Laws of Play

UK Appeals Court Overturns Mr. Mod Chips Conviction

A UK Appeals Court overturned the conviction of Neil Higgs, also known as Mr. Mod Chips, on Wednesday. Higgs was initially found guilty of selling thousands of mod chips — devices that allow users to play imported and pirated games on their video game consoles — via his website. An early police raid turned up 3,700 mod chips, imported from Hong Kong, in the home of Higgs’s parents. The lower court held that these devices were illegal, as they allowed users to circumvent copyright protection.

However, Techdirt now reports that the Higgs conviction has been overturned. The UK Appeals Court held that any alleged copyright infringement has already taken place before the use of a mod chip and awarded full costs to Higgs as a result of his successful appeal.

The UK now joins Australia as one of a few countries to legalize the distribution of mod chips. Countries such as Italy and the United States — under the DMCA — continue to hold that mod chips are illegal tools designed to circumvent copyright protections.

Ohio’s Tic-Tac-Fruit Under Review Once Again

The state of Ohio is once again engaged in battle with bar owners and distributors of a popular bar-top video game known as “Tic-Tac-Fruit.” Tic-Tac-Fruit first ran into trouble with the state in 2006 when police raided more than a dozen bars, unplugging the slot machine-like video games and confiscating thousands of dollars in cash.

In Ohio, slots gambling is illegal, but distributors of Tic-Tac-Fruit previously claimed that the game is based on skill, which put it outside the reach of laws targeted at games of chance. However, current Ohio law states that a player’s ability must have at least a “50 percent” bearing on the outcome to be considered a game of skill. Ohio state prosecutors earlier proved that even a perfectly played game of Tic-Tac-Fruit can result in the loss of money.

According to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette:

The game works like this — you feed in your money, then video fruit strips spin, as they would in a regular slot machine. When they stop, you’re left with a nine-square box that resembles a tic-tac-toe board.

The “skill” comes in deciding, as a clock ticks, which of the squares to turn into a wild card in order to produce three in a row of a certain fruit. Rows of lemons and cherries drain your account. Plums and oranges fatten it. If you’re ahead when you quit, you can redeem points for cash.

In order to circumvent Ohio’s gambling laws, Tic-Tac-Fruit machines no longer provide cash payouts. Instead, the machines allow players to redeem “points” for $10 Speedway gas cards, which distributors claim are “prizes” well within the realm of safe rewards. However, Matt Lampke, an assistant Ohio attorney general, said that the gas cards are prohibited as prizes under a law passed last year.

The first decision by the Ohio Liquor Control Commission for the new “gas card cases” is due this month.

British Push for Mandatory Photosensitivity Testing for Games

The Weston & Somerset Mercury reports that parents, public officials, and a “major video games manufacturer” are pushing for a new law that will require games to be screened for photosensitivity compliance before being sold.

Support for the new law comes following an epileptic seizure triggered in a ten year old boy by Ubisoft’s Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo DS. The seizure was a result of the boy’s dormant photosensitive epilepsy, an incurable life-long condition that afflicts thousands and is triggered by bright flashing lights and colors.

While most games currently provide warnings about potential epileptic seizures as a result of play, Parliament Member John Penrose argues that these warnings are insufficient because those suffering from dormant photosensitive epilepsy do not realize that the warnings even apply to them until it is too late.

New Zealand “Rampage” Blamed on GTA

Twenty-five year old Tim Reid of New Zealand was recently on trial for his December 29, 2007 assault on a police officer followed by the theft of the officer’s car. What makes Reid’s case interesting is that his attorney, Chris Nicholls, claimed that Reid’s actions were the result of his upbringing, which included compulsively playing Grand Theft Auto.

Reid pleaded guilty to “aggravated wounding, escaping custody, reckless driving, dangerous driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and two charges of failing to stop, breach of supervision orders and being an unlicensed driver.” A New Zealand District Court judge sentenced Reid to five years in jail and disqualified him from driving for two years. The judge reportedly said that “Reid was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits.”

New Zealand’s Family First national director Bob McCoskrie, spoke out concerning the case, stating his belief that violent video games pose a far greater threat than violent television shows and films:

Rather than observing the law breaker you take on the role of the lawbreaker …we think it desensitises certain people.

It is interesting to see the media jump on video games as the main culprit in this case, particularly when Reid’s upbringing also included sexual and physical abuse, marijuana use at the age of five, and chronic alcohol and substance abuse.

Our Courts: A Sandra Day O’Connor Game

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor revealed Wednesday that she will be working on a new video game designed to teach children how United States courts work. The game, currently titled Our Courts, will consist of two distinct parts and will be released in stages beginning this September.

The first part of the game is a free online civics program developed with the Georgetown University Law Center and Arizona State University. The interactive online program is designed for students in grades seven through nine and is intended to supplement existing courses or act as a standalone program. The website, www.ourcourts.org, hopes to engage students by forcing them to consider real legal issues. For instance, Reuters summarized a hypothetical game scenario presented by O’Connor: “one element would focus on … a school attempting to stop students wearing a T-shirt with a controversial slogan — a free speech issue designed to elicit argument about the 1st Amendment.”

O’Connor was scant on details concerning the second part of Our Courts, but stated that it would be designed for children to use in their free time. O’Connor realized the value of reaching children through modern technology by interaction with her grandchildren. Citing statistics that children typically spend forty hours a week using media, including video games, O’Connor stated:

If we can capture just a little bit of that time to get them thinking about government and civic engagement rather than playing shoot-’em-up video games, that’s a huge step in the right direction.

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Senator Leland Yee Discusses Video Game Violence

California State Senator and outspoken critic of violent video games, Leland Yee, recently sat down to answer questions about the medium and his policies. GameCyte has a full transcript of Sen. Yee’s interview. Read on to watch the two part interview.

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Nintendo Fights EU Fine

A $149.1 million euro fine levied against Nintendo by EU regulators has recently been challenged by the video game company as being irrational and discriminatory. Lawyers for Nintendo claim that the penalty is “unfair, illegal, even shocking” and “one of the biggest single fines in EU competition law.”

The fine, imposed by the European Commission in 2002, was a penalty for alleged price fixing and collusion between Nintendo and seven distributors. The fine totaled $167.8 million euros and covered activity between 1991 and 1998.

Xavier Lewis, a lawyer for the European Commission stated:

The fine was not of a capricious nature, or based on wild estimates…. This fine was for an infringement that was considered very serious.

LOP Comment: Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Laws of Play has been dealing with some hosting issues and spotty Internet service. Posts written over the last few days should slowly be coming online tonight.

Courts Further Consider Virtual Property Disputes

Pennsylvania lawyer, Marc Bragg, recently sued San Francisco-based Linden Lab for breach of contract and unfair trade practices after an online property deal went sour. Oddly, the property at the heart of the dispute is entirely virtual and exists only in Second Life. The lawsuit, which sought several thousand in damages, was settled out of court in a confidential agreement.

Bragg’s lawsuit underscores an important question that has recently piqued the interest of politicians and lawyers alike: Do virtual economies, such as those found in various MMORPGs, need to be regulated? And, if so, should the regulations that exist in the physical world apply?

While still uncommon, numerous disputes concerning virtual property have found their way into courtrooms in both the US and abroad. For instance, a recent case found a New York man liable for selling unauthorized copies of numerous Second Life users’ virtual goods. And, in Germany, a 17-year-old was arrested for stealing virtual furniture from within a piece of social networking software.

The idea of litigating such matters was considered laughable not long ago, but the popularity of online games like World of Warcraft and Second Life have created billion-dollar virtual economies where people trade real currency for virtual assets on a daily basis and, thus, lent credibility to such litigation. As these economies continue to grow, there is little doubt that litigation will continue and legislatures will be forced to not only determine what rules should govern these economies, but how these economies can and should be policed.

Canadian Copyright Amendment Faces Further Delays

A Canadian bill designed to amended and strengthen Canada’s existing Copyright Act has met further delays. The bill, originally placed on the House of Commons order paper in December, is said to closely mimic the United State’s copyright scheme and will effect the level of control Canadian consumers have over the media and products they purchase.

Currently, recording television shows and ripping music from a compact disc for use on an MP3 player are against Canadian law, but there is no practicable enforcement mechanism. The new bill hopes to remedy this situation.

Jason Kee, director of policy with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, has stated that the organization is in favor of the new bill. The video game industry hopes that the bill will allow Internet service providers to monitor downloads and disable the unauthorized transfer of video games and related files — an action that was previously disallowed by Canadian courts. Kee stated:

“It’s clear the ISP’s have this capacity … Similarly, they actually do have the capacity of basically disrupting particular communications, and that’s essentially the kind of activity we’d be seeking.”

Despite numerous delays, Industry Minister Jim Prentice recently stated that the bill is still a work in progress. It appears that the bill will not come to a vote before the end of the spring session of Parliament. As a result, there will not likely be any change to Canada’s aging Copyright Law before Parliament’s long summer recess.

[via CTV.ca]

Nintendo Ordered to Pay $21 Million for Patent Infringement

Yahoo reports that Nintendo of America has recently been ordered to pay $21 million in damages to developer Anascape for patent infringement.

The award is the result of a federal jury verdict in a suit filed by Anascape in 2006. In that suit, Anascape asserted claims against Microsoft and Nintendo for infringement on twelve of the company’s patents, including patents on a “Game controller with analog pressure sensor” and an “Analog Sensor with Snap-Through Tactile Feedback[.]”

Microsoft earlier settled the dispute with Anascape; the details of that settlement remain confidential.

Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said that the gaming giant will seek an appeal and expects a significant reduction in the award. Fortunately for Nintendo, the ultra-popular Wii controller — both the remote and nunchuck — were not found to infringe upon Anascape’s patents. However, the designs for the Wii Classic, WaveBird, and Gamecube controllers were all found to infringe upon Anascape’s patents.

LOP: Thanks for the tip, Adam!