Midway Sued by Screenwriter Over Sci-Ops

Midway Games is being sued by William L. Crawford III over Psi Ops, on grounds that the game's plot isn't that original and is in fact a rip-off of one of his screenplays. Crawford III, who filed a lawsuit against Midway for their game, is a Los Angeles County screenwriter. He claims that not only did Midway steal parts of his story and characters, but also the name for the screenplay, Sci-Ops.

Come on...! Even the name? You'd think that if Midway did in fact decide to steal part of someone's creation, the least they could do is change the game's name a bit, so it wouldn't be so noticeable. Still, William L. Crawford III clearly states that the game publisher swiped the plot and characters for its game from a 1998 screenplay he wrote: "The premise for the Psi-Ops screenplay is government soldiers with paranormal abilities, or 'Psi-Agents,' that fight terrorists that also have paranormal abilities."

As Gamespot says, the US Copyright Office's Web site lists "Psi-ops" as a copyrighted screenplay registered by Crawford on March 26, 1998. The thing is, the same Copyright Office also has a listing for "PSI-OPS: The Mindgate Conspiracy" registered by Midway on July 9, 2004. LA's screenwriter also says that he had set up Web sites with concept art and attended the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo to showcase his project, so Midway could have easily gained access to information. That's why he's suing the publisher for $1.5 million.

But again, if Midway was in fact that 'stupid,' wouldn't they have at least changed the name to "Soldiers With Paranormal Abilities" or something like that, just to clear that one out?