Ein Hauptgrund scheint zu sein, das die Internethändler mit ihren Sonderangeboten den "normalen" Händlern und natürllich vor allem den GW Läden das Wasser abgraben.
Ich habe leider auch kein 100%ig verlässlichen Quellen, angeblich soll die rechtliche Absicherung des Verbots über die Urheberrechtschiene laufen, d.h. GW verbietet einfach die kommerzielle Nutzung ihrer Warenzeichen und Copyrights im Internet.
Theoretisch ist das möglich, praktisch haben ja z.B. Paramount (Star Trek) und damals TSR ähnliche Aktionen durchgezogen und alle Websites, die ihnen nicht passten unter Strafandrohung schliessen lassen.
Hier liegt die Sache natürlich etwas anders da es sich ja um Katalogseiten von GW Geschäftspartnern handelt, aber die Frage ist dann wieder, ob ein Händler unbedingt GW verklagen will oder Geld für einen langen Rechtsstreit hat, wenn GW auf Unterlassung klagt.
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Damon White Reports: We have received a new bit of news concerning the confirmation of our earlier post on Games Workshop no longer allowing online sales of its product lines. The below post was sent to us from a tipster. This looks to be from one of many stores involved in this issue. Check it out:
"Due to a flood of emails requesting verification I have decided to make the following statement:
I did receive a call yesterday from a Games Workshop V.P. (ie. very official source). Below is
the facts of the call as I saw them, at this time you are certainly free to draw your own conclusions.
The call was a polite courtesy call to let me know in person that a letter was going out to all retailers describing a change in Games Workshop's 'Terms of Trade'. According to them, Games Workshop is disturbed by the
infringement of copyrights on their intellectual property so rampant on the internet. Therefore to protect their IP GW will be closing the internet to all uses of their intellectual property except for a handful of permitted
images. Also effective July 15th, no stores besides their own will be permitted to sell GW products on the internet. The caller was adamant that this has nothing to do with the discount levels. He gave me a number to call with further questions and said I had to decide to comply or that I had
90 days to liquidate my GW inventory. Others who received the call were informed of a GW buyout plan if they wanted to liquidate their inventory back to GW.
I was rather shocked at the time and did not ask all of the questions I should have, accordingly I will be calling GW again today. Mail Order is 'permitted', tho I am not sure what that means. Does that mean I can take phone orders only? Can I list products for sale in a simple sentence
format? Are all shopping carts now unacceptable or just ones with pictures and GW sales copy?
I am leaving my own conclusions out of this for a moment but I will say this. It is my opinion that if permitted this will affect every one of the manufacturers in our industry. Wiz Kids has often crusaded against internet
discounting, WOTC has railed against it as well. If GW closes down the internet channel, I believe that every manufacturer in this industry will be pressured to do as GW has done or they will be seen by independent stores as
'unsupportive of the hobby'.
This decision also seems to be entirely without legal precedent, and has far reaching implications FOR EVERY BUSINESS SELLING EVERY PRODUCT ON THE NET. Can a company shut down a legitimate mode of commerce in the United States? This decision is far bigger than the Wargaming Hobby, it has serious ramifications.
I will be talking to GW today to get further details on exactly how they want this to work. Rest assured we are very concerned with the situation and will post more details as they come available.
Thank you very much for your kind support."
Neal Catapano
TheWarStore.com
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http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=8077http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=8069