Multiplayer First Person Shooter
The Somme - Red Cross Legal Integrity
We recently were informed that the Red Cross had contacted IndieDB staff regarding the use of their Logo and apparent 'affiliation' with The Somme.....
Posted by Doppler° on Jan 25th, 2013
Good afternoon Trench Rats.
We recently were informed that the Red Cross had contacted IndieDB staff regarding the use of their Logo and apparent 'affiliation' with The Somme. Statement below is quoted from the actual email from the member of staff working at the Red Cross foundation.
Red wrote:It has been brought to my attention that the website Indiedb.com refers to donating 5% of takings to the British Red Cross. The original text on the website (as quoted) confirms:
"5% of The Somme's total earnings will be deducted and donated to the British Red Cross"
We appreciate the support of Mob DB in wishing to donate profits to the Red Cross. However, the British Red Cross does not have an agreement with Mob DB or any representatives of this organization and therefore the use of the British Red Cross name and emblem (logo) is not permitted.
Additionally, due to the special meaning of the red cross emblem as a sign of neutrality and protection in armed conflict, the red cross emblem and the words "Red Cross" are protected under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (as amended). In the UK, the British Red Cross has a recognized role supporting the Ministry of Defence in monitoring alleged unauthorised use of the Red Cross emblem and designation; we perform a similar role in supporting the Intellectual Property Office with respect to unauthorised use of designs and wording closely resembling the Red Cross emblem and designation.
We would be grateful if you could look into this and take action immediately. Please confirm in writing that you will co-operate and remove all references to the Red Cross from the website Indiedb.com and all other related materials and web pages.
It certainly disheartened the development team regarding their decision; fundamentally we have never stated we are affiliated with the Red Cross and we wanted to state on record, our intentions were to run an internal donation system to the Red Cross as they were one of many charities that provided support to the soldiers in the great war. The idea was to spread awareness of the charity and to announce we would be deducting 5% of The Somme's total earnings towards the Red Cross. We never intended to cause issues with the Red Cross; we are trying to work together with the foundation as of right now to bridge a connection so that we can continue the internal campaign and spread awareness.
Regardless of what may have occurred, we will still be donating the 5% to the Red Cross. We fully understand and appreciate the Red Cross for their decision to protect their rights, and we agree with them on it. Right now, all media that has the Red Cross donation banner or it's Logo will be removed and replacement media will be supplied at a later point.
That's all for now chaps, new media soon!
TopHat Game Studios has a community forum, if you have any questions about The Somme or want to catch live feedback for the game and our studio. Please use the following contact links.
Click HERE to visit our forums. Sign up and start talking about The Somme!
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Well that's certainly a shame, but good to see you'll be keeping up the donations anyway. Good luck to you and your team.
That's a shame.
Whiny idiots.
For all the Red Cross know, the developers of this game could be using their organisation name and logo as part of a scam, if no sort of agreement or even notification has been made then they have every right to say what they have. They are not whiny, they are simply protecting themselves and possibly victims of such a scam. I'm not saying 'The Somme' IS a scam, not at all, but for the Red Cross there is no way to tell, they must be very careful and what they have done here is completely understandable. Also one thing you should note, the Red Cross are far from being 'Idiots' - That is a pathetic accusation.
I agree with you on the most part. However, bridging of the two between us and Red Cross could have been potentially done if we hadn't been ignored by the Red Cross prior to us announcing we would donate. We ran with it, because we had heard nothing but silence from them regarding our donation. This was email and phone.
We are still trying to bridge the two, because our donation to the Red Cross will still happen regardless.