ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
"Definitely No Legal Issues" Regarding Fei Long Appearing In Future Street Fighters, Says Capcom
Update: Original claim definitively refuted
www.nintendolife.com
According to a member of the Street Fighter V staff, Fei Long may not appear in future Street Fighter games because the estate of Bruce Lee is taking steps to ensure that only "honorable" depictions of the martial artist are offered in the media.
My question is this: how can they possibly enforce this? Bruce Lee is a historical figure; you can't ban characters inspired by him any more than you could sue SNK for including a bishonen version of Andrew Jackson in one of its video games. Beyond that, fair use laws should protect parodies of Bruce Lee, and who's to say a character like Fei Long couldn't fall under that description? Capcom isn't literally claiming that Bruce Lee is in their game, and direct references to him are all the Lee estate can reasonably prevent through legal action.
Bruce Lee has been hugely influential in martial arts, to the point where a thin, shirtless kung fu master has become more of an archetype than a specific person. And plenty of video games have used that archetype, whether it's Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat or Marshall Law in Tekken. It doesn't seem reasonable to just strike them all down, as the Lee estate seems eager to do.