Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani believes the historical fiction entertainment genre could be in danger if Manuel Noriega wins his case against "Call of Duty" developer Activision Blizzard, Game Spot reported.
Noriega, the former dictator of Panama, filed a lawsuit against Activision in July due to his alleged unlawful depiction in the game "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" from 2012.
According to Giuliani, whose legal team is working on Activision's case, Noriega's lawsuit violates the freedom of speech of developers, according to Fortune.
"For me, this case is a very important case because it is extremely damaging from the point of view of an attack on free speech," the former mayor said. "Video games are entitled to exactly the same protection as movies and books, under the first amendment."
Despite the laws supporting the freedom of game developers, Giuliani fears others will follow Noriega's footprints if Noriega wins the case.
"[The lawsuit would] open the floodgates to numerous historical figures, infamous and otherwise, to bring lawsuits against video games, movies, and books in which they are mentioned," he said.
"It could create a terrible precedent that could go well beyond just video games and extend to movies and books," he added. "It could also put in jeopardy the whole genre of historical fiction."
As an example, Giuliani pointed out that the heirs of former Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden could go after the makers of "Zero Dark Thirty" due to his depiction in the 2012 film, Polygon reported.
He then stressed that Noriega is not the victim in the legal battle.
"Noriega has already extracted hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, out of the United States in drug money," he said. "I can tell you that from my experience as associate attorney general and United States attorney in the 1980s."
"To allow [Noriega] to seek millions of dollars in damages that he can take down to his Panamanian prison is an outrage," he added. That's why we are defending this case with great vigor."