At 7/7/04 11:42 PM, night_raider wrote: The idea of the tank got me thinking of warnings like the ones they use for hazardous material.

S= safe (color green, and maybe have a thumbs up)
W= warning (color yellow, and show some sort of warning symbol)
D= danger (color orange, have something like fire)
LT= life threatening (have the skull and crossbones)

I like that idea...

"We believe that the display of the ESRB ratings and designs on your company’s website constitutes an infringement and dilution of our trademark rights and create a substantial likelihood of consumer confusion".

They want to have some fun with their copyrights, and also piss people off. I personally think ESRB should change THEIR ratings. Like seriously, who goes to http://www.esrb.org or cares about ratings on game boxes? Noone.

Well, i dont really see how they can trade mark "teen" and "adult". I'm pretty certain "general" was used for movie ratings first. Has diaper, has pubes, ect, was hilarious, but i dont really think it would work well.

How about this?

At 7/8/04 12:56 AM, CatCourps wrote: Those people are assholes! Your little rating things don't look anything like theirs

Ha, you should just put your ratings in an oval and put the rating on the side of it!

I'm trying the e-mail addresses of the people who run the ESRB so Newgrounds users everywhere can flood the ESRB's server with hate mail, computer viruses, ect...

But until I find it I guess we'll have to make do with something else I found.

So everyone needs to go to this site in order to e-mail those @#$!&% at the ESRB:
http://www.esrb.org/consumer_online_hotline.asp

the second set of ratings totally kicks more ass than the first one

Here ya go!

N- Noob
SF- May contain Stick Figures
FLFR- May contain a "Foamy" Or "Legendary Frog" Parody
Tu- Your basic tutorial
5m- WARNING FLASH WAS ONLY MADE IN FIVE MIN!!!!

Why not just put a little tag at the bottom of the ratings that says "Rated by NG" or something like that?

ESRB can suck my dick.

How can they own a copyright on something so basic?

I think I'll make a copyright on the word "the" man, we'd all be fucked.

I think you should rip off the Homelance Security ratings.

Correction; Homeland Security. I'd post the picture of it but it seems it's too big and I'm way too tired to resize it.

At 7/8/04 01:27 AM, ZeRoToLeReNcE wrote: I think I'll make a copyright on the word "the" man, we'd all be fucked.

They own the copyright of those words in the context of movie and entertainment ratings. You could copyright the word "the" if it only pertains to the name of your movie, such as, you have a movie called "The"...that means if anybody were to make a movie that was displayed in theaters named "the", they would get sued...

Okay, okay. Had an idea:

Pacifier - General
Sippee Cup - Teen
Beer bottle - Mature
Jack Daniels bottle - Adult

Okay, maybe that's stupid. It sounded better before I typed it out. :(

I say the ratings should go with the Terror Level colors designated by Mr Rumsfeld. Except maybe inverted and in the other order, so that it makes sense.

Wait, what?

That's total bullshit Tom. If everyone sued everyone for everything that was remotely similar to something else, 90% of all creation would be completely obliterated.

But regardless, the second system is pretty funny :)

I really like the Newgrounds rating system the way it is, and I don't want to see it changed. I know you have to pick and choose your battles, especially when your battle is large corporation like ESRB. But maybe you should consult a lawyer, and let those smug execs know that they're not going to push you around with empty threats and cease & desists.

K-Kids aka Kissing
H-Horny (I have no idea) aka Handjob
B-Bsomething aka Blowjob
A-Adult aka in the Ass

I sent in an email to the esrb after reading about it:

Hello.

I'm going to more/less get t the point. The ESRB board has recently sent a notice to a website called Newgrounds.com, about copyright infringement.

However, upon closer inspection of the terms, I have found that, although similar in text, the ratings used:

-Show no similarity in presentation
-Have a diffrent typeface
-Do not illude to the ESRB
-ect ect

The only similarity, being the base letter used, and the word, are the ONLY similarity's. The logo's arent similar either.

I request to know more about the claim, as to how the ESRB find's merit in this action, and how the ESRB has managed to copyright the use of a letter.

At 7/8/04 02:00 AM, Raraken wrote: I sent in an email to the esrb after reading about it:

I don't think that will make any difference really, it's not like they give a hoot about what we think. But maybe if enough people made a stink about it...

But if the changes are going to be made anyways, I vote in favour of the colored tank logo idea, as long as that's not going to piss off some other corporation.

I HAVE AN IDEA! FUK ESERB AND FUK ALL RATINGS!

Wow...who thought a group of people who watch and rate movies for a living would be so uptight?

Anyway, I'd just go with the previous idea of having a hand in a colored box.

Perhaps it could go like this:

E - Green, Hand with thumb up
T - Yellow, Hand with skin deteriorating
M - Orange, Hand with tumb detaching and more skin loss
AO - Red - Just bone structure of a hand

I don't know, something like that, with the skin deteriorating, or something. Tom already made a comment on that idea, and I think having the hnads in different positions, like a thumb downward, would suggest that it is bad, rather than has offensive comment.

Just my two cents. My worthless, two cents.

I think they are dumbasses. You dont ever have to see their rating system to come up with that. E for everyone is pretty basic dont ya think? A for adult. Then again you have AO. And for teen, well that's pretty damn basic too. Why cant they just accept the fact that the whole idea is pretty obvious? The only thing I suggest you change is the M because that is the only thing that requires more than five seconds of thought to come up with. Why not just put age ratings? Start off with basic little things that dont really effect the rating then as you get more stuff like violence, swearing nudity and what not then you add a year or so. Each part will raise the age requirement. Not only is this idea original but no other organization or company has this system. I think it will work really well and no one will bust your balls about it either. So once you get the system in place and all the values sorted then it becomes the first system of it's kind. Gotta love progress.

Actually carrot, you really should point out that "AO" is still patented by the movie theaters. "NC-17" was first "AO" then "X" then "NC-17". Needless to say the ESRB is nonetheless in infringment of "copywrite law" and since they'd get mad if you used "K-A"(ESRB's pre-date to "E") you should have lawyer point this out to them, just to piss them off(hell I would).

If you wish to change it though:

Jr. - Toddler level
BK - Big Kids
FA - Fucking Age
DA - Drinking Age

Dont let them do this tom. It unfair i mean using a for adult is a known term and they certainly didnt invent it. Thats like mcdonalds suing burger king since burger king made burgers after them. As long as you dont keep the terms the same they have nothing on you so just add older and the end of everything like this:
Teen and older= To (they use T not To)
Mature and older= Mo (they use M not Mo)
Adult and older= Ao ( same symbol but if it means different they should have nothing on you you can even make it Aol for safety)
This way newcomers wont be confused by these wierd terms like hd??

At 7/8/04 02:17 AM, Soul_Steal wrote: Adult and older= Ao ( same symbol but if it means different they should have nothing on you you can even make it Aol for safety)

Yeah then AOL will bother him.

Perhaps you were looking at the rating system as a one sided thing. I suggest that you implore a numbered rating system, using:

A) A scale from 1-10 relative to how "bad" the file is (By generalizing all of the ratings into one integer, there are no need for letters/symbols so ESRB can't argue against you).

B) Using the same categories for the ratings (Violence, Nudity, Adult Themes...) you could use a scale of 1-10 to show the extremity of each subject.

pIXzoRz!!!!!!111111!!1!!1

Violence: ||||||||
Nudity: |||
Adult Theme's: |||||
Textual Explicit Language: ||||||||
Audible Explicit Language: ||||||||||

TOM PLEASE READ THIS:
You should seriously consult a lawyer before just letting them walk over you. I have read some of te past legal problems and it was smart to back down, for example the robocop one you had no choice even though they were idiots since it was a tribute, but in this one you really could win. Of course its dumb to jump the gun but at least consult a lawyer. God these people must have no time on their hands they waste time looking for websites to fuck with!!

At 7/7/04 11:50 PM, MindChamber wrote: GF= General Flash
TF=Teen Flash
MF=Mature Flash
AF= Adult Flash

I like your idea, Its not something that ive seen used before, and could possibly be copyrighted to prevent future corporate whores from bothering Tom.

At 7/7/04 11:56 PM, Inspiron_ wrote: a list of rateing from nice to naughty

-bambi
-mary popens
-half baked
-debi does dallace
-scar face
-kill bill volvume II

Yeah, thats exactly how more lawsuits start, no offense. If we used copyrighted names like that, it would just be asking for a whole big world of trouble. ;)

At 7/7/04 11:35 PM, TomFulp wrote: I do however agree that our acronyms are suspect. I don't even feel like dealing with it, so we'll just change our categories. It is hard to deviate from something so basic; right now I'm wondering if this would be ok:

GU - General User
TU - Teen User
MU - Mature User
AU - Adult User

Or Perhaps...

HD - Has Diaper
HP - Has Pubes
HS - Has Sex
HK - Has Kids

I figured I would open the floor for suggestions. Here is your chance to NAME OUR RATINGS!!! Respond to this post with your recommendations!

--consider a 1-5 system; as no one has ever patented the numbers system:

1: Acceptable to all audiences: contains no objectionable content (Drag racer, Banana Phone)
2: Has mildly objectionable material: Contains comic mischief, swearing, sexual references: (Old Clock Crew movies, Waterman series, the Matrix has you)
3: Has considerable objectionable material: Directed, (not funny) violence, may have nudity or considers hateful ideas, may get really involved in drug use. (Perfect Murder, XiaoXiao, Marios night with bowser, Dealer)
4: Has Strong objectionable material: Heavy usage of violence, Full Frontal Nudity, Hentai pictures (Franks adventure series, Madness Series)
5: Material should be restricted to an adult audience: Extreme Violence (although nothing on NG has this level of violence, I believe the Decapitation of Nick Berg would be at this setting) and Hardcore Pornography (most examples of this are banned, although created this category would allow them to remain on NG)

A zero could be suggested for: Intended for small children.

I'd think that this really could be the scale, and as a bonus, It could ease standards on pornographic or adult material (if it was desired) since such material is clearly labeled.

Love to see comments about this.