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Romero lawsuit against Capcom dismissed

Producer's claims that Dead Rising infringes on copyrights held by Day of the Dead has been denied by US judge Richard Seeborg

US magistrate judge Richard Seeborg has ruled against the MKR group, the producer of George A Romero's Day of the Dead, and in favour of Capcom, over claims that the Dead Rising title infringed on copyrights from the famed zombie movie.

Both the game and the movie are about human survivors battling zombies in a shopping mall they use for shelter, all of which are concepts too vague to be copyright protected.

"[The MKR Group] has not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead," explained the judge, according to GameSpot. "Rather, the few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak."

"To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation," Seeborg added.

"The social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead, in other words, appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."

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