Actress Lindsay Lohan has filed a lawsuit against the good people of Rockstar Games, because their recent money making machine Grand Theft Auto V has used her likeness in the game. Sigh. The lawsuit was filed on July 2nd in Manhattan court. Apparently the Grand Theft Auto V character named Lacey Jonas is the one evoking Lindsey Lohan’s wrath.
The fictional character is accused to have copied everything from Lindsey’s likeness to even her clothes. The suit claims that “The portraits of the Plaintiff (Lohan) incorporated her image, likeness, clothing, outfits, Plaintiff’s clothing line products, ensemble in the form of hats, hair style, sunglasses, jean shorts worn by the Plaintiff that were for sale to the public at least two years.” Honestly, I don’t know what Lindsey Lohan is hoping to achieve (the world may never know), but after reading up on the Digital Media Law Project, Rockstar Games likely has nothing to worry about: “As a general matter, you will not be held liable for using someone’s name or likeness in a creative, entertaining, or artistic work that is transformative, meaning that you add some substantial creative element over and above the mere depiction of the person.
In other words, the First Amendment ordinarily protects you if you use someone’s name or likeness to create something new that is recognizably your own, rather than something that just evokes and exploits the person’s identity.” I don’t know why Lindsey is taking this so badly.I know that if i had my likeness in a game, I would be flattered. Heck, even though Ellen Page sort of took offense to supposedly having her likeness copied by the character Ellie in The Last of Us, at least she didn’t cry “lawsuit” like Lohan is doing. So in another waste of the internet’s time, a Lindsey Lohan controversy has arose yet again. At least this time it doesn’t involve drugs. Those are bad for you.
