Booker T. tried to sue Activision Blizzard, but to no avail: the court sided in their favour.

Booker T. Huffman sued Activision (Activision Blizzard, let’s be clear…) in 2019 because he believed that Call of Duty’s Prophet character (David Wilkes) was based on his GI Bro character that he used in the early days of his wrestling career. He filed the lawsuit in February 2019, so a lot of time has passed since then.

Let’s put them side by side: on the left, you can see Booker T. Huffman’s GI Bro, while on the right side, Call of Duty: Black Ops III‘s David „Prophet” Wilks can be found below.

They are both large, muscular man with dreadlocks, bandanas, and grim scowls, but the judge’s decision claims that the similarities are not enough to constitute an infringement. „There can be no question that this character was copied from GI Bro. From the hair, body type and clothing, right down to facial expressions, the similarities are too profound to be an accident,” Huffman’s lawyer, Micah Dortch of Potts Law firm, said in a 2019 blog post.

However, Activision Blizzard argued that Huffman had presented no evidence that the publisher had access to the GI Bro poster in question, or that he had suffered any damages as a result of the alleged infringement. They added that there was „unrebutted testimony and evidence” provided by Huffman and the creators of GI Bro showed that the image in question is not actually an original work itself, but is „an unoriginal copy of The Rock from the neck down.” „At most, the ‘facial expression’ or ‘attitude’ is claimed to be unique, but a facial expression is not copyrightable. Nor is an ‘attitude’,” the publisher said in a motion.

„We are pleased with the outcome. Bottom line, to call this a frivolous case would be a massive understatement. Activision creates games with the utmost integrity and is extremely proud of everyone involved with the development and creative process for all of our games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, including the incredible talent like William Romeo who helped bring our vision to life. Today, the jury validated that process,” E. Leon Carter of Carter Arnett, one of three legal firms representing the publisher in the matter, said in a statement.

There is always money to fix such solutions…

Source: PCGamer