Florida Joker is in the news again, this time demanding to speak with Rockstar Games, or to be given $1-2 million over his likeness in GTA 6.
Florida Joker is in the news again, this time demanding to speak with Rockstar Games, or to be given $1-2 million over his likeness in GTA 6.
I don’t really know what the Florida Joker did other than look horrible, but I kind of agree that Rockstar took his likeness to the benefit of their game. He should be compensated.
I’d be pretty upset too if someone used my likeness in a game and applied it to some fucked up scenario.
And it’s funny how it doesn’t apply both ways. Go make a parody of one of Rockstars IP and see how fast you get cease and desist.
It’s almost like the law doesn’t protect equally
Something something “it’s just as illegal for the rich man to sleep under a bridge as it is for the poor man to sleep under a bridge.”
The law does. Lawyers don’t.
The real issue isn’t an actual cease and desist, but DMCA takedown. I hate almost everything about the DMCA and think it should be repealed. W/o the DMCA, fair use would be a lot more favorable to smaller content creators.
Parody is protected. There have been a few made.
How many fan/parody games have made it to light instead of being C&D’d?
Parody is protected, but not when you have vastly more expensive lawyers who will bully you into compliance.
Hundreds, I would estimate.
Can you provide a single one?
Yes? Unless you’ve been living in a box this is not a surprise:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1926680/FUCK_PUTIN/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151390/Putin_Life/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2469880/Putin_Must_Die__Defend_the_White_House/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1540060/Angry_Putin/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/805820/Putin_VS_ISIS/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/866310/Putin_Run_Away_From_Trump/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/515040/Make_America_Great_Again_The_Trump_Presidency/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/769980/Lock_Her_Up_The_Trump_Supremacy/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/705410/World_War_Party_Game_Of_Trump/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/844260/Rustler_Grand_Theft_Horse/
You’ve also got Saints Row, which parodies GTA pretty well.
Different face, different tattoos. Sure, it’s definitely inspired by him but looks legally distinct.
With GTAV, Kate Upton also sued for her likeness being taken for one of the loading screens. I don’t recall how that one ended.
Looked it up, apparently Lindsay Lohan sued them and lost. The image is without a doubt Kate Uptons face traced over a real life photo though from what I just saw, but she herself hasn’t tried to sue them…
It was Lindsey Lohan who sued
https://www.unilad.com/celebrity/news/lindsay-lohan-grand-theft-auto-five-lawsuit-110273-20230907
He just realised that’s the only way he can make money off a terrible decision.
But why
Put yourself in his shoes for a second. You have appeared on TV over something you did. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Then you realize some game company that’s making a parody of the society you live in use your image and personality traits that are directly identifiable to you to create a character that parodies YOU. And they put this other YOU in various scenarios that you may or may not agree with. And they’re going to pull a hefty profit from using this version of YOU while you don’t receive a penny.
Does that sound fair?
Yes? They’re not using his likeness, they’re using a parody.
Should Trump be compensated if they use a parody of him in a video game? E.g. should Trump profit from this game?
I can understand if they use an actual likeness, but a parody isn’t an actual likeness, it’s a new character that’s a satirized version of an actual person, so their actions in game wouldn’t be construed to match the actions of the satirized person. That’s how parody works, and it’s absolutely protected speech and doesn’t require compensation.
This guy is just a guy, trump is a ex-preseident. If Rockstar was “parodying” a sick old man and uaing their likeness in agame that they will gain incredible amounts of money from would that be okay? If they’re adding a version of this guy in a game that’s identifiable that its him, than he needs to be compensated or straight up not consent to this bullcrap and Rockstar shpuld be removing him from their gsme. Calling it parodying doesn’t make it okay snd parodying a political figure is totally different from using the likeness of some guy with tattoos in their game.
Use of someone’s likeness without their permission isn’t illegal in and of itself, it’s only illegal if it causes them some form of harm, in which case it is defamatory. And this wasn’t even an exact replication of anyone’s likeness, but instead a similar but quite different rendition, to the point where it’s absurd to think that any of the actions portrayed by the character are defamatory to the original person.
Yeah, it’s weird, but from my understanding there’s nothing illegal about it. I could design a model based on a sick old man I saw at a hospital or something, and as long as my use of that model is not defamatory or otherwise causes harm to this individual, it’s fair use. That’s the law. It would be weird, but AFAIK totally legal.
And yeah, parodying a political figure is different, it’s just the one I could find. You can still be sued for defamation against a political or other public figure, and in fact that’s probably more likely, though the burden for a political figure is a bit higher (i.e. criticizing their policies is usually protected speech, even if otherwise defamatory in nature).
Ah. Good point. You might be right. Well we’ll see how it turns out.
It’s a likeness, not the same. It’s a parody which is clearly covered by law and there are thousands of similar examples.