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Video Game Law Blog
Current issues in video game law.
| A few years ago, PC game boxes were shrunk and standardized so game stores could cram more of them onto their tiny shelves. But today, one game retailer has grown so large that its inven [read more]Monday, 18 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| OK, so Nintendo didn't really say that. What they really said was 'Nintendo applauds the actions taken by the FBI. U.S. law enforcement authorities have played an instrumental role [read more]Saturday, 16 April 2005 | Michael Coburn |
| The FBI busted video game pirates trying to distribute a cache of more than 60,000 illegal Nintendo games, which were seized by the authorities in raids in New York and New Jersey. Perhaps even [read more]Friday, 15 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| ...is apparently a portable video game with ads. The Tiger Telematics' portable video game console "Gizmondo," which is expected to be released in North America later this year, [read more]Friday, 15 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| They're tough. They're smart. They have cool earpieces and sunglasses. They pack heat. And they can get secret court orders under the USA PATRIOT Act.
No, they're [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| As if labour problems in the hockey world weren't enough! US video game voice actors, who are represented by two different unions (the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to classify NARC, the VIS Interactive game which allows players to be good cops or take drugs and be bad cops. Accordingly, [read more]Thursday, 14 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Massive Inc., the company that is taking the lead in in-game advertising, has just announced its first group of advertisers and brands. The list includes Verizon and RealNetworks (previously [read more]Tuesday, 12 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| Electronic Arts has shored up the long-term exclusive video game rights to yet another major sports licence, adding to its impressive roster which includes the NFL, Arena Football League, and ESPN [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| In almost no time, the new PSP has been hacked to allow web browsing additions, IM and TiVo playback abilities (among other things).
Hacks such as these often violate copyright law. They [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Jim Stallings, vice-president intellectual property and standards, revealed IBM's position on the patent process, particularly that of the United States. Stallings alleges that due to the [read more]Monday, 11 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Mobile games publisher Digital Bridges recently rebranded itself as 'I-Play"?. Unfortunately, the new name and logo are similar to the name and logo of rival publisher Play it. Appare [read more]Saturday, 9 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A local radio station from Gainesville, Florida, reports that a 14-year-old Gainesville boy has been arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse for severely beating his 2-year-old cousin. Apparent [read more]Friday, 8 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| You can't have any PlayStation if you don't eat yer meat! How can you have any PlayStation if you don't eat yer meat???
Sony was just awarded US patent #6,729,337 for a method [read more]Thursday, 7 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Sony's new PSP has barely been released, and already various modifications are springing up that extend the handheld's capabilities. Various hacks seen thus far include ones that allow [read more]Thursday, 7 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| Actor Sean Connery is providing the voice for EA's latest James Bond game, From Russia With Love. The game will also feature the likeness of Connery as he was at the age of 33 when the film [read more]Wednesday, 6 April 2005 | Michael Coburn |
| WWE sued publisher THQ and its joint-venture partner Jakks Pacific Inc. last fall . Early this week, WWE came off the top rope to body slam THQ CEO Brian Farrell by adding him as an individual [read more]Wednesday, 6 April 2005 | David Spratley |
| We just learned that Ubisoft signed an advertising deal with several companies including Nokia. Under the agreement, Ubisoft agreed to place the companies' products in Ubisoft's latest release, [read more]Tuesday, 5 April 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| EA announced last week that it expects its current quarter's revenues to be well below (maybe as much as $200 million below) earlier estimates. EA's share price immediately dropped more [read more]Thursday, 31 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has withdrawn its lawsuit against Project Entropia creator MindArk Studios. The lawsuit alleged that MindArk used unlicensed versions of Microsoft, [read more]Wednesday, 30 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| New York Senator Hillary Clinton has added her voice to those who oppose violent video games, and has specifically mentioned the Grand Theft Auto series as a major threat to morality. Clinton [read more]Tuesday, 29 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A US District Court has confirmed a jury's decision requiring Sony to pay damages for patent infringement to Immersion Corp. The jury ordered Sony to pay $82 million in damages (see previous [read more]Tuesday, 29 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Purchasers are swarming as EIDOS Interactive is on the block. Although the board of directors of EIDOS has approved a cash bid of $144 million for the company, just 25% of EIDOS's shareholders [read more]Monday, 28 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| On March 22, 2005, Electronic Arts' share price fell a precipitous $11.20 per share, or 16.88%. If that injury weren't enough, a Philadelphia law firm has added insult by filing [read more]Sunday, 27 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Earlier this month, we reported that some Xbox gamers were getting all fired up over their Xbox power cables. Literally.
Microsoft recalled 14 million of the cables, but it appears that wasn't [read more]Thursday, 24 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The NBA is the most recent professional sports league to enter into new large-scale licensing arrangements with game publishers. However, instead of giving one publisher exclusive rights to use [read more]Wednesday, 23 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| ...at least if a certain Illinois bill comes into force, that is. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's proposal seeks to criminalize the sale of violent or sexually explicit video games to [read more]Monday, 21 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Blizzard Entertainment, the publisher and developer of the hit massively multiplayer "World of Warcraft," has permanently suspended more than one thousand "gold farming" users [read more]Monday, 21 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Activision and Viacom recently settled their Star Trek dispute. Sadly, the dispute has nothing to do with whether the USS Enterprise could defeat an imperial Star Destroyer. We would have [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last month we reported that Yahoo! had sued online gaming company Xfire for patent infringement. Yahoo! claimed that a former Yahoo employee (who now works for Xfire) developed online messaging [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Last year, in an article (brilliantly, we think) entitled 'Maybe Modding Isn't So Marvellous"?) we reported that Marvel Comics had sued the publisher and developer of City of Heros. Marvel [read more]Sunday, 20 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The Entertainment Software Rating Board recently announced the new rating category "E10+" for games suitable for children approaching their teens. The new category is meant to fill a gap [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A recent survey by Macrovision, a California-based anti-piracy firm, shows that 21 percent of console gamers use pirated software (mostly from peer to peer networks). Obviously such gamers also use [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Australia's position on mod chips just became more interesting. In 2002, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in a case launched by Sony Computer Entertainment Australia [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and is currently remaking King Kong, has sued New Line Cinema for a greater share of licensing profits from the LotR movies. One of [read more]Saturday, 19 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| The families of three police officers killed in 2003 have sued Take Two, Wal-Mart, Sony and various video game stores. The lawsuit claims the teenaged killer was motivated and trained to kill [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| An employee of Electronic Arts has filed a class-action lawsuit for overtime. The lawsuit follows an earlier lawsuit launched against EA by another employee. To be successful, the employees [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Yes, we caught the pun. Here's the story the anonymous plaintiff who sued Topheavy for including topless footage of her in The Guy Game has been awarded a temporary injunction against [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| More than 800 Final Fantasy XI players have had their on-line accounts permanently deleted for violating the game's user agreement. For example, some of the players monopolized monsters [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Nintendo has warned Webzen (the publisher of MU Online) that some of the characters in Webzen's new online game, Wiki, are similar to those in The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. Nintendo [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| A growing number of US jurisdictions are proposing legislation that restricts the sale of violent video games. California proposes a ban on youth access to games with graphic depictions [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Microsoft has promised to replace more than 14 million Xbox power cables due to safety concerns, citing reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables. This serves as a reminder [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| A Japanese student was arrested recently after threatening to kill his friend during an argument over - wait for it - which version of Dragon Quest was the best. The game series is so popular [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Two recent stories address the development of in-game advertising and product tie-ins. First, Sony's new Everquest II on-line multiplayer game has a built-in function that lets players access [read more]Tuesday, 8 March 2005 | David Spratley |
| Yahoo! recently sued start-up Xfire for patent infringement. Yahoo! claims Xfire's online chat application for gamers violates Yahoo!'s GameProwler instant messenger application. Both [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| n an ongoing lawsuit between Sony and a video game salesman who installed modchips into Playstations, Sony projected a racing game on the walls of the court to demonstrate how the mod chips worked [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| The hacker who roasted 50,000 computers with his variant of the Blaster worm was recently sentenced to one and a half years in prison for his actions. His punishment could have been much more [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Take this story, for example. Michigan police recently arrested a 4-year-old boy who borrowed his parents' car in the middle of the night to rent a video game. Seriously. (We didn't [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Tecmo Inc. recently sued the website administrators of a site dedicated to hacking into video games including some of Tecmo's games. Tecmo was particularly upset about modifications of the [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | Chris Bennett |
| Those who enjoy speculation are intrigued by two Japanese trade-mark applications filed by Nintendo in late 2004. The marks are V-POCKET and PCGP, and the applications refer to a wide range of [read more]Monday, 14 February 2005 | David Spratley |
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