BYOAC 2004 Custom Token Design Thread.

[Rom]

I know this might sound stupid, but has anyone thought about approaching Namco and asking for permission to use the Pacman image? I'm only asking as I and I'm sure many others really dig the Pacman coin.
What if we offered to pay them for the use of the image. Pointing out of course that we are a group of hobbyists that intend to produce a limited number of coins for personal use amongst ourselves with no intention of selling them for profit. That way the ball is in Namco's court they can say sure we'll charge you $xxxxxxxxxx amount of dollars = p*** off, or who knows maybe give us permission for nothing. I know it's a looooong shot and maybe I'm dreaming in which case someone pinch me, but surely it's worth a try.
The only reason I bring this up is - no offense to Pixel's atomic coin, the design is great, but to me it's a bit generic and looses the whole arcade spirit that the Pacman coin embodies.

[Santoro]

Someone amongst us did almost the same thing with another project and was slammed with a cease and desist letter immediately.  

If that person wants to go into more detail, they will speak up.

[Stingray]

Isn't the corporate world great.   Screw 'em, the atom token is just as cool.

-S

[RacerX]

I know this might sound stupid, but has anyone thought about approaching Namco and asking for permission to use the Pacman image?

It doesn't sound stupid to me.  My cousin wanted to make button down the front shirts to sell with the John Deere logo on them.  She called the president of John Deere, and he asked her how much money she planned to make off of the shirts in a year's time.  She told him she wasn't planning on making a lot of money.  She was just doing it for fun, mostly.  He gave her permission to make up to $5,000 profit per year off the shirts, and he didn't even charge her a licensing fee.  He just asked that she call him once a year and let him know how she's doing.

That being said, I'm perfectly happy with the atomic token design.  And not every company president would be as nice as this guy was.

[Pixelhugger]

Someone amongst us did almost the same thing with another project and was slammed with a cease and desist letter immediately.  

If that person wants to go into more detail, they will speak up.

Guilty.  

In reference to this "project" I inquired first with Midway and later with Taito (which now owns the

[Pixelhugger]

Pixel-

Better change your avatar-  Namco is watching you.

Done.  

[DaveMMR]

Someone amongst us did almost the same thing with another project and was slammed with a cease and desist letter immediately.  

If that person wants to go into more detail, they will speak up.

Guilty.  

In reference to this "project" I inquired first with Midway and later with Taito (which now owns the

[Chris]

For those of you not following the token purchase thread, lead samples of the artwork have been posted.  The link to the relevant page of that thread is http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=19225;start=120 .

--Chris

[Santoro]

Interesting tidbit taken from Retroblast:

Namco Defends Pac-Man
Looks like Namco is going after rappers to the tune of $10 million dollars for sampling Pac-Man without permission! I've heard horror stories about Namco vigorously defending their Pac-Man IP before, so this isn't a big surprise (the original BYOAC tokens were to have some pac-man images on one side, but it was dropped at the last minute due to litigation concerns). Thanks for the news item, Charles!