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Tag Archives: copyright protection
Companies put a lot of money and time into designing a website that is attractive to potential clients and internet surfers. It is a wise investment these days, since much of a company’s business may first learn about the company’s services through search engines and internet advertisements. Less than scrupulous companies may, unfortunately, take a short cut when establishing their own website. Theft of online pictures, text or even entire websites has become a big problem for businesses. What can companies do to protect their online property? Keep Up on Domain Registration Particularly if you have a popular site, someone – often spammers or adult sites – may be watching your URL address closely. It has happened before to companies when they forget to renew their domain name and then someone else jumps in and does so, using a similar-looking website to redirect links to their own products. Register Your…
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Since the Atari 2600 became the first widespread successful home video game console in 1977, the video game industry has to come affect most Americans, with almost three-fourths of all households playing video games of some sort. Worldwide, the video game industry generations $25.1 billion in sales and an increasing percentage of sales (about a fourth now) are digital. The video game industry employs tens of thousands of employees (almost half of which are in California), which is unsurprising given that the video game industry involves all aspects of intellectual property law. Copyrights protect the games themselves. When software piracy is discussed, this means copyright infringement, as video games are works of expression that receive copyright protection just as novels and paintings do. Trademarks cover video game companies’ logos and names. Trademarks also come into play with video games that are becoming more and more realistic, since companies often try…
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Every couple of years from the 1990s to today, the debate on the link between video game violence and real world violence makes headlines when a violent act occurs allegedly as a result of the perpetrator’s play of a particular video game. The accusations are similar, though the games being blamed have changed over the years – Mortal Kombat, Doom, Final Fantasy VIII, EverQuest and the Grand Theft Auto series are a handful of the video games blamed for an act of violence. Lawsuits involving these games have ended up with the same result – dismissal – as courts have not been willing to overlook the strong protections offered by the First Amendment of our country’s constitution. We often think of the right to say what we want when the First Amendment comes up, and this protection also extends to creative works, a group that includes video games and other…
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