By: Dale Dietrich
Court cases on various video game law issues.
The two-year legal battle between GMX Media and Tesseraction Games appears not to be settled contrary to Tesseration’s claim.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
Other Royalty Dispute Posts
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Half-Life and Counter-Strike developer Valve and in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide have jointly announced a settlement of the behind-the-scenes legal issues that recently arose following the recent announcement of the IGA-powered Engage In-Game Advertising service.
Sources: Gamasutra | GameIndustry.biz | shacknews
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OK, OK, I acknowledge that this is not a legal news story – but can you blame me for covering it 🙂 ?
Sources: Team Xbox | Joystiq | SPoNG | Kotaku | EuroGamer | Tomb Raider Chronicles | Sydney Morning Herold | Pocket-Lint | CVG | 1Up.com
Note: Angelina, you’ll be missed!
Game industry lawyer, Jim Charne discusses in-game music licensing and strategies. Music in games, as in motion pictures, consists of two components. These are licensed incidental soundtrack music, and underscore composed specifically for the project.
Source: GameDaily.biz Feature
Yearlong dispute over patents used in Yahoo Messenger settled. Yahoo! had sued Xfire for using in-game friend finding technology that allegedly infringes Yahoo’s Messenger patent 6,699,125.
Sources: GameSpot
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Text of September 23, 2003 Complaint
The lawsuit alleged that GMX Media failed to produce timely and accurate sales and royalty accounts, failed to pay royalties from sales and interest on delayed royalties, distributed the title in countries outside of those defined in the agreement, and distributed the title in packaging that was not approved by Tesseraction, contained altered text and omitted vital game support information.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
Other Royalty Dispute Posts
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Harry Potter and Medal of Honour game developer Visual Science, based in Dundee, seeks bankruptcy protection and plans legal action against Vivendi after Vivendi terminated a development contract “without grounds”.
Dale’s Comment: This will all, of course, hinge on the terms of the development agreement. Did Vivendi actually “need” to have a reason for terminating? Commercial agreements frequently have termination for convenience clauses which allow one party to terminate the agreement for any reason or no reason at all.
Sources: GameIndustry.biz | EuroGamer | MCV
See also: Earlier related GameIndustry.biz story.
The alleged pirates were said to have either removed the copy protection from, duplicated, or otherwise bootlegged over $6.5 million worth of software (including game-related content) and movies.
Source: Gamasutra | Next Generation | GameDaily | GameIndustry.biz
William Agnew, aged 50, of Hamilton in central Scotland, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service after admitting to trademark offences. 4,000 pirated DVDs, CDs and games on PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms were seized during the raid on Agnew’s business premises. Agnew was known to sell the goods from his ice cream van.
Last month, Josh posted an article in Downinfront.tv, commenting on PS3 development. He revealed that at the time of his writing there was no final hardware development kits and that SOE got one of only five PS3 development kits delivered in the U.S. But probably what irritated his bosses the most was Robinson’s comments on the superiority of the Xbox 360
Sources: PS3 Week | GameIndustry.biz | Xbox Circle | EuroGamer | Next-Gen.biz | GameDaily | Bit-Tech.net | Spong | Team Xbox
Hall of Fame Pool Player Mike Sigel filed a lawsuit today against computer game manufacturers, Interplay Entertainment Corp and Celeris, Inc., for using his name and likeness without his permission.
Source: PR Newswire
Take-Two and Rockstar are facing a large number of legal proceedings revolving around the Grand Theft Auto franchise, with multiple lawsuits pending from, amongst others, the city attorney of Los Angeles, the family of police officers killed by a man allegedly influenced by the game and class action complaints in New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Sources: GamaSutra | GameSpot | Next Generation | GameDaily | GameIndustry.biz
New York Investigation:
LA Civil Suit:
FTC Investigation Related Posts:
Stanhouse Class Action Suit:
Cohen Class Action Suit:
Other Hot Coffee Related Posts:
Text of Open Letter from EA to Ubisoft
A long-running conflict between the Montreal studios of major publishers Electronic Arts and Ubisoft over non-compete clauses for departing Ubisoft game development employees has again flared to life, following the hiring of an unnamed former Ubisoft employee to work at EA’s Montreal studio.
Sources: Gamasutra | Gamespot | Next Generation | GameDaily | GameIndustry.biz
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Letter from Red Cross to Davis & Co.
The Red Cross is currently contacting members of the video game industry regarding their use of the symbol in video games—especially violent games—and asking them to stop using the symbol.
Sources: Davis & Co. | GameIndustry.biz | Calgary Herold | Joystiq | Globe & Mail | Game Politics
Police said two Mercedes were racing each other nearly three times over the speed limit when one of the cars smashed into a taxi late Tuesday. The video game Need for Speed, was found on the front seat of one of the suspect’s cars following the crash.
Sources: Ottawa Sun | Globe & Mail | Toronto Star | McLeans | 24 Hours | Toronto Sun | Calgary Sun | Winnipeg Sun | National Post
Follow-up: 
Click Here to Listen to a PC GAMER Podcast where initial headline writer is interviewed (about 1/3 in).
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Text of Complaint
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo sued the makers of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” Thursday, claiming they violated state law by embedding ‘Hot Coffee’ sex scenes into the video game.
Sources: NBC 4 | Gamasutra | Next Generation | GameDaily | GameIndustry.biz | Good Morning Silicon Valley | GamePolitics | Reuters UK | Forbes | IGN | MTV.com | Inquirer | San Jose Mercury News | L.A. Times | San Francisco Chronicle | 1Up.com | ABC News
New York Investigation:
LA Civil Suit:
FTC Investigation Related Posts:
Stanhouse Class Action Suit:
Cohen Class Action Suit:
Other Hot Coffee Related Posts:
So ends the high profile legal confrontation between previous license holder Activision and Viacom, in which Activision accused Viacom of letting “the once proud ‘Star Trek’ franchise stagnate and decay.”
Sources: Gamasutra | 1Up.com | GameSpot | Bethesda Press Release | GameIndustry.biz | Bethesda Press Release
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Text of Sony v. Filipiak Decision
On Dec 27, 2005, In this decision, Sony was awarded more than $6 million in statutory damages against an individual that sold Playstation mod chips in contravention of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. The statutory minimum and maximums are $200 and $2,500 per violation. Sony was awarded $800 per “wilful” circumvention/infringement for initial violations and the highest possible, $2,500, for violations that occurred after the defendant had signed a consent judgment agreeing to stop such violations – he didn’t! In this case a computer forensics expert was able to determine that the defendant had erased thousands of incriminating transaction files/records just prior to handing his hard drive over to Sony’s counsel as agreed in a consent judgment.
Sources: Findlaw | InternetCases.com | Davis & Co
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has called on retailers not to stock the game, which involves gang violence against police.
Sources: Next Generation | 1Up.com | 
Click Here to Watch CNN Video Coverage of Story.
In this self-declared “rant” attorney Tom Buscaglia urges the gaming community to educate themselves on candidate positions and to get out and vote before the gaming industry is handicapped by legislation.
Source: GamaSutra Feature
Following the stabbing of eight persons at a Moscow synagogue two days earlier, Russia`s lower house of parliament is drafting legislation to restrict Web sites and computer games that promote extremist views.
Sources: Moscow Times | Monsters & Critics Tech | TMCnet
Running With Scissors boss Vince Desi has responded to revelations that his game, Postal, has been linked to the multiple stabbings of visitors to a synagogue in Moscow earlier this week.
Sources: GamesIndustry.biz | Next Generation
Earlier this week, GameDaily BIZ reported on the successful in-game ad campaign of a new firm, Engage In-Game Advertising. Ads for the food chain Subway were apparently placed in the Valve Software shooter Counter-Strike; even though the game’s name was not specifically mentioned in the press release, it was obvious to all that it was CS.
Sources: GameDaily.biz | Joystiq
Related Stories re: Engage In-Game Ads Launch: GameIndustry.biz | GameDaily.biz | ars technica | Business Week
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Old-time violent game Postal has been blamed, at least partially, on a horrific knife attack on visitors to a Moscow synagogue.
Sources: Next-Gen Biz | Game Politics | 1Up.com | Ferrago | Euro Gamer
Two Hollywood video game store owners and a third man who were charged in December for allegedly pirating video games and installing them on modified Microsoft Corp. Xbox consoles were indicted on Thursday, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. The indictment also charged the three with two felony violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
Sources: Gamasutra | Next Generation | Information Week