4th of July?
I wasn't here last 4th of July, but I was here on 4th of July pasts and I seem to remeber them having some pretty cool stuff. hopefully they do again
Forum Discussion
ForumNerds wrote:1louisobyrne wrote:
Would I be right in saying that if they gave us H W, he'd be the first living real person in the game?
I feel like there's a lawsuit in here somewhere
CAVEAT: The statements below are based on what I learned in one year of law school -- which was, admittedly, about a half-century ago. (Actually, 43 years. But "about a half-century" has a lot more punch). We were still using carbon paper, and typewriters had ribbons. :)
I'm not sure about a lawsuit. I can't imagine that whatever they do with the questline could be much different in tone (or level of satire) than what they did on the show itself, so they wouldn't need to worry about libel/slander.
As for making money off his persona, a president is not part of a trademarked brand. He's not copyrighted. He's a public servant. We hired him. The game -- and the show -- can't use a private citizen celebrity's name, but that's because the celebrity makes money off their name (as do their sponsors, their agents, and a whole lot of other folks) ... Hence, the show has "Paris Texan" instead of "Paris Hilton" ...
The minute he became president, Bush handed over the right to any member of the public to make money -- whether from t-shirts, coffee mugs, or video games. He belongs to us. (We're still paying for our Secret Service to take care of him for us, and keep him from danger. )
On the other hand, I could very well be wrong. Hopefully, EA has attorneys who actually stayed in law school and know what they're doing. (Although it could be argued that anyone who knows what they're doing would NOT stay in law school. )
My dim understanding of this issue is that in the U.S. it’s really complicated, in part because it’s largely based on a mix of state law (which naturally varies with jurisdiction) and common law.
