Did Activision Violate Arnold Schwarzenegger's Publicity Rights With Austrian Accented Thor?
from the i'll-be-baaaaack dept
Ah, the fun never stops with the still ambiguous world of publicity rights, a relatively recent, but growing field of “intellectual property” that has all sorts of problems. THREsq points us to a legal analysis of whether or not California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would have a publicity rights claim over the character “Thor,” found in Starcraft II. It’s hard to argue that the character isn’t based on Ahhh-nold, as it has his accent and repeats (sometimes paraphrased) famous Arnold lines from various movies:
That said, there’s no indication that Schwarzenegger is actually upset by this — and he apparently has not complained about other attempts to mimic his voice, such as with the Simpson’s character McBane. So, at this point, the post above appears to be idle speculation on how a publicity rights claim might play out. However, it seems like a sad commentary on the state of publicity rights law that it’s even worth considering whether such a creative choice by the gamemakers might break the law.
Filed Under: arnold scwarzenegger, publicity rights, starcraft ii, video games
Companies: activision
Comments on “Did Activision Violate Arnold Schwarzenegger's Publicity Rights With Austrian Accented Thor?”
common
I know two people who sound like this though, thats the problem. They sound VERY similar to the ‘Thor’ character. I even got one to repeat some phrases just for the laugh. Arnold does not own ‘male voice speaking English with Austrian accent’ … so is this about paraphrasing lines spoken by characters he’s portrayed in movies over the years?
Should be protected
McBane, Zombie MJ, and Thor should be protected by the parody laws. There should be no room for legal action.
These sort of things are why weed should be legal.
You hear about someone using something you see as your own and feel that they owe you something. You can either hit a bong and chill out, have a laugh and be happy people are influenced by your lifes works or you can be all American on them and sue.
I played through SC2 and didn’t notice the connection to Schwarzenegger. This suggests to me that any such claim would be a real stretch…
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or you were born after 1990, or you was never a big fan of his movies.
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Or you simply didn’t use Thors much. The standard Thors only feature specifically in one mission and a lot of players will skip them entirely in other missions.
Not too concerned about the publicity rights claim...
…but more concerned about a copyright claim from whichever Hollywood studio was responsible for the movies Predator, Terminator and True Lies for using actual lines from those movies in a commercial product.
well blah to this
The fact that the Govehnator isn’t complaining about this is to me a good sign in a way. But the fact that some people can think this could be taken in a way to bring it to the courts? thats just insane! I mean think about it. SC2 is insanely popular, to the point of it being all cult-ish. The fact that his voice was put into one of the most powerful terran units? In one of the most popular recent game releases world wide? I would take it as a compliment. also, if they wanted to take that to the courts, what about the rest of the Austrian population? wouldn’t they have to take them to the courts? I mean, its an accent that was the primary focus. The fact that they were using spoofs of popular lines was almost a side-note. Im just saying, i would take it as a compliment.
Blizzard copies too, so what?
The shot of the phantom’s rifle is stolen from the chaingun in Duke Nukem 3D. When is Blizzard getting sued?
You’ve been had, these are not the voices in the game for Thor but someone dubbed over it.
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Really? I’Ve bought the german version so I wouldn’t know. Besides, the first thing I turn off is unit chatter.
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That’s odd. The sounds in the vid are exactly the sounds in my US version of the game…
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I own the US version and that is the same voice track as in my version.
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This is the in-game voice. You either have a different version, or you’re trolling.
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Or the poster simply doesn’t know about the whole “click madly on units in Blizzard RTS titles to hear funny one liners” easter egg.
The dryads’s human call in WC3 is still one of their best 🙂
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u idiot its the exact same… i play the game daily.
Kill ’em all and let Gawd sort them out.
Just find a lawyer with an Austrian accent for when time comes to defend in a lawsuit. Would make it quite interesting if the defending lawyer also sound very similar to the Thor character in SC2.
Thor is...
“THOR IS HERE!”
Blizzard uses them in WoW heaps as well
Paris hilton, for example (another name, but very very close) who sells fashion.
There are many others as well, as well as the dances the avatars do are based on well known dance scenes from movies like Saturday night fevor, its all throughout the game.
But its makes it more fun and interesting.
Also the dance from “toxic” is used as well,
There used to be an ARNIE web site, that would generate random classic arnie statements, that you could download and use for your ring tone, or for error messages on your computer or whatever. its a bit of fun..
I would expect arnie would not care, ive seen him recieve alot of that type of comment in fun, and he enjoys it and treats it as the joke and fun it is.
Publicity is always a good thing.
What I don’t understand is why anyone would want to fight it in the first place. It’s publicity. Sure, you might not be getting royalties from it (or a similar pay out), but it’s not exactly bad publicity.
Someone like Arnold or Michael(estate) should be proud that their voice or appearance is so recognizable rather than try to censor everything similar to yourself.
I’ve always been told that any publicity is good publicity.
Re: Publicity is always a good thing.
The saying, “Any publicity is good publicity” only applies if you’re paying the company a fee to give them publicity or expect a lawsuit.
fick arnold the girly boy
oh arnold dont like violence now
are you collecting any royalties off terminator and conan movies?
how about total recall
NO violence there
SO i guess we’ll all see arnold do little house on the side street
Arnold doesn’t care about the violence in video games, it’s his legs glued at the news ugly wife that has the hard-on and Arnold follows along like an obedient puppy because it would cost him billions and most of his connections. His marriage to the Kennedy clan carries a lot of baggage and I pity the poor sucker. Over the hill with an ugly wife. Yikes. Poooooooor Arnooold
Arnold wasted the last 6 good years of his looks being the stupid Governor of a bankrupt, corrupt state that can never agree on a budget because of the special interests. He had to pay back his connections and make sure that they raped California along with America appropriately. Kinda like Reagan was. Now he’s just looks like an old fart with an ugly wife trying to matter to anyone besides himself. Nancy, Maria kinda like clones. Skinny, ugly, opinionated women with absolute control over their husbands.