Ubisoft is being sued by author John L Beiswenger, who claims the Assassin’s Creed franchise has a lot of similarities to his book, Link.
Link was published in 2003 and explores the possibility of accessing memories of people’s ancestors through science. These memories can also be relived. You’ll notice that this is what Desmond is doing through the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Link also makes some references to assassinations, as well as religious and spiritual themes.
Beiswenger is suing Ubisoft for a minimum of $1.05 million, though this could rise to $5.25 million if the ruling judge believes that Ubisoft did infringe the copyright. Beiswenger also wants Assassin’s Creed III and other future related franchise merchandise to be prevented from being sold.
Source: GI.biz
Taylor Made
so this guy finally decides to sue ubisoft, what did he do just started playing assassin creed to notice this? where has he been AC been out for how many years
nofi
So?
Taylor Made
so basically what ‘brillerment’ said below lol
bigbaldwolf
Believe it or not. Not everyone knows about games and plays them. He may have been told about it by someone else and has decided to act on it
philzy85
True, but why wait for 5, almost 6, editions of the game before ‘letting him know about it’
yogdog
Because it could have randomly come up in a conversation sometime, or no-one he knows plays the games until recently etc etc.
I agree it’s extremely unlikely he didn’t know about the Assassins Creed games until recently and it’s a bit suspicious it’s taken so long for him to start up a case, but it’s not outside the realms of possibility that he genuinely didn’t know about the series until recently.
lurch79
ok fair enough the guy may not play games or heard of them but they have had the books out of the games for a while now that tell the story of assassins creed
GhostViper
Huh, did not see that coming.
brillerment
There’s apparently been research into memories being carried in our DNA since the 1960’s. I think this is just an attempt to make a quick buck. There was even a movie following similar lines in the 1980s “Altered States”, based on a book written by John C Lilly. So who is really copying who anyway?
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0706/dnamemory.html
Maybe not the most trustworthy site, but still.
Sympozium
Hope Ubisoft wins through this. Pure greed
hazelam
you’ve read his book?
you know his claim is without merit?
i mean, a software developer would never steal somebody else’s ideas now would they?
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/04/12/eas-command-and-conquer-vehicles-look-a-bit-like-warhammers/
Klart
Didi you read the follow up article? Apparently there was no foul play involved…
hazelam
yeah, if you believe ea.
which i don’t.
Death_In_Flamez
I can see a similarity to using plastic cheese and normal cheddar cheese on burgers. Now I know for certain Burger King has been making burgers longer than my Mum but that sir is not plagarism.
Awayze
Pathetic, the guy just wants to make a quick buck.
hazelam
without having read his book i won’t make any definite statements.
it does look like a bit of a cash grab, but then i wouldn’t put it past ubisoft to have stolen the guys ideas.
MrSpeedyGonzales
I do wonder about the hippocracy (I don’t know if that’s how you spell it or not) of gamers. They complain about newspapers being biased against games with out having any facts to back it up, but if a story comes out when a games company might actually be in the wrong they defend it with out having any facts.
I believe innocent until proven guilty.
Btw, this wasn’t ago at TSA reporting.
Porcupine_I
i heard harper lee is going to sue rovio over angry birds
Bladesteel
If I’m not mistaken it takes a whole lot more than a few plot elements being similar for it to count as plagiarism (otherwise we wouldn’t see many new books). So unless the plot in AC is close to a carbon copy I can’t see how this is anything other than a money grab.
PoorPaddy89
Definitely. Unless there is an email or something between UbiSoft employees that says “Hey, this book is awesome! Let’s make a game about this kinda thing,” this really shouldn’t get anywhere.
a inferior race
Could still prevent further editions being sold without royalties though.