Legal Issues for Halo Costumers

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Sean Bradley

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Hi all.

I was just wondering if any of the Pro's here could tell us what they know about the legal issues concerning selling and reproducing Spartan Armor?

At the LAN center I work at we had to get a liscense in order to charge for our Halo 2 sessions. I wonder if the same thing is necessary for selling armor....or kits? Would Bungie or Microsoft bring down the legal hammer on an unsuspecting costumer?

I suspect that Sid or Briar or anyone selling on eBay must know something about this. Whats the deal guys?
 
sometimes i sell till i get caught....useally they wont say anything if you just selling one, but people can be azz and they will report you
 
Best advice I can give is to be sure you state you're not affiliated with Bungie or Microsoft in any way, and that the suits and parts are fan-made and are not copies of existing items.

I also wouldn't advise flooding the market with your stuff, allow word-of-mouth to handle your advertising.

Personally, if it were up to me, I'd even avoid using the word Halo, master chief, etc, to name my suit. If you're doing a Halo 2 suit, perhaps refer to it as an H2 suit. Same thing goes with weapons.. don't use the ACTUAL game names, just refer to them in slang, Like "H3 laser rifle" instead of the Spartan laser, "H1 pistol", etc..

It's ok to say that something is loosely based on the Halo 3 Spartan Laser, but I wouldn't get more specific than that like calling it the official terms noted in the game manuals and stuff.

If you put an auction titled something along the lines of: "Halo fan-made H2 costume of the masterchief" I think you'd be ok though. Do NOT refer to anything as being "official", or authentic, and I'd even avoid the term "accurate" in the article. Let your costume pictures do the talking, and don't use actual game pics anywhere to help sell anything, or you're asking for trouble.

I'm no lawyer, but I've been on the end of the Lucas copyright infringement thing before with computer programs, and asked them about selling stormtrooper armor, and that's pretty much what I got from them.

One thing I'd add to that though would be to suggest that if you overcharge successfully, you're gonna' end up in trouble with it.
 
As far as I can say , don't use any copyrighted names that are in the game/movie with your armor , and make sure that your armor is over 15% different (by law) from the character that your design may look like, that way you know your rights as a US citizen and know that just because there big corporate company's , they are not the law, you have rights and if you get bully-ed you can sew back for harassment and you would be amazed at what some big corporate company's can/have done that would be considered as fraud. (like buying something and after they get it not paying for it) grand theft, or soliciting to buy something from you that they own the rights to. that's called entrapment. just remember that your not competing in the same market space (video games/movies and cosplaying) and to change your character from what theirs look like. after all it was Bill Gates that sad you change 2 pixels and its different. its always best to know that you have the right to make anything you want for yourself and friends as long as you don't offer it for sale as a license pieces, but its very nice to respect and take in to consideration of what someone may ask you nicely not to do.
 
hey if it means people will see more master chiefs running around town, then, I don't see what the big deal is.
 
awesome if only i was the only kid on my block with a masterchief costume!damn id be one badass son of ah *****! thatll probably never happen but hey you never know.... :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
 
MASTERCHIEF AKA 117 said:
awesome if only i was the only kid on my block with a masterchief costume!damn id be one badass son of ah bitch! thatll probably never happen but hey you never know.... :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

i think your reign would stretch a little further that just your block ;)
 
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