Senator Leland Yee Discusses Video Game Violence
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 Posted in Interview, Politics | No Comments »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 ...
Nintendo Fights EU Fine
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 Posted in News, Politics | No Comments »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 ...
Courts Further Consider Virtual Property Disputes
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 Posted in News, Second Life, Settlement | No Comments »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 ...
Canadian Copyright Amendment Faces Further Delays
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 Posted in Intellectual Property, Legislation, News, Politics | No Comments »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 ...
Nintendo Ordered to Pay $21 Million for Patent Infringement
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 Posted in Intellectual Property, Microsoft, News, Nintendo, Patent Infringement, Settlement | No Comments »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. ...
GA Passes Law Providing Tax Incentives to Game Devs
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 Posted in Legislation, News, Politics | No Comments »In an effort to increase incentives for entertainment developers to conduct business in Georgia, The Weekly reports that Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue recently signed into law the 2008 Entertainment Industry Investment Act. The bill creates a twenty percent tax ...
Three Reasons Why Gamers Should Care About the ESA
Monday, May 12th, 2008 Posted in Editorial, Politics | 2 Comments »Recently, the Internet has been abuzz with discussion surrounding Activision and Vivendi's decision not to continue their membership with the Entertainment Software Association ("ESA"). Coupled with a rumored defection by LucasArts, gamers have begun to wonder if this is a ...
Content of the “New” Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act
Friday, May 9th, 2008 Posted in Legislation | No Comments »Time for a quick update that, due to its predictability, is dangerously close to fitting in the "not news" category: The Library of Congress now has the full text of H.R. 5990, the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act, available online. ...
GamePolitics Interviews Rep. Terry
Friday, May 9th, 2008 Posted in Interview, Legislation, News, Politics | No Comments »Today is particularly busy here at Laws of Play, so most of our updates won't be arriving until later this evening. In the mean time, GamePolitics has posted an exclusive interview with Rep. Lee Terry, co-sponsor of the Video ...
Retail Ratings Enforcement Improving
Thursday, May 8th, 2008 Posted in News, Politics | No Comments »In light of the growing controversy surrounding the re-introduction of the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act and Grand Theft Auto IV, Sean Bersell of the Entertainment Merchants Association ("EMA") forwarded me some welcome news this morning: Retailers have shown "major ...
