Rockstar/EA Tit for Tat in GTA/Simpsons Feud

Last week we discussed how GTA parody elements were pulled from The Simpsons Game after some of Rockstar's lawyers got into the act. Apparently, the folks at EA who made the game are a bit peeved about the aggressive lawyering on Rockstar's part and the wussy lawyering on EA's: "The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him. She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence... in a video game... That's called irony. The people who make Grand Theft Auto - they spazzed out like little babies."

Comments

Re:It's their trademark

[njfuzzy]

You don't have to protect yourself from fair use. Allowing anything covered under fair use is required by the law. They would have been all set, with no risk to their trademark. This was clearly parody/satire, which falls comfortably within Fair Use.

Re:It's their trademark

[Goobermunch]

Except that there's no trademark infringement here because they're not actually using the trademark. Also, it's entirely permissible for a markholder to license another person to use their trademark.

--AC

To turn a phrase

[mazarin5]

So it says "Tit for Tat," but I'm not seeing it. That phrase usually implies some form of equal retaliation, such as "Suzie didn't invite me to her party, so I'm not inviting her to mine."

So... Rockstar pulled out their lawyers, and so EA got really mad? Is that what they're referring to?

The point is: Tat or GTFO.

They removed nothing.

[Vampyre_Dark]

They just renamed that section to mob wars. Otherwise it looks just like San Andreas. Marge suns around a place that looks just like the grove you start out at in GTA:SA, where CJ's house is.

You can see it right here.
http://www.ea.com/simpsons/mob/

Fire whomever advised that lawyer action

[unity100]

For that idiot have cost you much credibility with gamers. The gamers who supported you during the recent gaming related stampedes. bad move. very bad move. and top quality idiot(s) you have there.

Mr Burns owns Rockstar???

[ThirdPrize]

That's the sort of scam he would pull.

Re:Reality.....

[enderjsv]

Well, we're not talking about copied gameplay, we're talking about parody. From the article, it seems the only real complaint was the use of the name "Grand Theft Scratchy" which was an obvious parody of the grand theft auto games. So its parody, not gameplay, that is the issue. And if you want to know what grand theft auto paradies, here's a quick list. Miami Vice. Scarface. The Godfather. Menace 2 Society. Goodfellas. Boys in the hood. The list goes on and on. Rockstar is blatently guilty of using parody in it's games, so I see no reason why they should be so uptight about others doing the same with their material.

Re:Reality.....

[Surt]

A mix of d2, smb, spyhunter, carmageddon, deathrace2000, syndicate.
Other than going more gory, there's not much innovative gameplay wise.

Re:Reality.....

[putch]

well, for one. the original GTA was essentially a poor 2-d imitation of quarantine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine_(game)

Re:Reality.....

[senatorpjt]

This seems especially strange since people generally don't listen to pop music for the lyrics.