Do you remember that video we posted a few days ago showing the go kart racing that was revealed in Gran Turismo 5? Well that racing was set around the Piazza del Campo which is an historic public place in Italy that apparently is very important to some people.

The catch is that to use it’s imagery you need to get permission from the Consortium for the Protection of the Palio, which shouldn’t be much of a problem except that the CEO, Anna Carli, of said organisation categorically states that they won’t give that permission.

Her exact words were

“You can not use images of Contrade, in this case the flags, without authorization. Given the relevance of the game with no history and references to our party, in particular with the use of images of flags of the contrade, we would not authorize use.”

They have raised the problem with SCEI (Sony Italy) and unless the offending flags and imagery are removed they will go to court to get a court order to seize all copies of GT5 on it’s release.

I’m sure Polyphony Digital will be able to change these flags without to much hassle so I don’t expect a delay but it always amazes me that people can make mistakes like this. Didn’t they realise that they need permission to replicate flags from the owners of the flags?

Here’s that video if you want to see the offending items before they get yanked from YouTube