A judge has ruled in favour of Rockstar in the Lindsay Lohan lawsuit today, throwing the case out and opening it up to appeal from the actor.
Read more: keep an eye on new releases with our list of upcoming PC games.
Filed in 2014, Lohan’s lawsuit against Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive claimed that a character in GTA V was an “unequivocal” reference to her. The actress said her image was used without her permission.
A preliminary victory came to Lohan earlier this year when Take-Two’s motion to dismiss the case was denied. The image above is the source of the complaint.
“Lohan argues that defendants purposefully used Lohan’s bikini, shoulder-length blonde hair, jewellery, cell phone, and ‘signature peace sign’ pose’ in one image, and used Lohan’s likeness in another image by appropriating facial features, body type, physical appearance, hair, hat, sunglasses, jean shorts, and loose white top,” said the complaint at the time.
Today, however, the case was thrown out thanks to protections in America’s First Amendment. A similar casefrom the daughter of a mob boss, Karen Gravano, was also thrown out.
“As to Lohan’s claim that an avatar in the video game is she and that her image is used in various images, defendants also never referred to Lohan by name or used her actual name in the video game, never used Lohan herself as an actor for the video game, and never used a photograph of Lohan,” an appeals court ruling states.
“Even if we accept plaintiffs’ contentions that the videogame depictions are close enough to be considered representations of the respective plaintiffs, plaintiffs’ claims should be dismissed because this videogame does not fall under the statutory definitions of ‘advertising’ or ‘trade’.”
The ruling concludes that GTA 5’s “unique story, characters, dialogue, and environment, combined with the player’s ability to choose how to proceed in the game” proves that it’s a work of fiction and satire.
It’s now up to Lohan to appeal the ruling.