The Church of England has threatened to sue Sony after the Japanese company used Manchester Cathedral as the backdrop to the gunfight in the PlayStation 3 game Resistance:The Fall of Man.

It could have a case, lawyers say.

With video gamers demanding ever-more realistic adventures and machines such as the PS3 becoming more powerful, title developers, fighting for a share of the $30-billion-a-year market, are using more “real” locations in their products.

In general, the outside of a well-known building is not considered to be protected under the law, Tom Frederikse, an intellectual property specialist with Clintons, the law firm, said.

That means that games such as the controversial Grand Theft Auto series, where players drive around cities – including London – winning points for committing crimes, can copy real locations.

Even so, the games’ developer, RockStar, decided to rename its cities – so San Francisco became San Andreas and Miami was dubbed “Vice City”. The move could also have insulated the developer from allegations that they represented the real cities as more violent than they really are.

The legal situation changes radically, however, once a game enters the doors of a location.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 contains the so-called “2D to 3D rule”. Designed to prevent architects’ blue prints being bootlegged by builders who could use them to build replica buildings it could also stop a games developer creating a fictional representation of a real site.

That means that EA Games, the biggest games developer, which features the new Wembley Stadium in its FIFA series of football games, has had to receive permission from the Football Association to do so.

“If a computer game developer is copying a landmark there generally isn’t a problem,” Mr Frederikse said. “But if a developer were to use details from inside a new building they will run into real trouble if they don’t have permission.”

In general a “2D to 3D” case can only be made if a copyright holder is still alive or has died in the past 70 years – a potential problem for the Church of England as Manchester Cathedral’s archives stem back as far as 1361 – though it was extensively rebuilt after the Second World War.

However, under the 1988 Act, the Church could also argue that it owns the copyright to the photos that Sony is thought to have used to recreate Manchester Cathedral, Catrin Turner, a Partner at Pinsent Mason said.

Ms Turner added that the Church could follow action under libel or trade libel laws. “The Church is by no means home on this, but if it could prove it has been sullied in the eyes of worshippers who believe it has endorsed or authorised this game, it could have a case,” she said.

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