Psychic Readers Network Claims GTA: Vice City Character Infringes on Rights to Miss Cleo’s TV Persona
Rockstar was recently hit with another GTA-related lawsuit, but this one was for their 15-year-old game, GTA: Vice City. Adding more juice to the story, the lawsuit comes from the Psychic Readers Network, who owns the right of the TV psychic Miss Cleo, as they feel that a character in that game violated their rights by using Miss Cleo’s likeness. Adding to that claim, they said Rockstar even hired the actress who used to play Miss Cleo in real life, Youree Harris, and had her voice the character of Auntie Poulet.
To these claims, Rockstar has responded to TMZ who originally broke the story, “These claims are entirely meritless and completely ridiculous. We will vigorously defend ourselves with regard to this matter.”
A quick visit to Psychic Readers Network’s site shows that they are moving into the tech field with some sort of Facetime-a-psychic service. I tried dabbling with starting such a call to see if they could predict my dinner choices, but sadly, the site’s usage of Flash clashed with my browser.
Rockstar was famously hit with a failed lawsuit when Lindsay Lohan sued the company for allegedly using her likeness in the game’s cover. Hopefully, the company will get through this legal BS soon enough.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz