REPORT - Ubisoft sued over Assassin's Creed copyright inf...

[robometal cowboy]

REPORT - Ubisoft sued over Assassin's Creed copyright infringement
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John L. Beiswenger, an American science fiction author, is suing Ubisoft over alleged similarities between his novel, Link, and the Assassin's Creed franchise.

Beiswenger's novel is based on the premise that ancestral memories can be "accessed, recalled, relived and re-experienced" by participants in a radical new scientific process. The suit lists a wide range of similarities, from narrative themes to specific use of individual words.

Full report here

[jraics]

...and then Nintendo sues the author for naming his book after one of their most beloved characters.

Sue, sue, sue!!

[LegendofSantiago]

No story is completely original anymore. Being a "writer" myself I find a lot of stories I have never heard of having a lot in common with my own stories

[Eliskor]

That won't go far. If he truly cared he'd have done it when AC1 first came out not now when we're at the end of the saga...

[MAGNUS-8M]

I thought you couldn't copyright ideas... exact phrases and plotlines, MAYBE, definitely exact character duplications and exact names and all that, but not just one generic idea to the next. Otherwise Capcom would be suing anything with a shooting-robot in it, especially if you're able to change out parts/weapons mid-battle, or got any kind of weapon reward for defeating a boss. Not to mention things like Metroid and 'Metroidvania' and the like. Seriously, he's just one author, and he's trying to take on all of Ubisoft for a mere similarity in a plot device that more or less can't be the center of the plot anyway? So what if it's a suit that's similar, it's what happens after it's activated that's going to matter... just like "Time Travel" plots, most of them involve the era that they go to more than the actual time-travelling-machine itself.

[jraics]

@MAGNUS-8M

That's what I was always taught in the communication law classes I took. The government supposedly wants to encourage creativity, not hinder it. That's why they place restrictions and time limits on copyrights, patents, etc.

But, who knows. Stranger things have happened. Didn't that one guy practically own the word "edge" in the video game industry until it was overturned?

[mock turtle]

Ah, the American legal system. Such a marvelously broken thing.

@Eliskor
To play devil's advocate, he may not have known what Assassin's Creed was about until now, if he'd heard of it at all. Unlikely, but still.

[Windsor]

This reminds me of when Capcom was sued because Dead Rising was similar to Dawn of the Dead. I can see that far more than I can this with Assassin's Creed.

[MAGNUS-8M]

@jraics
Well hopefully it's true enough, but yeah, I was about to mention the whole EDGE debacle as well. But since it was *finally resolved* I didn't write it in....but then, hopefully this and others like this would be resolved easily too.

[Sneakers]

Typical...wait til multiple games have been made over the years before you say something, hoping to make a bigger score then if saying something when the first game came out.

He'd probably just say he wasn't aware of the game til just recently. Like someone above said...if you were that upset, you'd say something as soon as you found out, not let it ride...makes it look like you were hoping to make more money cause it was out for so long. Same with the companies suing Nintendo...they let Nintendo make big money, then sue, to get extra money from all the sales made in those years.

Just another case of greed, nothing more.

[BigLord]

«Ubisoft: What, we're being sued? *reads over details*...

...

... BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAAHAHAHAHAH! Yeah, sure sure, Mr. Besiwenger, sure sure.»

[Alleyway]

Apparently this needs to be posted again -- Not everyone on this planet is going to know Assassin's Creed exists, much more than that the intricacies of the plot. Not even every gamer could tell you AC was about reliving past memories through DNA. Christ.

[mock turtle]

Apparently this needs to be posted again -- Not everyone on this planet is going to know Assassin's Creed exists, much more than that the intricacies of the plot. Not even every gamer could tell you AC was about reliving past memories through DNA. Christ.

This is directed at me, isn't it?