The creator of a character called ‘Cade Janus’, which was developed as part of a movie pitch, takes Activision, Infinity Ward and Major League Gaming to court and accuses them of going behind his back and stealing the character for use in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
As Torrentfreak report, Clayton Haugen claims that he created the character years ago, and went so far as to work with streamer Alex Zedra to bring Janus to life.
According to Haugen’s case, Activision and some partners became aware of the character while trying to draw attention to his work by publishing it on social media, and they worked hard to get her into the game, and her name after ” Mara “changed and went so far as to (it comes directly from the submission):
a. Use Haugen’s Cade Janus photos as guidelines for framing their own imagery and photos
b. Hired the same talent as he posed for Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs
c. Asked the talent to ask Haugen for the same attire and outfit she was wearing when he created the Cade Janus photos
d. Hire the same makeup professional who prepared the talent for Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs
e. Instructed to do the makeup of the talent exactly as for Cugen Janus photos of Haugen
f. She was instructed to style the talent’s hair exactly as for Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs, even with the same hair extension, and then
g. The talent was photographed and scanned three-dimensionally using Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs as a guideline.
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Haugen’s suit is also full of photos comparing his original photo shoot to Activision’s promotional material for Call of Duty with ‘Mara’.
What elevates this from a ‘they stole my art’ claim to a copyright infringement case claiming damages is that Haugen says he registered copyright for his story in 2012-13 and his photos in 2020.
He wants to ‘recover all monetary remedies from the offense of the accused, including all their profits attributable to their offenses’, together with the reimbursement of his costs and legal costs.