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Thursday afternoon, March
1, Sartaj Singh (Dhami) decided to take a break from work to surf
the net for games. Sartaj had no clue of the flurry of activity
he was about to unleash. Staring at him from the pages of SonyWeb.com,
a video game preview website, was the Sikh
Khanda promoting 'Eternal Blade', Mattel Interactive's latest
video game offering, slated for release this summer.
Taken aback, Sartaj promptly shot off an email to SonyWeb and informed
Sikh egroups on the misuse of the Sikh religious insignia.
Alerted, activist Shyrone Kaur swung into action. Kaur raised the
alarm with the Sikh CyberSangat, wrote to SonyWeb.com, informed
S.M.A.R.T. (Sikh Media
Action Resource Taskforce) and did not let up on the issue, pursuing
it with vigour.
ng up to soothing music, Shyrone's
email to SonyWeb evoked a pleasant and prompt response from
the company's Chief Executive, Adam Doree. Doree defended SonyWeb.com's
right to reproduce logos and artworks of published videogames. Absolving
his company of responsibility, the SonyWeb Chief pointed to the
game publisher "Mattel Interactive, who have developed the
'intellectual property', or the developer of the game, Stormfront"
as the offending parties.
In a different exchange with Amardeep Singh, Craig Hansen, site
editor of SonyWeb.com, emailed "We have no ties to SONY itself."
Unlike the Coca
Cola logo reflection case which erupted in the Gulf in 1999-2000,
the graphic in Stormfront's design for Mattels' 'Eternal Blade'
is virtually an exact replica of the Sikh Khanda.
Coca Cola's artwork needed to be closely scrutinized by researchers
and linguists at the Ifta’a Institute, a scholarly authority
on Islamic law. Egypt’s most senior religious figure, the Grand
Mufti Sheik Nasser Farid Wassel, eventually ruled "The trademark
does not injure Islam or Muslims directly or indirectly."
However, in a three month mid-1997 public relations snafu, trans-national
apparel giant NIKE had to recall 38,000 pairs in a product segment
of shoes
carrying a logo of squiggly lines resembling the Arabic
word for God, 'Allah'.
There can be no mistaking Mattells'
logo.
The Muslim community was enraged. In addition to the re-call, NIKE
agreed to sponsor community development projects involving construction
of playground facilities at several Islamic centers and Muslim schools.
In fullfilment of the committment, the ground-breaking ceremony
for one of the projects was done even two and a half years after
the settlement was reached.
Other provisions of the agreement incuded donations of NIKE products
to Islamic charitable groups, NIKE sponsorship of events in the
Muslim community and the production of educational CDs and videos.
NIKE's product had shipped. Not yet in stores, 'Eternal Blade'
's imminent release is slated for the second quarter of 2001.
In another incident, top-rated American National radio personality
Paul Harvey issued an on-air apology to Muslims for casual remarks
suggesting that Islam was a 'fraudulent religion'.
The apology came after hundreds of concerned Muslims called, faxed
and e-mailed both Harvey's office and that of ABC Radio Networks,
his program's syndicator. Harvey reportedly said he was "much
moved" by the outpouring of concern from the community. "Nothing
moved me as much as the simple letters," said Harvey.
The organisations involved in the above actions consistently asked
activists to be firm but polite.
The reaction to use of the Khanda continued unabated.
Come Monday, S.M.A.R.T. moved into the act on the issue. An email
from S.M.A.R.T.'s offices sought restraint, urging a firm but
polite policy if, at all, any Sikh communicated with the offending
parties. Simultaneously, on the heels of it's successful January
campaign to get the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee to
stop selling akhand paths on the web, the Sikh Heresy Regulation
Board (SHRB), initiated a mass email campaign.
In the meantime, events have been moving at a rapid pace for game
publisher Mattel Interactive. A branch of Mattel Inc., the American
toy major, Mattel Interactive comprised of three divisions; Entertainment,
Productivity and Learning. In May 1999, Mattel completed its merger
with The Learning Company, a top maker of software products.
Following significant financial losses from Mattel's Interactive
Division, which was now The Learning Company, in April 2000 the
company's Board of Directors announced that it had retained Credit
Suisse First Boston Corporation to sell its software business.
By end September 2000 Gores
Technology Group had
acquired The Learning Company. Subsequent to re-structuring,
Gores Technology, while retaining the Productivity and Learning
pieces of it's acquisition, last week sold the Entertainment Division
to Ubi Soft,
the two-day old and current owner of 'Eternal Blade'. Ironically,
Ubi Soft may yet not be aware of what it has bought into.
The current players, then, are Ubi Soft, who now owns the rights
to 'Eternal Blade', Stormfront Studios, the game developer, Christy
Marx, the author of the game and the Sikh community.
Product vendors, should the product hit stores around the world
(since these are companies that market world-wide), are subject
to community pressure but by then the damage becomes more difficult
to contain.
The Sikh line of action, of course, must be in keeping with the
teachings of our Guru.
That next step is for the Sikh CyberSangat to decide.
Contacts:
Publisher: French owned
Ubi Soft. American subsidiary is:
Ubi Soft Entertainment Inc.
625 Third Street, 3rd floor
San Francisco, CA 94107
Tel:
Fax:
email: webmaster
Eternal Blades' author: Christy
Marx can be reached through her manager:
Lori Palmer-Smith
tel.:
email: highway1
email: lori1129
Game Developer: Stormfront Studios
Katie Jack, Director of Operations
Stormfront Studios
4040 Civic Center Dr., Third floor
San Rafael, CA 94903
voice: ext.206 / fax:
E-mail: kjacksfs
The
People and the Board
of Directors at Stormfront.
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