The laws that revolve around original art is a complicated one. Sometimes it's unclear which circumstances call for an artist's permission, and which can be used for creative freedom and expression. Though it is clear what the case is for Randy Orton's tattoo.
The WWE wrestler with the famous RKO finisher was included in the WWE 2K22 game. Of course, they had to copy his likeness to make the game more realistic and the characters recognizable. But, this wasn't reason enough for them to reproduce his body art, it seems.
Take-Two Interactive, the game publisher for WWE 2K22, has lost a lawsuit concerning the reproduction of his his distinctive tattoos, according to The Verge.
Winning the Lawsuit
The lawsuit has been going on for four years, since tattoo artist Catherine Alexander filed for it in 2018. She claims that the video game publisher used her designs for Randy Orton's character without permission, as mentioned in Kotaku.
The tattoos in question include his tribal tattoos, skulls, a bible verse, a dove, and a rose. Based on her deposition, WWE initially offered $450, not for the in-game character design, but for a faux-tattoo sleeve merchandise, which she turned down.
Using the tattoo design for profit by selling merchandise obviously warrants an artist's permission, but Take-Two argued that recreating Orton's likeness for the wrestling game was considered fair use.
A jury at the US District Court Southern District of Illinois disagreed with Take-Two's argument. They have decided that the use of the tattoo design created by Alexander didn't constitute fair use.
The decision of the jury has entitled the tattoo artist $3,750 in damages. However, it was determined that the damages was only limited to the use of the design, as she is not entitled to compensation from the game's profits since it's not a direct result of the tattoo's use.
The amount for compensation may be considered small considering how long the lawsuit was dragged on, but accordintg to videogameschronicle.com, this may set a potential precedent for other tattoo artists whose artworks are used in other media.
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A Victory is a Victory
No matter how small, it's a win for Alexander. There have been circumstances like this but the artists involved were not compensated at all. Take-Two has been involved with a case like this as well concerning the NBA2K game series.
Tattoos artists from Solid Oak Sketches also sued the video game company. They claimed that they owned copyrights for the ink art they've done for LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. The tattoo artists offered $1.1 million for rights to use the tattoo but 2K turned them down.
In the end, the court decided that the use of the design was fair use and Solid Oak Sketches did not get any form of compensation whatsoever.
Copyright cases for tattoos are not limited to games, as it had also happened for the Hangover II movie. S. Victor Whitmill also filed for an injunction to stop the release of the movie since they used the tattoo design he did for Mike Tyson in the movie.
We all know that the injunction didn't yield any results since the Hangover II movie was released back in 2011.
