Grand Theft Scratchygate
You know, some of my dearest friends are lawyers. So I say this with love: Let My Scratchy Go! It seems Rockstar isn't happy with the envelope EA's been pushing regarding the legal limitations of parody concerning the parody-heavy The Simpsons game. The "Grand Theft Scratchy" level of the game spawned a GTA-themed poster, pictured, that cropped up at the recent Leipzig Game Convention.
The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzer explained his position to CVG:
I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it’s a sign of respect… If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we’re not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto… But yeah, we’ve definitely had some reactions - we’ve had to pull stuff from the game.
I hope the game's level stays intact, and that this fracas was just about the poster - it would be a shame to lose an hysterical homage to Rockstar's baby. Itchy and Scratchy and GTA? That sounds like carnage heaven! Can't we all just get along? (Except you, Church of England. You're not invited.)
Rockstar Bullies EA Over Parody [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 8 October 2007
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: ea, grand theft scratchy, gta, parody, rockstar, the simpsons
I can't believe that EA is backing down. The Simpsons and FOX are experts at defending against the most litigious companies (Disney) in Hollywood.
The only change I WANT TO SEE in the Scratchy level is the appearance of a weaselly Rockstar lawyer with thugs trying to stop the game play!
I can't wait to play this!!
www.theskinofmyteeth.com
David
I'm under the impression that parody without permission is only legally defensible when you're not making money off of it. See also: Weird Al, who could do his parodies without permission but wouldn't be able to claim a songwriting credit if he did. So when Prince or Eminem or whoever would decline permission to parody a song, Weird Al didn't put it on the album, though some have been leaked or released for free anyway.
So, if the Simpsons game were being made by some random Comic Book Guy on the web and distributed for free, it might be some First Amendment thing. In this case, it's just one big company selling a parody of another big company's material.
Unlike with music, you can't get an automatic license to game material by paying a royalty, so if Rockstar makes big enough of a deal out of it EA will probably have to cave.
So Rockstar, who are always getting crap for their games and stuff, are now making another game take out stuff.
That's pretty pathetic.
It's like someone from a minority being a total bigot.
Sorry Raindog, but everything you've posted is completely wrong. You can parody anyone for any purpose for any price. Weird Al Yankovic freely chooses not to parody without permission.
The difference between parody with The Simpsons and Weird Al is that music requires very specific criterion to parody - it's usually just mimicing, it's very rare that any music passes the "parody standard".
Parody requires comedy of some flavor. If you look at The Simpsons carefully you'll notice that while the storytelling, characterization, and animation is parodying, the music is usually altered just enough to not meet the very specific criterion of musical copying - otherwise Gracie Films license the music for use.
www.theskinofmyteeth.com
David