually are more willing to balantly break western laws because they know it's hard to get at them. In the territory of Hardware and Software, they basically also pretty much non-stop violate the GPL and other such licenses. That basically means that they often steal creative, free work without contributing back and even making it proprietary. Western companies rarely if ever go that far.



Corporations are fucking great at underhanded, "legal grey area" and sometimes downright illegal (usually in third world countries) shit. How do you think they get so rich?
Click to expand...

I like it when they put copy protection on bootleg games. It's not like they're using their own assets most of the time. The only people I've seen who care enough to copy them are people with a specific interest in bootleg games, and I'm pretty sure their market is more "people who don't know any better and buy Sonic 3D Blast 5 instead of Sonic and Knuckles".
 
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KiwiFarms Lego edition.

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Take Your Pills said:
I hope LEGO comes out with a LEGO lawsuit construction set after kiwi farms gets sued into oblivion. Might I suggest an angry judge man crushing a kiwi with a comically oversized gavel?
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A court house set would be kind of cool but was probably done as part of the city play set back in the day or do mean a over worked sharing an office legal intern set?

LEGO is good when you need figures that they overcharge for but it’s good money management to use bricks where possible eg the front of the house might be LEGO but sides and back are knock off
 
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Why are people assuming Disney will get involved in this too? I would have thought that LEGO are the ones in trouble with Disney right now for leaking the product images in the first place. Do Disney get a cut in the profits of LEGO sales for licensed products or do LEGO just pay a licence fee?
 
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