Retired World Championship Wrestling professional Maxx Payne filed a $10 million lawsuit against a group of video software developers for allegedly stealing his persona to create the game "Max Payne."
The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court against Rockstar Games Inc., 3D Realms Entertainment, Gathering of Developers and Remedy Entertainment Ltd.
"I left wrestling to come home to Utah and be with my family and I find myself in the biggest battle of my life to save my identity," said the ex-fighter, whose real name is Darryl Peterson. "They stole something from me that I'm not going to give up."
Peterson said he introduced the Payne persona_ also known as Maximum Payne, Max Pain and Lucifer Payne in 1988, and uses it in commercials, voice-overs and movies.
A spokesman for Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games and Gathering, declined to comment. Spokesmen for the other companies did not immediately return calls.
(Credit: Yahoo!)
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If Rockstar is "stealing" Maxx's identity, who knows who they will steal next! But for real, I haven't heard or seen anything about this game so I don't know.
(edited by XPacArmy on 26.7.03 1746) Homer: I want to set the record straight: I thought the cop was a prostitute.
Boy, it sure took him a while to do anything about it. If he were really upset, you'd imagine that he would have filed the lawsuit over a year ago, when the game came out.
This sort of delayed filing makes me automatically suspect that he invested several months in finding out whether he could get any money out of Rockstar Games before he came forward with his horror and indignation about what's happening to "his" — I mean Maxx's — I mean, Darryl's — identity.
For the record, I don't remember Maxx Payne doing any bullet-time gameplay stuff in the ring. Absolutely no Matrix moves at all.
God this is Spike TV all over again, when will people learn that extorion is illegal? Does Maxx Payne even own his wrestling persona's name Maxx Payne like say a wrestler like Sting who owns and copyrights the name Sting. Will a lawmaker please stand up and stop all these frivolous, bullshit lawsuits?
"Just a humble bounty hunter, ma'am." -Spike Spiegel
Originally posted by Jeb Tennyson LundBoy, it sure took him a while to do anything about it. If he were really upset, you'd imagine that he would have filed the lawsuit over a year ago, when the game came out.
That's exactly what *I* said! The minute this game came out, I was screaming "LAWSUIT!" at my TV screen.
Originally posted by Jeb Tennyson LundThis sort of delayed filing makes me automatically suspect that he invested several months in finding out whether he could get any money out of Rockstar Games before he came forward with his horror and indignation about what's happening to "his" — I mean Maxx's — I mean, Darryl's — identity.
If this is true, then Maxx is much smarter than any of us ever gave him credit for. He could be in for quite a substantial payday. (Or in Dusty-ese, "He's headed to the PAYWINDAH!")
Originally posted by Jeb Tennyson LundFor the record, I don't remember Maxx Payne doing any bullet-time gameplay stuff in the ring. Absolutely no Matrix moves at all.
If he's in it for the money (which I have to assume he is, since I doubt he stays up at night crying that kids the world over are using a video game hero with his fake wrestling name) then I have to think he sat back at home watching the game's sales, and then suing when the company had collected a whole bunch of money from it.
But Jesus, is "Max Pain" (any spelling) *really* that original of a fake name? I mean, it'd be different if his name was "Mike Hawk", the greatest of all fake names, but his is pretty lame.
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Jeb: If you have a cause of action for misappropration, it would be better to wait around to see how much money they make, and sue for a percentage of profits, rather than be told by a court that any damage award would be "speculative." I mean, he would be able to sue for injunctive relief, but who wants to take a Rockstar game off the shelves.
But legalities aside, you gotta feel for the guy. If he ever comes back to wrestling, you know the fans will be chanting "Bullet-time!" at him...
Boy, is he ever gonna be pissed when he finds out about the `Man Mountain Rock' game on X-Box. At least that case will have some merit: you destroy your enemies by walloping them over the head with a block logo-shaped guitar.
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The voice is one of the key to all. I swore they imitated Peterson's voice, if not Peterson himself. He might have negotiated with Rockstar before, and was shoved aside.
If Sony got a woman named Sony to change the name of her eponymous electronics store, then Max does have a case.
The divas should not be about T&A, they should be about Kicking A.
Props to the guy with the "pay windah" line....maybe it's because it's way late right now, but for some reason Dustyisms are still funny to me.
If Maxx Payne is going to get some cash out of this, won't he have to prove that his identity has somehow been negatively impacted or devalued by the video game? And to do so, won't he have to prove that being Maxx Payne had some kind of value to begin with? I'd love to hear him try and argue that.
This is completely different than the Spike TV/Spike Lee fiasco.
First off TNN wasn't changing it's name to Spike Lee TV. Secondly, Spike Lee doesn't have the name Spike copyrighted.
If Maxx Payne has the name copyrighted than he should win the case. Even if he doesn't, he still has a legitimate claim to the name.
I know I remember him as Maxx Payne (not the god-awful Man Mountain Rock), the man that teamed with Cactus Jack in some of the most insane American wrestling I had seen up to that point in my life.
Also of note: Sting owns the rights to his name and could have made millions upon millions of dollars if he chose to sue Sting(the singer).