In a somewhat ironic case, Electronic Arts is claiming First Amendment rights to depict helicopters made by Textron, parent company of Bell Helicopter, without permission. EA has been in talks with Textron about using the likeness of their helicopters in EA's games, but the two sides are unable to come to an agreement. Now, EA can feel a lawsuit from Textron coming on, so they have made a pre-emptive strike with one of their own, according to a copy seen by Kotaku, which was filed on January 6th in the federal court for the Northern District of California. On December 21st, Textron had demanded that EA stop depiction of three of their Bell helicopters, the AH-1Z Viper, an attack helicopter (pictured) the UH-1Y, a multipurpose/transport helicopter; and the V-22 Osprey (jointly produced with Boeing) whose distinctive tilt-rotors allow for vertical and short takeoff and landing.EA has a better chance of winning this than one might think, since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that video games have the same free speech protections as other expressive works as film, books and music. Since that ruling, EA has prevailed in a similar case, where a federal judge ruled that EA's depiction of a recognizable, but unnamed real-life college quarterback without his permission, was within the bounds of free expression.

And why is it ironic? Because big media companies are always complaining about 'piracy' and people misusing their intellectual property without proper compensation. They then get dodgy internet censorship laws like SOPA drafted in to supposedly combat it. However, they are more than happy to do the same to others, in this case Textron, hence this is just another case of hypocrisy - and why didn't EA sort this out before releasing BF3 in the first place? If Textron said no, regardless of what kind of deal EA tried to make, then they should simply respect Textron's decision and use different helicopters, not demand use of them without any compensation under "fair use". Of course, they might have a bit of a problem in picking which other helicopters to use, as all of them are made by someone, who is likely to object, but that's another story. So, be prepared for some very generic-looking helicopters if EA lose this one.

See here and here for previous examples of hypocrisy that we've reported on.

These are the real-life versions of the three disputed helicopters, the AH-1Z Viper, UH-1Y and V-22 Osprey: