Mark Ecko takes it to city hall

  • By Benjamin Golze, GameSpot
  • Posted Aug 19, 2005 12:29 pm PT

Fashion mogul sues New York City mayor after permit for promotional Getting Up Bloc Party event is revoked.

The ongoing struggle between Mark Ecko and the New York City government over the graffiti game Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure has reached the level of litigation. A few days ago, Ecko's promotional Bloc Party event had its permit revoked, sparking the fashion designer to file a lawsuit against Mayor Michael Boomberg in order to have the permit reinstated.

"Unfortunately the spirit of the event, as it was originally conceived and as it has been presented to the appropriate civic groups and government officials since November 2004, seems to have been lost in the haste to stereotype all graffiti-style artists as 'vandals' and to brand this event as a 'promotion of crime,'" said Ecko in an open letter to the city of New York posted on his Getting Up blog.

The Getting Up Bloc Party, scheduled to be held in New York City on August 24, aims to promote the upcoming Atari-published game by showcasing graffiti artists and hosting live music performances. Particularly nettlesome to the mayor's office are the graffiti demonstrations, where famous graffiti artists will spray replica subway cars.

The city government revoked the event's permit under the pretenses that it was intended for an art exhibition. The city claims that the Bloc Party is instead a commercial event.

"The city isn't obligated to permit an event on a public street that encourages the vandalism of subway cars in the name of selling T-shirts and video games," Ed Skyler, the mayor's representative, said in a statement.

A judge is set to consider the issue today.

In an eerie case of life imitating art, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is an action game that requires players to spray and maintain tags in the fictional city of New Radius, the ultimate goal being to undermine and overthrow the city's oppressive mayor. The game will be released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC, and mobile phones in November. For more, take a look at GameSpot's recent Hands-On preview.

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