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Tag Archives: copyright infringement
The video game “cheat system” known as the Game Genie played an important role in the development of intellectual property law. It became the target of a lawsuit in the early 1990s from Nintendo, with the case receiving a hearing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that covers California. At issue was a software concern we continue to see today – to what extent can consumers modify copyrighted works for their own purposes? The Game Genie was a device that consumers would plug into their home video game consoles; then they would plug their games into the Game Genie (back when consoles used cartridges rather than optical discs). Consumers could then enter codes to get things like unlimited lives or powerful weapons that changed the gameplay. How the Game Genie did these things is what led to the legal dispute with Nintendo. By entering a…
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While copyright protection immediately brings to mind things like paintings, novels and movies, video games are entitled to the same protection under intellectual property law. Video games often incorporate elements from each of these more traditional fine arts – the games may contain meticulously drawn landscapes and game environments, riveting story lines and live action video. Video game creators, particularly those who work on their own, should take the same precautions as other artists in protecting their property. Copyrights exist the moment you create something, so your work is technically protected as you develop it and when there is a finished product. The work must be in some sort of tangible medium, though, so mere ideas have not yet reached the point where they are entitled to protection. While you may know what you created, unfortunately, you may not be able to prove that work belongs to you in the…
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Is there a way we can protect companies’ copyright interests while not harming consumers? It has been difficult to achieve one aim without harming the other. The Megaupload case demonstrates the tension between the two sides, as the FBI may now face a lawsuit from Megaupload users over its shutdown of the popular website last month. The FBI targeted Megaupload for its millions in revenue that it brought it from offering copyrighted works free on the internet. However, there were also many legitimate uses of Megaupload’s services, and all those who had important files on Megaupload’s servers have no access to their data. The government and entertainment conglomerates have been battling with technology for several decades now – the debates we now see have their roots in the 1984 case that pitted Sony’s VCR technology against University City Studios. Yet here we are, some 28 years later, still wondering whether…
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