Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

[redsox4evur]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

So every time a player gets a new tat the NBA has to get permission from the artist to broadcast them on TV? What if LeBron gets a new tat and the artist says no? Are they going to make him cover it up/not play?

I have no idea about TV. But in videogames that's how it works.

[SirGaryColeman]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

Karma for making all these little kids buy VC?

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

The eight infringed-on designs include a child's portrait and script scrolls with clouds and doves on LeBron James' forearms and butterflies on Kobe Bryant's arm.

This made me chuckle.

Dibs on the NBA 2K17 "Where's Kobes butterfly's at?" thread

[Kully]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

I would start expecting tattoos to not show up in game. Going to have to get waivers for practically every player in the NBA lol.

[Yuss]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

The NBA players will have to get the waivers from the artists if they want their tattoos in the game.

I doubt every player goes through the trouble to do that, so next year there will be less tattoos in the game.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

I expect the courts to knock this nonsense off eventually. The can of worms that they'd be opening letting people put copyright claims on tattoos would be insane. Like Two Four mentioned what's next, you gonna let dudes start putting in claims for hair cuts? The NBA going to have to blur out every tattoo on every player in league history to show old games on tv, release their championship DVDs for the Finals winning teams? It's a bad precedent to set allowing tattoo artist to start suing for copyrights knowing damn well that their inking guys who's jobs are to be filmed/visible in the public eye. They're getting free exposure to millions by the guys wearing their ink in the first place and are getting greedy now. Reading the story that thing said this company "acquired" the rights to the tattoos last year. They're suing over a tattoo that Kobe has had on his body and in 2K games for about a decade now. That ain't right.

[redsox4evur]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

I expect the courts to knock this nonsense off eventually. The can of worms that they'd be opening letting people put copyright claims on tattoos would be insane. Like Two Four mentioned what's next, you gonna let dudes start putting in claims for hair cuts? The NBA going to have to blur out every tattoo on every player in league history to show old games on tv, release their championship DVDs for the Finals winning teams? It's a bad precedent to set allowing tattoo artist to start suing for copyrights knowing damn well that their inking guys who's jobs are to be filmed/visible in the public eye. They're getting free exposure to millions by the guys wearing their ink in the first place and are getting greedy now. Reading the story that thing said this company "acquired" the rights to the tattoos last year. They're suing over a tattoo that Kobe has had on his body and in 2K games for about a decade now. That ain't right.

Really? So tell me who did the ink on Andre Iguodala? This should be easy to answer as these guys are getting all this exposure.

[ksuttonjr76]

Seems like a money grab lawsuit....2K Sports will probably settle out of court, then make sure to have something in place for the next up and coming ambulance chasing lawyer. Also, let's not start pretending this is "Doh!" moment for 2K Sports. Tattoos have been in the game for a while now, and no such lawsuits were filed before. It's just a situation where someone thought of it, tried it, and won. Now, everyone wants a piece of that pie.

24th Letter might have been joking, but I can see barbers wanting to sue over their "Patented Haircut".

[kadzier]

Re: Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

All I'm hoping is this somehow gets resolved without having to straight-up remove the tattoos.

Seeing Colin Kaepernick with bare arms in madden was the most jarring thing ever.

[ChaseB]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

I expect the courts to knock this nonsense off eventually. The can of worms that they'd be opening letting people put copyright claims on tattoos would be insane. Like Two Four mentioned what's next, you gonna let dudes start putting in claims for hair cuts? The NBA going to have to blur out every tattoo on every player in league history to show old games on tv, release their championship DVDs for the Finals winning teams? It's a bad precedent to set allowing tattoo artist to start suing for copyrights knowing damn well that their inking guys who's jobs are to be filmed/visible in the public eye. They're getting free exposure to millions by the guys wearing their ink in the first place and are getting greedy now. Reading the story that thing said this company "acquired" the rights to the tattoos last year. They're suing over a tattoo that Kobe has had on his body and in 2K games for about a decade now. That ain't right.

Pretty sure there's a difference between being broadcast on TV and selling an actual product based around the re-creation of said authentic player.

EA got sued over this and took it on the chin, I'm more surprised it took this long than anything as it never made sense why one company was then super careful about this for a football game yet nobody else was trying to avoid the issue.

That being said, Live has lots of tatts now too though doesn't it?

[headzapp]

Re: Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

Imagine having a tattoo and not actually owning it. There should be a law made that when you get work done on your body, you then own it and the rights.

[ksuttonjr76]

Re: Makers of NBA2K sued for using players' tattoos without permission

Really? So tell me who did the ink on Andre Iguodala? This should be easy to answer as these guys are getting all this exposure.

It's free exposure and advertising. It's on the individuals who sees it to decide to go "Hmmmm...that's a sweet tattoo. I wonder who did that? Let me find out". Tattoos are basically walking ads on human bodies.

However, how do we know they're NOT getting increased celebrity traffic as a result of NBA/NFL/etc players wearing their tattoos?

[ksuttonjr76]

Re: Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

All I'm hoping is this somehow gets resolved without having to straight-up remove the tattoos.

Seeing Colin Kaepernick with bare arms in madden was the most jarring thing ever.

That actually happened??? Wow...that's crazy. I didn't know. That would trip me out if I fired up NBA 2K17, and they removed all the tattoos from Paul George. It would be worse for NBA games, because so much of their body is exposed due to their uniforms.

[Old School Fool]

Re: Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

That actually happened??? Wow...that's crazy. I didn't know. That would trip me out if I fired up NBA 2K17, and they removed all the tattoos from Paul George. It would be worse for NBA games, because so much of their body is exposed due to their uniforms.

Only like 3 players in Madden have tattoos. It's a joke.

[BBallcoach]

Greedy tattoo artists. Once you put it on someone's body, it's their decision to do with it. You don't own that work, the person who paid for it does. If lebron doesn't care, then you don't deserve anything. You got paid for them once.