The realism of video games is becoming more and more important. In the sports field, the faithful representation of athletes is even the hallmark of certain titles. But when publisher Take-Two reproduced wrestler Randy Orton’s tattoos in its WWE 2K game series, artist Catherine Alexander criticized it.
This tattoo artist has been suing video game publisher Take-Two since 2020, which also distributes the GTA license. She accuses the company of having used without authorization the works that she had created when tattooing the professional wrestler Randy Orton. The American justice agreed with him on September 30 and ordered Take-Two to pay damages to the artist, reports the PCGamer site.
Authenticity, an important selling point
Catherine Alexander contacted the publisher in 2009 to raise the issue of copyright infringement. The company later turned down her request and offered her $450 for the right to reproduce her tattoos. Despite her refusal, Take-Two had nonetheless integrated the tattoos that cover the entirety of both of the fighter’s arms.
According to the judge who decided the case, authenticity is a major selling point for the WWE 2K license. “WWE (the main professional wrestling event management company) would have rejected Randy Orton’s character from the video game if he appeared without his tattoos or with tattoos different from his actual tattoos,” he notes.
However, the sum of damages for Catherine Alexander was set at only $3,750. Justice considers that the reproduction of Randy Orton’s five tattoos -made between 2002 and 2008- did not allow Take-Two to increase its profits.
Misappropriation of intellectual property
In 2016, a similar complaint was filed against the publisher Take-Two. The Solid Oak Sketches company criticized the reproduction of their tattoos on several professional basketball players within the NBA 2K series of games. Take-Two n’avait cette fois pas été condamné car les joueurs avaient accordé une license d’utilisation de leur image à la NBA (la ligue américaine de basket-ball), qui l’avait elle-même cédée à l’éditeur de video game.
However, copyright interferes more and more in the video game sector. In 2018, actor Alfonso Ribeiro attacked Epic Games. Carlton’s interpreter in the series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” criticized the publisher for having integrated his famous dance – which he himself imagined – into the Fortnite game without his authorization.
His lawyer then considered “it is evident that Mr. Ribeiro’s appearance and intellectual property had been misappropriated.” Except that in this specific case, the Fortnite dances are marketed through the in-game store, directly generating profits for Epic Games.
Source: BFM TV
