American science-fiction author John Beiswenger, the man who is trying to stop Assassin’s Creed III’s release has been introduced to the wrath of gamers.
Fans have bombarded the Amazon ratings for the book that bares a lot of similarities with Ubisoft’s franchise with negative reviews. Link is a story about experiencing the life of a descendant through a virtual machine.
This lawsuit had the potential of delaying the release of Assassin’s Creed III. Unfortunately nobody told Beiswenger that ACIII features a brand new setting and protagonist, and is the most anticipated entry in the franchise yet.
Following the news of Beiswenger’s lawsuit, gamers discovered the Amazon listing for Link and began to publish a number of 1/5 reviews. Before this lawsuit was brought to light, Link had only one review (a 5/5 review written back in 2007), but now it has over 161 reviews, most of which are negative.
Some of the reviews are claiming that the book plagiarized off Assassin’s Creed through some sort of time travel or magic, while others are judging the book based on the short preview that Amazon offers.
While it is abundantly clear that gamers are not happy with Beiswenger’s lawsuit, it feels a bit petty to criticize his book when obviously no one has read it. His lawsuit may have grounds, or it may not, that’s for the courts to decide, and most likely it won’t cause Assassin’s Creed III to miss its release date.
Do you feel that Beiswenger has a right to sue given the similarities between his book and the story of Assassin’s Creed?
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Hell no, there are other books with the same thing before his book was written, if the Author of the other books was still alive he would get sued by them. If i have to guess i bet he know about AC and just waited for the right time to strike
Hahahaha ASSASSIN BROTHERS we assassinated him :D
No I don't think he has the right to sue at all. The ideas he is trying to say he owns are ones that have already been done before. Also ideas cannot be copyrighted anyways just things like writing and other things like that. I think this is just some guy who wants attenion no matter how negative it is.
Another job well done Assassin's! I congratulate you, my brethren…
I dont think it is good to do that normally but he did deserve it :)
No, he didn't have the right. What's next ? Activision suing EA for publishing a game with guns ? Come on …
it would be the other way around with the way ea wants to weed out the competition
Beiswenger has no right at all!
His own books are based on IDEAS of other people as well, just as Assassin's Creed is based on those same ideas. You can't copyright ideas.
Does Beiswenger really think that his book was the first one to bring up this idea? I genuinly think this guy is either extremely arrogant, or just has brain damage.
Can you name some of the other books you are referring to? I generally think that the law sue is ridiculous, but I would very much like to have a few examples to defend my belief..
the book about the whole commotion right now is called Link
Look for a book called "Assassination" written by Miles Hudson, published in 2000. It's just one of the several books that has a similar idea to Link.
I don't know of any other books by name, but I've seen other people mention plenty.
Actually that's how copy right works you own your ideas for a set amount of time and people can not copy them.
You can copyright characters, names, and the storyline of something you created. But Assassin's Creed is only barely similar to the same idea. That's like sueing someone for similarities between Battlefield and Call of Duty. Heck, maybe Julius Ceasar should sue Hitler for taking over Europe?
Beiswenger might think it's intentional, but everyone else will say it's mere coincidence. Beiswenger can't win this with so many people backing up Ubisoft. He doesn't have enough influence or popularity to be able to get even a penny from them.
You simply can't just sue a multi-million dollar company for 5,25 million dollars for copyright infringement by showing them a barely known book as evidence. Link had only one 5 star review, written in 2007, and i'm thinking Beiwenger himself wrote it. I don't know if Link is a good book or a bad book, because i can't be assed to read it. But i do know that up until last week when Beiswenger sued Ubisoft, barely anyone had ever heard of it.
Technically, copyright infrigment is irrelevant here. Both the judges and jury should be focussing on WHY Beiswenger is sueing them now all of a sudden.
Ubisoft has the excuse of not knowing Beiswenger's book, but Beiswenger can't say the same and sound legitimate. What's he gonna say? "I never heard of one of the most popular videogames for the past 5 years until just now!" ?
Maybe if he sued them the moment Assassin's Creed was released, he might have stood a chance in court. But waiting 5 years and THEN sueing because the game got popular? It doesn't work like that.
Sorry bout that lol. I didn't realize i wrote so much. XD
OK this guy must be stupid for thinking that he can say assassins creed takes ideas from his story, bullshit, i never read the book but i hear that it plain out sucks, maybe he is doing this shit because he has no money, if he goes any further with this lawsuit he will have thousands of AC fans burning his house to the ground
dont give us any ideas… lol
And another thing is that no idea is original, the story and how AC tells it is probably in hundreds of books just said differently, this guy will have the judges laughing at him
The guy is probably hoping to get royalties from the Assassin's Creed franchise since it is so successful and his book wasn't.
This is what happens if someone messes with our Brotherhood!!
Requiscat in pace John.
Well if you read some of his book (well i read a little thing about it) it says its about some scientists or something and they find away to view your ancestors memories by a machine but still why he go to sue UBISOFT at the time they go to release the most anticipated ac game of …….. ever!!!! Oh yeah hes probably not gonna sell any books now XD
The weirdest thing is, he has waited till the fifth game in the series to sue them.
Not based on the vague ideas that he's citing. And honestly, I have no problem with gamers downrating his book. Of course, I tend to metaphorically apply scorched earth warfare to social conflicts, so…
He is lucky Altair and Ezio is are not real because if they were he'd be assassinated
maybe his book was shit, and didn't make any profit and now he wants to cancel assassins creed to see them fail
maybe nintendo should sue him for using the word Link.. lmao this guy is a joke
lol i know this sounds crazy but maybe this guy is supported by other gaming companies that doesnt want AC III to see the light, as Ubisoft promises that it will be awesome…
look at x-men,heroes and mutant x(tv show had 4 seasons. look it up on imdb) they're all about mutants and marvel tryed sueing heroes and mutant x
Good job, Assassins!
This is a publicity attempt. No one knows about his book, and through stunts like these, now a lot of people know about it. Good business attempt, but getting millions of people to hate him isn't really going to work.
Just saying lightly, at least this John guy is abiding by the creed "Everything is Permitted." 0.0
I think it depends on which one came out first…. if the game came out first then oh well, the authors loss :/
It's common knowledge that the book was released in 2002, and Assassin's Creed in 2007.
The thing is, Ubisoft has copyrights of its own on Assassin's Creed, so how can Beiswenger even claim they're breaking his?
What a douche … needs to get a life and stop being such a moaning pussy
this guy lives on grant street in lancaster pensylvania, i dont know his exact adress, but some one is gonna TP his house!
He just sounds like another filthy Templar, out for greed.
i fu**ing hate this guyyyyyyyy
I think this one pretty much sums up what I think: http://www.amazon.com/review/R25TCESD0REBV6/ref=c…
But still, I think you could have at least read the book before reviewing, that is just spamming.
*Evil smile appears*