Is God of War a swipe of 2002 screenplay? Let's look at the complaint in depth.
In a complaint filed in California's U.S. District Court, writer Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and artist Jennifer Barrette-Herzon claim that Sony's God of War swipes work from screenplays, synopses and a map submitted to the company in 2002.
The legal issue will be decided by deep pockets and, conceivably, a jury. The moral issue is simpler to determine. Is there anything truly original in Bissoon-Dath's take on an otherwise well-trodden Olympic scenario, or are both properties derivative of other sources? Is it all just so much Clash of the Titans with glowy swords?
It's easy to assume the latter. Anticipating this assumption, the complaint (Download as PDF) says that the similarities go beyond even substantial similarity. It asserts that God of War is "strikingly" derivative of the original components to the plaintiffs' work.
Bissoon-Dath claims to have created his scenario between summer 2001 and October 2002, incorporating Greek history and mythology but with original central characters. In 2001, he wrote a screenplay called Theseus, followed by a shorter version of the same story, titled Owen. There was also a two-page synopsis, referred to as Olympiad Version A, "another version of the same story," and a completed screenplay, Olympiad.
The other plaintiff, Barrette-Herzog, created an illustrated map, Island at the Edge of the Living World, to go with Owen's work.
Starting in January 2002, the complaint says, the pair pitched their creation to Sony and companies that do business with Sony, who then "actively collaborated with each other regarding Plaintiff's works." Acting on their behalf, L.A. attorney Judith Karfiol sent the materials on to the Monteiro-Rose Agency, Ken Sherman & Associates, and Josh Berman, all companies who "regularly do business" with Sony. Bissoon-Dath also pitched Olympiad directly, in October 2002, to Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The basic claim is that Sony's God of War, released in early 2005 after a development cycle that started at the same time as Bissoon-Dath submitted his screenplay to Sony, swiped "plot, story, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, relationships among characters, settings, tone, detail and sequence of events" from Bissoon-Dath's writings, and much of the in-game map from that made by Barrette-Herzon.
The specifics given as evidence of copying range from the eye-rolling ("conflicts between gods," and dual-wielded swords resemble "light sabers") to the eyebrow-raising (both maps having similarly-named regions in the same spots).
Included in the complaint are the following similarities between each work:
• A champion saves Athens from destruction by an invading Spartan army sent by Ares.
• The earthly conflict is mirrored on Mount Olympus as conflict between the gods.
• The champion is chosen by Zeus and Athena to embark on a quest distinguished by relentless hand-to-hand combat.
• The champion's family is murdered in their peaceful village. In both stories, the protagonist feels guilt for this, despite not being responsible, and seeks absolution through his quest. In the plaintiff's tale, he hides while his parents are hacked to death, while in God of War, the protagonist is tricked by Ares into killing his wife and child.
• Kratos, the protagonist of God of War possesses "brutish and animalistic" qualities modeled on the plantiff's bad guy, Gaylon: they are both Spartan commanders who worship Ares fanatically at the stories' outset. Much is made of their rage and lack of self-control, claimed to be an original element contrary to the general presentation of Spartans as disciplined and even-keeled soldiers.
• Kratos gets two glowing sword-like blades on chains fused to his wrists. Bissoon-Dath believes this is taken from a scene in his work where Zeus's hands "morph into two massive swords that glow like light sabers."
• The destruction of the hero's village and family, which serves to initiate a "turning point" in the hero's life. (Readers, put your Joseph Campbell away and stop laughing.)
• In both stories, the gods appear as expressionless statues around a pool of water, in which they see a vision of the Spartan commanders. The statues "morph" into life.
• The plaintiff's work depicts a region called the Bottomless Valley. God of War has a Bottomless Chasm. Both appear at the same point in the story, and are traversed by rickety suspension bridges.
• The gods, in both stories, try to resolve their disputes without resorting to destructive war. In particular, both stories contain a scene wherein Zeus admonishes Ares and Athena for their bickering. (Perhaps the complaint's author hasn't read The Iliad)
• Both stories depict Satyrs unusually. In Greek myth, the complaint says, satyrs are portrayed as "playful" lovers of wine, women and boys. In both the Olympus stories and God of War, however, they are "sinister minions" and soldiers of Hades.
• Both stories "redefine" gods as being mortal, in defiance of traditional myth.
Onto the maps.
Here's Barrette-Herzon's.
And here's the map from God of War.
• Barette-Herzog's map has a Meadow of Lost Souls flanked by dark silhouettes. God of War's in-game map has an area called the Desert of Lost Souls, flanked by similar figures. In each map, both regions are bordered by dark, triangular trees or mountains.
• Both maps use similar symbol for the hero's destination, a mountain range with a small, round door beneath the highest peak.
• Both maps have similar geography, with the sea at the bottom. "The look and feel of the maps and their layout is strikingly similar," writes the complaint's author.
Copyright in the U.S. applies automatically at the moment of creation: you don't have to register work with the Copyright office to get it. However, Bissoon-Dath neglected to register his stories until 2006, which could limit the damages he receives should he prevail. He did, however, file the works with private IP-registration databases in 2002, which may help establish his time-line.
First impression: most of the complaint riffs on extremely generic monomythic elements. Claiming propriety over heavenly conflicts mirroring those on Earth, for example, is quite ridiculous. A hero's journey starting with the death of his family, statues of gods coming to life, glowing weapons? Come, now... he even called them light sabers in his own original treatment. That bird will not fly.
The overall spread of structural similarities, however, is more striking: plot elements tied to specific imagery are just the sort of thing that can give a distinctive and novel character to even the most hackneyed retreads.
The maps are more convincing, to my mind, particularly the naming of and spacial relationships surrounding the "lost souls" areas. I can believe that whoever drew the latter saw the former.
Illustration: Sony
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so, both stories are set in Greece? Good enough for me!
You can always google greek mythology maps and you will see lots of similar maps. Not to mention all maps in fantasy books more or less look the same as the examples posted.
Sounds like they were both based on Greek mythology and had the typical fantasy elements.
I don't buy it. A lot of it seems very broad; as for the maps, both artists just used fairly basic visual symbolism, stuff that any art student might come up with. For example, the highest peak in a mountain range having a door in it symbolizing the hero's destination? I feel like if you asked 100 artists to solve the problem of showing an important destination on a map, at least half would come up with a solution like that.
Second DarrylB's point: the maps are about as similar to each other as they are to half the other fantasy maps.
My take on this: The complaint may be legitimate, may be mistaken, may be malicious... but proving it is going to be difficult.
Anyone over the age of 12 should be too embarrassed to claim ownership of these 'ideas'.
Gaylon?!
My inner 9th-grade class clown just got sent to detention by my inner Current Events teacher during my inner class discussion of this story.
Let's see...generic maps of greek mythology...
http://www.thanasis.com/undrmapr.jpg
(note the distinctive figures clustered near the center of the map! They are unburied souls! Perhaps they are...LOST!)
http://virgil.org/maps/images/cumae.gif
http://www.rickriordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/image008.jpg
I believe taht anyone looking at any of these could have created either of the maps shown in the suit. Also, if you label Cerberus as "3 headed dog" you automatically lose your lawsuit.
Also, what is the deal with the River Styx in the movie map? Two mouths and no source? On a plain?
Little in life is more annoying than a geologically illogical fantasy map.
I'm smacking my head wondering why I did'nt become a lawyer and sue on behalf of all the mapmakers who placed the sea at the bottom and all the characters who lost family due to divine intervention.
All sounds coincidental to me.
"The plaintiff's work depicts a region called the Bottomless Valley. God of War has a Bottomless Chasm. Both appear at the same point in the story, and are traversed by rickety suspension bridges."
Oh the audacity!
To succeed, the litigants will have to prove that Sony had access to their ideas and deliberately copied them no? If so, this seems like a huge uphill battle (I hereby lay claims to any battle which takes place on a hill, slant, mountain, ben, or other non-linear geographical structure -- hope y'all like fighting your battles in the Steppes!)
Being cynical: sounds like they thought they could grand some shush money from Sony and that didn't work.
Do people honestly think game designers sit around a boardroom saying, "hmm, what should we do in this level? Ah fuck it, let's steal this script here on the top of the pile. A HA! A bottomless chasm with a bridge! Genius!"
So much for my epic tale, "Leader of the Finger Jewelry" in three parts.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=222
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=146
anyone else think that the image of the character resembles, somewhat startlingly, the familiar face of Ben Kingsley?
This is pretty much crap. We all know that both of these is stolen from Clash of the Titans - the film that invented all this gods stuff!
(seriously though a lot of these "unique" elements do appear in Clash of the Titans)
Poppy Fields? Please tell me the path through there is paved in gold.
Also, Bent Tree Port? Really, that's the best name you can come up with? All of greek mythology to draw on, and that's the winner?
Dangerous precedent. If this goes through, with this few common points, the estate of JRR Tolkein is basically going to own every fantasy publisher in the world.
Guys, look at this objectively.
"Both stories depict Satyrs unusually. In Greek myth, the complaint says, satyrs are portrayed as "playful" lovers of wine, women and boys. In both the Olympus stories and God of War, however, they are "sinister minions" and soldiers of Hades."
I'd say that as Satyrs have (to my knowledge) hardly been given ANY modern treatment or twist (unlike vampires- TV Tropes Wiki has an entire trope labeled "Our Vampires Are Different"), this is good enough evidence in itself.
The different treatment of Spartans too.
And,honestly, with all the stagnant, unoriginal, eye-gougingly boring rehashing that's been prevalent throughout the industry for these past few years, it's would actually be less incredible that a successful game owes its unique flavor and plot to an outsider than to someone the company had on staff all these barren years.
Sinister Satyrs? You mean like in Pan's Labyrinth? Or the very first enemies you encounter in Titan's Quest (another game set in, get this, Greek Mythology!)? Creepy Satyrs even appear as enemies in Warcraft III. Fact of the matter is, take any mythological creature you can think of, and dollars to donuts, someone out there has employed them against type in some form of media. From friendly Vampires to evil Leprechauns, there aren't any new ideas left...
"Saw a lot of similarities, but - I'm pretty sure
that this was an adaptation of Star Wars."
"This Tolkien guy is a /HACK/!"
Satyrs have goat feet. With the notion that Satan has goat feet it isn't a stretch to think, "Hey, let's make that guy with goat feet evil!" I had a poster in college that had a Satyr on it in the background and my roommate's girlfriend wanted me to take it down because "anyone with goat feet are TEH DEVIL!!!"
This is just a replay of White Wolf's ridiculous lawsuit against Sony over "Underworld."
Oh noes ... they're stealing *our* tired, warn-out fantasy cliches.
Um. Don't ALL maps of Greece have the water at the bottom?
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/gr.htm
As far as satyrs go as being evil, has anyone played World of Warcraft? The satyrs in there are just plain evil. The movie Pans Labyrinth even had a villain looking similar to a satyr. Other videogames, Titan Quest, Diablo, Dungeon Siege, all have satyrs that wield bladed weapons and appear to be evil.
"I'd say that as Satyrs have (to my knowledge) hardly been given ANY modern treatment or twist"
Unless you have ever played the 80's paper and pencil RPG Runequest, where the half-goat/half man creatures are evil chaos worshippers. Satyr's in World of Warcraft appear to be evil as well (I don't play it).
Considering that God Of War needed to harvest Greet Mythology for all the monsters it could it's not surprising at all that satyrs would be on the list during the second game. If evil satyrs was such a great idea in the script I don't see why they would wait for the second game to include them?
Then of course there is the evil Mr. Tumnus...
Satyrs are used as enemies in Greek themed video games all the time. Diablo had satyr-like enemies, Titan Quest had satyr enemies -- heck, I've once worked on a prototype for a game that had satyrs as enemies and I can guarantee you I never read that movie script. Evil satyrs may be new in movies for all I know, but in video games they're run of the mill.
In other news: Frank Herbert claimed that George Lucas totally ripped off Dune for that film that he did that was set partially on a desert planet; Grant Morrison insisted that The Invisibles was completely original, unlike that trenchcoatfest that the Wachowskis made; egotistical writers everywhere claim no prior art exists for the circular device that enables transportation, aka the "wheel".
This is all about access. Did Jaffe and Sony really have access to the blind submission. This case falls apart unless they can prove without a doubt that Sony had their material in their hands. The argument that they gave their story material to Montiero-Rose a company that regularly does biz with Sony is stretching? Were the writers represented by this agency? Did the agency submit? And to whom?
Ideas are cheap and easy. Two asteroid movies? This seems like ambulance chasing to me.
New Law:
Cribbing Greek mythology nullifies your copyright on derivative work. Thank you for your vanishingly small contribution to the Creative Commons.
Good day.
Someone needs to look carefully at the timelines for these projects. Only one of the works is dated before God of War is even released. Indeed, the book in question has a website that was registered just a few days after the release of God of War.
http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/innovator/FallWinter2006/ClassNotes.pdf
http://whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=olympia420&tld=com
Bissoon-Dath believes this is taken from a scene in his work where Zeus's hands "morph into two massive swords that glow like light sabers."
And to think that Sony's vile corporate treachery has robbed us of seeing this amazing scene in theaters. This is how art dies.
("And then, Zeus is all like, 'So, NOW do you see my POINT?!' Get it? His point? Awesome, right?")
I had no time when putting this together: I dearly wanted to do art of an enraged, advancing Zeus with lightsabers for hands.
Since when was greek mythology an intellectual and original copyright?
And I'm sorry but if you know anything about greek mythology .. "Lost souls" is a pretty prevalent element.
The maps look similar but I have seen maps in greek mythology books drawn from countless artists that share striking similarities in names and layout. Big mountain peaks, an area for lost souls and its surrounded by forests and mountains.
Either way, none of these claims are outwardly impressive and just downright babyish.
Perhaps George Lucas should sue this dude for taking the light-saber likeness.
1) the map looks insanely similar to Tolkein's maps of middle earth (which contains the dead marshes, which alas is filled with lost souls)
2) the argument about the family being slaughtered... well the complainant's version sounds just about exactly like Selene from Underworld, where the Kratos version sounds almost exactly like what happened with Herakles' first family (he was tricked into putting on a shirt that drove him insane and he killed his family) So that point is gone.
3) mountain as hero's destination? The Hobbit perhaps? or maybe Lord of the Rings? I'm sure a little digging could find a number of other examples.
4) in Spartan: Total Warrior, a champion saves Sparta from an invasion from Rome. in Age of mythology a champion saves Atlantis from Pirates....
you know,this doesn't need to go on. They have no case.
The whole lawsuit is bogus. Evil satyrs have been around since at least King's Quest and those games are from the 1980s.
The maps are similar to ALL maps of that error. "Lost Souls" has been a prevailing part of Greek mythology as seen in the story of Persephone and the Illiad.
I agree that this dude has no case, if only for his "light sabers" description of Zeus' hands. What a joke.
Just going to point out that I believe Games Workshop has been using evil goatlike men (Beastmen) for years as well. And when I saw that, my thought was, "Hey, kind of interesting. But I'm sure it was taken from somewhere else, as all their material is inspired by something else and adapted to their setting."
Nothing is original anymore. At this point, everything is a variation. And when you dip into something as well known and loved as Greek mythology, you will be very similar to MANY other stories out there.
Now, if they had things truly unique like a massive temple bound to a Titan's back, I might believe their case. As it is, I don't think they have much ground to stand on.
Now, Jaffe and the rest of his crew need to get back to work on more God of War games and stop bothering them with this nonsense.
Why does everyone seem so surprised that the premise, or some premise, for God Of War might be stolen? It wouldn't surprise me one bit.
God of War is not an accurate take on Greek Mythology, and that's kinda what made it interesting. So to see something else like it, and a treatment where the deviations from the source material are so similiar is suspect.
PLUS, I think David Jaffe ripped off Philly punk band Big Attack's logo for his dev company EAT SLEEP PLAY:
big attack:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=13230830&albumID=1660793&imageID=44330587
eat sleep play:
http://blog.newsweek.com/photos/levelup/images/original/The-Eat-Sleep-Play-Logo.aspx
Oh, yeah. Following my post last night after I'd gone to bed I realized that, as pointed out above, the Devil/devils are very commonly portrayed as satyrs. It's not even a case of arguing resemblance, medieval artists were always using mythical Greek and Roman imagery in their religious art. I mean, the image of angels, robed in white with two wings comes directly from images of the Roman god Victory and the like. Eros->Cherub, Satyr->Satan, etc, etc.
Anyway, while he's at it this guy should sue George Lucas. Clearly, he invented the concept of dual wielding light sabers only to have Lucas steal the idea for Revenge of the Sith.
Dath is a lawyer turned writer turned lawyer again... Doing what he knows best - Suing because his "great work", wasn't bought by Sony and his book had low sales - So, he figures he'll get money from them one way or another... Hopefully the justice system will prevail...
I believe that this is complete bunkers! The maps don't look anything alike. Given, meadows of the lost souls is on the Middle left hand side and desert of the lost souls is in the middle of the map, but that similarity is not even close enough. If anybody should sue Sony, it should the Lord of the Rings. The Sony map looks like a closeup of Mordor with the mountain range on 3 sides, the same 3 sides as Mordor.