By: Dale Dietrich
Comic book giant Marvel has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Korean publisher NCsoft, alleging that players in the firm’s MMORPG City of Heroes are creating characters in the likeness of Marvel heroes.
Sources: gameindustry.biz | Wired | EFF’s Marvel v. NCSoft Page | City of Hero’s Developer, Cryptic Studios, Responds
Text of Amended Kirschenbaum Class Action Complaint
Just as the ea-spouse Web log posting this week has triggered a hail of criticism about harsh work conditions in the game industry, game-publishing giant Electronic Arts is being sued for allegedly failing to pay overtime wages.
Sources: CNet News | Gamespot 1 | Gamespot 2 (analysis)
Activision (Canulti):
Activision (Erimez):
EA (Lender Hasty): EA Programmers
EA (Tam Su):
EA (Kirschenbaum): EA animators, texture artists, and modelers
Text of ‘690 Patent
American Video Graphics, LP (“AVG”) has asserted that approximately thirty defendants in the gaming industry have infringed one its patent(s) that cover 3D panning and a zooming technology.
Sources: CNet | The Register pt 1 | The Register pt 2 | ars technica | ZDNet | USA Today | Planet GameCube | OnlyPunjab.com | IGDA Wiki Entry on ‘690 Topic
See also: IGDA’s call for ‘690 Prior Art
The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) took exception to the portrayal of sexual activity in the game.
Source: gameindustry.biz
On August 14, 2002, Valve served its then-publisher Sierra On-Line (now Sierra Entertainment, a Vivendi Universal Games brand) with a lawsuit in the US District Court of Washington, Western Division, alleging copyright infringement–the result of Sierra distributing Valve games in Internet cafés in the US and abroad. Vivendi accuses Valve of deliberately misleading them and had counterclaimed that Valve’s distribution of Half-Live with Steam had adversely affected its retail plans. Under their distribution agreement Vivendi can release Half-Life up to six months after the game goes gold. Valve says that Vivendi has not announced the date it will be released.
Sources: Gamespot | Yahoo! Games | EuroGamer
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A 45 year old man in South Wales was sentenced to the longest sentence ever imposed by a UK court for game piracy, three and a half years. John Lamb was caught with a counterfeited game inventory estimated at 1/4 Million pounds. He had marketed his pirated games with spam e-mails.
Sources: GameIndustry.biz | ELSPA Press Release | Play.tm
The British High Court has ruled that using, possessing, selling or advertising modded PS2 consoles is illegal. Justice Laddie ruled that Ball had violated the European Union Copyright Directive, which came into UK law in 2003. The defendant had sold some 1,500 Messiah 2 chips allowing customers to defeat both the PS2’s region coding restrictions and the PS2’s built-in piracy protections.
Sources: ZDNet | GameIndustry.biz | The Register | BBC | GamePlanet | Outlaw-com
China’s government is forming a committee to review and censor online games before they are released in the country.The committee will censor games based on violence, sex, and misrepresentations of the country.
Source: Gamasutra
Some communities now require anyone selling used video games to give fingerprints for police records. The question is: Why?
Dale’s Comment: My guess is its for possible subsequent video game hacking/modding/piracy prosecutions.
Source: GameSpot
A Spanish judge has ruled that modifications to games consoles to allow them to play DVDs and games from other countries “are not illegal”.
Source: The Register
A court in Italy has dealt a major blow to the efforts of console manufactures to crack down on mod chips, ruling that PS2 mod chip devices are designed to “avoid monopolistic positions.”
Sources: The Register | GameIndustry.biz | Silicon.com | Outlaw.com
Declining television ratings are prompting advertisers to reach the coveted young male demographic through games.
Source: GameSpot
The complaint, filed the Superior Court of the State of California, accused Viacom of breaching its promise to continue exploiting the “Star Trek” franchise consistent with its practice at the time the agreement was signed in 1998. The suit alleges that since signing the agreement, Viacom has produced only one more Star Trek movie, thereby leaving Activision with little fodder for successive video games. Activision is seeking damages for lost revenue.
Sources: Gamasutra | GameIndustry.biz 1 | GameIndustry.biz 2 | EuroGamer | TechWeb | Xbox Gamers
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An Australian Court Rules that modding consoles do not infringe copyright because Sony was unable to show that copy protection measures had been built into their consoles. The Australian consumer watchdog organization ACCC has fought Sony over region coding in the past as being anti-consumer by denying them the right to play genuinely purchased games from cheaper overseas sources.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
In a thorough 30-page opinion, Chief Judge Lewis T. Babcock rejected the plaintiffs’ negligence and strict liability claims on both state law and First Amendment grounds. On the negligence claims, the court held that the movie and video game defendants did not owe a duty to the plaintiffs and that, in any event, Harris and Klebold’s actions were a superseding cause of Sanders’ death. On the strict liability claims, the court held that the expression in the movies and video games was not a “product” subject to strict liability and that, again, the shooters’ actions were a superseding cause. In addition, the court held that the First Amendment barred all of plaintiffs’ claims.
Source: Deanne Maynard of Jenner & Block
Channel Technology imported mod-chips from Russia that when installed in PS2’s to play games from all regions. Importantly, the chip also allows users to play pirated games. The U.K. High Court found Channel Technology in violation of a provision in the UK. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 that prohibits knowingly making, importing or selling any device specifically designed or adapted to circumvent copy-protection. Judge Jacob awarded Sony damages of £15,000 and costs of £45,000. Channel Technology has since closed.
Sources: The Register | ZDNet | Out-Law.com
Litigation is business by other means, as Creative Technology’s $32 million takeover of moribund rival Aureal Semiconductor proves.
Sources: The Register | Tech Report
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Under the terms of the settlement agreement, eGames agreed to pay a one time settlement fee of $205,000.
Sources: Gamasutra | PRNewswire
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Rival 3D chipmakers Nvidia and S3 have come to a settlement in their ongoing patent infringement battle. The two companies settled their differenced by entering into a seven year agreement to cross license a broad range of the companies respective patents. As part of the deal, both companies will drop their pending patent infringement suits.
Sources: Gamasutra | NVidia Press Release
Earlier Related Stories: Find Articles | The Register | CNet
Hasbro Interactive, and its subsidiary Attari Interactive, have filed suit against several game companies over unauthorized versions of some well-known video games.
Sources: Gamasutra | About | PRNewswire | EVG Nexus | Hasbro Press Release | Adrenaline Vault | CNNMoney
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Quebec is withdrawing its threat to sue Sony and Nintendo for not marketing games in French. Both companies pledged to offer video game users guides and product warranty information in French.
Sources: Gamasutra
Earlier Related Stories: The Register | CBC News
Uri Geller, the millionaire paranormalist, is suing the computer giant Nintendo for more than £60m for allegedly using his image in its best-selling Pokemon game without his permission.
Sources: Gamasutra | Guardian Unlimited | The Register | ZDNet UK
In response to a shooting linked by the media to video games, Brazil’s Justice Ministry issued an order banning several game titles.
Sources: Gamasutra | The Register
Aureal has won its legal battle with arch-rival Creative technology when a US jury threw out Creative’s claim that Aureal Vortex sound processor chip violated Creative intellectual property.
Sources: Gamasutra | The Register
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