WWE 2K22 has been a return to form, if not without its own controversies, and there’s a lot of hope around the next entry in the franchise: WWE 2K23, which is in development. Some of the biggest controversies revolve around the character roster and how the games depict these characters, although many wrestlers have tattoos and Catherine Alexander’s lawsuit was potentially precedent-setting.
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Alexander’s WWE 2K lawsuit claims that her tattoo work on Randy Orton was used in the games without her permission, thus infringing on her copyright. Orton himself was not one of the parties involved in the lawsuit, as choices regarding character designs in WWE 2K games are beyond the individual wrestlers, but he did testify. All in all, the jury had to make decisions regarding three major points: fair use, the dollar amount of potential damages, and whether the tattoo designs led to any video game profits.
In terms of whether they were fair use, the jury ruled in favor of Catherine Alexander and determined an artist’s tattoos were not fair use. The jury ruled that she was entitled to $3,750 for the usage of her tattoo designs, but on the third point, the jury ruled that her tattoo designs did not contribute to the success of the WWE 2K games. This means Alexander won but only for the usage and was not entitled to any of the successes of the game itself. This could set an important precedent, nonetheless.
In short, it means that any publisher who recreates a real person in a video game, particularly one with tattoos, may need to pay at least a one-time royalty to the tattoo artist responsible for the art. The latter decision of the jury means these artists are not entitled to profits of the game in any shape or form, but that the use of the work itself cannot simply be appropriated by a video game publisher.
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Source: Wrestle Talk
