NBA 2K16 News Post

Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

08:16 PM - February 1, 2016 by jfsolo

Some of the tattoos seen on LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kenyon Martin, DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe are getting Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts into some hot water. Based off of articles from ESPN (Darren Rovell) and The HollyWoodReporter (Eriq Gardner), the makers of the NBA 2K series are getting sued for $1.1 million, because Solid Oak Sketches claims the tattoos are their copyrighted work.

Quote:


	Worried that they might be party to a lawsuit, the NFL Players Association told players in 2014 that, in order for their tattoos to be represented on merchandise, including video games, they needed to get waivers from the artists.

This is one of the main reasons other companies don't put tattoos in their game. Getting permission from the tattoo artist can take quite a bit of time. The Madden team had to go through that process to get the tattoos for Colin Kaepernick (Madden NFL 15) and Odell Beckham, Jr. (Madden NFL 16) in the game.

Quote:


	In a demand letter to Take-Two before the lawsuit was filed, an attorney for the plaintiff took the $22,500 award to Escobedo, and using information about NBA 2K16 sales, calculated that the value for the eight tattoos should be $572,000. But there was also the matter that two of LeBron James tattoos were featured on the cover of the videogame. According to the letter, "Given that those two tattoos are 'the face' of the 2014 game, their marketing and promotion value is, conservatively, at least four times the value of the rest of the tattoos." Thus, the claimed value of using all of the tattoo designs in question allegedly equals $819,500. That tattoo design company offered a perpetual license for a fee of $1,144,000.

You can read the full complaint at The Hollywood Reporter.

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Member Comments

# 41 youvalss @ 02/01/16 11:25 PM

It's sad that this may be an issue in the future. But, oh well, I can live with players not having any tattoos.

# 42 tril @ 02/01/16 11:30 PM

interesting.
I see this going beyond video games.
so basically a tattoo artist with a unique design can potentially sue someone who gets the same tattoo without permission.
and a question also arises; who owns the copy rights to these unique tattoos.
IF a player comes up with the concept for a tattoo, then that means the player could technically own the rights, not the artist. the artist who features his work in advertising obviously has to also seek permission to use said design.

1.1 million is alot of money. I could see 2k using generic tattoos in the future. these costs will obviously get higher with each new release.

# 43 redsox4evur @ 02/01/16 11:34 PM

Alright so I said earlier I wanted to do a little research on this. And I have been reading the Kaepernick stuff. And there was an article posted by USA Today about the Madden Dev team. And one said this, "the NBA has a different licensing agreement with their players then the NFL does with theirs. In the NBA, if their tattoos are on their skin, they are technically owned by that player and can therefore be used in games and what not. In the NFL, they are owned by the artist."

So something must've changed in the year +.

And here's a good article about why you can't show your tats in a videogame without permission. http://hyperallergic.com/145999/why-...n-video-games/

# 44 jaynral @ 02/01/16 11:40 PM

the only person who loses in this situation is the CUSTOMER.....video gaming has definitely gone to the next level...

# 45 Vni @ 02/01/16 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by youvalss


	It's sad that this may be an issue in the future. But, oh well, I can live with players not having any tattoos.

Players will have dolphins and flowers on their arms in 2K17.

# 46 TheDuggler @ 02/01/16 11:52 PM

I'm not a lawyer so I have no real opinion, but I really hope they don't have to remove all the tats in game. The players finally look amazing (mostly) and that is going to really make the game stand out from reality when guys like JR will just be plain skinned

# 47 NINJAK2 @ 02/02/16 12:00 AM

VNI- The next roster update will remove all tats from players and actually update cyberfaces (praying)..lol

# 48 MarvellousOne @ 02/02/16 12:27 AM

This is stupid...just money hungry....people sue for any and everything. It's whatever with these lets sue X company X years later for large amounts.....if it was that serious this lawsuit should have been filed immediately after seeing your tattoos in the game years ago....it was no secret the tats was being used.

# 49 skinnybonez @ 02/02/16 01:10 AM

Welp, time for PC

# 50 BCDX97 @ 02/02/16 01:25 AM

I guess athletes just shouldn't get tattoos from d-bags.

# 51 og236 @ 02/02/16 01:39 AM

People who get tattoos pay for the darn tattoos & still don't "own it" by this dumb logic... So if I buy a television at Walmart, does Walmart still "own" the television? Lol (sarcasm obviously) These tattoo artists need to get over themselves lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 52 CujoMatty @ 02/02/16 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skinnybonez


	Welp, time for PC

Dude I think your right. I guess it will give me a good excuse to upgrade my CPU and get back into 2k Modding.
This is bad news though because no matter what happens 2k will probably take the " better to be safe than sorry" route and take the tattoos out. It just further fuels frivolous lawsuits.
My entire upper body is covered in tattoos and at no time did I ever sign anything or was even under the impression that my tattoos rights belonged to anyone but me. I guess I see the point but it's a little ridiculous. Any time anywhere that a magazine prints photos of an artist, athlete, anyone really with tattoos they would have to be liable if this wins and that's just simply crazy to me.

# 53 The Senator @ 02/02/16 01:55 AM

This is pathetic. How the courts let it get to this point is beyond me. It makes no sense how the players themselves don't own the rights to their own depiction.

I hope everyone who's involved in this lawsuit gets ink poisoning, and fuzzy lines on their own tattoos.

# 54 snc237 @ 02/02/16 02:20 AM

Am I the only one that thinks if you get a tattoo that's it's yours. Cause the way this sounds they should also be able to sue Nike cause his tattos are viable in the shoe commercials. Or what ever company makes posters with him on it. I think it's a little outrages that people have control over you cause you paid them to ink you.

# 55 cjallure24 @ 02/02/16 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snc237


	Am I the only one that thinks if you get a tattoo that's it's yours. Cause the way this sounds they should also be able to sue Nike cause his tattos are viable in the shoe commercials. Or what ever company makes posters with him on it. I think it's a little outrages that people have control over you cause you paid them to ink you.

This was my first thought. If you pay for something you requested, and is personal to you. Doesn't that make it officially yours? I mean, I don't see any copyright logo under or near the tattoo.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

# 56 swiftkid @ 02/02/16 02:44 AM

2k makes that off VC alone... no biggie

# 57 MoneyOvaHuds @ 02/02/16 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox4evur


	Really? So tell me who did the ink on Andre Iguodala? This should be easy to answer as these guys are getting all this exposure.

My man Ryan Henry from the chi

# 58 ZoneSix @ 02/02/16 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoneyOvaHuds


	My man Ryan Henry from the chi

dude from black ink chicago?

# 59 MoneyOvaHuds @ 02/02/16 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZoneSix


	dude from black ink chicago?

Yup yup him

# 60 CujoMatty @ 02/02/16 06:54 AM

"using information about NBA 2K16 sales, calculated that the value for the eight tattoos should be $572,000"

And in another connected case they are suing EA are and NBA Live because based off of sales they feel the value of the eight tattoos is $7.95.

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