June 11, 2007
CNN is now reporting that Church of England officials want Sony to pay up for its unauthorized use of Manchester Cathedral in PS3 shoot 'em up Resistance: Fall of Man.Church official met today to discuss the controversy, which The Very Reverend Rogers Govender (left), Dean of Manchester Cathedral, described as "beyond belief." Official also drew up a list of demands. According to CNN these include:
1.) Church leaders want the game removed from shop shelves or modification of the section of the game to remove the Cathedral interior.
2.)They also want an apology from the company for using "realistic photo quality" images of its building without permission.
3.) Govender said the church would also seek a donation to be used in its work with young people. He did not specify how much the company would be asked to pay.
Govender urged Sony to get in touch with the church within the next few days to discussed the points raised by church leaders, and hoped the two parties would be able to find a "mutually satisfactory conclusion."
The Times has more.
GamePolitics is running a poll on the Cathedral controversy, located on the right sidebar. Be sure to vote!
Comments
This is why Sony can't answer outright if they got rights or not, they weren't involved in it except for publishing purposes. They are confident that Insomniac got some rights or whatever.
The church obviously doesn't remember seeing a Sony donator for "donations" so they think that since it came on their system, it is their fault.
Anyway, I hope the church gets a single Euro at most, otherwise it just shows the reverend needs more sterling to buy some TV he wants or something. I don't know if he uses it to harbor little boys, that's just another thought that isn't' needed for this situation, so I don't think people need to assume molestation for this case.
The game could have been set in a different environment: they did not have to choose a religious, holy or sacred space - call it what you will.
- racial intolerance
- religious intolerance
- animal sacrifice
- selling your daughter into slavery
- killing anyone who works on a Sunday
- the stoning to death of disobedient children
- torture
- genocide
- ...
I understand this is not a discussion on religion in general. I just wanted to bring up these points so I could ask the following in light of the above: How can an institution based on a book that promotes any of the above items possibly claim that a GAME should be pulled from shelves, lest its "good name" be sullied?
Not trying to offend any Christians here. Just pointing out how baseless the church's claims are, even before the issues of copyright, public space, and architecture come into play. To claim that a game might make the church look bad is just preposterous and shows a complete ignorance of what the church is, what it has done in years past, what it is still doing today, and what it will do yet again in years to come. If they're so concerned about their image, games set in churches should be the least of their worries.
I am only worried about one thing, to avoid having to deal with this whole fiasco Sony might just opt to payup, without changing the vid game or anything else.
You might say that they are a business so spending money like this would hurt them but consider they would be DONATING the cash and hence that makes it tax deductible... (they may even make money out of it if it pushes them down a tax bracket)
The church has no place even commenting on the use of a building in a fictional game: end of story.
I never thought of it that way, that seems likely the reason why they added a church more than anything else. I'll bring up that point whenever I try to argue about it.
@sakimori
if what you say is true the church's good name mostly comes from people's ignorance of what the bible says (i.e. most people never glanced at a bible). That's the good name they are trying to protect (although they're making themselves look bad thereby being counterproductive.
Also Resistance was made in the U.S. so when they were making the game they didn't have to follow copyright laws specific to the U.K. or EU. This could mean two things.
a, the trial is delayed or protracted repeatedly because of this complication
and b. worst comes to worst the pulling of the game from shelves may only apply to U.K or Europe.
Also censoring a video game is a great way to get teens to appreciate the church (sarcasm).
And like I said if they want the game pulled all Insomniac has to do is make the cathedral a parody of the manchester one.
Might I also had though shalt forgive and forget? They should know (and I think they do) that Insomniac ment no harm by it. Shouldn't they forgive? Or are they with the likes of Al sharpton where the forgiveness rule doesn't apply if you want stupid revenge (also known as wrath).
There we go. Forget all the other steps, here's the MAIN step of the whole issue.
@ Sakimori: Bull. You threw out what amounts to a non-sequitor in this discussion, and frankly, your comments reek of wanting to turn this into a discussion on "religion in general". There are other forums for that.