Activision Blizzard Sued By Manuel Noriega

It can't be easy being a former military dictator. One day you're happily moonlighting as a CIA spy and successful drug-trafficking money launderer, the next you're in prison for 20 years after the USA invades and kicks you out.

To top it all off, after you finally get out of prison, some weasel over at Activision puts you in Call of Duty : Black Ops II and makes you look all evil and stuff. 

On Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Gen. Noriega alleged that Call of Duty: Black Ops II portrays him as a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state in such a way as to heighten realism in its game, which translates directly into heightened sales for Activision.

Gen. Noriega who is now aged 80 is seeking lost profits as well as damages. It should be kept in mind however that he was convicted in absentia of killing Dr Hugo Spadafora, a dissident who exposed Noriega's drug-trafficking operations in 1993. Dr Spadafora's decapitated body was discovered near Panama's border with Costa Rica in 1985.

This is not the only instance of someone suing a game maker for using their image wihtout permission. A $40 million settlement was completed by Electronic Arts earlier this year that will pay college football and basketball players dating to 2003 for the use of their likenesses in NCAA-branded videogames, and Lindsay Lohan is suing Grand Theft Auto maker Rockstar, claiming they have used her likeness without permission.

Grand Theft Auto V  has in fact stirred up quite the legal hornets nest as even Karen Gravano, daughter of former Gambino family enforcer and underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano is seeking $20 million in punitive damages and $20 million in compensation. She is claiming that the character Antonia Bottino bears more than a passing resemblance to her both in terms of appearance and backstory in the random quest "burial".

In Grand Theft Auto V, you encounter Bottino bound and about to be buried alive. After you help her, she'll explain her father is the retired Gambetti crime family underboss Sammy Bottino, who was a government witness as part of a plea bargain. 

It will be interesting to see how all this legal mess gets untangled eventually. One thing for sure, there are some very expensive lawyers who must be browsing property listings in the Cayman Islands on the back of how much this little lot will earn them.