14 DAY TRIAL // I am really amused whenever somebody wakes up after a couple of years and realizes that a copyright infringement happened. But, these things take place every now and then, and this is one of the "now" moments. Capcom is being sued for its Dead Rising game, released in August 2006, by an independent movie producer with rights to the horror movie "George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead". The reason? Well, it seems that the video game was inspired from the movie. And they needed 2 years to find that out.
It seems that things might have started a bit earlier, since about one month ago Capcom filed a case against MKR Group - the "owner" of Dawn of the Dead - seeking a declaration that the game did not infringe the MKR's IP. It also sought an injunction to prevent MKR from suing the company.
But MKR had other plans. According to them, they had a little chat with Capcom first, probably asking for money from the over 1 million units of Dead Rising that were sold and the publishers said no. So MKR filed a suite, too. The game world really loves the law, right?
"Both works are dark comedies," the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York reads. "In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque 'kill scenes' provide unexpected comedic relief. Both works provided thoughtful social commentary on the 'mall culture' zeitgeist, in addition to serving up a sizable portion of sensationalistic violence," it said.
Chris Kramer, a Capcom spokesman declined to comment the situation, but said that the Dead Rising Game, released in August 2006 for the Xbox 360 console, is no longer being produced, which makes the situation a bit more funny: Dead Rising is actually dead and Dawn of Dead just got back to life... or something like this. Anyway, really strange, indeed.
MKR sued the Japanese company and two U.S. units for copyright and trademark infringement and other claims.