Rumor has it that after the airing of South Park's season premiere EA Sports is getting ready to sue the show. The episode revealed the next Tiger Woods game to be a simulation of the night Tiger's life started to spiral out of control in front of everyone in the country.
Above is a brief snippet from the episode that we highlighted in Weekend Destructainment, and as you can see it's hilarious. However, a source from inside EA reportedly told Daily Informer that “soon after the airing of the episode the top beef were called in, even Peter Moore was informed of the situation.” Their source went on to admit that he/she finds the episode funny, but that there are copyright infringements throughout it and a lawsuit could be pending.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, have faced off in legal battles against far scarier opponents than EA, so even if this is true I doubt they really care. We've sent word in to EA for confirmation.
EA Sports To Sue South Park Creators Over Tiger Woods Episode [Daily Informer]
[Thanks, Tdiddy]
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
6:00 AM on 03.22.2010
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Suck my fucking balls EA.
That and I don't understand how there could be any "copyright infringements"; it is a TV show making fun of a person and a game. Now, if they actually made a flash game that is like the game that they play in the episode then that would very likely involve copyright infringements. But that is not the case.
Also, this is 100% speculation right now. Some anonymous source that apparently works at EA said these things. It could be complete bullshit and then everybody will forget that it was even a thing a week from now.
That said, Tiger Woods is a joke because of his own behavior, not because of South Park.
Also, kind of bs but since they end the episode with saying that the regular game is shit, I can see how the marketing department is unhappy at the moment. Deal with it.
That said, sure copyright may have been violated. But still EA, get a fucking sense of humor and stop being a bitch. Just sayin'.
Anyway, it's a moot point because it's stupid and won't go anywhere.
/end of spamming comments section
"Fair Use (parody) because it devalues the Tiger Woods name and thus has a commercial impact on the product."
Than Tiger Woods should sue himself.
Anyways... One word: parody
Court dismissed
If EA pursue litigation they are just going to look like they're out to score a few bucks off a joke, which'll be more damaging to their reputation than any alleged copyright infringement.
You hope EA wins because you don't like a TV show? That makes sense. Thank god you chipped in.
I watched the episode, and South Park actually made the game better. They broke up the regular golf gameplay with stylised fight sequences and semi-interactive quick time events. Their use of a personal narrative is compelling, and the fight sequences are both fluid and dynamic.
Then again, I was never a big fan of video game golf.
I remember one episode Cartman kept plugging "GTA China Town wars for my Nintendo DS entertainment console" or something and it was so out of place and obvious that it was actually kinda funny.
What are you talking about? When did he mention Tiger Woods coming back to golf?
It's the Internet, everyone is an expert in everything in here. I should know, I'm an expert in sociology...
Everyone ignored the sex, lying, rehab and weeks of public isolation, instead judging their view of Tiger solely on a cartoon. I'm pretty sure everyone who watches South Park already had strong views towards the Tiger before the episode was even announced or promoted. And a good chunk of those people probably had no interest in golf (or golf games) to begin with, me included.
So I hope this isn't true. It just opens the door for whiny corporate dipshits to sue anyone that uses a product in a satrical manner. Saturday Night Live does this all the time, so does Mad TV, so does Family Guy and several other popular TV shows. Just learn to laugh about it and realize that a) your core golfing audience probably doesn't care about SP and b) if you make a good game, people will buy it regardless.
As somebody said, Comedy Central has good lawyers, maybe. But I'm sure Viacom definitely would crush EA if they wanted.
"What is the degree of transformation from the purpose or function of the copyrighted work as compared to the purpose or function of the new work?"
since the south park episode bears no resemblance to the game there really is no argument
Priceless.