Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

[FBall Life]

Re: Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

Wait wait wait, here's the thing. Even during a live broadcast, NFL players are still being "recreated", including their tattoos. It's called "video". But if we wanted to stick with the "needing to be recreated by an artist" point, what if the tattoos were scanned in, like the faces? An artist isn't recreating them, they're essentially taking photos of the tattoos and digitizing them. Seems like they could get around all this mess with this method, no?

[Sheba2011]

Re: Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

The NFL player happens to have ink. Ink that he PAID for. That art is now HIS.

The right to the art is not his. Anything of artistic expression can be covered under copyright law and there have been several high profile cases of this recently (Mike Tyson/Hangover 2) where the judges have ruled in favor of the artist saying a tattoo is no different than a song, sculpture or painting. If you pay for a song on Itunes, you own the song you don't own the rights to the song. You can't reproduce it without the authors consent.

[aholbert32]

Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

Wait wait wait, here's the thing. Even during a live broadcast, NFL players are still being "recreated", including their tattoos. It's called "video". But if we wanted to stick with the "needing to be recreated by an artist" point, what if the tattoos were scanned in, like the faces? An artist isn't recreating them, they're essentially taking photos of the tattoos and digitizing them. Seems like they could get around all this mess with this method, no?

I think you need to look up the definition of re-creation. You aren't recreating someone by filming them and broadcasting the video. You are in a video game. You are creating a digitized version of them and if they have tattoos, you are creating a digitized version of that artwork. You need permission to do that under copyright law. Fair use isn't a defense in this situation.

[Hooe]

Re: Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

Bump, from USA Today about Madden and the tattoo situation and how the NFL is different from the NBA:

The NBA has a different licensing agreement with their players than the NFL does with theirs. In the NBA, if their tattoos are on their skin, they are technically owned by that player and can therefore be used in games and whatnot. In the NFL, they are owned by the tattoo artist.

So that answers that question.

[aholbert32]

Re: Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

Bump, from USA Today about Madden and the tattoo situation and how the NFL is different from the NBA:



So that answers that question.

Thanks. Whats likely is that the NBA has agreed to indemnify any tattoo artist who brings a copyright infringement suit against EA/2k. That indemnity is passed on from the players to the league to EA/2k.

For example, I'm a tattoo artist and I ink John Wall. The Wall tattoo appears in NBA2k15 and I sue 2k. 2k would then turn to the NBA who would then turn to Wall. Wall would have to cover the legal fees/settlement for all three parties against me.


The NFL isnt willing to do that and the NFLPA doesnt grant them indemnification rights when it comes to tattoos. So EA has to go to each person. Still no reason why they cant use fake tats.