Church of England accuses Sony of using English cathedral in violent computer game

The Church of England accused Sony Corp. on Saturday of using a cathedral in Britain as the backdrop to a violent computer game, and said it should be withdrawn from shop shelves.

The church said Sony did not ask for permission to use Manchester cathedral and demanded an apology.

The popular new Play-Station3 game, "Resistance: Fall of Man," shows a virtual shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral. Church officials described Sony's alleged use of the building as "sick" and sacrilegious.

A spokesman for the Church of England said a letter would be sent to Sony on Monday, and that if the church's request for an apology and withdrawal of the game was not met it would consider legal action.

[TheExodus]

What kind of legal action can a building take when it's likeness is used without it's permission. But then again how does one go about getting a building to sign a consent form?

[Diselage]

Since people own the building, one could argue that person owns the rights to how that building is depicted.

[FadedDRFT]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

BEST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!!!!

[cartman313]

God I can't stand religion.

@Jaydesi - It's a freakin building. It would be different if they took a pic of YOU and put it in a game where you get shot to hell and back. It's nothing but bricks and glass!! Also, it has everything to do with religion. They are offended because it's a church. If they actually followed the bible they would just shrug it off. I stand by my statement, religion is nothing but a group of hypocrites they should all go drown in a lake.

[jaydesi]

It's got f**kall to do with religion u prat!

if i took a picture of you and plastered it on TV wthout asking ur permission, you'd be up in arms saying "wtf u never had permission to use my pic for your TV programme i'm gona sue you."

brand labels are the same, you can't advertise them unless you have the permission too.

you need to have permission end of story.

[emptiness]

yes, your opinion is so significant. especially when it's discriminatory and bullheaded. note the sarcasm. i'll pray for you.

[VirtualGamer]

Wow a game where your playing a US soldier defending England from aliens and part of that is fighting them in the Manchester Cathedral is an afront to the Church of England.

Their facts are incorrect as well since they say a shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral. First its not a shootout of rival gunmen. Its a shootout between US soldiers and aliens. 100's of aliens die not people. See your playing the role of trying to save England and if that requires killing aliens in the Manchester Cathedral so be it. Unless the church is saying they would like to be known as a safe haven for aliens bent on the distruction of mankind.

[BIadestarX]

"US soldiers and aliens"... But what if the aliens are catholic too? Are you aproving the death of aliens? Rasist! How can you aprove the death of aliens? How about their children and families?

[emptiness]

true but that's not the point. the point is that sony is once again undermining morality and showing their disregard for the proper respect ANY religion deserves. by re-creating the cathedral in a game without the consent of the proper figure heads, sony again portrays itself as arrogant. they just can't do anything right these days.

[castlerock]

F in Hell, I think are are two reasons to disaprove of all this US bollocks:

1. Manchester Cathederal is Older than the United States, christ my local pub is older than the united states (Built: 1409).

2. Would you realy trust US soldiers with saving anything? - I mean come on "Friendly Fire" or "Incompetence" as we call it just wouldn't cut it.

Thank christ the game is fictional - LOL

[BIadestarX]

What will Sony fans do if their best game is pull from the street? What will Sony do?

I don't think it will ever happen... lets hope that the pope does not condem the purchase of PS3. LOL.

More bad press for Sony... again..

[gerth666]

iv heard the pope is an xbox 360 fanboy!

[23478ueyur_938223]

No, he plays the Wii. It has the least M rated games, and it's all white and holy. And cheap.

[castlerock]

Pillock!!

The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church.

The Church of England was created by Henry the VIII (thats 8th to you) coz he couldn't divorce his wife under catholic law - so he said nob off and created the Church of England.

[techie]

I remember when Manhunt got banned...it then turned into a bestseller. lol

[kingboy]

I guess more publicity for Resistance fall of man

[Rybnik]

I'm actually shocked this isn't a higher temperature!! LOL. But seriously, this is absolutely moronic behavior on the part of the church...even in multiplayer, it is still Chimera vs Humans..not 'rival gangs', dear lord! I agree with Kingboy, if anything this may spur more sales for Fall Of Man, ha ha ha!

[zoibie]

but in the end it's free publicity. The fact that the argument against Sony is so weak just helps this but If the church wants to get money this way, they could at least think up a suitable argument!

[eques judicii]

The year of lawsuits.

[bootsielon]

No one cares.

Anyway, funny that bladestar mentions it's the "best game" on PS3, as not everyone that has a PS3 considers it the best; it's something obvious, and a ridiculous generalization. How come he has 7 bubbles with such flawed logic?

Anyhow, there's Motorstorm which is underrated, Virtua Fighter which is awesome (and not available yet on 360), Oblivion (better experience than on 360), The Godfather (more content than the 360 version), Fight Night 3(More content and better graphics), Virtua Tennis (Better graphics), and so on.

So, there are plenty of games that are just plain better on PS3. So, even if Resistance is pulled of the shelves, there are many things to play, and better experiences than on Xbox 360. And that's just the beginning.

[emptiness]

i disagree with your "no one cares" statement but the rest of what you said is correct.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

Halo kinda looks like an angel halo turned side ways and its offending all the angels in heaven....

[Kokoro]

Rubbish. It's a church so it's not own by anyone.

[dale1]

well this is amazing the bishops have got ps3s how else would they know unless the pope tipped them of playing resistance is it that good a game
just a bit of humuor

[Sully907]

Similar to how in the world of journalism you cannot sue someone for libel if you are a public figure,This is a publicly available place and thus leaves itself open to creative and satirical representation.

[Cartesian3D]

Pope has a ps3 and he played Resistance many times... ( ps3 fanboy comment )

to virtualgamer : are aliens infected people?

@4.1 bladestar : nice one ..lol .. aliens children! hahaha... its funny but its true.. :(

[ben hates you]

this past year, they've killed goats, been sued several dozen times, and now this, whats next?

[techie]

that goat thing was blown far out of proportion. I goat from a butcher...you'd think everyone was a vegetarian.

And this is once again absurd...why jump on games, when films do it all the time. Do you think they asked the permission of the whole of London to fill it with infected and then blow it up for "28 Weeks Later"?

I'd expect anyone who disagrees with Thompson, should disagree with this.

[Rybnik]

Nice one Deep! Right on with the 28 Weeks comment. This is beyond absurd.

[emptiness]

this is another mistep of sony and also contradictory. sony is a serious defender of copyright material and yet they "forget" to ask permission of the church to portray an incredibly accurate image of the Church of England. wow. i think it's virtually impossible for sony to NOT be arrogant.

[VirtualGamer]

I think this is more to do with you bashing Sony then being real or are you going to suggest you feel the City of New York should be able to go after Rockstar Games for using their city as the model for Liberty City in GTA IV?

[emptiness]

i guess i have to use my last bubble on you VG. church and state are separate entities. that should clear up your confusion. i don't think i need to say more. everyone here seems to think disrepecting religion, mocking religious structure, or tearing into someone for their religious beliefs is ok.

it's truly disheartening to know there are people who have absolutely no compassion or understanding for sacred grounds, structures, beliefs, or what have you.

it's also disheartening to know that one of the biggest media/electronics manufacturers, sony, thinks the same way. total disrepect and full of arrogance. again, they keep diggin their company deeper into the ground.

[Rybnik]

No, dude you are bringing Sony in this. It is truly unbelievable and highly hypocritical to damn Sony for doing what the movie industry has been doing for far longer. There are countless recent movies that feature destruction/ fights within churches..Resident Evil, Once Upon A Time in Mexico..MANY others. Where was the condemnation from religious leaders then??
edit: dear God, I can't believe I didn't think of Kill Bill. That movie is the freaking epitome of an example the church ignored. Also, like Deep said, Insomniac is not Sony, and the church is not a perfect recreation!!! What is this world coming to??

[techie]

Anyone forget that INSOMNIAC made this game!??? And not Sony.

Ps. the look of the game is NOT accurate to the location. ABSURD.

As the wise Rybnik points out the movie industry: Do you not remember all the shootouts in churches? All the vampires murdering and sacrificing humans in churches? All the murdered people in 28 days later, with a vicar coughing blood up as an infected???? The beat-em-up and shootout to a woman getting married while pregnant in Kill Bill - in a sacred church, in a sacred dress, performing a sacred ceremony. DAMN THEM ALL!

ABSURD(!)

And your talk entisp is both disturbing and unfounded. If you want to talk about one company (who didn't design the game), what about all the others? And all the thousands of films made in our history. Why games...a form of entertainment. Anyone who agrees with this is doing Jack Thompson up the duffer.

These people need to get back to the real world and stop REAL PEOPLE from getting killed, and REAL sacred places being destroyed from certain western countries bombing other countries, and insulting a whole religion by naming them terrorists.

[zoibie]

and if the developers had to think about whether games are "morally correct" to each individual or not, we'd just be staring at a white screen! Your view is that Sony is the scapegoat and as far as i know, people aren't going to walk into that church and say "oh yeah, this is where i killed those fictional aliens with my virtual gun! I'll never look at this place the same again!"

[Circa24]

So, what you're saying is that because a building is affiliated with religious beliefs, it shouldn't be allowed to be portrayed in a negative manner?

I'm sorry, and no disrespect, but that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If you don't like it, don't play the game. Just because you have certain beliefs, doesn't mean everyone has to agree.

Lets use a hypothetical:
Let's say the church wins this legal issue, and the game is taken off shelves.

Then what?

The scene in the beginning of "28 days later" (with the zombies eating people in a Cathedral) causes the movie to be removed off shelves? Then no one can paint Cathedrals in art unless approved by the church? Then, anyone who speaks anything negative about the church within a 50 foot radius of a Cathedral is immediately sent to jail?

Using your logic (I'm speaking to you entisp), Galileo never should have challenged the church in the fact that the world revolved around the sun.

You can't control people's fundamental rights to express themselves in whichever manner they choose. It defeats the whole purpose.

[VirtualGamer]

Your going to stand up for whats right? Sorry but I have my own belief system and to suggest that you somehow have the in on whats morally right and I or anyone else does not just shows how arrogant you are.

If we are talking moraltiy here then seperation of church and state has nothing to do with morality. Violence in any form is against morality. Just because one is a City and the other is a church does not make one ok and the other not. At least not in the context of "morality".

entisp - everyone here seems to think disrepecting religion, mocking religious structure, or tearing into someone for their religious beliefs is ok.

You take tremendous liberty in making a statement about everyone. I don't see how anything I have said so far is disrespectful to religion, is mocking religious structures or tearing into someone for thier relgious beliefs. What I do have a problem is a religion that feels because its church has been included in a fictional video game that they think they can have it removed and thus censored. That would be like the Church of England trying to ban The Divinci Code because it betrayed the church in a unkindly light.

entisp - it's truly disheartening to know there are people who have absolutely no compassion or understanding for sacred grounds, structures, beliefs, or what have you.

I guess that would depend on what one concluded was being disrespectful now wouldn't it. I have lots of compasion and respect for sacred ground, structures and even beliefs. I believe you have the right to believe whatever you like until you try and impose your beliefs on me. Thats where I draw the line and if thats being disrespectful then so be it.

entisp - it's also disheartening to know that one of the biggest media/electronics manufacturers, sony, thinks the same way. total disrepect and full of arrogance. again, they keep diggin their company deeper into the ground.

Well first of all in order to prove your assurtion here you would have to prove Sony knew about all of this and the objections from the Church and went ahead with it anyway. If that was the case then yeah Sony would definately be the bad guy.

However that is not the case. As stated they had thought they had done everything correct and this may still be the case as it will be lawyers and the law of England that determines if the Church even has a leg to stand on legally. We certianly know what side of the fence your on and the fact you accuse people who don't belive as you as being bad just shows how judgemental you are. I consider myself to be a christian and as such I know people make mistakes and have understanding and compassion and don't rush to judge. However its been my experience that many christian do rush to judge others as you appear to be of us in this thread and of Sony.

[techie]

What's more sacred than architecture? Or religious beliefs? Human life is more sacred than both of those....right so what's my point? Well all FPS games have the killing of humans in them...thus destroying and disrespecting something which is very sacred...human life. We are thus back to Jack Thompson - games with killing should be banned.

Conclusion? Picking out Video Games as some form of entertainment which is not given the privileges of other forms of entertainment, is hypocritical.

[Rybnik]

That is just about right on..Hey everyone, so from now on there will be no killing or destruction of property in any videogame. Movies, books, TV shows, and advertisements however, can continue just as always...
In the immortal words of the fictional Dr Breen: "Welcome to city 17, its safer here..."

[Kyur4ThePain]

I guess the city of NY will sue because of GTA too.

[Rhaigun]

They've already threatened to.

Fact is, someone owns the building. You can make a likeness, but not an exact replica without permission. That's why GTA is Liberty City and the structures have different names, or slightly different shape.

[Premonition]

There are some many freaking games out there with almost the same building models such as cities and what not but I see no one coming out making lawsuits against the developers but as soon as sony has a game with a building that looks like such and such, they get in trouble.

[tony]

all i can say is the crusades. hypocrites.

[kingofps3]

I wonder what it would say in the Sony statement regarding the matter? Also, I hope Insomniac is going to say something in this.

[candystop]

This could end up like Kakuto Chojin for the original Xbox which was pulled years ago! Didn't Sony run an add awhile back with some guy wearing the crown of thorns from Jesus and the Catholics made them remove the add? I don't know what's up with Sony but they might want to get rid of this dark evil image they are starting to really make of themselves!

[ch_ymh]

I think they are so sensitive on this issue as the world inside "Resistance" is virtual.

[The BS Police]

How many movies have shown government and religious buildings being used both violent and non violent?

This lawsuit won't get far.