Japanese giant Sony are feeling the heat of the Church's ire after an unfortunate legal oversight. The BBC reports that the heads of Manchester Cathedral are considering suing the software publisher if first person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man isn't removed from shelves. Apart from the usual arguments citing the effects of violent games on the populace, the religious leaders suggest irresponsibility because the game features interiors of the Cathedral which were used without permission.
Sony are pleading innocence, claiming that while the interior shots are replicas of the holy building, the work is fiction, and therefore should be protected under fair use. Indeed, the CGI structure is in serious disarray after attacks from all sides by evil aliens. To remove it even further from reality, there's nary a parishioner in sight.
However, fists are shaking because of the game's violent theme, partly set in the city which has its fair share of gun crime.
Now I'm not a legal scholar, but I'd like to posit that this high-level dispute may have implications for the types of content that could be included in low-level independent and user-generated game development circles. At what point do the overseers of a real location need to be alerted to its use in a videogame? Why aren't the creators of McDonalds: The Game and Disaffected! (set in a Kinko's Copy store) getting their souls smite-d by these big businesses?
