EA sued by 6,000 ex-NFL players over "unlawful" likeness use in Madden 09

EA's been served with a class action lawsuit over its "unlawful use" of the liknesses of 6,000 retired NFL players in Madden NFL 09.

Plaintiff and ex-NFL running back  Tony Davis said that the use of the likenesses of the players in the game were "knowingly and intentionally" used in a particular way by EA Sports in order to avoid paying licence fees in using them.

Davis added that players would still have its actual NFL stats in the game, but jersey numbers and names would be removed .

"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," said details from the suit, which you can find here.

"Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are."

EA refused to comment to IGN on the situation.