Sony sued for copyright infringement over God of War
Sep 17, 2008
How original can a story based on Greek mythology be? It might be up to the courts to decide, after a screenwriter and an artist filed a copyright suit against Sony over a PlayStation 2 game.
Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog alleged, in a complaint filed in February, that 2005 smash God of War bears an entirely too convenient resemblance to works they submitted, via their agents, to Sony's motion picture division three years previously.
God of War -- acclaimed as one of the PlayStation 2's best games -- tells the story of a Kratos, a Spartan soldier who offers his service to Ares, the Greek god of war, in return for military victory. Naturally, Ares doesn't hesitate to take advantage of the deal, tricks Kratos into murdering his own family, and prompts an epic tale of revenge and god-murdering.
Bissoon-Dath and Barrette-Herzog claim in their complaint that the similarities between their work and God of War "include, but are not limited to, similarities in plot, story, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, relationships among characters, settings, tone, detail and sequence of events".
Sony and Jaffe, via their attorneys, issued a lengthy recent response in August, denying any infringement and noting, not unreasonably, that some elements of the complainants' works lie in the public domain. As, we suppose, stories based on centuries-old myths are wont to be.
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