Lindsay Lohan Suing Rockstar over GTA5
There aren’t too many lawsuits in the gaming industry but this one is certainly going to get a bit of attention. Actress Lindsay Lohan is planning to sue Rockstar Games over using her likeness in Grand Theft Auto V and reports indicate the plan is to ask for a lot of money.
This would be the first report of any sort that Lohan’s likeness was used in GTA5 but TMZ says that Lohan and her lawyers think that her image was used without permission by Rockstar in the game.
In specific, TMZ notes that there are three possible instances that could be the basis of Lohan’s suit:
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The video game cover shows a woman holding a cellphone who looks Lindsay-ish. There’s been debate over whether it looks more like Kate Upton or Shelby Welinder.
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Part of the game features a mission where a Lindsay Lohan look-alike asks the player to take her home and escape the paparazzi.
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Another part of the game shows another Lindsay-like character at a hotel resembling the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood — a place Lindsay not only frequents but once lived at — and the mission is to photograph her having sex on camera.
Well, The Daily Dot says that the game’s cover model is Shelby Welinder though fan speculation included Upton, Candice Swanepoel, Yvonne Strahovski and YouTube’s iJustine.
I’m not a lawyer but I think that using Lohan’s likeness in events parodying her actual real-life exploits would be allowable under fair use. I know they would be in Canada but I couldn’t tell you about American parody fair use laws.
This isn’t the first lawsuit by Lohan asserting that someone is using her name or likeness to make money. She once sued E-Trade for a character in an E-Trade baby commercial referred to as a “milkaholic” named Lindsay claiming that they were trying to make money by using her name in the commercial. She’s also sued Pitbull for defamation after a line in his hit “Give Me Everything.”
Sources: Daily Dot, GameSpot, Hollywood Reporter, Legal As She Is Spoke, TMZ
Posted on December 3, 2013, in Games and tagged Grand Theft Auto V, GTA5, Lindsay Lohan, Rockstar Games. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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