Manuel Noriega, a former Panamanian dictator, is trying to sue the creators of the popular video game series, "Call of Duty", for using his likeness in the game and "damaging his reputation". The game portrays Noriega as a criminal and enemy of the state, which, from what I have read, doesn't seem to be stretching the truth. The author of the article makes it sounds like the lawsuit will be dismissed, and that got me thinking about why this would be so easily dismissed. Does the fact that he isn't a US citizen mean that he doesn't have rights to protect his image? Does it matter that he is still alive, and should the game's creators have asked his permission to use his likeness in the game? The fact that he is portrayed doing things that he is actually convicted of doing seems to me like the lawsuit really should be dismissed. This raises a concern about ethics in video games. Where is the ethical boundary in video games portraying real people? Would Noriega have a legitimate case if he was being portrayed as the Devil and doing ridiculous things like eating babies? Under what circumstances would I have a case if I was being used in a video game?
-Click the Title of this blog post to see the original article from cnn.com
-Click the Title of this blog post to see the original article from cnn.com
2 comments:
What if it was a US citizen with a lot of power and influence being portrayed in a likeness he didn't agree with, like Donald Trump or Obama? Would it make a difference if it was a relative nobody, like me being portrayed negatively? Or a how about non-US citizen with power, like Queen Elizabeth? Protecting your image is a serious thing, but at what point do the courts stop caring?
Noriega did just about everything except eating babies if its worth anything. That is probably a good factor in why it may have been dismissed so easily. I haven't played any hardcore video games lately but I would assume if they portrayed what he did as a dictator it would cross US censorship standards. That being said though, I would only limit censorship to graphic things not poor fictional portrayals of people. Censoring that is a slippery slope to china type censorship.
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