Dawn of the Dead vs Dead Rising

After months of speculation, it seems that the MKR Group (who controls the rights of the Dawn of the Dead franchise I am told) has gone forth and filed suit against Capcom over the similarities in "Dead Rising" when compared to the movie "Dawn of the Dead". (http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2008/03/capcom-in-scary.html?cid=106142312#comment-106142312)

While I will agree that there are some minor similarities: zombies and a shopping mall. I find it appauling that the MKR Group thinks that they even have a case here. Why? Well because copyright only applies to the expression of an idea, not the idea itself... which basicly means that MKR Group doesn't control the rights to prevent people from making media where Zombies are attacking people in a mall, they just own the copyright on their particular take of it (ie. Dawn of the Dead).

Worse still IMHO is the fact that MKR Group has waited this long to file suit. Dead Rising has been available on the market for sale for the past 2 years, and has been marketed at tradeshows for at least another 2. Which to those of you with a basic understand of math means that the MKR Group has waited 4 years to file suit, ouch.

Personally I wasn't a huge fan of the game because it played like most Japanese video games... aka crap, but what I do not like with this lawsuit is that there is a public perception out there that Capcom is already in the wrong because Dawn of the Dead did the first ever Zombies in a mall media and anyone who does anything similar is just a second rate hack. Sorry folks, but counter to what Roger Ebert might think, game development and games are as much of an art as movies, photography and the written word and as such Capcom's expression of the idea of Zombies in a Mall (Dead Rising) is their own unique copyright as much as Dawn of the Deads take of it is. So stand up and support Capcom!