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Video Game Legal Thread
SkyEye
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Welcome to the Video Game Legal Thread! ITT, we discull any interesting court cases, patent infringement lawsuits, and what have you, any topic where games and the U.S. legal system cross paths. Or, that of any other country, if not from America. The thread is designed with what I assume is the same purpose as the Sales thread; the interesting trends now affect how the gaming industry unfolds in the years and hopefully decades to come. Anything I find fascinating in the thread I'll add to the OP if I have time.
ESA sues CTA over video game ad discrimination
Brütal Legend Devs Counterue Activision
ESA sues CTA over video game ad discrimination
The ESA is filing a lawsuit against the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) over alleged bias against the video game industry over other media of similar content. There was a controversy last year when the CTA took down ads on its buses about the M-rated Grand Theft Auto IV. There was apparently nothing controversial about the ads themselves, and the ads came back after a suit by Take Two. The CTA later passed an ordinance that ads would not appear on its buses about video or computer games rated either M or AO. From Gamasutra,
"The CTA’s ordinance constitutes a clear violation of the constitutional rights of the entertainment software industry," says ESA CEO Michael Gallagher. "Courts across the United States, including those in the CTA’s own backyard, have ruled consistently that video games are entitled to the same First Amendment protections as other forms of entertainment."
The ESA alleges the ordinance is unconstitutional, as it "restricts speech in a public forum that is otherwise open to all speakers without a compelling interest for doing so." It also claims the CTA "impermissibly discriminates on the basis of viewpoint and ignores less restrictive means of achieving the supposed ends of the ordinance."
Brütal Legend Devs Counterue Activision
Double Fine, the developers behind guitar-based action game Brütal Legend, are suing the game's former publisher Activision. The series was dropped by Activision apparently because it couldn't be "exploited" on a yearly basis, and was later picked up by EA. Activision later sued Double Fine for apparently being in breach of contract in awarding EA with the new publishing rights.
Double Fine's countersuit against Activision alleges that the latter company's intial suit illegally stalls Brütal Legend from being released. Double Fine claims that Activision resists releasing new IP, and that it's intentionally attacking the game now that it is receiving a lot of press. The suit further claims that Activision is attempting to create a monopoly with its Guitar Hero franchise by eliminating competition:
Double Fine's countersuit against Activision alleges that the latter company's intial suit illegally stalls Brütal Legend from being released. Double Fine claims that Activision resists releasing new IP, and that it's intentionally attacking the game now that it is receiving a lot of press. The suit further claims that Activision is attempting to create a monopoly with its Guitar Hero franchise by eliminating competition:
Double Fine's countersuit contends Activision's lawsuit was filed to hurt the company and the game, and that it was involved in unlawful business practices and a conspiracy to protect "Guitar Hero" sales.
Activision's "purpose is not only to cancel 'Brutal Legend,' but to kill it completely so that 'Guitar Hero' would not have to face the competition," the lawsuit claims.
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Well the first issue is that we have no R rating for games. The highest that things go for us is MA 15+, which means games like Fahrenheit, Fallout 3, GTA IV, and many other popular titles have to be censored to various levels to gain shelf space here. If any game rates higher than MA 15+, it is denied classification, and both the seller and the purchaser are fined heavily for any transaction involving the software.
There is currently a bill in parliament that would introduce an R rating for games, but with our wacky legal system, the only way that bills can get passed is if every state governor signs off on the bill. There is only one holdout out of all the governors on the R rating bill, a religious, family-first wackjob by the name of Michael Atkinson, who refuses to even hear anyone's arguments for the bill to be put through. This will not change until he is booted out of office, and seeing as he currently has a rather high approval rating, that's not happening any time soon.
The worse problem is the internet censorship bill that the Prime Minister is trying to put through. The proposal involves a blacklist-based filtering system that, in theory, is designed to prevent the flow of child pornography. However, the bill states that the government never has to reveal the list of blocked sites, meaning they essentially have free reign to censor whatever they like. The list has, of course, been leaked, and has been shown to contain sites that are perfectly legal to view by Australian standards, as well as stuff that is anti-government, and most importantly, video game sites.
You see the filter involves blocking all sites that have content that is above the Australian ratings system. Therefore, any games site, including places like Kotaku, or Kongregate, Second Life, etc. will be blocked, because they have content that is higher than MA 15+.
This bill is not guaranteed yet, but they're determined to push it through, and any naysayers in parliament are immediately shot down with screams of "YOU MUST BE A CHILD PORNOGRAPHY SUPPORTER". So unfortunately we may very well end up with that problem.
http://www.tigsource.com/pages/edge-games/
Wow. That's quite a list of lawsuits and some hilariously damning photos. What a skeeve. Why do some people have a hard time making an honest living?
http://igdaboard.wordpress.com/2009/05/
And very few of the news sites will touch it for fear of legal action. Particularly Edge magazine (no relation) because they have their own trademark issues to deal with over this!
Penny Arcade is faithfully followed by many developers who are now wondering if they are going to pick it up, either as a news story or as a comic.
Stolen Pixels has already covered it:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/6326-Stolen-Pixels-112-Ready-to-Settle
Tim's trademark disputes have largely gone unreported. But, like black holes, you can see their influence on others if you know what to look for. Ever heard of the game Soul Calibur and wondered why the name changed from the original Soul Edge?
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/t-challenge-decision-results-bl?BL_Number=O/337/02
You'll note that he lost that case. But that doesn't matter when it drags on well beyond the point that you've done all your marketing with an alternative title. Hence, Soul Calibur.
Just came across this. Hehehe.
I never even knew there was such a thing as Soul Edge. Never heard of it. I thought it was always Soul Caliber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Edge
Man, I wish that Tim guy fell off the EDGE of a precipice.
GET IT?
Rythm game Vs. Action Adventure based around a heavy metal concept with maybe some rythm based gameplay when it comes to eddie's guitar
They both involve guitars and people might get confused.
activisionexplotingcomic.jpg
I don't fucking believe this. This douchebag gets away with filing suits against anyone and anything that uses the word 'edge' practically.
It's a nice thought.. I've seen a few stores deal with imports on the DS and PSP and do pretty well out of them.
(To the best of my knowledge) PS3 owners have it ok since they play games from any region, but locked-down systems like the 360 mean we can only go after games from the UK. Hampering this are some stores (like Amazon.co.uk for instance) that will ship you just about everything from their large range EXCEPT video games.
About a decade ago we actually had court ruling that modchips on game consoles that allow for the playing of games from other regions are a legitimate and legal item.... unless the modchip was able to allow pirated games, it's a fair call because the games companies were getting their $$$ regardless. I was stunned because it was a decision that was right, but I didn't expect a court to understand that. Of course, it was overturned on appeal (for reasons I don't know). Had that stayed in effect and more brick-and-mortar game stores had started importing large amounts of cheaper overseas stock, it would have either killed off local distribution (which wouldn't have mattered since we'd just keep getting overseas games) or shaken up the local channels enough so that they would actually keep us inline with the rest of the market.
Given the Australian governments' willingness to keep going on the censorship bandwagon, we'll never get another ruling like this for fears it'd allow 'little Timmy' to get his hands on another NightTrap.
We don't know the wording in any of the contracts. As far as I'm aware, none of them are public.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Rumored nothing, Double Fine flat-out said that when they filed their counter-suit vs. Activision.
Edit: besides, in the Brutal Legend thread there's a link to an initial statement by the judge in the case saying it's looking pretty unlikely he'll rule for Activision. The final judgment comes down this week I think, just two days before the game is scheduled to go gold.
I haven't read the Brutal Legend thread so I have only been tenuously aware of what's going on there but...holy SHIT.
Activision well and truly has become the new Evil Empire.
Damn it I hate tv tropes.
Well you can try. Importing games that are either unrated or over MA 15+ by Australian standards is an offense you can be fined for, so I don't try that. The price thing is a good point, and in fact being a PS3 owner I do actually import the lion's share of my games. It is kind of depressing to note that in fact one of the reasons I bought a PS3 over a 360 is because I could buy my games from overseas for a fraction of the price.
I think what's more surprising is the fact that there hasn't been an inquiry into why our prices are so ridiculous; case in point, SF4 and RE5, two relatively recent releases, sold for the equivalent of precisely 100 US dollars. That kind of inflation is absurd, and there is no way you can explain away that much of a price hike by blaming it on importing and distributing costs, considering we are closer geographically to the major manufacturing and shipping centers than the US.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-edge-of-reason
Some of those emails are unbelievable: "EDGE: An Homage to Bobby Bearing." o_O
Which is kind of funny, since they trademarked EDGY in response to mobigames suggesting that they change the name to it
Glad to see IGDA doing something (Since I feel they don't do a whole lot in general)