In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K space marines

Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by unwind on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @10:50AM (#5176943)

That is ... incredibly stupid.

I'm no 40K fan (at all), but I realize it's huge. On the other hand, the concept of "marines, but in space" really is a genre trope as pointed out in the article. It feels wrong for a single company to own that generic term.

I've read if not shelf-meters then certainly shelf-decimeters of SF with plenty of marines in them, none being of the Warhammer variety.

I'm looking forward (not) for the chilling effects to make authors invent new wordings to avoid infringement.

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by CapitalistCartr on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @10:53AM (#5176957)

They only "own" it because they're taking it. Space marines were used in science fiction before they did it. They're taking something that doesn't belong to them, by being much bigger than their opponent. The word for that is bullying.

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by newbie12 on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @10:57AM (#5176978)

Here's the Games Workshop customer support email:

[email protected]

Can't hurt to let them know we aren't pleased.

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by hagios on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @11:55AM (#5177438)

Can't hurt, but I suspect it won't help. I wrote in, and it took less than two minutes to receive a response which basically said "write to legal, not to us."

Here's to hoping I'm wrong and they listen to unhappy people.

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by anthonyb on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @07:20PM (#5179797)

[email protected]

(from http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=...)

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by incision on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @12:20PM (#5177595)

>I've read if not shelf-meters then certainly shelf-decimeters of SF with plenty of marines in them, none being of the Warhammer variety.

I've read at least a shelf-meter of books involving 40K space marines. As the article alludes, 40K space marines are called Adeptus Astartes or simply Astartes.

This is one of things that makes this such a jackass move. Their own, licensed writing would seem to acknowledge "space marine" as generic.

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Re:In the future, all space marines will be Warhammer 40K sp... by rodgerd on Wednesday February 06, 2013 @04:54PM (#5179079)

Anyone who read 2000 A.D. in the early 80s knows where the guts of Warhammer 40K was stolen from. (And Ridley Scott would like his Tyrannids back, please.)

Be pure. Be vigilant. Behave.

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