Video games are serious business. Just last year, the video game industry achieved a phenomenal 18% growth rate to reach a record-high $13.5 billion in overall gross revenue. See NPD Press Release January 16, 2007. Further, with the recent release of new-generation hardware, a rapidly expanding “casual gamer” market, and increasing developer profits, the industry shows no signs of slowing.
The video game market has become a hot-bed for legal activity due to rapid sales growth and increasing public awareness of the medium. Whether it be IP matters, business mergers, contracts disputes, or government regulation, video games are breaking new ground and quickly altering the legal landscape.
Laws of Play is dedicated to covering legal developments in the gaming industry as they develop.
Editorial Staff
Anthony Prestia
The George Washington University Law School
Jonathan Koehle
Georgetown University Law Center
Matthew Razak
thatvideogameblog.com
Dante Lomelo
California Western School of Law
Moiz Ali
Harvard Law School
He posted the cracked games to the Internet in 1987? Wow! Did Strider & Co. also hack the Internet for their illegal affairs?
10 Fairlight
20 proudly presents:
30 THE INTERNET
40 broken by Strider
50 on April 1st, 1987
P.S.: How about the copyright of the used picture? I think the person on the left-hand side owns the right.
So: THE PICTURE IS A PIRATED COPY!
I agree with the outcome of the case as well. Even assuming that the two names are confusingly similar (PLAY PEN vs. PIG PEN), the video game maker is not in the strip club business, nor anywhere near it! It’s well-known that trademark rights adhere only within the trademark holder’s industry and for similar types of goods/services. The only exception is for famous trademarks, but it’s clear that “PLAY PEN” is not a famous trademark. And even if it were, I’m thinking the first amendment concerns would still trump trademark law.
it would be interesting to see if GTA’s creators paid the due royalties for the graffiti in the game. In my opinion, even the ugliest graffiti is protected by copyright. don’t you think so?
@ale
Was there actual graffiti reproduced in GTA: San Andreas? I’ve never played the game, but I find that pretty interesting.
The strip club should have taken advantage of the similarities. Go to the strip bar featured in GTA4! I’m sure that would have attracted some people. At the very worse, it couldn’t hurt business. It’s free publicity!
Great advice!
Very nice read. Thank you for the information. Will apply this information and wait to see the results.
i guess the ps3 actually is good for something
I can’t disagree with you on anything… ever
A very civilized and interesting debate. It’s nice to hear a host that sounds like he has some idea of what he’s talking about. I have to agree with Doe that what games make their way into a household for children to play should be the responsibility of the parents, not the government. However, this would also require that retailers be responsible and not sell R18+ games to children. Overall, though, the r18+ rating is definitely needed.
So, firstly, $200 on advertising on a $50 budget? wow…I am sure films can be similar but that is rather insane 4:1 division there. No wonder it sold well!
Okay, anyway, to the matter at hand – the final paragraph is right in my opinion. Valve, if they do not want this to continue, should stop the supply at the source. What they are currently doing is pretty much profiting wholesale from the banning of the grey market games without making any attempt to stop future ones (I am sure if they were doing I’d have seen it in the gaming press. It’s the kind of PR they like to do…). Surely when they sell licences to these distributors there are similar “EULA’s” (otherwise known as contracts) forbidding such action.
Interestingly it’d be nice to have more in-depth analysis of EULA’s, although I’m in the UK so likely it’d only cover the USA nature of it, oh well every country is different and EULA’s have had parts struck down or simply not take effect in certain countries due to different laws. The practice of preaching it is a licence works only if that differs much from a physical object, in some countries it doesn’t as much as the USA it seems…(so there are still consumer rights attached, return policies to adhere too, and so forth. I need to check the UK, but that I think takes it as “you can’t return opened software” however legal that is, hmmmm).
I’ll have to comment more, great work on the blog, I like to keep up on random bits of legal news, especially as a amateur historian.
A decent article, i’ve bookmarked it so I can read through it properly later when i’m back from work.Thanks for the article again!
Interesting post and great site!
It may be that Bethesda’s lawyers didn’t understand the purpose of preliminary injunctions, I suppose. But isn’t a more likely explanation (assuming US preliminary injunctions are anything like English preliminary injunctions, which they seem to be) that they knew exactly what they are for, but were taking an (ultimately unsuccessful) gamble at obtaining potentially quite damaging preliminary relief, which could conceivably have brought Interplay to the table?
Incidentally, Bethesda is going to appeal – http://www.duckandcover.cx/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23584. Any thoughts on the likely timeframe?
Jas
I think that the lack of understanding regarding the type of relief granted by preliminary injunctions (which seems apparent in the previous transcript) may have been a reason that Bethesda ultimately changed representation, but you’re absolutely correct that a preliminary injunction was a worthwhile gamble.
As far as a future time line is concerned, your guess is as good as mine.
Has anyone seen the new way to make money with youtube? They make 200 videos for you, and guarentee you at least 20,000 views for your business. Check it out: http://budurl.com/feps
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70 dollars for a game. How many copies they’ve sold? Call of duty: Modern warfare (call of duty 4) by 2009 had sold 13 million copies. Those grey market copies are low in numbers.
Well, 70 dollars in USA, in Europe 70 euros (96 usd). So, supposing a medium price of 80 dollars, it makes for a total of 13,000,000 x 80 = 1040,000,000 USD. I think that pays and exceeds the develop and marketing costs.
In my opinion, they should sell games cheaper or stop banning those grey market games and stop attacking second hand buys.