You may have heard the story over the weekend that the Church of England is threatening to sue Sony over its use of the interior of Manchester Cathedral as the setting for part of the game Resistance: Fall of Man on the PS3. A statement from the Church said that:
"We are shocked to see a place of learning, prayer and heritage being presented to the youth market as a location where guns can be fired."
Sony responded that the game is set:
"in an alternate and mythical version of Europe in the 1950s, in which the enemy are strange-looking alien invaders seeking to destroy humanity."
The game was well-received by the critics, judging by Wikipedia's summary, and has already sold well.
It is not quite clear yet on what basis the Church is threatening legal action; Sony claims to have received all necessary consents during its research for the game (though whether these were simply consents to film on-site or to re-use the images obtained there has not been spelled out). Grumpy Gamer claims that the Church is also requesting money from Sony.
I don't know enough about the architecture of the Cathedral to know whether there might be copyright infringement here (my guess is that any copyright has expired, though it may depend on the nature of the restoration of the north-east of the Cathedral). It would be useful to know more about what movies or photographs Sony took on the site, the terms on which the Church permitted this, and the extent to which these were used in creating the game. It's fairly safe to assume the Church isn't planning to try and put together some form of claim for trade mark infringement/passing off on the basis that the game implies some form of Church endorsement. Quite a debate on the legalities has started here.
It will be interesting to see how this one will be resolved - given the probable cost of making the game, I can't see Sony pulling it without a fight; but equally, I would have thought a financial settlement would see the C of E receiving more accusations of prioriting funds over principles.
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