Midway Cleared in Psi-Ops Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

1UP Writes:

It seems it’s not all bad news for Midway these days. A federal judge has ruled in favor of Midway in a copyright infringement lawsuit revolving around the 2004 sci-fi action game, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (via Kotaku).

Back in 2007, screenwriter William L. Crawford III filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Midway, alleging the developer stole ideas — including characters, plot elements, and telekinetic powers — for Psi-Ops the game (copyrighted in 2004) from a screenplay of his that was also titled "Psi-Ops" (which was copyrighted in 1998). Crawford said Midway may have become aware of his screenplay when he was showing it around at E3 2001, or from various websites he built to promote it.

Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, however, didn’t see it his way, ruling that the similarities were not "protectable" under the Copyright Act. The judge said there was "minimal evidence supporting a reasonable possibility" that Midway could have stole Crawford’s work, and believed that "no reasonable juror can find that Plaintiffs’ [screenplay and web sites] and Defendants’ video game are substantially similar in the expression of their ideas."

So that’s $1.5 million Midway doesn’t have to pay out now. And considering their current financial troubles, they can use all the help they can get.