Copyright/Profane question

When you're looking for the reason as to *why* a word won't show up, remember that you can expand the Warnings list. It will tell you there why a critter name is invalid (cf Paragon is an invalid name due to 'Aragon' or 'Black Scorpion' is bad due to 'scORPioN' (and no, I'm not kidding, it capitalizes it like that)).

If it's an enemy-group name, however, it will just tell you that the group is invalid without explaining why.

The word tangent is also blocked as being profane.

The problem with the filter is that it is overly aggressive, period. Some intern somewhere apparently was given a list of comic book characters and told "Put them all into the filter" without any form of brains being involved.

Many of the filtered words *shouldn't be* because there ARE no copyrights on the dictionary.
For instance, Cyclops should not be filtered, unless someone is creating an individual character named Scott Summers who shoots eyebeams from his eyes and wears a ruby-red visor or glasses. That requires brains to figure out, though, not a generic filter.

The word "Guardian" is still profane/copyrightededed in Custom Enemies. Substituted it temporarily to "Custodian" but lacks the awesomeness that is "Guardian".

Do I understand correctly that they use a 3rd-party filter program to police their copyright liability? Lazy. That's like trusting "spell check" on a scientific paper.

If not, they went to an AWFUL lot of effort to make it this bad.

Longbow's still on the list, as is Manticore, Freakshow, Psyche, Statesman, Sunstorm...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I had a hero that was flagged which I completely deleted, both from my PC and out of my arc.

After I delete the hero from the arc, it shows no errors, but when I republish it fails with a copyright/profane error. When I go back in the character I deleted is back.

I tried to save locally and test and when I do that after I delete the character it shows 9 text error messages but does not point to where or what. Does anyone know how to find what these errors are or get the arc to save?

Two of my arcs are currently invalidated due to the filter at the moment. The words in question for my arc "Blitzkrieg" would be the name Blitzkrieg itself and the name of a hero that appears in there, Fallout. The exclusion of Fallout is particularly odd considering we have a power in the game with that exact name.

Probably the most bizarre example of this overzealous copyright/profanity protection is in my other arc, "The Rikti Accession" where apparently, the word "Access" is copyrighted or profane. It's not even the whole word "accession" but part of it that invalidates the arc. Oddly, the arc is still technically playable but its name shows up as "Invalid String Replacement" and I cannot republish it without changing its name.

I'm glad Dr. Aeon at least acknowledges that there's a problem and I hope that this is fixed soon. I've wanted to work on my arcs again but it is difficult when I don't know which names I can or can't use.

Some constructive criticsm
An open letter to the devs

The point of the Mission Architect system is to foster creativity on the part of the player base.

Implemented properly, it's a no-cost goldmine of limitless content - something you would otherwise have to pay employees to generate. It's a brilliant idea - let the players pay YOU to build your game for you - and it could work if you rewarded architects for generating quality content and players for playing it.

Dedicated mission architect players spend countless hours building their arcs and going over them with fine-tooth combs.

Not only have you not nurtured and utilized this potential tremendous advantage (free content!), you've allowed choices that are obviously poorly thought through.

If you were to ask any member of the boards - any player - any at all - you would be told very quickly that implementing a copyright filter in the mission architect makes absolutely no sense.

There is simply too broad a range of possibilities - putting a "one size fits all" filter on the game to regulate the content players can generate doesn't just limit creativity, it annihilates it.

There is already a reporting system in place through which players (or representatives of copyrighted entities) could complain.

I am not going to sit here and try to guess what content I generate is going to get caught by the filter, and I am not going to sit here and try to generate lame workarounds for copyrighted names. It simply isn't a practical approach to the creative process.

I have a friend who built a chess arc that is very obviously a chess related arc. All of the mobs are chess pieces - pawns, bishops, rooks. The final four bosses are "Black King" "Black Queen" "White King" and...... "White Empress", now that "White Queen" is on the copyright list. Contacting the NCSoft authorities led to no productive solution - the "White Queen" name cannot be used in the arc.

Thousands of other incidents like this, involving commonly used terms, will make endless existing arcs worthless and will make new arcs worthless to create. I'm not going to bother building a chess arc if I know I can't use the "White Queen" name. Going one further, I'm not going to bother building any arc if I have to worry about a minefield that might at any point destroy hours of my creative efforts.

NCSoft, I urge you to consider applying your draconian copyright filter to your own content. You'll find it nearly impossible to tell a good story.

By the way, off the top of my head (without mining through your content)...

"Positron" is a marvel villain.
"Synapse" is also a marvel villain - a member of Emissaries of Evil.
"Bobcat" is a criminal in the marvel universe.
"Mynx" is a marvel comics character who first appeared in "Thanos #8".
"Tyrant" is a cosmic being in the Marvel universe. He hangs out with Galactus.
"Citadel" is an empire in the DC universe.
"Prometheus" is a character in the DC comics universe.


I'd appreciate you taking a look at your own content and applying the standard you're asking players to abide by in generating their content. I'll even given you the NCSoft copyrighted names to work with, as long as they aren't also being used by Marvel or DC.

If you're going to destroy my arc for using "Lord Recluse" or my buddy's arc for having a "White Queen" chess piece, I'd like to see how your stuff would fare. I'll look forward to fighting "Positivetron" next time I play the LRSF, or "Catpersonlady" next time I play a Tin Mage TF. Maybe if I work hard enough, I can save Primal Earth from "Despot".

Well time to add my two-cents (or penny) to this craziness.

Some history (ignorable): I have a VG called The Black Guard, to house all my villains and some friends too, my arc ideas revolve around the characters I created during my time in this lovely game and some more I never would have made actual characters for, but flexing the old mind muscles. Of course having too many critters in a group was problematic before the extra space, so I broke up them into squads this idea stuck since the space boost because it expanded the idea I had of an army.

And the problem.

I went back to my AE arc last night as I finally had an urge to finish and publish its sequel, firstly though I wanted to iron out some of the phrasing and kinks (brought up by a friend that did the arc) of my first arc. It was there I discovered my problem.

The enemy faction for the first mission are called Kovacs' Guardians, using members of The Black Guard foot soldier squad The Black Guardians, to give the feel of uniformity and stealing a little from the Council/Fifth the critter names are titles with Specialist names, with only unique critters having a proper name. The list of ProfanityCopyrightDetected affecting me is as follows:

Guardian
Guardian Commando
Guardian Medic
Guardian Protector
Guardian Trapper

I assume this is because either DC's Golden Guardian Jim Harper or Marvel's Alpha Flight's Leader Guardian or Weapon Alpha or Vindicator (hey, put an 'S' on that and it is a group of heroes right here in game lore! Funny because my subfaction has an 'S' on the end of Guardian and that was marked as Profanity/Copyright!). The former Guardian is from 1942 and the latter Guardian is from 1978.

I don't know what is worse that it took the content filter 2 years to figure out there was a guy with the name for the last 33 years (to be fair he did change it twice) or that it missed the bright blue guy for the last 69 years (to be fair, again, there was a war going on).

But in all serious, this is ridiculous. There are words in the English, French, German, Russian, all languages that are just there. They are there to be used, I can't just copyright The and tell everyone they can't use The in their arcs because it is my word.

There has to be some fair usage here, would it help if I put in each of their bios that "No members of the Black Guardians were born in Canada"? or "These Guardians are noted for not wearing a fetching Blue and Gold attire" or even hammer down the dictionary definition of what their job entails in The Black Guard "Guardian; noun One that guards, watches over, or protects"?

If I, as a creator on AE, am being censored for use of common words. Should we not address the many NPCs with the name Guardian at the same time:

Guardian, an enemy in the Circle of Thorns faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Devouring Earth faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Fir Bolg faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Rikti faction
Guardian Mu'Rakir, an NPC encountered by villains
Guardian Shard, an enemy in the Devouring Earth faction
Longbow Guardian, an enemy in the Longbow faction
Mu Guardian, an enemy in the Arachnos faction

Thank you Paragon Wiki for this lovely list.

This whole thing has scuppered my AE plans for the future somewhat, as this small faction of the first mission of my arc were set to be the focus of the next arc. As it stands, they are useless and I worked on a theme here.

I don't see, or rather don't agree, that an arc which has been in the AE without issue for over two years (re-published last year due to a major overhaul) or any arc new or old should be rendered unplayable for simple use of common words found in a dictionary or existing characters in the games own lore because they might be tied to a Canadian superhero that is remembered for being mocked by a Hugh Jackman look a like.


UPDATE: So my email yielded a response I did not expect "Your recent incident update was from an email address not associated with the incident. In an effort to maintain the security of
information, we cannot update the incident using this email address.", strange how the email address I have been using has been the one associated with any support incident I have raised since purchasing the game 60 months ago (thanks for the badge btw).

Stranger still is that I though, 'Hey there is a link anyway in the email! I'll use that.' and am met with an "Error Permission Denied You do not have permission to access this document." So, how pray do I contact to update my thoughts on the issue, if all bridges of communication appear to be Question > Answer > Debate > Bridge is blown out?

Below, please find my exchange with NCSoft on this matter.

All I've changed in the following is 1) My real name to my boards screen name for continuity's sake and 2) I've added indicators so that it's easier to tell who is writing what:

Bleak_Wanderer: I'm building some canon related content in Architect edition. The story contact is Lord Recluse and one of the groups is Freedom Corps (they are needed as in the timeline of the story, Longbow didn't exist yet). I'm getting a copyright text error, and I suspect it will probably preclude me from publishing the story. This is new, as I published a similar story not long ago. Is this a bug, or is it NCSoft's position that we can't make stories with their characters and groups?

GM Grackle:

Bleak_Wanderer,

This isn't the result of a bug. From what you described, it sounds like the names you're attempting to use are triggering the copyright filter in the game. If that's the case, this should be a fairly simple matter to resolve. In order to do that, though, I'll need you to please provide the ArcID for the specific AE content that you're referring to.

Also, has this been published yet or are you running into this error prior to publication?

That information will help in my research to get this cleared up.

Regards,
GM Grackle

Bleak_Wanderer:

GM Grackle,
>

Thanks for your response.

1. There is no Arc ID I'm aware of, as the arc has not been published yet.
I suspect the warnings will prevent the arc from being published.

2. I'm running into the error prior to publications.

Thanks.

GM LLoyd:

Hello Bleak_Wanderer,

You should click into each text field in the unpublished mission, one field at a time. This should cause useful error messages to appear. You should then be able to make any necessary changes to the text.

You can find more information on this topic on the City of Heroes message boards. You can reach the message board at https://boards.cityofheroes.com. Please contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.

Take care,
GM Lloyd
City of Heroes Support Team

Bleak_Wanderer:

GM Lloyd,

I am not interested in making changes to the text.

I am interested in using Lord Recluse in my arc. His name is Lord Recluse,
so I do not see why I should not be able to utilize him with that name. In
fact, I think I paid tickets to be able to use him, if I'm not mistaken. If
not him, then other NCSoft properties were paid for with tickets, for sure.

The Freedom Corps is called the Freedom Corps.

Arachnos is called Arachnos.

And on it goes.

I checked the boards per your instruction and found a thread full of
disgruntled players in the same boat I'm in:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...=259226&page=7

Are you telling me that it is NCSoft's policy to bar players who wish to use
the Architect edition from using NCSoft properties in their custom arcs?
Please provide this to me in writing - I'd love to have a quote from a GM
telling me that canonical character names are forbidden in Architect arcs so
that I can share it on the boards. The player base needs to know the
policy.

To be clear, my beef isn't with you personally and I mean you no disrespect.
This is an issue with NCSoft's treatment of custom content.

What channels do I need to go through to lodge a formal complaint? (Not
against you - your service has been good - rather, to the devs.)

Thanks,

BW

GM Lloyd: Hello Bleak_Wanderer,

Currently, your options are:

1. Change the text in the Architect mission.
2. Post to the forum thread you've found, and tell the Development Team what you think directly.
3. Wait for any changes to be made by the Development Team.

Any updates will be announced on the official site and/or forums, so you seem to have full command of official information streams already.

If you have other questions for us in Game Support, please let us know.

Best,
GM Lloyd
City of Heroes Support Team


Dear Development Team,

As an NCSoft customer, I am highly displeased with this development and your handling of it thus far.

This is a very simple matter that should be a straightforward fix - your response to it communicates volumes about how you view your player base.

I will be monitoring the situation to determine how to spend my funds in the future, and will be communicating openly with other players about my point of view.

Regards,

Bleak Wanderer

While we wait, I figure that since copyright compliance is so critical to NCSoft, we can help them police their own content. Here's the list I have so far (thanks for your contributions, Drakmarth):

NCSoft Signature or Major Properties that have names in common with other comic companies (not based on the filter, because the filter automatically includes NCSoft signature property names, and because NCSoft may not have noticed their "violation" themselves - which is why I'm helping them out with this post):

"Recluse" is a DC villain, and a member of the Council of Spiders (http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Recluse_(New_Earth))
"Nemesis", found in both the Marvel and DC universes.
"Positron" is a marvel villain.
"Manticore" is a character in the marvel and DC universes.
"Synapse" is also a marvel villain - a member of Emissaries of Evil.
"Bobcat" is a criminal in the marvel universe.
"Mynx" is a marvel comics character who first appeared in "Thanos #8".
"Tyrant" is a cosmic being in the Marvel universe. He hangs out with Galactus.
"Citadel" is an empire in the DC universe.
"Prometheus" is a character in the DC comics universe.
"Black Scorpion" contains substring "Scorpion", which is on the copyright list - probably due to the "Moral Kombat" character.
"Flux" (a hero contact in CoH) is a character in the Marvel comics universe.
"Indigo" (a hero contact in CoH) is a character in the DC comics universe.
"Abyss" (a villain contact in CoV) is a character in the Marvel and DC comics universes.
"Caleb", (a giant monster), a character in both Marvel and DC universes.
"Kraken", (a giant monster), found in both Marvel and DC universes.
"Paladin", (a giant monster), found in the Marvel universe.
"Black Swan", a character in the Marvel universe.




NCSoft mobs that violate the copyright filter:

Owing to the fact that "Cyclops" is a character name used by Marvel:
Cyclops, an enemy unit in Cimerora.

Owing to the fact that "Minotaur" is a character name used by Marvel:
Minotaur, an enemy unit in Cimerora.

Owing to the fact that "Guardian" is a character name used by both Marvel and DC:

Guardian, an enemy in the Circle of Thorns faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Devouring Earth faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Fir Bolg faction
Guardian, an enemy in the Rikti faction
Guardian Mu'Rakir, an NPC encountered by villains
Guardian Shard, an enemy in the Devouring Earth faction
Longbow Guardian, an enemy in the Longbow faction
Mu Guardian, an enemy in the Arachnos faction


NCSoft Groups or Factions that violate NCSoft copyright standards:
"Hellions", which are a teenage mutant team in the Marvel universe.
"Council", a villain faction in the DC universe (Detective Comics #439).
"Cabal", a vigilante group in the Marvel universe.
"Outcasts", a group in the Marvel universe.


Anyone else care to add?

Devs, if you are positively gobsmacked by the far-reaching, invasive, crushing implications this seemingly arbitrary and completely unpredictable list has for your content, the changes you would need to make, and the damage it would do to your creative process.... I empathize.

Unfortunately, in today's litigious society, it's necessary. Isn't it?

I look forward to seeing all of these character and group names modified in the near future. We'll help you to keep a close watch on all content going forward as well - and we'll keep looking at your existing content. I'm sure we haven't scratched the surface.

My arc "Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today!" seems to be suffering from this; the main villain group is called "Doomsday Droids", named after the main villain, Baron Von Doomsday, who's an entirely original creation with an intentionally cliched name. The many errors it's giving me don't actually indicate the word that's setting it off but I'm guessing it's something related to "Doom", "Doomsday", or maybe even "Droids".

Honestly I don't think there should be a "copyright" filter at all. There's a "report for content" button right there on the AE rating/comments window, if someone violates copyrights, people can report them for it. There's no need to be overly aggressive about it because if the lawyers do come barking again (though remember that you guys WON that case), you can argue that you've already got a system in place for dealing with copyright violation and you do take it seriously.

Sorry Dr. Aeon, that fix didn't seem to take. 'Bride' is still flagged as a copyright violation.

Bleak > You may want to put down that 'Guardian' may be related to Marvel or DC's own heroes by that name. Marvel leader of Alpha Flight, DC er..not too familiar with other than he looks like Captain America with the shield and all (in fact both Guardian's are weirdly motifs of Captain America, one the patriot, the other a shield carrying soldier.

As I was told in my response (one that I was unable to respond to because my email, that I have used since I first made the game, is apparently not attributed to the support ticket raised and despite going to my support profile and seeing my email address right there, it wouldn't work) I have to change what I made, and what was until recently working just fine, or..nothing. Just do it so it can be published...until another superhero comes out with a word I am using and we end up going around the bendis again.


Cheshire > You are correct. There are ways and means of reporting violations of copyright without just uploading a spreadsheet full of 'Bad' words.

If someone were using Thor, but made Thor in their own design, say an elec control/elec blast with a unique costume, then I wouldn't bat an eyelid. But if it were done in the style of Marvel's own design, down to the Hammer then I might be inclined raise a concerned note to the author informing them of their playing with fire.

The fact that it could be Doom, Doomsday or even Droids is disconcerting as the first two are terms that have been around for centuries, you can't just take a word and make it unuseable. What kind of villain tries to set off a Heckday Device? It lacks punch dammit.

The realm of Comic Books is so vast and has covered so many bases, characters based on emotion, characters based on animals, characters based on ideals, characters based on elements, characters based on combining concepts or words. It really leaves us with making up words or delving into linguistics. I'm all for delving into language, but sometimes you like a simple word to get the point across.

I give up trying to go through Support on the matter.

I sent a second bug/petition detailing that I cannot reply to my first bug/petition in a reasoned manner because I had an email instantly with the subject "Update Contact Informatio​n" and informing me the email address I am using is not associated with the support ticket and thus will not be updated.

I have checked my support profile and the email address I am using is the exact same as the one attributed to the profile, the same one that is attributed to my two CoH accounts, the same one that gets an email telling me about Spring Fling coming three days after the even started. Twice! I jest because I love.

The link in the email to update my reponse on the website just takes me to a page that tells me I do not have permission to see the document. The only support ticket attributed to my account is from 2009 apparently, I don't log petitions often, but I do recall having to do so at least twice in 2010 (one was due to a no reward for an ITF I completed, which was quickly resolved).

Also despite explaining the reason why I was sending a second support ticket to address a current incident I felt like I was being slapped on the hand for sending a second support ticket about it. Er, I explained why, I can't respond. This may just (highly likely) be my reading too much into the words though, especially as it could have been just a cut and paste response to any ticket addressing another ticket.

Regarding the fixes in the works, I would love it to be so and that it is on the way Soon(tm) or Later(tm), but my fear is that unless we get a list of words on the AE stating which are useable and are not useable down the line, rather than playing a game of Find the Profane Copyright.

The arc I created was during the Beta for AE, over the last two years it has had tweaks and changes and one major overhaul-republish and it was never flagged before now. What is stop another arc I make having the same two years of it being out there before something decides I have done something else to anger the Litigation Gods?

Or maybe it was a mistake, maybe it is a naughty overzealous content filter just tying up words and not letting them out to play, maybe in time the words we're having problems with will be returned to us unharmed and ready for re-use, but if that is the case, where the heck did the list used for the filter come from because surely someone had to have inputted it or checked it?

I really hate coming off as complaining because I enjoy this game I really do, but (TANGENT) I've had to deal with Sony of all people possibly losing my bank account details to hackers and I do not blame Sony for that because they were a target, but what did rub me the wrong was was the fact they had a black out of communication for a week.

So unfortunately now when I get a reponse telling me I have to change any inst-no REMOVE any instance of the word "Guardian" to re-publish my arc due to Copyright, then I come here and there are Red Names saying 'Well the content filter is a might overzealous' (sorry for paraphrasing), it kinds leads me into confliction.

UPDATE: Found out from Support that my responses were going through without issue for them, seems to be another fault causing those emails telling me it hasn't updated.

Nice to know I didn't waste my time with my response, so with this news I dial back my 'outrage' over that issue and apologise for blowing my lid for my part.

I'd like to B&M over the fact that I got hit with this ridiculous filter because an NPC I named Captain Altready is unacceptable- and why? Because "Captain A" is in the name. -.- Why do we need this filter again? I really have never run into serious copyright infringements in the large amount of time I've spent in the AE. All this filter is accomplishing is needlessly raising blood pressures.

Edit: I would like to add that, in spite (and because this is arc isn't supposed to go live anyway) I renamed the arc (because the title was in conflict) to something profane the filter wouldn't catch and renamed the NPC to Sergeant America. Not lying when I say I was surprised I could get away with America, but not the letter A.