Dead Rising vs Dawn of the Dead lawsuit dismissed

by Richard Mitchell { Nov 19th 2008 at 5:15PM }

That's it folks. Show's over. Move along. US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg has dismissed the case of MKR Group -- the company that owns George Romero's Dawn of the Dead film -- versus Capcom -- the publisher behind Dead Rising. MKR Group tried to make the case that Dead Rising is too similar to the film Dawn of the Dead, but Seeborg chose to grant Capcom's motion for dismissal, which stated that the MKR had "not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead." The motion elaborated that the noted similarities were "driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak."

Several claims were made by MKR noting similarities between the game and the film, including the use of photojournalists as main characters and the fact that "Many of the zombies wear plaid shirts" (no, seriously). One interesting note in Capcom's favor, the judge completely dismissed MKR's claim that both works are a "parody of rampant consumerism." He stated, "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies" and discovering the cause of the outbreak. He concluded that the "social commentary" drawn by MKR from he film "appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."

That's all well and good for Capcom, apart from the fact that Dead Rising totally is about consumerism. So, we're guessing that either Seeborg didn't actually finish Dead Rising or, perhaps, he wasn't paying attention. Judges these days. Sheesh.

Tags: capcom, dawn-of-the-dead, dead-rising, john-romero, mkr, mkr-group

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Arnie @ Nov 19th 2008 5:28PM

This is what happens when CEO's listen to their lawyers. Waste of money and resources and no one gaining anything except the lawyers.

bperry @ Nov 19th 2008 5:29PM

speaking of lawsuits whats the latest on the silicon knights/epic suit?

DarkNightRJ @ Nov 19th 2008 5:34PM

What lawsuit?

Clark Parker @ Nov 19th 2008 5:38PM

Wow. Those are some lawyers Capcom has.

I agree with the ruling I supose, it's not like malls or zombies are copywritten (hell, the entire film Night of the Living Dead is public record) but come on... It's a clear and blatant aping. Hell yes the plaid zombies were on purpose, hell yes the setting was on purpose and hell yes there is a strong consumerism theme underlining the whole thing. I would have thought that a given.

Wasn't that the point? So we could relive the single greatest zombie movie of all time? I was only saddend that the climatic return of the helicopter (and more importantly it's blades)didn't set up what I planned to be my crowning photograph. SLICE!

Oh well... At least any potential Dead Rising sequels won't get tied down by this one's battle with it's clear and obvious source material.

Tony @ Nov 19th 2008 7:04PM

I think any zombie fan sees it, but unfortunately being inspired by something is not the same as stealing copyrighted ideas... as much as MKR would like to think otherwise.

I don't think Capcom could have lost this with any lawyer, honestly.

Alex @ Nov 20th 2008 3:23PM

What was wrong with the blades?

Clark Parker @ Nov 20th 2008 3:29PM

Oh, you misunderstand, Alex.

What I was trying to say was that the similarity between the two was so great that I spent the entire game certain that when the helicopter returned, it would end up slicing the head off of at least one Zombie and that I would be there to get a great picture of it... Alas it never happend.

So for a more specific answer to your question, the only thing wrong with the helicopter blades in Dead Rising was that they did NOT cut the head off of any zombies. An action I felt was certain to come, given the obvious insperation they took from Dawn.