Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Achtung, Ve Haf Vays of Pursuading You






 Pic from here


The GW legal team are at it again.

The Faeit 212 and Bell of Lost Souls websites were taken down in a DMCA strike. BOLS seems to have been electronic collateral damage as it is back up but Faeit has been cleansed from the universe. Faeit got about 20 million hits and was a keen 40K fansite so you might imagine that most company management would love their actions but this is the Imperium, paranoiac, hate-filled, trigger-happy.

The blogger behind Faeit has put up a message on YouTube.

The sheer randomness of the GW strikes is worrying other bloggers but what can you do short of never mentioning them or their products again. I am seriously wondering whether that is where we are going.

At least one major wargaming news blog has pulled all GW material and will not be mentioning them again for the foreseeable future.

I struggle to see how this helps GW's commercial operations. Being at war with your best customers has not been entirely successful in other industries, such as the music business.

Yes a company has to defend IP but how it chooses to do this and where it draws lines is quite flexible. This is starting to look like cack-handed corporate management in thrall to their lawyers.

GW always says that they don't 'do' PR: they do you know, just very, very, badly.


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12 comments:

  1. styx1 May 2013 at 14:13

    GW pulled their Facebook because of bad flak, they are just throwing the IP around left and right like crazy. It has blown up on them with Chapterhouse that has not backed down and with the book that some woman wrote that had a Space Marine in it...

    They are mad because they feel by the pics being posted early nobody is buying White Dwarf. The reality is WD is just a catalog with a bunch of crap in it, there isn't much content anymore like before. Hitting BOLS and Faeit was them trying to save their magazine sales. Instead they are pissing off their fans...

    Slowly this is going to sink GW bit by bit...bad PR treating fans and retailers poorly, over pricing, etc....enjoy the ride downhill as that is where GW is going.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John Lambshead1 May 2013 at 21:21

      Certainly no one at GW seems very concerned about the future.

      Delete
  2. BigLee1 May 2013 at 15:32

    I would express an opinion about GW's antics but I'm frightened of being bound, gagged and whisked away in an unmarked van.

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    Replies
    1. John Lambshead1 May 2013 at 21:19

      Dear Lee
      There's people who pay good money for that. John

      Delete
  3. Scottswargaming2 May 2013 at 00:17

    So long as they can't shut down my blog for me expressing negative opinion there about them, their practices and products, then I am OK?

    If so, then I'll just continue to watch the slowly developing train wreck that is their gradual demise...

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    Replies
    1. John Lambshead2 May 2013 at 08:22

      Beware the knock on the door at dawn. No one expects the Imperial Inquisition.

      Delete
    2. Scottswargaming3 May 2013 at 04:21

      LOL! ;-)

      Delete
  4. Hugh Walter2 May 2013 at 01:27

    It is a truth universally recognised that a prideful beast in need of a fall...will get one!

    Hugh

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  5. John Lambshead2 May 2013 at 08:21

    Hi trucker'
    Yah GW is impervious to criticism. They have the same battlecry as Millwall FC supporters club, 'No one likes us, we don't care'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dan2 May 2013 at 10:00

    GW? Who is this GW you are talking about, my space marines are all 15mm.
    http://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/finished-15mm-blood-angel-terminators.html?showComment=1367128275614#c2498097296459140650

    ReplyDelete