Fallout 3's 'Vault Boy' now delivering pizza, copyright infringement

by Ben Gilbert on Nov 16th 2009 10:00PM

Ever since Fallout 3's Vault Boy went to space in Mothership Zeta, we've been at a loss for where to find the congenial gent. Alas, we never expected to see his mercurial face gracing the cover of a Massachusetts pizza shop's menu. Expresso Pizza of Billerica, Ma. put the young lad to work on the menu's cover, holding a pizza and pretending he's a waiter. We all know you're a Capital Wasteland Wanderer, silly Vault Boy!

The only question now is "How long until Bethesda shuts this down?" We contacted the Fallout publisher to find out its reaction, and were told, "Well he is a big part of our Fallout brand and is copyrighted, so, yeah, deciding on your own to use him to promote your business or product, or to sell stuff, or whatever, without getting permission from us ... not a good idea." Ruh oh!

(Thanks, Dan)

[Via BadCartridge]

Source

Tags: badcartridge, bethesda, Bethesda-Game-Studios, bethesda-softworks, copyright, copyright-infringement, expresso-pizza, fallout, fallout-3, massachusetts, pizza, reddit, RPG, vault-boy

Reader Comments (99)

It may be stupid, but it's true. Don't you dare try and pass it off as anything else. Coincidentally, Billerica is home to the only BYOB strip club I've ever known.

...and for those IN Massachusetts it's pronounced white trash.

I'm guessing those that had the pizza felt like they had tasted it before, but couldn't quite remember where, now they know :D

way to go joystiq for telling on a mom and pop shop to a big ass corp. But is it really a big deal? if i saw that i would never think oh thats vault boy can nobody have a 50's look as there image?

No. I prefer the big company to execute CaD on the little guy.

Poor former Black Isle devs. :(

Forced to watch Bethesda reap all the PR benefits, rewards, and false credit for "creating" the Fallout brand when it was Feargus Urquhart, Tim Cain, and crew who created the universe. :(

That's how me and my friends feel.

To be fair though, Bethesda rescued the series from oblivion.

Moar like Bethesda turned the series INTO Oblivion!

HEY-OH!

Hah, I knew I should have capitalized that 'O'. Still, I like your take better.

Black Isle is dead. They formed Obsidian and are working on Fallout Vegas I think they are happier now then when Interplay sold out the series in Fallout BoS and completely made it stupid with Fallout Tactics.

Looks like somebody took time off his very busy schedule to go and find all about this.

Very good job.

I'm from here and I've never heard of this place. Must be crap if they resort to using Vault Boy to sell pizzas.

Why would they even want to use Vault Boy as their mascot?

I don't want +15 rads whenever I eat their pizza..

As a freelance graphic artist, I can appreciate this. Being a mom and pop store, I think a cease and desist order would be enough of a counter-offensive. But nonetheless it irks me when any business, no matter how small, tries to take the cheap way out and do something like this.

This is about a mile away from my house.

http://kotaku.com/263960/yuna-gets-her-hair-done-too

Hell yeah! I had a friend who lived near there. Made my day every time we drove past it. "After a long day of Summoning, there's nothing that relaxes me better than a good shampoo."

Am I the only one that finds it wrong that Joystiq just fucked over a mom and pops pizzeria that likely had no idea where the image came from? Was this really necessary?

No - as your reading the rest of the comments would have shown.

Stealing is stealing. You wouldn't be defending them if it was Pizza Hut, why does the restaurant being small make it any different?

I skimmed and saw random comments about pepperoni and random knocks on the place for doing this. After further investigation, I see that yes, if I decided to waste my time and read all of the comments, I would've found some. Thanks for your valuable input.

It wouldn't be "ruh-oh" if Joystiq didn't narc on this mom and pop store... obviously they didn't get permission from Bethesda, but does making connections for future stories have to be this cruel?

I'm sorry this time it doesn't feel right, although they infringed upon the intellectual rights, they're just a tiny blip on the radar....

The economy is bad enough as it is....

As someone who used to work in a cafe, seeing the term "Expresso" is an instant demerit. Stealing Vault Boy is just as unforgivable.

i don't think "Expresso" is referring to "espresso". i think it has more to do with "express".

My biggest problem with this is that the pizza place likely wasn't the one at fault, it was probably the person who designed the menu for them that used the Vault Boy without permission, and that person will probably get off scot-free while the pizza place has to (at the very least, assuming the image isn't on EVERY bit of promotional material they've had produced) replace their menus.

I'm a graphic designer, and it really pisses me off to see people in this field ignore copyright, especially when quite a few of them are artists themselves who would never be cool with someone using their art without permission.

Exactly. For the store's sake, I'd just hope for a cease and desist. The real blame is on the person they hired to make their menus...

It angers me that there are people out there calling themselves "artists" that would just resort to ripping off others' IPs just to score some quick cash on a small freelance job... Stupid Google Image Pirates...

If I was Bethesda, I'd work out a deal to get Pizza 4 Life....

Sweet Karma. I just completed the last achievement in the Fallout 3 GOTY.

And here I am, reading about Vault Boy, again. Fuck sake.

It's an iconic 1950's style drawing in fact i've seen "Vault Boy" on other things well before Bethesda got their hands on him. Now if Bethesda bought the rights to the likeness off of someone they would have a case, if not it's probably public domain material. Honestly all they would have to do is sharpie a few more eye lashes or lengthen his smile and all would be fine.

I believe the term 'any likeness' is included in any image copyright.

Vault Boy is just done in 1950s style, but other than that, he is a 100% original character, designed by Leonard Boyarsky and Tramell Isaac.

Uhhh... thats Photoshopped.

yeah im pretty sure they didnt have arrows pointing him out on the actual box

Eurgh, this story leaves a bad taste in my mouth (and it's not the pizza)

I think it's the double whammy of Joystiq grassing up the story and rubbing its hands with glee at having done so. Kinda unnecessary to take such joy in screwing over that pizza place.

I hope it's just a cease and desist they get, the economy has wrecked enough lives as it is without Joystiq getting extra cheap shots in. Not cool.

this is stupid and not news. the only thing this does is fuck up that little pizza shop. and yeah yeah, i doubt they sold a pizza because that dude was on the box. unless someone snaps a picture of giant billboards with vault boy all over the city, this doesn't matter- you can make it matter- but on it's own, it does not.

They were just trying to avoid infringing on Hanna-Barbera's IP.

While reading this, I thought of Spongebob and Patrick gleefully running to tell Mr. Krabs' mother that he said some bad words.

Okay fist off I doubt the likeness of Pipboy on some random pizza shop here in MA (where I live, by the way) is boosting their sales any, since I'm sure only videogamers are going to notice, and only then those who play Fallout. Secondly, was it that serious that Joystiq had to instigate and give Bethesda a call? Let them handle their own business. That's like the annoying kid in school who tells the teacher that you cut class. Mind your own business.

Reminds me to this:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BVeH1mO0ydQ/SplfPqJN6FI/AAAAAAAAADQ/Q2v9zt8Sr1Q/s320/super-mario-pasta.jpg

also check out their logo, they actually printed that shit on a phone book
http://www.e-kern.at/

What appals me more than a gaming site denunciating people here is a gaming site making an article about this... it's like the other day, ok a few years ago there was this guy's van with a world of warcraft art on it and it didn't cross my mind to call Blizzard. Much less so did it cross my mind to write an article about it on a major gaming website. I mean.. what the? this just could win the palm of the worst gaming article ever released, if not the worst article ever released? Is this supposed to be relevant information to us?

Grats to Joystiq for ratting out the poor guy's business to Bethesda.

*golfclaps for Joystiq.*

Seriously, if your shenanigans gets this place shut down, Imma be upset with you. >:c

Just leave the small business be. I saw the pit boy used on a form at my local super-cuts but I didn't go squawking to the internet about it.

Bestheda shouldn't say shit

http://totallylookslike.com/2009/10/26/sugar-bombs-from-fallout-3-totally-looks-like-50s-advert/

Whoa! They totally set out to make a parody of an existing advertisement! Now THAT'S infringement. Not, you know, parody.

its one thing to parody but its another to use the image of a probably copyrighted image. and parodies have no merit in law. you could say the pizza shop is doing a parody but it would still be unlawful

Are you retarded? Parodies have EVERY merit in the law, they are completely protected by the constitution. What the fuck are you smoking?

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee346/ddiamonddc/not-sure-if-serious.jpg

It's pip boy, not vault boy. Isn't it?

Previous 50 Comments

Fallout 3's 'Vault Boy' now delivering pizza, copyright infringement

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