The Wardman Wire

Manchester Cathedral issued a statement on Saturday that Sony had offered an apology and offered to talk to the Cathedral about the game.

The Cathedral acknowledged the apology and the admission that Manchester Cathedral had been used in the game, but confirmed that they still wished to have all their concerns addressed.

In my view, Sony has taken the first - easy - step and we now have a dialogue process. They have maintained their “dead bat” response in all other aspects. They have not provided any proof that they have obtained “all necessary permissions for our products and services” beyond a statement that they “believe with this particular work we have done so”.

This still has a very very long way to run, however.

The Letter from Sony to Manchester Cathedral

Letter from Sony:

Dear Dean Govender,

Thank you for your email of 11 June 2007.

Please understand that Resistance: Fall of Man is a work of science fiction.

It is fantasy entertainment set against a backdrop of an alternative reality of 1950s Britain. History has been rewritten and the Second World War has not happened but a race of alien creatures has attacked the earth and the human race is engaged in a struggle to defend itself from this alien invader.

Early in the time line of the story, Manchester Cathedral is utilised as a field hospital to tend to the human casualties of the war. When the story line reaches chapter 8, the Cathedral is empty and abandoned, no longer used as a place of worship and the sequences that take place inside are to defend the building from the aliens.

We do not accept that there is any connection between contemporary issues of 21st century Manchester and a work of science fiction in which a fictitious 1950s Britain is under attack by aliens. We believe a comprehensive viewing of the work will make its content and context clear.

Accordingly we would be pleased to demonstrate it to you at a mutually convenient time.

It was not our intention to cause offence by using a representation of Manchester Cathedral in chapter 8 of the work. If we have done so we sincerely apologise.

In conclusion we note that you are consulting lawyers. We confirm that it is our policy to seek all necessary permissions for our products and services, and we believe with this particular work we have done so.

Yours sincerely,

Dr David A Reeves
President
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

The Manchester Cathedral Response

This statement was issues at 4.30pm on Saturday:

Today at 4.30pm (15 June) Manchester Cathedral received a letter from Sony Computer Entertainment. In response to the letter (reproduced below), the Dean and Chapter have made the following remarks:

1. We acknowledge the admission by Sony that the building in the game is Manchester Cathedral. We thank Sony for the apology it has made.
2. However, we do not move from the position that we are against violence, and especially the gun violence seen in this portrayal of the Cathedral.
3. We are pleased that Sony wishes to come and meet with us in Manchester, as today we offered them such an invitation.
4. In the meeting with Sony we will discuss our outstanding demands, how this game came to be produced and where the images of the Cathedral came from.

My Comment - we have the start of a dialogue

I think we have the start of a dialogue process. That is all.

There are still far too few facts in the open to make a real judgement as to the exact circumstances.

If I were Sony, and I walked away from this having only issued a letter and a press release, I would consider myself to have won the jackpot - especially as all of the questions originally raised have not been answered. Further Sony and their distributors are sitting on total revenue of something like £60 million - which (I am assuming) involves quite a significant chunk of profit.

It is still not clear whether that revenue and profit have been generated legally. If it has been generated legally, then they have nothing to worry about. If not, and they have used the cathedral, then it is right that they should pay an appropriate fee for the use of the cathedral.

If Sony’s actions were Legal: No Problem

If the actions in creating the game were legal, they can stop worrying about the legal side and move on to the perception and Public Relations questions. Brushing off one of the bodies working with the community in Manchester to address gun crime would not be a very clever thing to do.

If Sony’s actions were not Legal: Ooops

If the actions in creating the game were not legal, then they need to consider what they are going to do about it.

Have Sony exposed themselves to other risks?

At this point if I was Sony, I would also be doing two other things:

1. Desperately auditing the detail of the game to identify any other possible risks that I have exposed myself to.
2. Putting Insomniac Games on the rack to find out exactly what they did do, and whether or not it was legal.

Most notably, the game producers - Insomniac Games - have (in the person of their President Ted Price) admitted sending an “environmental artist” to Britain to “get it right”. From Ruth Gledhill’s material supporting her first report:

Besides Manchester cathedral, some of the game is set in 1950s York. Mr Price says the scenes were designed after an “environment artist” visited Britain wiht his camera. “That was important because we wanted to get it right,” he says

If the environmental artists did not violate the terms for access to the Cathedral or the copyright of any articles therein, then they should have no problem. If the did violate terms or copyright, then they do have a problem.

We should also note that if the material was gathered and used in the production of the game illegally, then the violation may well still have occurred even if recognisable material was not published in the game itself.

Related Questions

Having talked about the “hard” legal questions, this situation represents a rare opportunity for:

• Understanding how communities can deal with gun crime, and how it arises.
• Getting into the public consciousness the scale of the gun crime problem - it is significant but a damn site smaller than the papers would have us believe.
• Considering whether there is a link between videogames and real life violence. This is an important dialogue. Gamers feel persecuted by excessive claims made by some single issue campaigning groups, but there is some of evidence of an influence. An objective dialogue is important.

Where next?

As I said above, we have a dialogue process and that is a start.

For the legal side we now need proper disclosure from Sony and - especially - from Insomniac Games, so that any possible problem can be identified and dealt with properly.

If I was Manchester Cathedral, I would not be backing down until the concerns I had raised were recognised and addressed, or proved wrong.

For me, I hope they don’t let go until they get right to the bottom of this.