Gamertell

The MKR Group, which holds the rights to the horror flick Dawn of the Dead (1978) and its 2004 remake, has finally decided to drag Japanese publisher Capcom to court claiming that the latter’s game Dead Rising (2006) encroaches upon the copyright and trademark of the movie. It has filed an official complaint against Capcom at the US District Court in New York.

According to a report by Reuters, MKR group has claimed that both Dead Rising and Dawn of the Dead provide “thoughtful social commentary on the ‘mall culture’ zeitgeist,” while drawing parallels between the flagrant violence featured in them.

Dead Rising, an Xbox 360 exclusive, was released in August 2006, and sold more than 1 million copies within first five months of its release. The game takes place in an expansive, zombie-infested shopping mall just like the movie. This similarity in the central themes has rubbed the MKR Group the wrong way. The company had previously sent letters to Microsoft and Best Buy notifying them of its claims. However, Capcom was quick to rebuff those claims, as it believes that the zombie-vs-humans-in-a-mall theme can not be protected by copyrights.

Read [Reuters] Also Read [BBC] Also Read [Wired]