Sign on Options
Theme:
To Dark

Thompson starts another fight as Bully issue simmers

  • By Tor Thorsen, Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
  • Posted Oct 26, 2006 5:37 pm PT

Judge recuses himself from Bully case while Florida lawyer turns his attention to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for "an unauthorized commercial exploitation" of his likeness.

Those who thought the denial of Jack Thompson's attempt to have Take-Two's Bully banned would leave the Florida attorney quietly sulking in the corner apparently don't know Jack.

While Thompson couldn't stop Bully from being released, he did have choice words for the judge who heard his case, and he was made to appear before the court yesterday at the request of Take-Two's lawyers to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court. The hearing began with Judge Ronald Friedman engaging in a series of sharp exchanges with Thompson. As can be seen in video of the even posted on Destructoid.com, at one point Friedman summoned a bailiff when Thompson attempted to display a large white cardboard sign.

Friedman then proceeded to tell Thompson that he felt "the statements made to this court about this court by Mr. Thompson, I find inappropriate for a member of the Florida bar, unprofessional, and contemptible." Friedman then read several excerpts from letters from Thompson, in which he called the original Bully hearing "a disturbing abortion of justice" and threatened to sue Friedman personally.

Another tense verbal exchange between a visibly agitated Thompson and an oddly serene Friedman followed. Friedman then said that he had filed a complaint with the Florida bar and that he was going to recuse himself from the case. He warned Thompson that the next judge "might not be as kind" as he had been. Thompson quickly countered with a brief verbal fusillade of his own blasting Friedman's decision while declaring respect for his office.

While Thompson is still in the thick of his Bully battle, he made time today to fire off a cease-and-desist order to Midway Games. He wants the publisher to stop distributing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but contrary to what one might expect, he didn't cite the game's over-the-top violence as a reason to stop selling it.

Ready? Fight!

Ready? Fight!

"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently [sic] Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game," Thompson wrote in an e-mail addressed to Midway president and CEO David Zucker and carbon-copied to several news outlets. "You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content." (Emphasis in original.)

While Armageddon does boast a roster of more than 60 characters, Thompson isn't among them. Judging from a photo of the game included with Thompson's e-mail, he is referring to a character made using the game's kreate-a-fighter mode. The photo was part of a feature on Gaming Target yesterday, which contained formulas for making a number of unlicensed characters from the game's various customization options. Other familiar faces in the feature included Hulk Hogan, Ash from Army of Darkness, director Kevin Smith in his Silent Bob alter ego, and Friday the 13th antagonist Jason Voorhees.

A similar issue went to court in 2004 when Marvel Comics sued City of Heroes publisher NCsoft and developer Cryptic Studios claiming that the game infringed on its trademarks by allowing players to re-create trademarked Marvel characters using the game's create-a-character tools. The parties settled out of court in December of last year, and earlier this year it was revealed that the comic company is now working with Cryptic on Microsoft's new massively multiplayer online game based on the Marvel Universe.

As of press time, Midway had not responded to a request for comment.

465 Comments

  • -Jeremy-

    Posted Jul 27, 2007 5:52 pm GMT

    I want to make a video of me ripping his head off in MKA for Wii. I'll make a KAK for him and rip his head off xD

  • DieSonneMeister

    Posted Jul 26, 2007 11:38 am GMT

    You know, I never even thought about making a Jack Thompson character in my game. In fact, I rather make my own character than that asshat.

  • johnnycobra15

    Posted Apr 20, 2007 12:16 pm GMT

    WHY DOESN"T JACK THOMPSON JUST HURRY UP AND DIE ALREADY?!

  • imnotacrook

    Posted Apr 4, 2007 3:19 pm GMT

    I just saw this on Wiki and had to see this for myself, what a real jerk.

  • GamerErman2001

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 1:48 am GMT

    DUMBASS THOMPSON!

  • NeoMagus26

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 9:07 am GMT

    thompson = weiner

  • jrjcobra

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 10:40 am GMT

    I hope take 2 buries him or he gets some jail time stupid idiot. I think when he does die it should be a made a world wide holiday amongst gamers lol.

  • dancingdudesean

    Posted Feb 19, 2007 10:41 pm GMT

    Hey hey hey, Jacky boy! You're not the first political figurehead to be exploited in Mortal Kombat. Are you forgetting about BARAKA Obama? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

  • aygol

    Posted Jan 10, 2007 3:49 pm GMT

    That Jackass Thompson is a moron.

  • datniccah187

    Posted Jan 10, 2007 1:26 am GMT

    Go for it.

  • Gedddy_lee

    Posted Dec 27, 2006 12:39 am GMT

    Another way to spell "political Moron" is Jack Thompson man i hate the meida they can get a hold of teh stupidest crap and turn it into a HUGE DEAL and now thats it run by idiot liberals its gonna run america INTO THE GROUND FACE FIRST

    i saw a dude who reminded me of Thompson he poseted on the oftopic disusion :GAMES ARE A 100% WASTE OF LIFE IM SUCH AN IMPORTANT MORON, not the exact thread name just cut of everything past LIFE, this guy just keeps AT IT never seen anything like it and i must agre it does look a bit like a fusion of thompson and clinton and what a quienidnce their both idiots

  • ColdSteel55

    Posted Dec 24, 2006 6:25 pm GMT

    I hope he lose his freaking license so he cant be a lawyer anymore. Games shouldnt be banned because parents are offended. If your child plays a game that you dont like, then dont let them play it. Besides, you can only protect them for so long. If they want to play a game badly enough, they will find ways around the bans imposed on them.

  • verdugoRE4

    Posted Dec 16, 2006 9:02 am GMT

    Hmmmm. You're right.

  • Greg902311

    Posted Dec 4, 2006 5:43 pm GMT

    I think it looks more like Bill Clinton

  • verdugoRE4

    Posted Dec 1, 2006 11:53 am GMT

    NOTE: I tagged this with Jackass thompson. Lol. (I hope I am not hunted down by Mods for this offensive post.)

  • verdugoRE4

    Posted Dec 1, 2006 11:48 am GMT

    Hmmm. I want to buy Armegeddon for three reasons right now.

    1.Openly defy Jackass Thompson's idiotic and jealous comments on a violently good game.
    2. Make a character that resembles him, geton the two player controller, leave him just standing there for me to beat the living crap out of him (with scorpion), And masssacre him with a fatality. Nothing funnier.

    3. This game looks fun.

  • Barcode711

    Posted Nov 25, 2006 4:50 pm GMT

    omglol, jack thompson in mortal kombat...besides, what's so bad about that? Heck, if he can kick Sub-Zero's ass or something, that's actually hilarious in a non-demeaning way.

  • ImarriedCortana

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 8:32 pm GMT

    Hit the road Jack don't come back don't come back no more no more no more! lol

  • softandhardcore

    Posted Nov 10, 2006 12:35 pm GMT

    Geez, and I though Half-Dollar (my name for 50 Cent)'s statement on how his game is educational was dumb. Please, Jack, I beg you... give it up. If you don't want kids to play these games, fine. But if you start blaming the games for the murdering kids, that's stupid. I say, blame the irresponsible parents.

    The problem with most American parents (I'm Canadian, by the way) or media watchdogs like Jack is, if they see something offensive in a game, they don't do the smart thing and keep the kids (who are NOT the target audience for these games) from seeing it. They try to ban it so no one-- not even the target audience who's probably too desensitized to care-- can see it.

    And that's why I consider the "Parents of Columbine Victims vs. Every Damn Company You Can Think Of That Makes Video Games And/Or Electronic Devices" lawsuit frivolous.

    Anyway, back to the main topic: so gamers are free to make a character who looks like you, out of thousands and possibly millions of possible characters you can create with this feature. BOO-HOO-HOO. As if someone at Midway intentionally thought, "Hey! You know about that new 'Kreate A Fighter' feature for our new MK game? Let's make one of the combinations look similar to, if not exactly like, Jack Thompson! It's GENIUS!" Please. As I said, out of thousands or millions of possible combinations of skin color, hair color, eye color, clothing, etc., one of them looks like you? WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT!? I'd say they're pretty high. Hell, I could probably fight George W. Bush if I wanted to.

    Just give it up, Jack. In the end, you're just some angry old man from Florida (because all the idiots are from Florida) whom nobody should listen to anymore.

  • Scorpion16

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 1:21 am GMT

    Wow, just when I thought this man couldn't get any stupider and he amazes me once again.

    I guess there is always a way to lower the bar in IQ limbo. How low can you go?

  • SpawnShadow

    Posted Nov 6, 2006 6:53 pm GMT

    Wah, wah! Baby wants it recalled! Tough luck, Jack! It ain't goin' nowhere but in the hands of gamers and retailers!

  • stoned-stoner

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 4:14 am GMT

    Only in america...

  • killerdestroyer

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 2:08 am GMT

    tsk tsk tsk... now hes telling this game to go to ban city because some guy made him, well i wont tell you where he can go, jack thompson=biggest ********** ***** ********* ********** **** ** ****** ** ************ ***** *** *********** ************ on earth

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 3, 2006 8:15 pm GMT

    What will he do next?

  • thewinterlord

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 2:37 pm GMT

    I think I will buy him a Wii!

  • princerouse122

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 2:19 pm GMT

    I totally agree with Mr_Saturn26.

    Thompson needs to know when to shut up, and get another life off of sueing video game developers.

  • Riorio99

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 10:27 am GMT

    If I had a reprentation of me in a game I would be thrilled!
    Get over it thompson! GTA, Bully, Mortal Kombat ect will never be banned!

  • bigbrown69

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:23 pm GMT

    wow who does this guy think he is

  • Sir_Crocidile

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:49 pm GMT

    *rolls eyes* Oh come on. . . thats just pathetic. *sigh* oh well I guess you can't blame him as he knows nothing about videogames to know that it came from a create a character mode.

  • Yadiel2007

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 6:32 pm GMT

    what's next? suing EA for The Sims 2 again for people making a Jack Thompson character and making it die in horrible ways? Now I wanna get MKA and TS2 to do that!

  • aqua_demon

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 3:53 pm GMT

    It may look like you Jack, but that character has a better sense of judgement than YOU, even when it's busy ripping heads off.

  • violentken88

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 3:37 pm GMT

    Look hear Jackie why dont you go get a life.

  • Buffulor

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 3:07 pm GMT

    luckly this guy hasnt looked at the american box of killer7 which has a web site on it (www.killer7.com) which brings you to a porn site, im sure he would kick up a fuss about openly advertising a porn site on a games case that children look at, WOULD SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN

  • madhatter73

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:37 am GMT

    Jack, as an ttorney that has made every effor to make himself a public figure should investigate the legalities surrounding parody.

    If you are a public figure, the can be made fun of. Ask SNL/MadTV...

  • M-Yu

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:24 am GMT

    What an idiot

  • Young_Taizy

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 8:57 am GMT

    Everytime I hear about Thompson yelling about some game, I laugh because I know he's old and will die soon.

  • AceCometh

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:36 am GMT

    Mr. Thompson, as a highly educated and sophisticated individual far removed from adolesence, I hereby urge you to cease and desist on you warmongering again videogames and those who play them. you are losing more and more registered voters everytime your name is smeared across headlines in popular news sources such as GameSpot and EGM. Your re-election is in jeapordy since landing yourself in the same catagory as most despised individuals in the minds of gamers, right next to Uwe Bole. Thank you.

  • raydnex

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:23 am GMT

    god...hit the road jacky boy or ur gonna regret it...

  • eric2mrng

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:08 am GMT

    what a loser

  • Quetzalcoatl_88

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 1:55 am GMT

    whacko jacko never ceases to entertain me!

  • Vodoo

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 6:49 pm GMT

    I always thought that Jack looked more like Scorpion during a fatality than anything else.

  • sentay0

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 6:49 pm GMT

    Jack just stop ok just stop before everyone hates you you're pretty close but not there yet.

  • Inu7

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 5:40 pm GMT

    GO JACK GO!

  • scottahuch

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 5:14 pm GMT

    That guy might as well sue the sims, the sims 2, Saints Row, and many other games for being able to create life-like characters.

  • Mr_Saturn26

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 4:39 pm GMT

    will take 2 hurry up and put this guy in contemp and throw in in the old jail cell. This man needs to understand a few things and ill list them

    1. its the parents responsiblity to over see what thier kids play not u or the goverment

    2. copying ur name, and the way u look is not illiegial, unless ur name is copywrited or something, and the person that is the copier is making money off ur fame, while breaking the copywrite, but im not sure if this is correct, correct me if im wrong plz.

    3. u need to know when to keep ur mouth shut in court, that is when u get in contempt, and u need to know not to send little messenges to the judge, u know one day u may have in the court room and u may relaize oh crap, i ticked him off a couple months ago this will not go well

    4. turn in ur licence to pratice law, and repeat law school, cause obiously he needs to freshin up on his profession.

  • poopdogg89

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 4:27 pm GMT

    ha. what a dumbass

  • AFAgent47

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 3:34 pm GMT

    this guy....this crazy effin guy.
    I guess we shouldnt play tony hawk anymore either.

  • JEEBUS_BOGONDO

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 12:41 pm GMT

    if jack got hit by a bus tommorow, I dont think very many people would cry over it.

  • codezer0

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 12:15 pm GMT

    Damn, now I HAVE to create him in this game. sucks that you gotta get points for it

Subscribe to GameSpot's YouTube Channel

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!

Related Game

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Boxshot
Follow:
  1. Not Following
    Wii: Follow
  2. Not Following
    PlayStation 2: Follow
  3. Not Following
    Xbox: Follow
Add to List
  1. Wii
  2. PlayStation 2
  3. Xbox

Follow for the latest news, videos, & tips from experts & insiders

GameSpot Fuse
    Platforms:

    Site Blogs