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EA Sued Over Madden 06 Feature
von_blapp writes "EA is being sued over the Super Star feature that is included in Madden '06. Pernell Harris, owner of Virtual Jam is suing EA over a confidentiality violation. Harris claims when he met with EA in '03 he discussed a game called Heart Of A Champion, in this game players take high school athletes from the schools to the pros insuring their grades are kept up and even picking their parents for the optimum gene pool. This is the same feature as in the current game released by EA."
I'm not really surprised by EA. I think they actually deserve a kick in the disk. Jerks. Still, this guy's suit doesn't seem ironclad to me. Hope he wins!
I picked my parents and I'm no NFL football player.
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
would it really be surprising that a company that treats it workers so bad would rip off someone who wasn't even in their employ?BTW,I doubt by the time I push the button I'll get it,But what the helll-First post
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Oh, and their games blow.
The part where you take your athlete through college is simulated in Madden's sister game, NCAA Football 06. You export your college character to Madden 06 if you decide to enter the draft (usually at the end of your senior year, but you can cut a year off if you win a Heisman). Not that anyone here cares, but I thought I'd point it out.
Rob
...Art is being sued by Life for imitation. Art is countersuing Life, also for imitation.
Voodoo Girl is the bomb!
Ideas for games are cheap. Everybody's got an idea for a game. Everybody's got hundreds of ideas for games. It's the implementation that counts, and getting that right is damn hard work.
I'm certainly not EA's biggest fan (especially as I work for a competitor!), but I find it difficult to believe that this case has any merit.
So did this loser ever copyright or patent the idea?
Does he have any actual proof that this idea was his?
Was he smart enough to make EA sign a contract and/or agreement to not use his idea(s) without his licensing or permission?
If not, then he walked right in, and handed them his ideas, and there's really not anything he can do about it.
Stupidity is not, nor should it ever be, rewarded.
I know two people from college who had the exact same idea (seperately of each other) a couple years ago. I'm sure tens of thousands of people have had the same idea across the country. Did any of them do it? No. EA did. I'm all for "fuck corporations" as much as the next guy, but this is just ridiculous. Ideas are worthless until you actually implement them. I have some ideas that I'm convinced would make fantastic games, but I'm not in a position to make it happen right now. If someone beats me to the punch, I might be a little pissed that I didn't get to do it first, but it's stupid to sue over it.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
This isn't the same as somebody sueing because they had an idea. This guy was actually discussing with EA this game and feature that he was at the time trying to develop and get backing for, EA turned it down but (supposeably) stole the idea. This is akin to stuff Microsoft pulls where they find out all the in depth stuff from some small company and they go do it themselves instead of paying them (AKA Windows).
Now, the big thing this suit will rest on is how much information did he give them and did that influence this feature. I really can't see it going anywhere because he would have to prove that it was his idea that they used. This sorta idea has been bounced around in other places and I think there is another game that already implements it.
Of course this could also be a publicity stunt, never even heard of this guy before this so some publicity where hes the underdog taking on the big corp might help his business.
Overheard in the EA Boardroom: "Ohhh, so THAT'S where we got that idea from. I told you guys it sounded familiar."
even picking their parents for the optimum gene pool
[sarcasm] Eugenics... Not just for Dogs and fine horses any more! [/sarcasm]
Ideas for games are cheap. Everybody's got an idea for a game. Everybody's got hundreds of ideas for games. It's the implementation that counts, and getting that right is damn hard work.
Tell that to Hasbro.
he discussed a game called Heart Of A Champion, in this game players [...] picking their parents for the optimum gene pool.
WTF does that have to do with having the heart of a champion? The whole idea behind "having heart" is *learning* the attitude and having courage despite unfavorable odds -- NOT what genes you were born with. Determination and effort from hard work will beat "talent", that kind of thing.
If he wrote his ideas down prior to this meeting with EA, they're protected by copyright.
Bullshit. Patents protect ideas, or in this case, a non-disclosure agreement, that is, a contract violation is what he is suing for.
You are correct that he controls copyright over the work, but pretty much wrong on everything else. A copyright protects only the distribution of the work itself, not the concepts it contains. EA, or anyone else for that matter, is prohibited by copyright law to duplicate the work and distribute it, but that doesn't stop them from reading it and creating a new work on their own.
The ideas contained in the design doc are not protected by copyright law. You can not protect an idea, only its expression. Just because he had the idea of a game that follows a player's career as they go through high school and college does not stop anyone from using that idea. It's not even a very unique idea...I had the same idea for a baseball game.
Creating a game, allegedly based on the ideas they read in the design doc, is NOT a derivative work. If they took the design doc, and made it into an award-winning Broadway play, that play would be a derivative work.
I would very much like to play a game of Adult ADD. The whole point of the game is to keep your 'character' on task and on time, all the while, the game fights to make sure you get as distracted as possible...
I would say it could be called "The Game of Life", but clearly, that would cause some confusion.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
Patents protect inventions, not "ideas". NDAs are contracts, and have nothing to do with patents or copyrights.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I would very much like to play a game of Adult ADD. The whole point of the game is to keep your 'character' on task and on time, all the while, the game fights to make sure you get as distracted as possible...
Nintendo already made that. It's called the WarioWare series.
The could have added a scene were you see John Madden doing one of the women from Desperiate Housewives. "Hot Coffee" meats Monday Night Football. --AUGH! MY EYES!
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.