In a blog post last year, Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella said they do: 

With significant input from employees and leaders who are members of the Black and African American community, we have developed a set of actions that we believe are both meaningful to improving the lived experience at Microsoft, as well as driving change in the communities in which we live and work.

But their position in a case involving one Black man makes you wonder.

Lenwood (Skip) Hamilton's image, personality, and voice were used in development of the Augustus Cole character in the Microsoft/Epic Games video platform Gears of War.  The developers maintain that because their character is not a footballer or a wrestler, as Lenwood Hamilton is, his characteristics are fair game.

The U.S. Supreme Court appears prepared to take the case, Hamilton v. Speight et al. (see below).

You would think Hamilton is just the kind of Black life Microsoft cares about.

The product of eleven foster and group homes, who excelled in football and was wrongly convicted of rape, Hamilton played in the NFL and Canadian Football League and established a family friendly wrestling gym in Eastern Pennsylvania.  Skip is entirely self-made.  He played briefly on the Super Bowl–winning Philadelphia Eagles.

His story, which backers are hoping to make into a motion picture, is here.

When an acquaintance, Lester Speight, suggested that his image, personality, and voice would be perfect for a videogame, Hamilton declined.  Both men had played football and wrestled professionally. 

Hamilton says they used his likeness anyway — which led him to sue.

The Washington Post reported it as follows.

Hamilton, a burly 6-foot-2 former football player turned pro wrestler, claims the makers of the "Gears of War" series stole his mannerisms, speaking style and his face — and used them to help make more than a billion dollars off a video game[.] ...

The link between the game and Hamilton is Lester Speight, who once worked for a company Hamilton created and, the lawsuit claims, tried to talk Hamilton into doing the video game. Speight voiced the "Cole Train" character.

But Speight's publicist, Mel Moore, told The Washington Post that the voice-over is an original creation.

"It's Lester's voice," she said. "He's the voice of the character. I don't even know who Lenwood Hamilton is."

The issue before SCOTUS is whether Hamilton should be compensated if it is his likeness, even though the game does not involve a wrestler or a football player.

In a friend of the court brief filed March 2 by the Atlantic Legal Foundation, attorney Lawrence S. Ebner argues:

This case is about high-tech identity theft — not stealing a person's name or Social Security or credit card number, but something even more sinister: development, promotion sale and use of "personal entertainment software", i.e., a video game that transforms a real-life person, without his consent, into a look alike but brutal warrior.

Gears of War did become very successful.  It's owners even sell merchandise based on Hamilton's image.

To date, Epic, Microsoft, et al. have prevailed in Federal District Court and at the appellate level.   More background is here and here.

The firm representing Hamilton, Tillman Breckenridge, filed  for a writ of certiorari on February 12th.  Microsoft, Epic Games, et al. decided at first against objecting to the application.  Hamilton's request for cert was distributed March 10 to the justices.  Several days later, the clerk requested their responses.

According to Hamilton's camp, more than $2 billion of software and merchandise has been sold under the Gears of War franchise.

The Lenwood Hamilton website maintains:

Lenwood Hamilton is amazed he still is alive at age 54. He survived tremendous physical and mental abuse by the age of eight. He wears the emotional scars of not being wanted by his closest family members. He's escaped near-death incidents as a youngster and as an adult. He was sexually violated in a group home by a boy twice his age.

His glory years in high school were at an almost all-white middle class school where he was one of two African-American athletes, leading to bouts of racism. Academic deficiencies and an inability to harness his good times off the field spoiled a promising football career at North Carolina State, where he was on scholarship. He's coped with the disappointment of coming so close to reaching his dream of playing in the National Football League. He endured approximately five months in a New Orleans maximum security prison after being the only one of five Southern University football players convicted of attempted forcible rape.

Charges were eventually dropped when witnesses for the accuser admitted they had lied on the stand to protect her trumped up story. He has seen teammates and friends who achieved more than he did pass away at a young age, some from the effects of playing pro football. More than anything, Hamilton believes others can benefit from his experiences, especially youngsters who may be facing similar crises alone.

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, the question remains: why did a firm that has $137 billion in cash on its balance sheet seek to use the image, voice, and personality of a Black man without compensating him?

Full disclosure: My firm, Appellate Advance Associates, believes that Skip Hamilton's life matters and has provided funding to enable his appeals.

Image: efes via Pixabay, Pixabay License.