Thompson Warns Midway over Mortal Kombat Armageddon, But...

This whole user-created content thing is so confusing to some folks, apparently.

GamePolitics was cc'd on cease-and-desist letter sent by Miami attorney Jack Thompson to Midway, publishers of the recently-released Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The letter reads, in part:

"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game." 

"You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content..."

"It would appear that your company has done this at least in part because I sued you all in the Paducah school massacre case and further because I appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 when your company came out with your profane, violent, and idiotic Blitz:  The League."

However, Thompson seemingly fails to take into account that the depiction of him to which he is referring is not part of the published game, but rather user-created content. A utility known as Kreate a Fighter is included with the game and lets players make their own combatants.

The creation of the Thompson character is detailed at Gaming Target, which describes the various settings and rationales behind the design of characters depicting Thompson, Hulk Hogan, Silent Bob and others. Documentation for the Thompson character says:

Jack Thompson is all legs and is a deadly mid-range opponent.

Jack's personality meshes perfectly with many of the Kreate A Fighter options. He fights with the Aggressive Shotokan stance as it gives him that puffed out self-important look...  His projectile is a big fireball known as the Chi-Blast because he's always spouting flames on the Internet...