'Dead Rising' copyright case dismissed

A copyright lawsuit filed against Capcom by the producer of the horror film Dawn Of The Dead has been dismissed by a US magistrate.

The producer’s company, The MKR Group, presented United States Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg with a list of similarities between Romero’s 1978 classic and Capcom’s 2006 survival horror Dead Rising.

The judge, however, dismissed the case, failing to find "any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn Of The Dead". The magistrate went on to state that the biggest similarity, the concept of humans battling zombies in a mall setting, is unprotectable under copyright laws.

Although Judge Seeborg ruled in Capcom’s favour, he was far from complimentary about the game, stating that the social commentary in Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead "appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising".