Dead Rising v. Dawn Of The Dead
Capcom has been receiving guff from the MKR Group (copyright holder of George A. Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead) and New Line Cinema ever since they got a whiff of their idea to have game about fight zombies set in a shopping mall. Even though Capcom has included a disclaimer reading: “This game was not developed, approved or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead“, the MKR Group and New Line Cinema aren’t having it. On Feb. 6th, MKR’s lawyers sent a letter to Capcom, Microsoft and Best Buy stating their intent to file a complaint, “which asserts claims for copyright and trademark infringement”.
Capcom, in an effort to get there first, are seeking a declaratory judgment, which is getting a judge to say that Dead Rising is not infringing on MKR Group’s copyright. Capcom’s claim is that humans fighting zombies in a shopping mall is a “wholly unprotectible idea” under copyright law.
You can view the Capcom v. The MKR Group Legal Documents and see for yourself. The language is pretty simple and fairly devoid of churched up legalese.
Pff you can’t copyright that…. that’s like trying to copyright bears riding on tricycles…. come to think of it…. I wonder if I Could copyright that… I would make Billions. But seriously…. this is bullshit.