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Church Threatens Legal Action Over Sony Game
An anonymous reader writes "The Church of England is threatening legal action against Sony over the game Resistance: Fall of Man. The game features a shootout in Manchester Cathedral, and the Church claims that Sony did not ask permission to use the interior of the Cathedral in the game. The Bishop of Manchester called the game 'highly irresponsible' due to the history of gun crime in the city. Sony denies the charge — a spokesman said 'We believe we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game.'"
First off, I am Christian and do not care for Sony.
The game is art. There should be no legal repercussions for Sony choosing to tell a story a certain way. If you do not like it, do not buy it. Protest if you want, so others know you do not like it. But, every adult should be free to choose for themselves if shooting in a church is inappropriate in a game.
This is one article in which I'll be irritated if someone tries to make it a religious thing. IANAC (I am not a Christian), but this is really no different than any other, non-Christian group complaining about the use of their building for an ostensibly violent purpose. Whether or not it's right for this Church to go after Sony, it would be nice if this weren't turned into a religious issue.
I'm not holding my breath, though.
Gamertag: WyleType
They could go for copyright infringement. They seem to be the norm these days.
(Of course I'm joking, but something tells me that they might consider it seriously).
There are a number of problems here that Sony just haven't thought about:
.Why use a real church in a city with a high gun crime problem, in a FPS?
1. Why use a real church?
2. Why use a real church in a city with a high gun crime problem?
3
4. Why use a real church in a city with a high gun crime problem, in a FPS, without asking permission?
Obviously they just aren't thinking straight. I'm quite amazed that a big company like Sony just didn't think things through. What did they expect to happen? The church to welcome virtual gunmen through their doors with open arms after they've spent so many years dealing with real gun-related deaths?
Get real Sony, we all know exactly how it would've played out if a game went on a spree round your offices...
FTA:
Manchester Cathedral is private property, correct? It belongs to the Church of England? If so, and if you were going to show the interior of Manchester Cathedral (or any private property) in Doctor Who (or any television show or movie) I believe you have to seek permission of the property owner. Of course, if Sony were publishing a novel about it, I doubt the Church of England would care much -- but Sony has specifically aligned the game with video-based works rather than written fiction.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
How many school shootings have you heard about in the US? And how many school shootings have you heard of in countries where handguns are banned?
I haven't played R:FoM, but it's a FPS game, yes? In which you run around a virtual world shooting various critters and such, yes? The key word here is "virtual" -- Unless Sony went through the Cathedral with a camcorder and actually used real footage of the real cathedral in the game, I don't see how they're "using" the cathedral for anything at all.
Would it be illegal if I drew a picture of the inside of the cathedral and posted it online? How 'bout if I carefully modelled in in 3D? And did an animated walkthrough?
The Church of England may own the Cathedral, but do they own the rights to the *appearance* of the Cathedral?
/* "Specialization is for insects." -Heinlein */
Spoken like someone without a true understanding of the U.S. Second Amendment.
Any government has the potential for corruption on a level that can't be undone through avenues made legal by itself. The entire point of the second amendment is to give the society at large the ability to fix this. Our founding fathers recognized this and added the second amendment to the bill of rights for this very reason. They had, in fact, *just* done this with the then-sovereign government.
This is such a tired, stupid cliché that I do not even know anymore whether people who say it are serious.
Anyway, since most gun injuries are inflicted by non-outlaws, only outlaws - and the police, obviously - having guns would probably be a good thing.
I am all for real charities and people who actually want to help others, but Mother Teresa purposely expanded suffering and poverty while at the same time hoarding money in order to spend it in ways that glorified herself and her organization. I really wish people would try to find a real altruist to glorify rather than that frightening bitch of a woman.
Come on, you're clearly twisting her beliefs. Mother Theresa was a Catholic(shock, horror), thus, she thought that, as a part of the divinely created world, suffering is not meaningless.
You seem to imply that this meant that she intentionally allowed people to suffer or even caused suffering to "bring people closer to Christ". (If this is "very well documented", please demonstrate.)
It's very well documented that she helped a lot of suffering people. The fact that she thought their suffering had a religious significance doesn't make her evil.
The world would be without a lot of hospitals and institutions of higher learning.
Oh, so you mean the ancient Romans and Greeks never did anything like that?
Actually, from my understanding one of the reasons for the Dark Ages was because of Christianity. Not until the Church lost its dominance did things such as higher education, scientific, and modern medicine emerge during the renaissance.
And to be fair, they had a great helping hand from the Roman and Greek texts that the Church had simply stashed away ignored for almost a 1,000 years.
And to also be fair, I'm strictly talking about the Catholic church central powers and authority. It is interesting to note that the re-emergence of science and higher learning did coincide with the Protestant reformation and that Islamic scholars did also acheive similar results in their eras way before this.
I'm just saying Christianity isn't required for the things you talk of as example of ancient Romans and Greeks.
Oh... And let's not forget ancient China!
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)