An American novelist and product researcher, John Beiswenger, has sued Ubisoft over the story for Assassin’s Creed, claiming that Ubi‘s game infringes on elements of his novel, Link. In particular Ubi’s Animus is supposedly similar to his “conception and creation of a link device and process whereby ancestral memories can be accessed, recalled, relived, and re-experienced by the user.“
Beiswenger also note that both his book and the Assassin’s Creed series deal with “the battle between good and evil” and “spiritual and biblical tones“, along with the idea of assassination. The copyright infringement suit also seems to take issue with the fact that both works use the words “link“, “synchronize” and “assassins” repeatedly.
Ars Technica quotes Dallas attorney Mark Methenitis as saying about the case that, “The level of comparison they’re trying to make would be along the lines of both Back to the Future and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure have time machines as plot devices, so one must be infringing the other.“
Beiswenger wants between $1.05 and $5.25 million for the alleged infringement by Ubisoft. Oh and he also wants to stop the release of Assassin’s Creed 3. Ubisoft, when questioned, said that they do not comment on ongoing litigation.
We did some checking up on the novel in question, Link. It is, as noted in the suit, available at several outlets including Amazon.com, where several people have taken to bombing the title with bad reviews following the news that he was suing Ubi. We also noted that the book was published by Infinity Publishing, which specialises in self-publishing. Since it seems to only be available online, proving whether or not anyone who worked on Assassin’s Creed actually read the book may not be too difficult since it will probably appear in their purchase history.
Sources :
Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-18-writer-sues-ubisoft-over-assassins-creed-story
Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/04/sci-fi-author-sues-ubisoft-over-assassins-creed-copyright-infringement.ars?
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It took him this long to decide to sue and say its his story? Please
He was busy reading his book still.
I`m more interested in the release of AC3. Ubisoft will just have to handle this and keep the press informed
Americans sue each other for the dumbest things. His book was probably a bad read and wasn’t that good so now he wants to get money from another source. Idiot.
wow. games have books ?????????
LOL!!! sound more like he copied AC’s story
Well, this is unfortunate if true. If not, they should wrap this thing up. I needs me some AC3.
Well, an interesting comment from one Amazon user: “Published in 1981, the short story “They Died Twice” by Alan Hathaway included, among other things, a machine developed for the express purpose of delving into ancestral memories. “Link” is a clear rip-off of this now 31 year old classic tale. While this reviewer would nominally ignore such things as there is no such thing as a new idea, the author’s insistence of suing a company for essentially the same thing he did in 2003 deserves a low rating. “