And…ye you cant yse the red cross on the white background, srsly, look it up
It is still a crime to use it though.
which is why Introvision patched their game.
Which is why Halo had been patched.
Which is why stardew valley patched it out.
Transformer’s the franchise changed the symbols on their ones.
Like… YEAH it is a thing.
The symbol is formally protected by international treaty.
The act of killing people in a game isn’t covered by explicate use of symbols formally protected by international treaty.
So, YEAH… may be a bit of a difference there.
I’d expect blizzard will patch it out at some point.
The Geneva Conventions Act 1958 prohibits any design nearly resembling the red cross or red crescent emblems “as to be capable of being mistaken for, or understood as referring to, one of those emblems. ”
Now, that language has been copied into local laws in many places about the use of the red cross symbol.
It isn’t JUST a trademark here, there are SPECIFIC laws around it.
And yeah, Blizzard violates them, obviously enough.
I would challenge that. Simple white paper with a bold red +.
Well introversion decided not to challenge the geneva convention and british law
Again, game from 2007, The Medic from TF2
Yep, I know it is weird, more than one person can break a law at once.
It isn’t regularly ENFORCED, but that is different from it not existing.
I mean it’s a red cross inside a red circle on an off-white/ pink background
You can’t copyright something that is too broad or too generic anyways? The Red Cross is specifically a red cross on a white background; any other variants are not covered by their ownership, or they would lose their current copyright as being too broad
This isn’t a copyright or trademark case. It’s by international treaty, which has force of law JUST under Constitutional law (ratified treaty law supersedes state and federal law, and is only constrained by Constitutional law).
Not copyright. but designated by international treaty.
And besides, you are thinking of trademarks, but it isn’t a trade mark issue either.
It is a given a special piece of law because it is THAT important, kind of thing.
Diplomacy, war, and treason are ALWAYS handled as special cases.
And the red cross is VERY VERY much a special case.
Let me post this again…
You think the medic mark on Baps COULD have something to do with the red cross?
would that be " understood as referring to, one of those emblems."?
Yeah, it seems weird and edge casey, but that is BECAUSE it is weird and edge case.
now i have the question of…if you get a tattoo of a white square with the red + in it…are you a living rule breaker?
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For me, it sounds like one of those laws that, while do exist, can’t be inforced because it is to impractical… What the governments can do? Arrest every single gamer, game dev, cosplayer and even child who draw the symbol as a war criminal?
if that law is real then it is stupid and I am happy that blizzard is breaking it
can you shut up, please?
the law is real and very important to have IN REAL LIFE, not in art.
This is why we can’t have nice things
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Well, ask people to not do this kind of thing, and have them follow it.
See, stardew valley, halo, prison architect etc who changed their symbols for this exact reason.
Blizzard should follow I guess.
But the governments don’t tend to enforce it, but that doesn’t mean that blizzard isn’t breaking the law in multiple countries.
Just that the penalty is very little for doing so.
I suspect that blizzard hasn’t thought about it, but would patch it the moment they did.
and I seriously hope they don’t cause that’s just dumb. art is allowed to use the symbol. period. the law is for not impersonating red cross IN REAL LIFE.
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So it doesn’t really matter.
For the best or worst, some laws only exist in paper, for exemple, do you know that, according to french FOP (Freedom of Panorama) laws, it is illegal take pictures of the Eiffell Tower at night?
Does this law exist? Yes.
Is the parisian police arresting every single tourist who does it? No, otherwise, they would have a diplomatic and logistic problem in minutes…
I do not believe the design infringes on the symbol of the Red Cross. While the cross sign is there, no part of the skin shows the cross on specifically a white background. The red cross on Baptiste’s skin is specifically on a aqua blue backing around the symbol. The cross on the helmet is simply light blue.
https://nightwing.stevivor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/overwatch-baptiste-cosmetics.jpg
On a side note, you may notice most of Mercy’s Common, Rare, and Epic skins have a small symbol, but its white on red, which is a reference to her nationality (Switzerland).
Source: Emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement - Wikipedia
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does Overwatch also train people in shooting gays and people of colur?