The Northrop Grumman Issue.

[SaQSoN]

Oh, you guys are so smart and quick to find a solution to other man problems! But I wonder, would you be so, if you personally, or someone, who depends and trust in you would be threatened by 6-digits law suit? Would you be so quick in jumping to a conclusions without even trying to find out more info about the situation in that case? And believe me, all info is here, on this forum, repeated gazillion times. For you, smart kids, I will repeat it again.

Fact 1: NG claims copyright not only for it's name, or names of it's products, but also on the external appearance of their products. This claim exclude only the work of arts (paintings and sculptures) and photography. Which means, if you want to produce a toy, film a movie, or create a computer game with something, which looks like NG product, you have to obtain their permission in the form of a license agreement. Which usually comes for a fee.
You may find this info on NG site, if you look carefully. It was also posted on this forum, may be even in this thread.

Fact 2: in year 2004, about a week before planned start of the Pacific Fighters title sales, Ubi was approached by NG lawyers with a threat of a lawsuit, demanding license fees for using images of NG products, according to the 1.
So, basically, Ubi had a choice to either stop US sales of the product and get themselves into an expensive lawsuit, or pay a certain amount and settle. In this situation they decided, the second variant would be more acceptable for them. Not to mention, that any software publisher standard contract states, that all expenses, related to copyrights infringement found in the product are covered by product developer.

Therefore, fact 3: 1C paid 6-digit sum to NG as a license fees and signed contract with NG and Ubi, which prohibits use of any images of NG products in the IL-2 series, without permission and license from NG, no matter if this images are included in free or paid add-ons.

Fact 4: a part of agreement between DT and 1C is a prohibition to use any images of NG products in DT creations, related to the IL-2 series.

PERIOD