Recently, an enterprising producer of adult content created a pornographic film utilizing the Sims cartoon characters. While of course, this is likely a trademark and copyright violation – since it is doubtful that the owners of the Sims software would license their intellectual property for creating an adult film – the question arises as to whether it is also a violation of 18 U.S.C. 2257.
The answer is not straight forward. The video appears to utilize pilfered content from the Sims imagery which is not adult oriented. However, it intersperses that material with actual adult content involving actual actors. Therefore, it is likely that 18 U.S.C. 2257 would apply.
We would be interested in hearing any thoughts that readers of this blog might have on this topic.
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