Ubisoft Sued Over Assassin's Creed III
 

Leviathyn.com reports that an author is suing Ubisoft over Assassin's Creed III, because he believes they stole the idea from one of his novels.

Read the rest here.

Prevent the release of AC III? Why not ride the gravy train if he wins? Don't understand that.

This author is a moron. The book in question is some self-published piece of garbage that probably sold about 3 copies total. It was only available in print and the idea that anyone from Ubisoft -- a French company -- read this book and used it as the basis for the Assassin's Creed series. It's pretty ridiculous.

I think the whole thing with Ubisoft being a French company is going to sink this moron the first time a judge looks at the case.

Of all things -- we got a Press Release from some PR company representing this moron and his Lawyers and I sent them back a nice reply suggesting that the best thing they could do for the world would be to kill themselves.

lol. You sir, are my personal hero.

Yeah I saw this story pop up on another site a few days ago as well. I liked that one of the things they were ripping off was the 'battle between good and evil'.

I can't wait to hear the judge smack this stupid nonsense down.

Yea, I feel bad for the people who do get their work stolen -- I've had stories of mine lifted from the web and published in print anthologies without my permission (or paying me) and it's pretty horrible.

I have no sympathy for people who think they can use a lawyer to soak some big company for money they don't deserve.

Well, thats one way to advertise a poor-selling book....

Looks like the community is taking some revenge on him, he's down to 1 1/2 stars. :)
http://www.amazon.com/Link-Beiswenge...5666177&sr=8-1

Wow I'm reading the reviews for his book on Amazon. Nothing like fucking nerd rage.

I read a bunch of them, there is a certain kind of justice in that.

January 20, 2003...wait when was AC released?

November 2007. However, you can put any date you want on something when you publish it on Amazon.com. They could have published this book last month and told Amazon that the published date was back in 2003.

If I'd written a book with the same plot as Assassin's Creed I'd keep that shit to myself.

And so on.

Right, because only people born to the English language can speak/read/write and enjoy stuff written by someone else who uses the language. Damn froggies.

He's only a fool if he can't back up what he states and the book was actually published in 2003. Reminds me of that Harry Potter person a few years ago who only had the thinest of plot ties to her "work", but it sounds like a number of elements of his stories are surprisingly close.

On the other hand when you've had legitimately had your work lifted and used to launch a franchise worth a billion dollars you'd be pretty damn pissed and want some of that scratch. I know I would. I suspect that unless you're a monk you'd be a big fat fatty fat liar if you say otherwise. And even then you might want to spend it on more beer and whine or a nicer, better insulated barracks.

Please tell me you added the emphasis. Tell me someone who claims to be an author did not use asterisks!

What, the book quote in my post? I wrote that. I totally forgot what forum I was posting on when I used the asterisks, for some reason my fingers thought that was italics.

Why did he wait until they'd released 4 games to speak up? Can you say cash grab?

Maybe he's not into video games. It has only been recent that AC has done the full media bombardment. Even then he probably had to have his grandson (he sounds old to me) walk him through the game before the light bulb turned on. Then there is time necessary to do the documentation and research, find a lawyer to take the case, and so on.

Depending on how widely read his book was it's possible he was getting regular emails about the similarities but there is a excuse it might have been missed until the last couple'ah years. I mean if it were one of Phil's books it could be ages till it found a reader, much less one that might point out the similarities :) I KEED, don't ban me!

I'm also not saying he has a case, btw. Despite that I don't think people should be flying off the handle tanking his amazon profile and shit. Let the facts shake out a little first people rather than jumping up to defend the poor defenseless corporate giant that would never EVER do something shady if it meant more shareholder value and bigger executive bonuses.

Risk v. reward. All this guy wants is $6m off a franchise that has easily netted UBI 20x that. If this is true you know there was some bean counter somewhere in UBI saying "If this guy sues we lose this much, but we stand to make this much. Let's do it."

I mean, McDonald's was going to stop using pink slime even before the uproar, right?

Or he just never knew the plot of the Assassin's Creed games because he doesn't play them.

If the book was actually published back in 2003 and contains what they claim it contains there is certainly some merit. Instead of everyone getting all nerd rage, let the court decide.

Haven't posted here in a few years, but I had to log in for this. The tagline (or whatever it is called) on the cover of this book "Link" (which I'm sure Nintendo could rustle up a lawsuit over) is just ridiculously funny:

"What better place to look beyond than through the mind of one who saw to that point but no further?"