Joystiq [Xbox]

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.