According to GamePolitics.com, Sony Computer Entertainment America and high-profile game designer David Jaffe have been sued in U.S. District Court in California for alleged copyright infringment involving the best-selling God of War series. A suit against Sony Computer Entertainment of America and game designer David Jaffe was filed in February by Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog, who are suing the company and designer in the U.S. District Court in California for copyright infringement. SCEA and Jaffe both filed responses with the Court on August 29. The lawsuit states that both parties allegedly stole ideas from both Bissoon-Dath, the author of “a series of related works of fiction, including Olympiad, a screenplay,” and his wife Barrette-Herzog, who submitted a map called Island at the Edge of the Living World with Bissoon-Dath’s work. Both plaintiffs allege that they sent their works to Sony Pictures and SCEA agents in 2002, and the first God of War game shipped in 2005. Jaffe apparently said the game took about three years to develop, which the two plaintiffs cite as more evidence of Sony’s copyright infringement. Bisson-Dath and Barrette-Herzog have also claimed that God of War shares a similar plot, character relationships, themes, settings, mood, pace and dialogue with their original works, and they’ve compiled these similarities into a seven-page list. SCEA and David Jaffe deny everything, of course, stipulating that the game’s inspiration, Greek mythology, belongs in the public domain. In addition, they are calling the plaintiff’s accusations “inaccurate, incomplete, abstracted and/or misleading.”
Accusations include:
- 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…
The majority of the content in this article is from Neoseeker and Game Politics.
