Activision is being sued for plagiarism in Modern Warfare, along with Infinity Ward and Major League Gaming Corp., for allegedly copying a character named Jade Canus from Clayton Haugen’s November Renaissance. He claims that the character Mara from Modern Warfare’s Warzone was outright stolen from his story. The story gets even odder. Haugen and Activision hired the same actress/cosplayer/Twitch streamer, Alex Zedra, to portray both characters. Haugen has made the claim that Activision, Infinity Ward, and Major League Gaming Corp. asked Zedra to get the same clothing she used for her photoshoot she used as Jade Canus. They also hired the same makeup artist and instructed them to “recreate” the look, even going so far as using the same hair extensions. These quotations are from the defendant’s complaint.
“To conceal their planned infringement of Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs and his Cade Janus character, Defendants required the talent and the makeup professional to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements.”
“The resulting photographs were intended to be, and were, copies of Haugen’s Cade Janus Photographs.”
This sounds like a clear-cut case of plagiarism in Modern Warfare. The character was even used in the game’s marketing campaign. The case will most likely settle, and the Call of Duty series will not suffer any major loss in terms of image, but to go to such an extent to outright steal a character from someone else’s work is unwarranted, especially given the resources Activision has.