• NBA 2K Sued for Using Tattoos Without Artist Permission

    Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts, the manufacturers of NBA 2K, have been sued by Solid Oak Sketches, a company that via the original artists has acquired the copyrights to select tattoos on some of the NBA's biggest stars.

    In total, eight tattoos on players including LeBron James & Kobe Bryant are listed in the complaint. Solid Oak Sketches are asking for $819,500 in prior 'unauthorized' inclusions within the game and promotional items, while also offering a perpetual license for a one-time cost of $1,144,000. All of the tattoos were issued a Certificate of Registration by the United States Register of Copyrights in June/July 2015, although the plaintiffs are seeking restitution from before that timeframe. The full complaint is available for viewing at The Hollywood Reporter.

    Concern over a lawsuit of this nature has become one of the reasons the Madden NFL franchise will only include player tattoos that the player has the rights to and/or that the tattoo artist will grant usage rights to EA SPORTS. Sports franchises such as NBA LIVE and EA SPORTS UFC already engage in the practice of excluding or modifying tattoos of licensed properties to avoid a legal issue. Some examples of these include Shaquille O'Neal's 'Man of Steel' and C.M. Punk's 'Cobra Commander' and Pepsi logos. Unless/until a court decision rules that tattoos are a commissioned work of art that are owned by the licensee, could sports titles remove player tattoos in the interim? If so, that would certainly damage the realism in player details that EA SPORTS UFC, NBA 2K, and NBA LIVE have excelled at.

    Continue on for more, including to see the list and in-game screens of offending players and tattoos.

    In a previous copyright case by the same legal team, they represented Mike Tyson's face tattoo artist in a lawsuit versus Warner Bros. prior to release of The Hangover II. Despite the tattoo not being copyrighted until years after being inked on Tyson and just weeks before the lawsuit (sound familiar?), Warner Bros. would ultimately settle the lawsuit out of court after it appeared that the judge's language and dismissal of the defendant's claims heavily favored the plaintiffs.

    While NBA 2K16 is the target of this litigation, NBA LIVE 16 also features many of these same tattoos. (Some could not be verified due to apparel covering where they would be located on the player.) However, with the plaintiff's demand from 2K being centered on the sales numbers for 2K14 and 2K15 (13 million units), they may have felt the LIVE franchise's sales did not warrant inclusion as the asking price would be considerably less. Oddly enough, this may be the reverse of the recent player likeness lawsuits in regards to college athletics. EA SPORTS NCAA Football was the highly successful, on-going product while 2K SPORTS' College Hoops and NCAA Football 2K were not profitable or in existence to include in any litigation.

    • LeBron James: (1) Child Portrait on his inner left forearm; (2) "Hold My Own" on his left bicep; (3) 330 Area Code on his right forearm; and (4) script with a scroll, clouds, and doves on his right forearm.
    • Kobe Bryant: Crown with Butterflies on his right bicep
    • Kenyon Martin: Wizard on his left shoulder
    • DeAndre Jordan: Script with a Scroll on his right shoulder
    • Eric Bledsoe: Basketball with Stars and Script on his right shoulder


    LeBron James: Child Portrait on his inner left forearm

    LeBron James: "Hold My Own" on his left bicep

    LeBron James: 330 Area Code on his right forearm

    LeBron James: Script with a scroll, clouds, and doves on his right forearm.

    Kobe Bryant: Crown with Butterflies on his right bicep

    Kenyon Martin: Wizard on his left shoulder

    DeAndre Jordan: Script with a Scroll on his right shoulder

    Eric Bledsoe: Basketball with Stars and Script on his right shoulder
    This article was originally published in forum thread: NBA 2K Sued for Using Tattoos Without Artist Permission started by cdj View original post
    Comments 10 Comments
    1. souljahbill's Avatar
      souljahbill -
      I'm in the wrong business
    1. Rudy's Avatar
      Rudy -
      I think it's ridiculous. Does that mean you can't post a picture of a player in a newspaper either? Copyrights have gone too far.
    1. souljahbill's Avatar
      souljahbill -
      How do you own something on someone else's body?
    1. steelerfan's Avatar
      steelerfan -
      Quote Originally Posted by souljahbill View Post
      How do you own something on someone else's body?
      Ask your wife.

    1. souljahbill's Avatar
      souljahbill -
      Quote Originally Posted by steelerfan View Post
      Ask your wife.

    1. steelerfan's Avatar
      steelerfan -
    1. JBHuskers's Avatar
      JBHuskers -
      Quote Originally Posted by steelerfan View Post
      Ask your wife.

    1. cdj's Avatar
      cdj -
      Quote Originally Posted by Rudy View Post
      I think it's ridiculous. Does that mean you can't post a picture of a player in a newspaper either? Copyrights have gone too far.
      I would think companies that should be worried about similar lawsuits include EA SPORTS, Fathead, McFarlane Toys, apparel manufacturers (ie: any company using athletes in commercials), etc. I'm sure there are even more, but those were the first to jump out to me. A quick Google search shows posters, Fatheads, & action figures with the butterfly crown tattoos on Kobe's shoulder prominently displayed. I doubt they all acquired permission from the artist(s) in advance.

      The big problem is that there are lawyers and judges pursue and allow such cases to take place.

      Quote Originally Posted by souljahbill View Post
      How do you own something on someone else's body?
      First, at the responses you received.

      If the artist had the image knowingly copyrighted/licensed at the time it was selected and tattooed on the individual, I could understand the lawsuits (somewhat). However, when the artists are protecting their work years later and then suing, it comes across as an obvious moneygrab IMO. I mean, they had no clue LeBron James or Kobe Bryant might have millions of people who would see their tattoos, right? (On the flip side, will some tattoo artist sue a mass murderer who got tattoos from him years before for defamation?)
    1. cdj's Avatar
      cdj -
      The fallout could be underway:

      - During today's MLB The Show 16 RTTS/ShowTime Twitch Livestream, someone asked if tattoos would be in the game. Ramone Russell (CM/Dev) said no and while laughing, (paraphrasing) 'after this past week, that's probably never going to happen.'
    1. CLW's Avatar
      CLW -
      Yep no video game company in their right mind would have or even should have put real life tatoos in their game without the express written permission from the individual in question and the tatoo artist. 2K is probably going to have to pay of course the question is how much was the tatoo artist damaged but a jury for a liberals + defense costs and 2K will most likely settle out of court and remove tatoos in the game forever.