Sony and Jaffe prevail in God of War lawsuit

Back in 2008, a couple filed suit against Sony and David Jaffe, claiming that God of War was a blatant rip-off of their screenplay - which saw Athens attacked by Spartans and the gods of Mount Olympus trying to restore peace.

Well, a California federal judge has decided that there was no copyright infringement involved in the God of War games and dismisses the suit.

In the lawsuit, Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Dath submitted two treatments and two screenplays concerning the attack on Athens along with the mythology involved the first Olympic Games.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel looked at the original God of War game, and set about examining "similarities in plot, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters and the sequence of events".

"No one can own the basic idea for a story," said the judge in her 27-page decision. "General plot ideas are not protected by copyright law; they remain forever the common property of artistic mankind."

Good to know. Thanks to this, Stephanie Meyer can't sue us when we publish our book surrounding a gal who must choose between bestiality or necrophilia - sometime in the next century.

God of War 3 was released in the US on Tuesday, and it's out today in the UK.