Wraith Kings Army take down notice

[dazlambParticipant 1219xp 0]

Noticed this searching for some Wraiths to print and use in Kings of War.  Was looking for alternatives to https://www.manticgames.com/games/kings-of-war/undead/undead-wraith-troop/

And noticed this take down by GW

https://www.kickstarter.com/dmca/the-wraith-kings-army-stl-files-submitted-by-games-workshop-l

Do people think it’s to close to the Nighthaunt?

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-the-wraith-king-s-army-free-model-175910

 

I think they substantially different to the GW stuff and not a copy.   Do you think the Kickstarter will go back up?

 

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

Wow. GW are going in hard against anyone producing miniature-based games/files, it seems.

Personally, I don’t see how GW have a leg to stand on with this one – it’s a hard one to demonstate that Z_axis are engaged in “passing off” their minis (which is the basis for upholding copyright law in the UK at least). The Wraith Kings’ Army are substantially different, and it’d be difficult for anyone to genuinely mistake them for any GW characters.

Will be interesting to see how this one plays out. I hope Z_axis stands up to this one – though it’s hard for the “little guy” to compet,e purely because GW have the money to put behind their lawyers and could “frighten” anyone they want to shut down with threats of a long-drawn own, expensive legal battle (it’s why I never bothered taking out patents on toys I helped invent about ten years ago (after the first one) because defending your IP, beyond the initial threats of legal action, gets really costly, really quickly.)

[templar007 52366xp 0]

I think they look very different. My personal opinion is just that, my opinion.

 

But……………..it all depends on how copyright law is written in the country where the filing took place.  Are there enough points of same verses difference.  Also, were the “Offending” models being advertised as replacement models to the Nighthaunts”?

Could be GW is just relying on the muscle of it’s legal dept to scare off direct competition.  But the they might have enough grounds according to the law.

[dazlambParticipant 1219xp 1]

I guess they are offering there models as alternatives to Nighthaunts:-

‘For a long time we wanted to make our own version of a spectral army to be able to play games like Warhammer or to be able to use in miniatures games like dungeons, RPGs or any other wargames.

So we decided to make several heroes and various themed units with their own weapons. In total there are more than 60 miniatures to compose an army!’

Maybe they should not have mentioned Warhammer?   I guess it will be filled in the US as Kickstarter are a US company never heard of Z_Axis until today so no idea where they come from.   Maybe they will be released on a different platform outside the US.

[osbad 4277xp 3]

Sad to see that the twat is still high in GW.  I had hoped they had learned a lesson with the Charterhouse fiasvo, but sadly they can’t seem to help themselves.

Don’t mind them defending their IP, but it should be *their* IP and not just generic fantasy tropes.

[fishmanParticipant 1647xp 0]

The campaign will be back up shortly with the removal of the Blind Guard (too close to the GW Dreadscythe Harridans), The Ivory Guard (too close to Glaivewraith Stalkers) and the markers (too close to endless spells).

 

Hi Backers!

Good / bad news here

The good new is…we know what we have to do to continue the project! And we will continue it.
Soon the page will be available again 🙂
We’ll notify you.

The bad new is… we have to remove the markers, The Blind Guard and The Ivory Guard.

— So … what happens now? —

We’re going to start making other models to compensate for having to remove The Blind Guard and The Ivory Guard.
We are sorry but we aren’t going to make any kind of markers this time.

— And what is our plan? —

There will be 11 days left when the project resumes.
We will try to have everything done before the final 48 hours and We’ll be making updates of the new work.
That way, we think you could see if you want to continue or not with this changes.

Thank you for your patience, your messages and we’ll notify you of everything!

Cheers

[fishmanParticipant 1647xp 0]

Templar007 – “I think they look very different. My personal opinion is just that, my opinion.” As I said to them, their look like a Michelangelo to GW’s pre school scribbles. The Wraith King models are spectacular.

 

“Also, were the “Offending” models being advertised as replacement models to the Nighthaunts”?”

Not in the least.  They were not even being advertised as compliments to the Nighthaunt range. In fact, the Nighthaunts were not mentioned at all in the campaign. “Warhammer” was the closest they got.

[fishmanParticipant 1647xp 1]

Dazlan, they are from Spain

[limburger 21672xp 0]

@osbad this is how this works in the real world.
Someone logs a complaint and Kickstarter has to take down the project until it is cleared and/or an agreement of sorts is reached.

As outsiders we don’t know how, if or when GW contacted the creators of the project and kickstarter itself.
We don’t know what timeframe was exceeded before Kickstarter had to act (they can’t afford not to act because there’s plenty of money riding on the fact that their platform survives).

It’s real easy to frame a big evil corp as the bad guy, because they are easy to hate.

They might not have gotten onto GW’s radar if they hadn’t mentioned any of their games on their official page, but they did …

A short delay and back up in a few days.
Better now than after the campaign as the latter would have cost quite a bit more than a few resculpts of potentially offending minis.

[captainventanusParticipant 4934xp 0]

Pretty much exactly what @limburger has said. These are nice models, personally I prefer them to the actual Nighthaunt ones. The inspiration is there though and while GW doesn’t own the IP to ghostly beings mentioning Warhammer is an obvious way to attract GW’s attention if somewhere someone is making money.

[iceeagle85Participant 4967xp 0]

Interestimg that GW targeted them but not the companies which sell stl files for Warmaster scale minis which are basically donwsized WHF sculpts. But maybe they don’t advertise as Warhammer/Warmaster or theym ight just different enough. Or maybe because Warmaster is dead.

[dazlambParticipant 1219xp 0]

Well it’s back up https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zaxis/wraith-king and I have backed it now,   i think the Nighthaunt look good and so do the Wraith Kings army but I am after some STLs.   Looking forward to printing them out and painting them up for KoW Wraiths later in the year.

[limburger 21672xp 1]

Now that I’ve seen it … there still are more than a few not-nighthaunts in those pictures.
Even down to the grates on their base.

Yes, you can’t ‘copyright’ ghosts with swords.
However when the style of the ‘Risen Guard’ and ‘Midnight guard’  is nearly identical to the GW equivalents …
The ‘moron in a hurry’ (or whatever it is called) certainly wouldn’t know which one was ‘official’.

They definitely should consider themselves lucky because I kind of doubt they’d survive a day in court if GW really really wanted to neutralize them.

//

The black squires and their more unique looking sculpts in this kickstarter are looking good.
It’s a shame a 3D printer is needed to use them.

[Author]

Posts