According to Haugen, a film writer, Activision Blizzard stole the likeness of Mara from his own copyright character and images. In particular, that of actress and cosplayer, Alex Zedra, who Haugen hired to don a military garb for the character “Cade Janus”, who he created in 2017 and posted images of on his own Instagram account. Haugen’s lawsuit alleges that the developers of Call of Duty employed Zedra after seeing the images go online just prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare so they can use her likeness to create Mara. Haugen even goes further as to allege that Activision Blizzard had the model, as well as the make-up artist, sign a non-disclosure agreement to bury everything. Because of this, Haugen claims that he is entitled to “recover all monetary remedies from Defendants’ infringement”, which could mean that Activision Blizzard owes Haugen a great deal of money if his full complaint and lawsuit pushes through. On that note, this isn’t the first time Activision Blizzard has faced a lawsuit and won. In April, a judge dismissed AM General’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard after the car manufacturer alleged that the California-based video game development and publishing company had profited billions of dollars by using their famous vehicle, Humvees, in the Call of Duty games.
War Never Changes
Activision Blizzard is currently enjoying arguably its best year yet, with Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, all enjoying tremendous success ever since their respective release dates. Warzone, in particular, continues to be a massive draw. In fact, Activision Blizzard already has plans on integrating the next Call of Duty title with Warzone.
