Laws of Play

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!

GA Passes Law Providing Tax Incentives to Game Devs

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 credit for qualified movie, TV, commercial, video game, and music video productions created in the state of Georgia. Qualified productions that feature an animated promotional logo for the state are then eligible for an additional ten percent tax credit.

Government officials hope the new bill will create jobs and “jump start the Georgia film industry.”

The new bill replaces the 2005 Entertainment Industry Investment Act, which used similar incentives to introduce $475 million to Georgia’s economy from the television and video game industry. Previously, the television and video game industry were responsible for only $124 million of Georgia’s economy.

While numerous states provide tax incentives for in-state entertainment production, Georgia’s law is one of the few that supports the $17.9 billion video game industry.

Three Reasons Why Gamers Should Care About the ESA

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 portent of troubled times for the gaming industry’s premier trade association. While it is too early to declare that the ESA is “rapidly taking on water,” a continued decline in membership over the next year could signal trouble.

Overall, news of the Activision/Vivendi departure was met with a predominantly favorable response from gamers. While there was an occasional expression of concern for the future of the organization, the majority of gamers seemed to be bewildered with what the ESA actually does. As a result, many were proud of Activision and Vivendi for pulling out of an organization they viewed as being largely irrelevant.

Interestingly, complaints went beyond anonymous remarks from Internet users. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter chastised the ESA for being too passive since the departure of former president Doug Lowenstein. And, perhaps strangest of all, Mike Wilson, CEO of Gamecock Studios, recently released a snarky video announcing that he is running for ESA President.

Despite these complaints, the vast majority of hostility towards the ESA has come from gamers and journalists. The gaming industry, on the other had, has been largely supportive of the ESA’s efforts. Industry heavy-weights Capcom and Electronic Arts have come forth and shown their support for the ESA and Take-Two, a company in perhaps the best position to judge the ESA’s performance, has stated that it “supports the Entertainment Software Association, its leadership and its efforts on behalf of the industry” and that “Mike Gallagher has done an outstanding job as president of the ESA…” (hyperlink added).

The reason for the ESA having a fair number of opponents among gamers is not hard to cognize and was well put by Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post:

The [ESA] makes headlines on game news sites only when there’s been an anti-piracy crackdown or a new uproar over a game’s rating. Neither of those types of story tends to win the organization fans in the gamer community.

However, it is time for the ESA make headlines for entirely new reasons. It’s time for gamers to discuss what the ESA does and why it is so imperative that this organization continue to defend the interests of the gaming industry.

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Content of the “New” Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act

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. Unsurprisingly, the bill is substantively identical to H.R. 5345, a bill previously introduced by Rep. Matheson (D - UT).

It would appear that Rep. Terry (R - NE) replacing Reps. Renzi (R - AZ), Stark (D - CA), and McIntyre (D - NC) as the bill’s sole cosponsor and a pair of grammatical improvements are the only changes that have been made to the bill since it was first introduced on May 10, 2006. Reintroduction of a bill to the House is extraordinarily common and, hopefully, this bill will similarly be tabled or ignored.

GamePolitics Interviews Rep. Terry

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 Games Ratings Enforcement Act, which we discussed the other day.

In the GamePolitics textual summary, Rep. Terry seems to come off generally well informed on some of the issues surrounding game ratings. However, he was off-base on a few points and I still find the legislation to be misguided. Regardless, head over to GamePolitics for the full interview and stayed tuned to Laws of Play this evening and tomorrow for an onslaught of updates we have simmering on the back burner.