As I was browsing the web and doing my best to avoid fretting over looming exams, I came across the curiously named blog Banana Pepper Martinis. Banana Pepper Martinis is apparently the personal blog of L. B. Jeffries, a pseudonymous game reviewer at www.popmatters.com. It would appear that L. B. Jeffries is also a law student and recently completed a note on the interaction of video games with copyright law. An excerpt of the introduction follows:
Video games and copyright law have always had a tenuous relationship. The problem is threefold. First, players significantly alter the content of video games and keep them from ever being a fixed series of images. Second, the software used to generate the images has rarely been considered a protectable asset by the courts unless it is copied in its entirety. Third, courts have typically relied on the audio visual display clause of the Lanham Act to protect the images produced by the software and to dismiss the player input as a relevant aspect. Although this system worked when video game disputes were first coming about and well into today, a new trend in video games may upset this method. The culture of player modifications and improvements to pre-existing games that have traditionally been viewed as fair use by the courts creates a new problem for copyrights and video games. Do these qualify as fair use, a derivative work, or both? If the player is increasing the value of someone’s product without compensation, what rights do they have to their original work and what rights do the companies have to these improvements? The first part of this essay will outline the Legal Background that was established during the eighties that people rely on to demonstrate their copyrights and the rulings that create a loophole for player modifications. Then it will discuss the current trends in video games that are leading to this problem. Finally, it will go into the Legal Analysis courts use for copyrights and how those can best be applied to video games.
Head over to Banana Pepper Martinis to read the paper in its entirety.
