Jack thompson has spine ripped out

0ubliette

in mortal kombat armageddon

But thompson strikes back with the infamous 'sue' fatality..

"October 26, 2006

David F. Zucker
President and Chief Executive Officer
Midway Games, Inc.
Corporate Headquarters
(sent via email)

Re: Cease and Desist

Dear Mr. Zucker:

It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game.

You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content. If you think your company can in fact do such a thing, please have your lawyers provide you with the recent resolution of the unauthorized use of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name and image in a similar fashion.

It would appear that your company has done this at least in part because I sued you all in the Paducah school massacre case and further because I appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 when your company came out with your profane, violent, and idiotic Blitz: The League.

Please have your lawyer(s) contact me so that this activity can be stopped and this situation resolved amicably, if possible.

Regards, Jack Thompson"

koneko

Did he really send that later, or did someone make that up?

If he did, he's a moron. The game does not contain Jack Thompson as a character. It does contain a "build your own fighter" mode, where you can make a character that looks like whoever you want. Your character can look like anyone, basically.

0ubliette

Yes, its a real letter
Have to love that fighting style too, 'legalese', classic.

Rhyme

If that really was him, what a tit. If he thinks this is fair game for legal action does that mean Chuck Norris can sue Namco for Soul Calibur III's build-a-character mode and roundhouse kicks?

Ho-Hum

Good old Thompson, completley missing the point of a game as usual.

po0k

He's playing dumb to raise his profile and hopefully make a fast buck.

Don't undestimate his greed, guile and capacity for wilful ignorance.

Dooom

Christ, someone should really hit him with a large metal-bound book or something. Repeatedly.

K.O.Kiki

Spike wrote:

Christ, someone should really hit him with a large metal-bound book or something. Repeatedly.

You can -- just buy Mortal Kombat!

Anyway it's on GamePolitics, so yeah it's real.
And Jack shows he's still the King of Jackasses

Balfa

How can you people believe that letter is really by jack thompson? I don't think he's the moron in here...

koneko

Balfa wrote:

How can you people believe that letter is really by jack thompson? I don't think he's the moron in here...

Try again, this time, lay off the insults though. I doubted it was him (in my reply), but I've seen plenty of insane letters from Jack Thompson before so it wouldn't have surprised me.

Though no news media have reported this that I've seen and the OP didn't post a reference (which is suspicious or at least bad form).

K.O.Kiki

Balfa wrote:

How can you people believe that letter is really by jack thompson? I don't think he's the moron in here...

By way of GamePolitics (who've tangled w/Jack dozens of times): Thompson Warns Midway over Mortal Kombat Armageddon, But…

GamePolitics.com wrote:

GamePolitics was cc’d on cease-and-desist letter sent by Miami attorney Jack Thompson to Midway, publishers of the recently-released Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The letter reads, in part:

“It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game.”

“You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content…”

“It would appear that your company has done this at least in part because I sued you all in the Paducah school massacre case and further because I appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 when your company came out with your profane, violent, and idiotic Blitz: The League.”

However, Thompson seemingly fails to take into account that the depiction of him to which he is referring is not part of the published game, but rather user-created content. A utility known as Kreate a Fighter is included with the game and lets players make their own combatants.

The creation of the Thompson character is detailed at Gaming Target, which describes the various settings and rationales behind the design of characters depicting Thompson, Hulk Hogan, Silent Bob and others. Documentation for the Thompson character says:

"Jack Thompson is all legs and is a deadly mid-range opponent."

"Jack’s personality meshes perfectly with many of the Kreate A Fighter options. He fights with the Aggressive Shotokan stance as it gives him that puffed out self-important look… His projectile is a big fireball known as the Chi-Blast because he’s always spouting flames on the Internet…"

My friend, you just got owned.

0ubliette

told you it was real.