Screenwriters Claim Sony Copied Their Plot For A Video Game

from the judge-explains-basics-of-copyright-law dept

The entitlement some people feel because someone else had a somewhat (but not really) similar idea to what they had, and then actually executed on it better, is really astounding. For years, we've seen people claim that various filmmakers, TV producers and authors had "stolen" their ideas and sued over it. These lawsuits almost never get anywhere. In almost every case, the similarities between the stories are marginal at best, and clearly were developed independently. It's just that the creator of the less-well-known work is jealous of the success of whoever came up with a better version that got a lot more attention.

Apparently, those kinds of lawsuits are now moving to video games as well -- as two screenplay authors tried to claim that Sony copied their screenplay for its game, God of War. Of course, both the video game and the screenplay are apparently based on ancient Greek mythology, which, you know, are sorta in the public domain by now, and the general concepts are rather pervasive in an awful lot of modern storytelling.

No matter. The screenwriters insisted that the gamemakers must have seen their screenplay. Thankfully, the judge is having none of it:

"No one can own the basic idea for a story. General plot ideas are not protected by copyright law; they remain forever the common property of artistic mankind."

Filed Under: copyright, god of war, plots, video games
Companies: sony