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Wrestler Maxx Payne Sues Game Publisher
Ryan Barrett writes "The Associated Press reports that retired WCW wrestler, actor, and voice actor Maxx Payne is suing a group of game developers and publishers over the game Max Payne. In Payne's words, "I left wrestling to come home to Utah and be with my family and I find myself in the biggest battle of my life - to save my identity." This raises an interesting question: in most cases like this, we Slashdotters are quick to speak out in Payne's defense. But when the big bad corporations are game developers, do we still take the little guy's side?" Is this suit exposing a genuine rip-off, or is it just a naming coincidence?
I don't know.. I haven't looked at Max Payne in a while, but doesn't it include a "Not based on real persons living or dead" type disclaimer in it? Such things have been on the credits of movies and TV shows for as long as I can remember...
Perhaps its needed for games now, to avoid lawsuits like this?
The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
here.
If the game has done so much to steal his identity, then why has he waited two years since the game was released to sue?
Hate to say it but my instinct says he probably saw the marketing push for the sequel and thought "Hey they're putting a lot of money into this... I should get my hands on some of it"
It's a dispute over a trade mark, not any real name.
I will crush you peetiful geeks with my fearsome lawsuit. How DAAAREE you steal my name for your pathetic excuse of a game. I will take back what is mine and spread your crushed and dessicated remains before me.
OOOOHHH YEE-AHH!
(wrong wrestler, but it's what came to mind...)
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
The last time I checked, there are several 'max payne':s out there, some with some real fame even.. some photographer comes to mind..
Anyway, what's the point? If this is a trademark issue, they have trademarks in different fields.. or even if it's the same field, his trademark is so diluted by now that it doesn't matter whether he wins or not. Money money money..
I sincerely doubt it. Just because his pseudonym shares a likeness to a video game character's name isn't grounds for a lawsuit. It's pretty obvious this guy isn't concerned about his 'identity', however obscure it may be, as much as a little publicity to jumpstart his rasslin kuh-rear.
I thought it was named Max Payne for Max Pain...
Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
He's retired. He still calls himself Maxx Payne afterwards? Whatever. I still think it's a publicity stunt.
As for the wrestler Mr. Payne, he might have had a case if he hadn't waited so damned long. I find it amazing that he didn't at least hear from someone something along the lines of, "Hey, I saw a videogame that had your old stage name on it! Cool, huh?"
Even if he managed to not hear about it until now, you have to actively defend trademarks if you want to keep them. This means doing a modicum of research on your trademark - Googling it every month or so might not be a bad idea. He definatly would have had a case if he'd gone to the publishers before the game went gold, he might have had a (somewhat shaky) case if he sued right after the game hit shelves, but he doesn't have much of one now.
Finally, I don't see how he is in a "battle to save [his] identity." Most people can discriminate between a pro wrestler and a game character; the hypothetical "reasonable person" appealed to so often in court cases like this one certainly could. Sorry, Mr. Payne, you ain't getting squat.
Note: I'm not a lawyer, this isn't legal advice, contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction, you know the deal.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Stolen Identity? When was the last time a videogame created a fake driver's license or some credit cards?
This is no different than if some prostitute in a Duke Nukem game was named "Lolly Pop", and an ex-employee of the Bunny Ranch sued to make some extra cash. Max Payne is fairly high up on the list of obvious names for an action star.
I'm sure Spike Lee would side with him. After all, when Viacom decided to rename TNN to "SpikeTV", I know the first thing I thought was "Wow! Spike Lee is getting a TV channel named after him! Cool!!! The first network entirely for black filmmakers!" Oh wait, no I didn't. God, this is getting lame.
Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
There's a book I saw last time I was in a bookstore called "We Need To Talk About Kevin". Obviously, the author is stealing my name. I'm going to sue the author, the publisher, the bookstore, and maybe McDonald's too, just out of general principle.
Lawsuits, they're the American way.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
"I got it off a hair dryer" - Homer Simpson
Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
Here in Japan, there's an ex-wrestler named the Great Sasuke who won a position in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly under his stage persona. There was a minor scandal because he wore his mask to the legislative sessions and the ruling party didn't like that. The bill to forbid wearing masks failed, though, so he still goes to work every day in a business suit and a full-face mask.
Sono koro, bokura wa, sore ga sekai no shinjitsu da to shinjite ita.
Rule#1 fits for SCO: "If you don't understand someone doing something obviously dumb, than it most probably is about something else."
Everyone knows he won't win that ridiculous case.
And since he is retired the publicity doesn't help a damn, right?
So I'll stick with rule #2 here: "If you don't understand someone doing something obviously dumb, than he most probably is just some bored retard"
... is join the ARMY and become a Major. Then he can sue Damon Wayans and Universal Studios!
- You're not paranoid, they really are after you.
In Payne's words, "I left wrestling to come home to Utah and be with my family and I find myself in the biggest battle of my life - to save my identity."
Bullshit
This isn't some little guy getting his domain name taken away from him by a big corporation. This is a wrestler who's trying to cash in on a name he doesn't even use anymore. Unless he gets a lot of royalties from toy sales and/or t-shirts, he doesn't have a leg to stand on, and I'm sure that Rockstar could get the case easily dismissed.
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
my weblog: apropos of something
It can't be easy to get things done if you keep going into slow motion to get round corners, I imagine it's quite tiring.
Plus the guy must still be quite freaked out his wife and kid getting killed like that, poor guy. I bet his wrestling career will perk up a bit now. All he needs to do is drug McMahons dog and film himself fucking it in the ass or something, that will set up the big fight and Triple X can bring on one of those rubber fists and beat him to death with it right there in the ring.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
maxx payne the wrestler was trying to put out a behind the scenes documentary a couple of years ago. Since wrestling has often assumed the gimmics of characters originated in other mediums (Memphis wrestling at one point had a Freddy and Jason rip offs for example. A local wrestling outfit I once saw had some masked guys who wore basketball jerseys and called themselves Jordan and O'Neal). So he is probably trying to make sure that people know that he was first.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Spike Jonze's son actually filed a comment with the court on behalf of TNN.
He pointed out that he and his family had a film in the works about his father, and the name of the film was "Spike". Obviously he was concerned.
Does he even have any ground to stand on, because of the extra "x" in his alias? It's like Jon Doe suing Fox for their John Doe TV series.
They should give him a free copy of Max Payne. I'd take it.
May we never see th
Doesn't that mean he wants his "identity" now to be "Darryl Peterson, retired former celebrity who spends time with his wife and kids and gets left alone"?
and I find myself in the biggest battle of my life - to save my identity
How about "to save my chance to cash in on somebody else using a name I was done with, since I'm greedy"? I mean, if the videogame was about a wrestler guy that looked like him, that'd be different. Isn't the Max Payne videogame about a non-wrestling cop who shoots people 'n stuff?
Frankly, if he sincerely wants to be retired and be with his family, having his old name associated with something new now would probably just get him less rabid wrestling fans pestering him and interfering with his new "Darryl Peterson, family man" focus. He should thank them, not sue them!
Furcadia - A free online game with user created content, DragonSpeak scripting, & more.
If Mr. Payne has ever heard of
1) Fair Use
2) Satire
3) Stressing out over nothing
Since really only 1 and 3 apply, someone should traqualize him asap.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Hypothetical:
Suppose I make a hot new video game about a tax attorney turned vigilante crime fighter. Lets say his real name is Hulk Hogan.
Should the real Hulk be able to sue me even though the character in my game bares no likeness to the WWE wrestler whatsoever? What if it could be proven that I had no intention on cashing in on the name but that it was simply a coincidence that the names matched?
Granted, Mr Payne never achieved any where near the notoriety of the Hulkamaniac but it's the same situation. Is there a minimum level of fame you must attain before you can be allowed to sue others for its usage?
What if I named my son Max Payne. Should Rockstar games and Mr Payne the wrestler sue me for using their names?
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Oh, and speaking of Leo, the "Gangs of New York" heartthrob has decided to really cover his rear by going the extra mile on a patent. Perhaps thinking that his famous name is more than, well, just a name, DiCaprio has applied to the Department of Commerce to have it trademarked. While it may sound a bit extreme to you or me, the 24-year-old star's trademark application has already received a preliminary approval from Commerce's Patent & Trademark Office. I guess that kills my chances at naming my firstborn after him! Oh well.
Only in America.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
If anyone is intelligent enough to appreciate Max Payne, they're intelligent enough to appreciate that someone who happens to be a pro wrestler and who appears nothing like the game character has nothing to to do with any of it.
However It's difficult to say if this wrestler is genuinely concerned about his wrestling IP, or just the size of his tv-wrestling wallet.
You can decide for yourselves, but something tells me it's the latter.
Many Thanks,
Luke
so i could trial a musician for destroying my name by his incredibly dumb music? cool... you crappy-latino-singer watch out...
what a funking crap is that`"I find myself in the biggest battle of my life -- to save my identity." what a *%*""%%ç"%ç%&ç%*ç%!!!! somebody give him cancer...
Extreme Payne
Supreme Payne
Paramount Payne
Ultimate Payne
Superlative Payne
Mostest Payne
Mmm, on second thought, my buddy Mostest might have a problem with that last one.
Maxx Payne was never over in WCW, he couldn't get over in the then WWF as "Man Mountain Rock", then when he went back to WCW he couldn't get over.
Maxx Payne couldn't draw money if you covered him in glue and dragged in through Fort Knox.
Identity Theft? What Indentity? Maxx Payne was never more then a lower midcarder.
Are you joking, or are you perhaps confusing Spike Jones and Spike Jonze? Or both?
Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
- Oscar Wilde
Some odd side effects of this.. ..he'll have to ensure that any of his children get a liscence to use the name, or they'll be watering down his trademark. Similarly, his mother & father & grand-parents, etc.
Of course, this is assuming that he's trademarking just his last name and not his first and last names.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Surely our wrestler Mr Payne only has a grounds to sue if he actually owns a trademark on His name? Anyone know if he does? even so, i agree with general concensus that this is a lame attempt to cash in on a succesful game
I found an interview on the pinfalls website with Maxx Payne. He copped it as a play on the name Max Headroom after seeing a TV commercial. Regardless of the lawsuit, which I think is silly. This interview is pretty good... especially the things he has to say about industry and differences between the US and Japan.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Several years ago I was an aspiring adult film star, with a promising career... It wasn't until my identity was stolen by Konami that I had to change my name from Solid Snake...
If this does not work out for Max he can always sue these 53 people. 53 more lawsuits means he would never have to work again.
Johnkoerner.com
What about Sting and Sid Vicious, huh?
"Maxx Payne, I am The Maxx. Answer your subpoena."
"What's in a name, anyway? If I were called Bob or Jack or Vinnie, or 'a piece of fruit', would I be any less a hero? And if Barry were called Rupert or Max or Rainbow, would he be any less a jerk? I don't think so. Because a name is a rose, and it only smells as sweet as you are!"
-- The Tick; The Tick: "The Tick vs. The Tick"
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Maybe the wrestler is suing first so that he doesn't get sued later on by the software company, should he decide to return to the ring or some other public activity. Stranger things have happened.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
"I find myself in the biggest battle of my life" is code for "I'm angling for a grudge match with Scott Miller and Petri Järvilehto."
If he wanted to sue the publishers/developers, he should've done it a long time ago... like when it first came out. The naming is purely coincidental, and almost generic. It's like saying, "HEY YOU! MY NAME IS ADAM SMITH! I'M GOING TO SUE YOU, BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE SAME NAME AS ME!" Give me a break.
so i could trial a musician for destroying my name by his incredibly dumb music? cool... you crappy-latino-singer watch out.
Michael: Yeah, well, at least your name isn't Michael Bolton.
Samir: You know, there's nothing wrong with that name.
Michael: There WAS nothing wrong with it. Until I was about 12 years old, and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Well, why don't you just go by Mike instead of Michael?.
Michael: No way! Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!