Shatter Dev Served With Cease & Desist (From William Shatner)

**meppi** · August 20, 2009

Source: tawkn.com

A legal representative for none other than William Shatner has sent a cease & desist notice to Sidhe, the developers of PSN-exclusive title, Shatter.

A website posted a spoof of the game and put together the above image. It wasn't long before Sidhe's inbox contained this message from Boston Legal:

August 18, 2009

Mario Wynands

Tyrone McAuley

Andy Satterthwaite

Gentlemen:

We represent William Shatner and it has come to our attention that you are planning to develop

or have already developed and will soon place on the market for commercial sale a digital game

utilizing our client's name and likeness as well as infringing on both Paramount's rights

to the character "Captain Kirk" and Bob Dylan's rights to the song "Mr. Tambourine Man." See the site below:

Game Console - Krog: Sidhe Interactive to release 'Shatner' mod

Please be advised that you are to immediately cease and desist the further development,

production, and or distribution of the game SHATNER or any other product that uses

William Shatner's name or likeness without first obtaining his approval.

We have notified both Paramount and Bob Dylan's representative of your intentions.

Please confirm receipt of this e-mail and your response to so cease and desist.

Failure to do so will leave us no alternative but to commence legal proceedings.

And so, Sidhe went along for the ride and replied in kind:

Thank you for your email.

The GameConsole "report" you reference is what is commonly referred to on the internet as a "joke".

The article is a parody of our game, and has no basis in reality in that it does not in any way

reflect our intentions for further development of the Shatter IP or relate to any official statement we have made relating to the game.

We have the utmost respect for Mr William Shatner and the licensing process,

and if we had any intent of using rights related to either Mr Shatner, Star Trek,

or Tambourine Man (which we do not) we would do so using the appropriate channels.

Please respond acknowledging your receipt and understanding of this message,

and confirming you have notified both Paramount and Bob Dylan's representatives of your misunderstanding.

Regards,

Mario Wynands

Managing Director

Sidhe

**Phillyman** · August 20, 2009

So wait, using Shatners likeness is illegal? What about when Paparazzi take his photo.....I always thought they retained the rights over pictures.

**Data** · August 20, 2009

So wait, using Shatners likeness is illegal? What about when Paparazzi take his photo.....I always thought they retained the rights over pictures.

Yes if you take a public picture where cameras are permitted, you own the rights to those pictures but if you use these photographs to defame the person they can take legal action.

I think these guys are going to have to change their protagonist and take music from someone less famous than Bob Dylan.

**meppi** · August 20, 2009

Eum I think you guys are missing the joke.

The game itself is called Shatter and hasn't got anything to do with either William Shatner, Star Trek or Bob Dylan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoZFjiEugww

Someone on a totally unrelated site from the actual developers made a spoof using the above title as their basis.

In the end the actual developer of the game, who did nothing wrong got a C&D letter because some idiot lawyer thought it was real and was the actual game they put out.

**Phillyman** · August 20, 2009

Phillyman - Coffee = Durrr!

**meppi** · August 20, 2009

Phillyman - Coffee = Durrr!

Hehe, I know how that feels.

Although coffee doesn't seem to remedy this in my case.

**Areala** · August 20, 2009

So wait, using Shatners likeness is illegal? What about when Paparazzi take his photo.....I always thought they retained the rights over pictures.

Yeah, they retain the rights over the pictures, but there are only certain ways that you can use them legally.

In this case, more than likely the issue was raised because the background image of William Shatner isn't a simple public photograph, it's a very easily-recognized still from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

It's all for nothing, of course, since the image and article accompanying it is nothing more than parody, which is fully protected under the First Amendment, and it has nothing to do with the actual game being created. Still funny as hell though.

*huggles*

Areala

**Gnash** · August 20, 2009

I think all this copyright craziness has gone too far. One thing is to protect intellectual property another to just throw lawsuits at anything that moves. Same with patents. It's madness. I say, send a rickroll'd link to those lawyers.