Ubisoft suing SomethingAwful for fake porno image of Jade Raymond on its forums

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Not that I consider SA to be any sort of shining light of the internet, or goons to be anything but wearisome hypocritical self-hating nerds, but I'm pretty sure that parody is protected speech in this country.

EDIT: lol@comic
 
GreekWolf said:
Honestly, does it matter? If you were the primary PR for your company's project, would you agree to a photoshoot where you were standing out in the spotlight, several feet in front of the entire team who has busted their asses for years on this product? Don't they deserve at least as much credit for their effort? I think it's an incredibly shitty thing to do, and you'd better believe that I'd flat-out refuse to allow a publication to portray me as some ego maniacal glory hound, which is exactly how the photo comes across.

To some extent, but at the sametime it doesn't work that way. The Producer always gets the limelight.

To bad Jaffe doesn't post here anymore. I would LOVE to hear his thoughts of this.
 
I've only read the first page, so bear with me, but..


..are they suing them, or did they just send them a cease and desist letter?

Also, lol @ SA's response.
 
Woo-Fu said:
Isn't that the stereotypical perfect woman? The fact that ubisoft isn't part of the deal or shown pushing her into it makes me lean towards my interpretation instead of yours.

No, the fact that Ubisoft isn't here just makes it a personal attack on Jade Raymond.
 
mckmas8808 said:
To some extent, but at the sametime it doesn't work that way. The Producer always gets the limelight.

To bad Jaffe doesn't post here anymore. I would LOVE to hear his thoughts of this.
Was he banned or self-exiled?
 
Y2Kev said:
That said, Jade did her job perfectly for AC.
We'll never know that for sure unless a good post-mortem ever goes public. A lot of a producer's work is related to schedules, budget, and management. The PR/marketing stuff is supposed to be a very small percentage of it.
 
laserbeam said:
I think what people are missing is the comic was done when the Current News of the day Was she was gonna strip down to a bikini and pose in maxim. So the assumption was Ubisoft and herself was whoring off her body so geeks could jerk off to her.

Obviously it was later proven she was indeed not doing such a photoshoot but the comic was from that period which is why shes wearing the bikini she was rumored to wear in the photoshoot.

Quoted so hopefully more people will read this.
Spent 10 seconds in google and sure enough. Everything is accurate down to the green and white striped bikini.
 
Campster said:
Like Whitta said, there has to be a million ways to do the same joke in a tasteful manner. I'm not saying "child porn is hilarious" I'm saying there are tasteful and distasteful ways to do the same goddamn joke. Pedobear works because it's such a tasteful take on such a horrid subject. Show your mom Pedobear without an explanation and she'll think its cute. Show her this and she'll get upset. And this isn't one of those cases where the more explicit a thing is the funnier or more meaningful it is.
I see, you have a problem with the execution, not the message itself? So if the comic just implied she whored herself and didn't have the picture of the nerds ejecting semen all over her face you would n't have any qualms with it?
 
gofreak said:
I've only read the first page, so bear with me, but..


..are they suing them, or did they just send them a cease and desist letter?

Also, lol @ SA's response.
Cease and desist and it was to the artist who in turn posted it on SA. SA has nothing to do with this though like mentioned several times. I don't know why people are even giving them attention, everyone knows it's the bowls of the internet where people with no sense of self go to 'LAWL' about everything so forget them.

But whatever. This will blow over anyway and life will go on, it's not the end of the road for Jade or anyone and I think we can all agree on that.
radjago said:
Was he banned or self-exiled?
self-exiled.

But I digress, I'm out. Got my own problems to deal with.
 
Xisiqomelir said:
Not that I consider SA to be any sort of shining light of the internet, or goons to be anything but wearisome hypocritical self-hating nerds, but I'm pretty sure that parody is protected speech in this country.

EDIT: lol@comic
We're past that. I agree the C&D letter was dumb and all it's accomplished is to expose the comic to an even wider audience. Dumb.

The point is whether or not the parody was any good. In my view, it wasn't. There is a point to be made about how JR has been paraded in front of the media to promote AC, but this comic made it in absolutely the most immature and sexist way possible. If that's your level of humor then it works for you, I guess.
 
I wouldn't rule out a photoshoot with a magazine. FHM just ran a promotion where they give away copies of Assassin's Creed to new subscribers.
 
Oh man, it's always hilarious to watch these frivolous lawsuits against SA pan out. Truly golden.

I skimmed through the thread, and I must say it is disturbing to see that so many people on this board feel this form of free speech shouldn't be protected. Is it distasteful? Crude? Outright disgusting? I would say yes on every count, but I still laughed because I saw the value of the comic beyond the crude joke.

And those of you thinking this should be illegal: It's called satire. Get an edukayshun.
 
laserbeam said:
I think what people are missing is the comic was done when the Current News of the day Was she was gonna strip down to a bikini and pose in maxim. So the assumption was Ubisoft and herself was whoring off her body so geeks could jerk off to her.

Obviously it was later proven she was indeed not doing such a photoshoot but the comic was from that period which is why shes wearing the bikini she was rumored to wear in the photoshoot.
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Quoted so hopefully more people will read this.
Spent 10 seconds in google and sure enough. Everything is accurate down to the green and white striped bikini.
Context... Such a powerfull tool of KNOWLEDGE!!! Thank you...
 
Visualante said:
I wouldn't rule out a photoshoot with a magazine. FHM just ran a promotion where they give away copies of Assassin's Creed to new subscribers.

I doubt even a free PS3 would sell a subscription to FHM. I don't think I've read a worse magazine.
 
BamYouHaveAids said:
Oh I see, you have a problem with the execution, not the message itself? So if the comic just implied she sucked dick and didn't have the picture of the nerds ejecting semen all over her face you would be perfectly ok with it?

No. There's a difference between the abstract joke of "Okay, Jade Raymond is using her sexuality and attractiveness to sell Assassin's Creed so let's play that angle up" and ever-so-slightly more crass "JADE RAYMOND IS A STUPID SLUT THAT SUCKS COCKS."

I'm saying that at a certain level of abstraction the joke and point that this comic wants to make could be made in a tasteful and genuinely funny way. But airbrushing out the semen from what's already there isn't exactly going to solve the problems this comic has.
 
samd0.jpg
 
Gary Whitta said:
We're past that. I agree the C&D letter was dumb and all it's accomplished is to expose the comic to an even wider audience. Dumb.

The point is whether or not the parody was any good. In my view, it wasn't. There is a point to be made about how JR has been paraded in front of the media to promote AC, but this comic made it in absolutely the most immature and sexist way possible. If that's your level of humor then it works for you, I guess.

But we are only discussing it because of the cease and desist. Whether I find it funny or not is totally subjective. It's just a comic posted somewhere on the web and on a forum. Is this web comic really worthy of this level of dissection or is there some larger issue here that people are adding in with it?

It's only being discussed because it taps into a belief in some segments that she was overly put out as the face of the product because she has a good face. If the comic starts that debate (whether you agree with it or not) I would argue that the "artist" achieved what he wanted. For the people that think it's tasteless or not funny, no one is denying your right to believe that. Just not everybody agrees with you 100% on that characterization.
 
Gary Whitta said:
We're past that. I agree the C&D letter was dumb and all it's accomplished is to expose the comic to an even wider audience. Dumb.

The point is whether or not the parody was any good. In my view, it wasn't. There is a point to be made about how JR has been paraded in front of the media to promote AC, but this comic made it in absolutely the most immature and sexist way possible. If that's your level of humor then it works for you, I guess.

It's just Chugworth doing his thing. Now that I've read further in the thread, his goon-bashing is definitely the comedy high-point of the whole affair.
 
CrushDance said:
Cease and desist and it was to the artist who in turn posted it on SA. SA has nothing to do with this though like mentioned several times. I don't know why people are even giving them attention, everyone knows it's the bowls of the internet where people with no sense of self go to 'LAWL' about everything so forget them.

But whatever. This will blow over anyway and life will go on, it's not the end of the road for Jade or anyone and I think we can all agree on that.

self-exiled.

But I digress, I'm out. Got my own problems to deal with.

Please crush, get off your pedestal. If you knew anything about SA, you'd know it's one of the greatest places on the internets.
 
Tieno said:
While the comic isn't all that funny, this exchange between Ubi and SA is very interesting.

Ubisoft letter




Somethingawful reply
From: Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka (webmaster@somethingawful.com)
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:06 PM
To: 'Anderson, David'
Cc: A BUNCH OF FRENCHIES
Subject: RE: NOTICE: Infringement of ASSASSIN'S CREED Mark and Jade Raymond's Personal, Privacy, and Publicity Rights

Please let it be known that hereforth I have read the express mail and email sent thereforth by Famous Lawyer David Anderson of the Famous Lawyer Law Business of Nixon Peabody LLP, and furthermore a declaration shall be expressed on the part of Internet User Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka that thatforth herethrough I have conducted rigorous tests implemented through a vigorous barrage of legal studies, and furthermore hitherthrough these rigorous tests have therefore proven Famous Lawyer David Anderson of the Famous Lawyer Law Business of Nixon Peabody LLP shall be recognized as a man of the fag persuasion.

Pursuant to the United Dairy Council

Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka
Internet



:lol
:lol
wow.
 
considering that SA is a pay to participate forum... I'm getting the impression that many of those on the flip side, defending SA's honor are protecting their investment. :lol

duderon said:
You're too offended to see the funny. Here's a protip, Jade doesn't give a shit about you, there's no reason to defend her honor.

me not finding SA's response 'teh funny' has zilch to do with Jade Raymond, and looking back on my posts in this thread... I don't see how anyone could draw that conclusion. Get it together, Duderon.

Guy LeDouche said:
yes, that's clearly the issue...

<3 Lowtax. SA4Lyfe

i just don't see how calling someone a homophobic slur = comedy gold. *shrug*
 
SA charges an entrance fee because it is one of the biggest forums on the internet and requires a lot of money to maintain bandwidth(especially since it has little to no ads).

Protecting their investment? The fuck?
 
xaosslug said:
i just don't see how calling someone a homophobic slur = comedy gold. *shrug*

The unexpected juxtaposition elevates the slur, especially given its placement at the end. It's not necessarily comedy gold, and is definitely not polite, but it is chuckle worthy.
 
If Ubisoft thought this would get rid of the images they're very, very wrong. All they've done is drawn attention to them and there's going to be a thousand copycat pictures showing up before the end of this weekend.

Ignore it, and no-one will pay any attention.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
SA charges an entrance fee because it is one of the biggest forums on the internet and requires a lot of money to maintain bandwidth(especially since it has little to no ads).

Protecting their investment? The fuck?

yah and its another 5 bucks to have an avatar and another 10 for forum search its complete bulsshit GAHHH LOOOWTAKKKS
 
Theres actually a serious questions being asked in a satirical way if you look at the comic in the sense it was employed and at the time it was.

The Assumption was She was gonna be in maxim as is indicated in the comic via the described bikini attributed to her appearance and the nerd holding a maxim copy in his hand.

Whats being asked and its a good question is how far are these companies gonna go to sell their games that female staff would strip down to bikini and do photoshoots etc all just to sell a game.

Its basically asking where does it end and obviously shows the extreme of sexually favoring nerds to get game sales
 
Snookie said:
yah and its another 5 bucks to have an avatar and another 10 for forum search its complete bulsshit GAHHH LOOOWTAKKKS

Well that's no big deal. The search in this forum is free and still nobody uses it. =/

OGB said:
Just checking, how many people keep confusing the issue here?

Something Awful simply runs a forum where the comic was posted. That's really the point of SA's mockery...they're going after the wrong guy.

The comic originated over at Chugsworth Academy (http://www.chugsworth.com/). They have zero to do with SA, outside of maybe being members of the forum?

By the same wavelength, NeoGAF should get the same legal notice Something Awful did for reposting the comic in this thread...

Funny how that all works out eh? Guess we all lose.
 
Just checking, how many people keep confusing the issue here?

Something Awful simply runs a forum where the comic was posted. That's really the point of SA's mockery...they're going after the wrong guy.

The comic originated over at Chugsworth Academy (http://www.chugsworth.com/). They have zero to do with SA, outside of maybe being members of the forum?

By the same wavelength, NeoGAF should get the same legal notice Something Awful did for reposting the comic in this thread...
 
laserbeam said:
Theres actually a serious questions being asked in a satirical way if you look at the comic in the sense it was employed and at the time it was.

The Assumption was She was gonna be in maxim as is indicated in the comic via the described bikini attributed to her appearance and the nerd holding a maxim copy in his hand.

Whats being asked and its a good question is how far are these companies gonna go to sell their games that female staff would strip down to bikini and do photoshoots etc all just to sell a game.

Its basically asking where does it end and obviously shows the extreme of sexually favoring nerds to get game sales
Pretty much sums everything up, yes?
 
This is great. The more people rush to defend poor Ms. Raymond's honour, the more the comic stands to gain genuine currency and gain parodic worth. Every nerd that cries feeds it power!

Oh Ubisoft, we would have NEVER have heard of it until this lawsuit.

Bigger companies have gone after SA for a lot worse, failed (many times), and looked like morons in the process.

The stupidity of Ubisoft since this game was shown to the public deserves good parody, not this teenage halfwit stuff, sadly. But it -was- a parody of threads like those here with -dozens- of people dementedly fertilising the underside of their desks.
 
Woo-Fu said:
I seem to be getting a different idea from the comic.

That comic isn't about Jade at all it is about social rejects whose closest relationship with an attractive woman is buying a game where one of the producers of the game is a woman.

That isn't Jade doing that, that is those poor losers imagining Jade doing that.

This is certainly a reasonable interpretation of the comic as well.
 
xaosslug said:
considering that SA is a pay to participate forum... I'm getting the impression that many of those on the flip side, defending SA's honor are protecting their investment. :lol

me not finding SA's response 'teh funny' has zilch to do with Jade Raymond, and looking back on my posts in this thread... I don't see how anyone could draw that conclusion. Get it together, Duderon.

i just don't see how calling someone a homophobic slur = comedy gold. *shrug*

SA is the cool place to hang out. You can find most of the cool people there. In SA you can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the SA motto, for example, that's how laid back it is there. Show up if you want to have a good time. Another good reason to show up is if you want to hang out with friends.
 
Got to give credit where credit is due.

I congratulate Ubisoft (and its famous lawyers :lol ) for blowing this out of proportion.

Left alone this would have gone barely unnoticed, oh well now its even out in DIGG.
I hope this doesn't personally affects Ms Raymond, and her involvement with the gaming industry.
 
Campster said:
Please let this be hilarious scathing commentary or I'm going to just give up on humanity right now.

Im joking but seriously though, I bet there are plenty of hotter chicks around, ala Jessica Alba, and ppls around here make her seem like she is the hottest piece of ass in the world just cuz she worked on AC.
 
OGB said:
Just checking, how many people keep confusing the issue here?

Something Awful simply runs a forum where the comic was posted. That's really the point of SA's mockery...they're going after the wrong guy.

The comic originated over at Chugsworth Academy (http://www.chugsworth.com/). They have zero to do with SA, outside of maybe being members of the forum?

By the same wavelength, NeoGAF should get the same legal notice Something Awful did for reposting the comic in this thread...

Yep. As long as SA doesn't do anything stupid the law protects them. In fact even the original comic creator is protected. However Ubisoft can still demand that the comic be removed, SA could fight that though. I wonder if they actually removed it?
 
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