Florida Joker is in the news again, this time demanding to speak with Rockstar Games, or to be given $1-2 million over his likeness in GTA 6.
Florida Joker is in the news again, this time demanding to speak with Rockstar Games, or to be given $1-2 million over his likeness in GTA 6.
Put yourself in his shoes for a second. You have appeared on TV over something you did. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Then you realize some game company that’s making a parody of the society you live in use your image and personality traits that are directly identifiable to you to create a character that parodies YOU. And they put this other YOU in various scenarios that you may or may not agree with. And they’re going to pull a hefty profit from using this version of YOU while you don’t receive a penny.
Does that sound fair?
Yes? They’re not using his likeness, they’re using a parody.
Should Trump be compensated if they use a parody of him in a video game? E.g. should Trump profit from this game?
I can understand if they use an actual likeness, but a parody isn’t an actual likeness, it’s a new character that’s a satirized version of an actual person, so their actions in game wouldn’t be construed to match the actions of the satirized person. That’s how parody works, and it’s absolutely protected speech and doesn’t require compensation.
Ah. Good point. You might be right. Well we’ll see how it turns out.
It’s a likeness, not the same. It’s a parody which is clearly covered by law and there are thousands of similar examples.