The Grand Theft Auto series is a crime based game featuring fictional characters and places, so it's safe to assume that not every character in the game is based on real life criminals, mob bosses and gangsters. But what if one of those people actually shows up and sues Grand Theft Auto for copying his /her life story. A scary coincidence, but it's trouble for Rockstar Games.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is being sued by a Mob daughter named Karen Gravano for $40 million dollars; she's claiming a scenario from the game copied her life story.
Karen Gravano, a former star of the reality-TV show Mob Wives, accused the Grand Theft Auto 5's developer Rockstar Games for illegally imitating her life without permission, pointing to the many parallels between her life and the character Antonia Bottino in the recent instalment in the criminal game series.
Karen's father, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano was a Gambino family underboss who in 1991 cooperated with federal prosecutors in the trial of Gotti, probably the most notorious latter-day American gangster. Gravano's testimony helped get Gotti a life sentence; Gravano received a five year sentence for his activities, and then went into the federal Witness Protection Program, moving out west to Arizona.
In Grand Theft Auto 5, Antonia Bottino is the daughter of Sammy Bottino, who is never seen but whose story is told by Antonia. Sammy Bottino, according to Andrea, was an underboss in the Gambetti Family who had been the right hand man of boss Jon Gravelli. Bottino took his family into hiding out west after being set up on murder charges stemming from a Vice City hit. Bottino later took a plea agreement and became a government informer. One of his enemies seeks revenge by having Antonia Bottino kidnapped and buried alive at the dirt bike track out in Paleto Bay, which the player thwarts.
It's not clear if the real life Karen Gravano was ever kidnapped or threatened with live burial but she say's she's publishing "a second book containing parts of not-so known aspects of the story used by" Rockstar Games.
This isn't the first time pop culture figures - no matter their standing - have claimed Rockstar Games has ripped off their likeness or story for its cultural satire that is the Grand Theft Auto series.Lindsay Lohan had contacted her attorneys to discuss either demanding money from Rockstar or suing them over the use of her likeness in Grand Theft Auto 5. TMZ implied that Lohan thinks the bikini model appearing on the game's cover was her.
In 2010, Michael "Shagg" Washington, a former backup dancer for Cypress Hill, sued Rockstar for $250 million, alleging that Carl "C.J." Johnson, the protagonist of 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, was based on him and was an unauthorized use of his likeness. A judge tossed that suit in November 2012.
And in 2008, a federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit brought by the strip club PlayPen, located in East Los Angeles, which alleged San Andreas' Pig Pen club was based on it. Rockstar conceded that the club was modeled somewhat on the PlayPen, but the court said Rockstar's actions were not enough to warrant an infringement claim.
Well so far, was it a coincidence for them?
