Almost a year ago, the complaint that actress Lindsay Lohan made to Rockstar Games for the alleged appropriation and exploitation of her image rights without consent in ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ was dismissed after a long judicial process that began shortly after the game’s launch . Today, Rockstar is in a somewhat similar situation , although the funny thing is that ‘GTA: Vice City’, the title in question, came out in 2002 for PS2.
Let’s be clear: ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’ is a true accumulation of eighties tributes, although there was also room for more contemporary winks. Indeed, one of the characters in the game was Auntie Poulet , the leader of the Haitian gang from Vice City and to whom the self-proclaimed media shaman Youree Dell Cleomili Harris (popularly known as Miss Cleo) lent her voice and her exotic accent.
Now is where things go wrong: the recently deceased Harris was part of the Psychic Readers Network, an association dedicated to offering mystical services that owns the rights to the character of Miss Cleo and that has recently taken legal action against Rockstar . The reason? According to TMZ, Psychic Readers Network considers that Rockstar took advantage of the figure of Miss Cleo to promote ‘GTA: Vice City’.
According to TMZ, the Psychic Readers Network indicates in the lawsuit that it has spent 100 million dollars to create and promote the character of Miss Cleo , while noting that Rockstar has made more than 500 million with ‘Vice City’, exploiting and benefiting from a figure that it was not their property and without the corresponding consent of their owners.
Regardless of whether the character’s design corresponds to that of a Caribbean lady with a kind of turban, an image related to Miss Cleo, the truth is that it is striking that this process begins fifteen years after the game went on sale.
To date, Rockstar – through a representative – has let TMZ know that they are willing to defend themselves, although we do not know if the process will end up dragging on for years as it happened in the case of Rockstar against Lindsay Lohan. What is clear is that the Psychic Readers Network has little to lose.
These claims are absolutely pointless and completely ridiculous. We will defend ourselves vigorously from everything that has to do with this matter
Fifteen years later, the city of Vice City continues to raise sensitivities and certain controversies. Of course, on this occasion it can be said that the scoundrel Tommy Vercetti had nothing to do with it … or did he?
Via | TMZ
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