Dead Rising Lawsuit Dismissed

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Dead Rising Lawsuit Dismissed


The lawsuit filed by Dead Rising [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/] videogame has been dismissed by a judge who ruled that the few similarities between the two properties are "wholly unprotectable."

Discussions between MKR and preemptive lawsuit [http://www.capcom.com] 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 Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop [http://www.xbox.com] was announced in July and is currently slated for release in early 2009.

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6201348.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6201348]


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Azzaevil

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Jun 26, 2008
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wait just for wii and xbox 360 :O shit i chucked my xbox out the window and wii is shitty its more for kids
 

Azzaevil

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Jun 26, 2008
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Azzaevil said:
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
 

Airhead

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May 8, 2008
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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.
 

the_tramp

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May 16, 2008
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Airhead said:
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.
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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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.
 

Unknower

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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?
 

HobbesMkii

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Jun 7, 2008
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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").
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Unknower said:
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.