News Room Contributor Posts: 8058 Joined: 12 Nov 2002 | Dead Rising Lawsuit Dismissed
The lawsuit filed by Dawn of the Dead rights holder MKR Group against Capcom's Dead Rising videogame has been dismissed by a judge who ruled that the few similarities between the two properties are "wholly unprotectable."
Discussions between MKR and Capcom had been ongoing since February 2008, when MKR claimed that Dead Rising was essentially an unlicensed videogame adaptation of George Romero's classic zombie film and social commentary Dawn of the Dead. Capcom elected to short-circuit a potential MKR lawsuit against the game by filing a preemptive lawsuit of its own, seeking a declaratory judgment that the game did not infringe upon MKR's copyright. That effort was a bust, however, and in response MKR launched a lawsuit of its own, attempting to prove that the game did in fact violate copyright.
Despite the failure of Capcom's lawsuit, MKR didn't fare any better; Judge Richard Seeborg declared last month that MKR Group "has not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead. Rather, the few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak." Similarities between the two works noted by Judge Seeborg include both being set in a bi-level shopping mall; both creatively use items like propane tanks and chainsaws to kill zombies; both use music in the mall for comedic effect; and both works are a parody of rampant consumerism.
The fact that he sided with Capcom in his decision didn't make the judge a fan of the game, however; even though he determined that Dead Rising didn't rip off the anti-consumerism theme of Dawn of the Dead, he apparently reached that point because he doesn't think Dead Rising offers any real social commentary at all. "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation," the judge wrote. "The social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead, in other words, appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."
Dead Rising was originally released in summer 2006 for the Xbox 360, while a Wii version known as Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was announced in July and is currently slated for release in early 2009.
Source: GameSpot
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Infamous Scribbler Posts: 668 Joined: 16 May 2008 | Thank god common sense prevails! |
Copy Clerk Posts: 75 Joined: 26 Jun 2008 | wait just for wii and xbox 360 :O shit i chucked my xbox out the window and wii is shitty its more for kids |
On the Record Posts: 5923 Joined: 7 Mar 2008 | i can see how it was brought up but kinda glad it was tossed out tho |
Copy Clerk Posts: 75 Joined: 26 Jun 2008 | Azzaevil:
wait just for wii and xbox 360 :O shit i chucked my xbox out the window and wii is shitty its more for kids
sorry missed read i though the new one came on them 2 but just for wii :S |
Copy Clerk Posts: 75 Joined: 8 May 2008 | Zombie Apocalypse scenarios are common property of humanity now. Imagine the Tolkien family sueing every game that has Elves portrayed as human-sized creatures with pointy ears. Silly. |
Infamous Scribbler Posts: 668 Joined: 16 May 2008 | Airhead:
Zombie Apocalypse scenarios are common property of humanity now. Imagine the Tolkien family sueing every game that has Elves portrayed as human-sized creatures with pointy ears. Silly.
Please... for the love of God. Don't jynx it otherwise I will somehow reach a lower level than nothing for my respect levels left for humanity. |
On the Record Posts: 5972 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | Um... Tolkien elves are Norse Elves... And the idea of Copyrighting Orcs and such runs exactly counter to Tolkien's vision of his work, as a source of modern folklore, which it has become. Thankfully the Tolkien estate really seems to "get" that aspect of his work. |
Infamous Scribbler Posts: 571 Joined: 22 Apr 2008 | Good news, I can't believe it actually went to court really. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1062 Joined: 27 Aug 2008 | Hooray for justice! Some common sense still survives in our society. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 862 Joined: 4 Jun 2008 | 
Awww, I hoped the judge was a old guy, so I could make a joke about him looking like a zombie.
Anyway, I wonder what he thought of the case. Like, did he think "Sompies? What?" or was he a fan of Dead Rising and dismissed the lawsuit because of that? |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 780 Joined: 7 Jun 2008 | I think the judge's message was surprisingly astute. I didn't find any social commentary either (maybe, "don't release infected bees in Indian reservations"). |
News Room Contributor Posts: 8058 Joined: 12 Nov 2002 | Unknower:
Anyway, I wonder what he thought of the case. Like, did he think "Sompies? What?" or was he a fan of Dead Rising and dismissed the lawsuit because of that?
Here's something interesting to consider: Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978. If the judge in question is 50 now, which seems like a reasonable estimate based on that photo, that makes him 20 when Dawn came out.
Which means that despite our natural preconception of judges as not the sort of people to have this kind of cultural awareness, Judge Seeborg was probably stoned out of his tree and whooping it up with his buddies while he watched Dawn of the Dead on the big screen. |
Dead Rising Lawsuit Dismissed
The lawsuit filed by Dawn of the Dead rights holder MKR Group against Capcom's Dead Rising videogame has been dismissed by a judge who ruled that the few similarities between the two properties are "wholly unprotectable."
Discussions between MKR and Capcom had been ongoing since February 2008, when MKR claimed that Dead Rising was essentially an unlicensed videogame adaptation of George Romero's classic zombie film and social commentary Dawn of the Dead. Capcom elected to short-circuit a potential MKR lawsuit against the game by filing a preemptive lawsuit of its own, seeking a declaratory judgment that the game did not infringe upon MKR's copyright. That effort was a bust, however, and in response MKR launched a lawsuit of its own, attempting to prove that the game did in fact violate copyright.
Despite the failure of Capcom's lawsuit, MKR didn't fare any better; Judge Richard Seeborg declared last month that MKR Group "has not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead. Rather, the few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak." Similarities between the two works noted by Judge Seeborg include both being set in a bi-level shopping mall; both creatively use items like propane tanks and chainsaws to kill zombies; both use music in the mall for comedic effect; and both works are a parody of rampant consumerism.
The fact that he sided with Capcom in his decision didn't make the judge a fan of the game, however; even though he determined that Dead Rising didn't rip off the anti-consumerism theme of Dawn of the Dead, he apparently reached that point because he doesn't think Dead Rising offers any real social commentary at all. "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation," the judge wrote. "The social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead, in other words, appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."
Dead Rising was originally released in summer 2006 for the Xbox 360, while a Wii version known as Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was announced in July and is currently slated for release in early 2009.
Source: GameSpot
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