Best headline ever.
Cleveland Browns fan John Thompson is known for representing his beloved football team by wearing a terrifying bulb-eyed dog mask. You'd think the man would be happy to appear in the front cover of Madden NFL 09, and maybe he is, but someone's obviously told him he could make money by taking EA to court over using his likeness without permission.
John "Big Dawg" Thompson wants over $25,000 from Electronic Arts, as well as an injunction to stop the publisher using his "face" in future games. He is one of several plaintiffs filing suit against the company at the moment, with a former football player joining in the fun, along with the boxer licensing group we discussed a few weeks ago.
I sometimes wonder if EA spends more time in court than in development.
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Contest:
2:20 PM on 10.05.2009
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@ hjd uk
EA is also a developer. There's EA Canada and EA Tiburon are development studios.
Not surprising seeing that the Browns do have one of the more rabid fan bases.
Don't think EA will just roll over on this one
All in all 25,000 should fetch quite a lot in the Cleve
What a douche.
Although granted we're about due for a stupid lawsuit story by now.
Honestly, for all the trouble the guy is going through, they can make it all go away with a patch. For all their efforts in trying to add some character to what is otherwise a cookie cutter process and roster update for them each year, this pretty much guarantees that they'll kill off anything that even looks potentially original or libelous to a crowd shot.
Way to go asshole. You made Madden even more tedious and boring.
I hope EA takes him to court and soundly defeats him. He should definitely incur court costs for wasting their time. A trivial 25k isn't the point; it's the principle at stake.