Sony vs Microsoft double standards?

[binary solo]

Ka-pi96 said:

DonFerrari said:
On TR... what would people say if Sony just put an ad in their site "TR coming to PS4 in Summer 2016"??? Probably would piss MS because they avoid like hell to say it isn't exclusive. And the flack MS got for it is just from taking a game from PS4 with no real benefit to anyone, have Sony done it with any AAA game?

And regarding lawsuit... if Sony have a deal with Activision regarding the exclusive advertisment for the game they could sue MS because their contract prohibit MS from doing it (sure MS could allegate not knowing it, which is BS since they have those kind of contracts and Sony announced the deal) and anyway MS used trademark from Acti and/or the parfum and could be sued for it as well...

On the hypocrisis side, you are being more than most people by knowing the roles were reversed the same would happen, since sony got a lot of flack and support from the EA case and MS for this ad. It all relates to fanbase.

Good Tomb Raider example, that's the point I'm trying to make. I liked Microsoft's Destiny ad and I think it would be brilliant if Sony did something similar for Tomb Raider. The issue is that a lot of those criticising Microsoft's ad would probably praise Sony's one...

Sony can't sue Microsoft. Sony don't hold any of the rights or have any agreements with Microsoft about it. Only Activision/Bungie can do that. Sony could pretty much force them to sue Microsoft on their behalf but they couldn't sue them by themselves. Not as if it would get anywhere anyway. Microsoft would say they didn't intentionally break copyright, which they didn't because this was clearly an attempt to get around the copyright. So unless Activision could prove they intentionally broke copyright they couldn't really do much. Especially considering the ad only stayed up for a short time. If it was there for months maybe Activision could succesfully sue them, but it was up for just a few hours so not much they can really do. Activision probably did say to them take down that site, and Microsoft complied. Can't really sue them after that...

You're probably right, it's just a fanbase thing, but isn't that the problem in the first place?

That's hilarious. You don't have to prove intent to break the law to hold someone accountable someone for breaking the law.  You only have to prove they know there is a law which applies to the situation. Indeed the fact that MS attempted, and failed, to skirt around the law means MS well and truly knows the law. The ignorance defence only works if you are ignorant of the law, not that you are ignorant about how the law would apply to that particular situation. MS knows they legally had no right to use Acti copyright or trademarked material, they attempted to create an ad that didn't infringe on those rights, but the ad ended up infringing because MS marketing people failed to get proper legal advice. That's actionable by Acti if they so choose.

In any copyright or trademark situation court is never the first port of call. The rights holder always, as a first step, asserts their rights to the one who is infringing. If the infringing party does not act to cease their infringement then courts and lawyers get involved. Clearly MS reponded to stop their infringing, and the matter ends there.

And the Tomb Raider thing would be a terrible idea for Sony unless and until Sony actually gets a publishing and promotion agreement from SE. Which of course will never come until after the exclusivity period has expired. Sony would be stupid beyond reason to start promoting TR on PS4 before they had permission to do so. Once Sony gets that permission then they can pretty much troll MS about TR "exclusivity" with impunity.