GameSpot is reporting that anti-video game attorney Jack Thompson has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Midway Games concerning what he considers to be the unauthorized use of his likeness in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. However, if you don't recall seeing Thompson in MK: Armageddon, you're not missing something; Thompson is not in the game, and what Thompson is apparently reacting to is seeing a kreated fighter modeled after him. From the article:
While Thompson is still in the thick of his Bully battle, he made time today to fire off a cease and desist order to Midway Games. He wants the publisher to stop distributing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but contrary to what one might expect, he didn't cite the game's over-the-top violence as a reason to stop selling it.
"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently [sic] Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game," Thompson wrote in an e-mail addressed to Midway president and CEO David Zucker and carbon-copied to several news outlets. "You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content." (Emphasis in original.)
While Armageddon does boast a roster of more than 60 characters, Thompson isn't among them. Judging from a photo of the game included with Thompson's e-mail, he is referring to a character made using the game's kreate-a-fighter mode. The photo was part of a feature on Gaming Target yesterday which contained formulas for making a number of unlicensed characters from the game's various customization options. Other familiar faces in the feature included Hulk Hogan, Ash from Army of Darkness, director Kevin Smith in his Silent Bob alter ego, and Friday the 13th antagonist Jason Voorhees.
To our knowledge, there has been no response from Midway concerning this letter. If we learn anything, we will be sure to report it here.
To read the GameSpot article in its entirety, click here.
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