A former tattoo artist is taking WWE and video game publisher 2K Games to court over the reproduction of her work on championship wrestler Randy Orton, claiming copyright infringement. So, that’s interesting.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, former tattoo artist Catherine Alexander is taking the WWE and 2K Games to court after someone from WWE’s legal department laughed off her desire to negotiate over reproductions of her work back in 2009. In this case, her work includes six tattoos currently installed on wrestler Randy Orton’s skin.
Part of the WWE game development process includes creating photorealistic representations of real wrestlers, so that fans get the experience of playing as, or against, their favourites. It’s sort of the whole point of these sports-related games. Alexander takes issue with this and with plans to recreate Orton’s tattoo sleeve as a wearable item, citing copyright infringement, as she never gave them permission to reproduce her work beyond photos and video footage. Although, it isn’t mentioned if she ever discussed potential copyright issues with Orton prior to him getting the tattoos.
In related news, a company attempted to sue Take-Two for copyright infringement, back in March, over tattoos appearing on LeBron James, Kenyon Martin, and Eric Bledsoe in the NBA video games, but failed.
One could argue that the tattoos are only of value because they are on Randy Orton; a famous person with fans. That’s not to say that the designs themselves don’t have artistic value, but who they’re attached to is key. Even if you flayed Randy Orton and made a charmingly bohemian lamp with the tattooed bits, the fact that it was made from Randy Orton would be the selling point.
Than again, tattoos are art and you generally can’t reproduce art without a licencing fee if you’re going to be making money from it.
Discuss.