That seems to be the orders the lawyers from Epic are under. Kotaku is reporting that one of their artists, Pavel Dolgov, created a "one-of-a-kind, hand painted, acrylic on canvas" inspired by Gears of War. After an image of the painting was posted on Dolgov's website he received a cease and desist from Epic's general counsel. In the notice Dolgov was informed he must remove the image and destroy the painting or send it to Epic. Did they at least offer to pay shipping?

Doesn't this feel a little heavy handed? Unfortunately the laws in the US are structured in such a way that copyright holders must assert their rights or potentially lose them. Is it possible that Epic could lose the exclusive rights to what must surely be very valuable IP because of an acrylic painting? I for one smell a collectible item and should Pavel be reading this we feel the painting would look great in the MobyGames offices and Epic need not be the wiser.

I think artistic copyright laws forbid Epic's behaviour. That guy can do whatever the hell he wants with his painting as long as he doesn't advertise it as official merchandise, and even so the cease-and-desist is pretty stupid.

No actually, under !@#!@$ IP Law you can't create anything based off other people's Intellectual Property. Technically by law, ALL fan-art is copyright infringement...though there are some additonal requirements that need to be fulfilled...

Seems to me that particular law is obsolete. Good luck trying to prosecute me for doing fanart!

That's messed up.

On a semi-unrelated note, someone should give a shout to J.K. Rowling, I guess she might wanna send this guy one of those orders...

That's true for trademarks. I don't think that's true for copyrights. Not all types of IP are protected equally. That's why there are different types of IP.