Sony and David Jaffe sued over God of War
- Posted September 18th, 2008 at 16:14 EDT by
- 6,826 views
- 51 Comments
Sony Computer Entertainment America and designer David Jaffe are being sued for copyright infringement involving the million-plus selling God of War game. GamePolitics has grabbed the full text of their suit.
The complaint was filed this February with the U.S. District Court in California by two Californians - Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog. Bisson-Dath describes himself as "the author of a series of related works of fiction, including Olympiad, a screenplay," while Barrette-Herzog claims to have created The Island at the Edge of the Living World, "a map that was submitted with Bissoon-Dath's work: The Adventures of Owen: Owen's Olympic Adventure."
The plaintiffs allege that the original God of War borrows ideas from material they submitted to Sony Pictures in 2002. Here's a few snippets from the full document:
- Plaintiff's works tell the original story of how a champion saves Athens from destruction by the invading Spartan army that has been sent by Ares... [GoW]... is the story of how a champion chosen by Zeus and Athens saves Athen from destruction by an invading army sent by Ares...
- In plaintiff's original work and God of War, the Champion's family is hacked to death in a one-room building in a small peaceful village. In both stories the Champion feels partially responsible even though he is not really to blame...
- In exchange for Kratos' pledge, Ares gives him... the Blades of Chaos... two massive, glowing, sword-like blades fastened to chains fused to Kratos's wrists... These Blade of Chaos are taken directly from a scene in Bissoon-Dath's work... "As Zeus strides forward... his hands MORPH into two massive swords that glow like light sabers..."
- ...Owen must cross the Bottomless Valley over a long, sagging suspension bridge, shown on Barrette-Herzog's map... in God of War Kratos must cross the Bottomless Chasm on a long, sagging suspension bridge...
Sony and Jaffe's lawyers want the case thrown out of court, naturally, and Barrette-Herzog and Bisson-Dath to fork out for any subsequent legal fees. They argue that much of the material cited by the plaintiffs lies in the public domain, and have criticised alleged similarities as "inaccurate, incomplete, abstract and/or misleading." They also claim that some of the plaintiffs' work has not been properly registered under US Copyright Law.
We just hope this doesn't slow up the development of God of War 3. Or should we call it "The Adventures of Owen 3"?
Comments
-
-
-
zombieking36
- 4:26pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 3
Man, this people need to stop getting so greedy, and leave the successful alone! Make your own success, don't go and sue a company over similar ideas that come from MYTHOLOGY!! A dead religion, it just annoys me when someone thinks they can sue over something in a religion like this!
-
-
-
-
acidhead89
- 4:52pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 7
hmn.... i wonder why they didnt sue right after the first GOW came, lol how conveniant 4 them to sue S. and J. 3 yrs after the first game came out and the franchise has already made millions
-
Black02SLPSS
- 4:55pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 8
I bet sonys lawyers wont be cheap to pay for when they lose...
-
SillyHatMafia |
SillyHatMafia- 5:08pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 9
"Today there has been another lawsuit agaisnt Sony and God Of War. This, the Greek Lord, Zues, has sued Sony for using his name in vain!"
-
SillyHatMafia |
SillyHatMafia- 5:08pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 10
"Today there has been another lawsuit agaisnt Sony and God Of War. This, the Greek Lord, Zues, has sued Sony for using his name in vain!"
-
yoboyrob9041226 |
BIGROB904- 5:13pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 11
@7 i was wondering the same thing. cuz i know they already have played it a long time ago. i guess one day they was sitting inside their home and said you know what thats similar to what i sent them some time ago, lets sue them . no it doesnt work like that wen you notice something like that you come out and sue them right away you sont wait years. this is going to blow over real fast.
-
terminator12259 |
tacitassassin25- 5:15pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 12
sony has too much money , it will be hard to win
-
-
Staticneuron |
Staticneuron- 5:36pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 14
Post to the 4th power?
His power level is over 9,000?!?!?!?!?!
Ahem, back to the subject at hand. I actual tried to read what the 'plantiffs' had submitted and I had to stop a little over the quarter of the way through. These people tried to massacre the interpretation of GoW just to fit their own needs. Since GOW story functions as a whole instead of a sum of its parts everything is more cohiesive than the pieced together explanation of a story that these accusers are trying to present. Their DTV like script doesn't seem as if it could of held up to the weight because it is seemingly a run of the mill story about humans battling other humans under false pretenses while kratos is all about battles against mythical creatures and gods. There is no real human drama in GOW other than the main character and his immediate family and most humans are dispensed of rather quickly.
-
-
-
-
-
TestosteRohne |
TestosteRohne- 6:02pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 19
It does seem an odd period of time to wait, but perhaps it has something to do with the upcoming movie of the game, rather than the game itself.
Or it's just Microsoft!
-
Falanx13 |
Falanx13- 6:03pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 20
Twenty years ago, my uncle wrote a short story called "The Adventures of Loop" that was about a young elf-boy in a magical world of Highland. He had a shield and a sword he pulled from a stone. He was out to save a princess that was kidnapped by an evil king named 'Boar' because she had 3 magical triangles, but weren't so much triangles as they were squares, and there weren't really 3 of them, but 4. So he fought Boar's army of monsters and saved the princess.
In another twist of irony, that same uncle is Italian, and he gets high on shrooms after working 8 hours at Roto-Rooter.
Nintendo, we want our monies! -
rexdeath |
rexdeath- 6:22pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 21
I agree this should be throne out of court, they are talking about the first game which was out YEARS ago and now they think they can sue??? I see the resemblance but I have no idea how David Jaffe could take this storyline from SONY pictures.
-
-
-
Ocelot1987 |
METSTM- 6:35pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 24
Just because GOW and Sony are being sued doesn't mean they actually are going to get sued. They will probably win this case. The person sueing them doesn't have enough evidence and they waited over 3 years to do it.
-
-
-
grayfox1471 |
SaintGeorge14- 6:49pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 27
Is this Owen an Xbox 360 fan? Heheh.
-
hvnlyswrd08
- 7:06pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 28
that is so true TaMszz.. cant we all just get along..
-
-
blue_dragon73x
- 8:37pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 30
"As Zeus strides forward... his hands MORPH into two massive swords that glow like light sabers..."
So..uh, If the game is infringing copyright for having a similar suspension bridge, wouldn't this be like infringing on Lucasarts and Star wars??Might as well get Greece to sue them all, because the authors obviously didnt think up spartans, Zeus, the underworld and all that jazz all by themselves.
And what about the people who invented the suspension bridge? They should get their cut too yeah? I'll bet they have a copyright infringement on the use of a bridge without their permission.
The list goes on... -
tabular
- 9:01pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 31
Wow! Both creations have bridges spanning large chasms! Both are about greek mythology!!?? And... both are about a champion on a path of vengeance after his family was brutally murdered!!!?? Why would one ever dare to copy such original ideas as these!!?? This is an outrage!!!
-
BlueRevolvuR |
BlueRevolvuR- 9:12pm BST - September 18th, 2008
- 32
and i will sue kojima for stealin the idea of the mgs series. "I made a doodle of Meryl first!!!"
-
-
-
-
stovich |
TasteLikeBurning- 1:01am BST - September 19th, 2008
- 36
Wouldn't this be like when you submit something to a company (picture, video, story, article), it automatically becomes the property of said company? I mean, how many times has anyone read the line:"All submissions become the property of 'Company-A'".
-
-
-
-
-
PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 10:37am BST - September 19th, 2008
- 41
lmao,this is just too funny,i think i should sue Obama,for wearing a suit in public places:p
-
-
-
-
knowbrainer23
- 3:27pm BST - September 19th, 2008
- 45
"- Plaintiff's works tell the original story of how a champion saves Athens from destruction by the invading Spartan army that has been sent by Ares... [GoW]... is the story of how a champion chosen by Zeus and Athens saves Athen from destruction by an invading army sent by Ares...
- In plaintiff's original work and God of War, the Champion's family is hacked to death in a one-room building in a small peaceful village. In both stories the Champion feels partially responsible even though he is not really to blame..."Going by that... couldn't the original Greeks that wrote these myths sue THIS guy if they came back from the dead?
Then this line: "As Zeus strides forward... his hands MORPH into two massive swords that glow like light sabers..." gives Lucasarts the ability to sue him.
Jeez.
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement