Call of Duty Lawsuit Has Absurd Written All Over It
What is surely going to be the weirdest lede to a story you may read about gaming today, Activision announces in a press release that they aim to dismiss former military dictator Manual Noriega’s lawsuit over his fictitious appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Former US presidential candidate and former 2-term mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani is serving as co-counsel to defend the gaming publishing company in their Call of Duty lawsuit, on the grounds that his depiction in the game is protected under free speech laws.
The Call of Duty lawsuit, based in California, will seek to be slapped with a state provision that protects companies from “spurious lawsuits.”
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“What’s astonishing is that Manuel Noriega, a notorious dictator who is in prison for the heinous crimes he committed, is upset about being portrayed as a criminal and enemy of the state in the game Call of Duty,” said co-counsel Rudy Giuliani. “Quite simply, it’s absurd. I’m not interested in giving handouts to a convicted murderer and drug smuggler like Manuel Noriega who is demanding money from Activision and its popular Call of Duty franchise for simply exercising its right to free speech. Noriega’s attack on the rights of Call of Duty comes as no surprise considering he’s a lawless tyrant who trampled over the rights of his own people.”
While there’s no doubt that the Panamanian dictator seems to be a ruthless dictator and a terrible human being, as an outsider looking at the Call of Duty lawsuit based on its legal merits, Noriega may have a case. While Activision is providing a fictional take on a real world person and their heinous acts of terror, his name and likeness was used to create a villain in a video game that generates billions of dollars in the matter of days. If they didn’t have permission to use his likeness in such a manner, and didn’t bother to just make up a name that sounds familiar to him, then he may have a legal case. Plus, a judge cannot be biased about the history of the people involved in a lawsuit if it doesn’t pertain to the case, so the fear that successful can spur further lawsuits from the families of terrorists like Osama bin Laden should not be taken into effect.
So, to recap, Activision is looking to dismiss a Call of Duty lawsuit from a dictator over his likeness in a video game, in which someone who was possibly going to be the 44th President of the United States is defending the video game company, in which the dictator may be entitled to legal action. Video games, man.
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