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Author Files Lawsuit Over Assassin’s Creed Story
In my opinion, the whole Animus memory-machine business that features heavily in the Assassin’s Creed storyline is absurd, and pretty much unnecessary. Why can’t the game just follow bad-ass assassins through time and be done with it? Is the Desmond component really an integral part of the whole experience?
Well, regardless of how I feel about it, American author John Beiswenger has filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, alleging that the Animus plot device is ripped off from his 2002 novel Link, in which people use a laboratory machine to relive the experiences and memories of their historical ancestors. Beiswenger alleges 11 counts of copyright infringement, says a post on Gamasutra. The post mentions that Link also features references to assassins and assassinations.
Interestingly, Gametrailers is also mentioned in the suit, apparently because they hosted trailers for games in the Assassin’s Creed series. All told, the author is seeking damages of up to $5.25 million and for an end to be put to these alleged copyright infringements.
After searching Amazon for Beiswenger’s book, it doesn’t come up unless you add the author’s name. Part of that is probably because “Link” is not a particularly unique name for a book. But once I did find it, I saw that it had one review (five stars!) and was self-published by the author.
Now, I’m not going to come out and criticize a guy who wrote and published his own novel. Just the act of writing it is a ton of work, and book publishing is a ridiculous field to break into. But I also kind of doubt that a claim of intentional infringement can be established here—if that is, in fact, a claim that Beiswenger’s attorneys would have to prove. Moreover, there have been pop culture references to using machines to experience past lives for a while. Albert Brooks’s great comedy, Defending Your Life comes to my mind:
So far, Ubisoft has yet to comment on the suit. What do you think?
Via Gamasutra
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What do I think?
I think the guy is a dick. If his book was actually about the whole story of Assassin’s Creed (ie Assassins and Templars in a fight for power etc) he may have a point. But his claim is for something that isn’t unique enough for him to claim as his own. Time travel is a story mechanic that has been around for hundreds of years, Assassin’s Creed gives a bit more a scientific spin on that mechanic.
And now the guy wants to ruin it for the rest of us. Assassin’s Creed is one of the best stories in gaming history, and WAYYY more successful than his book.
I doubt he will win his case anyway.
Yeah it is a dick move from his part.And yes he definetly won’t win this case.But the problem is if the book was published back in 2002 why only now did he file the law suite.In my opinion he just want’s publicity , even if it is in bad way it will still make him more known and his book , which may lead an interest for more readers to buy his book so he will make more money.He filed his law suite only now because there is a lot of hype behind the upcoming AC , also it’s a “AAA” title in my opinion and very well known.
So yeah he just want’s a little more cash.
Nice point of wiev man! :-)
look at the customer comments about his book on amazon, doing this has not helped him at all
Not gonna go anywhere. Ubisoft has money for that stuff.
One of the benefits of having a publishing power house behind you. Little things like this won’t effect the game too much…. hopefully.
I-I was robbed too!!! I wrote a book about a genetically altered super soldier named John 118. He fought an alien race called the Covey and had an AI in his head called Katana. I can haz monay naow, rite?