|
By
Curtis E.A. Karnow
Gamasutra
CGDC Roundtable Report, April
1997
|
|
CGDC '97
Roundtable Reports
Electronic
Rights
You Can Have
Rights --
But Not the Electronic Rights!
The discussion will
focus on licensing and intellectual property issues facing game developers
and publishers, especially those in providing services, or contracting,
via the Internet. In the context of Internet gaming, the group may discuss
trademark and domain name issues, security, consumer privacy, nationwide
jurisdiction for disputes, as well as the ambiguous nature of "electronic
rights."
Vicarious liability issues and the control of content: Issues haunting
ISPs and other service providers
Protecting members/users/players from each other
Obscenity (Note German prosecution)
Libel
Copyright
- What is "fair use"
- As users increasingly
take over the production: the content spins out of control. See www.cybernations.lonekeep.com;
see FTP sites with content (i.e.WADs etc.) that have infringing materials
based on properties such as The Simpsons' Aliens, etc.
- Protected property includes
voice, appearance, characters....
- Do you allow/enable infringing
play?
Trademark
- The look and feel of site....
trade dress?
- Domain names
SPA: Attacking ISPs
First amendment
Internet Commerce
On-line distribution of games. Anyone making money? Various models
Secure and trusted transactions
Ancillary products: the merchandise.
Site security
JAVA game programming, Java enhanced web sites
Breaking into sites
Plug-ins -- can call any program on local drive
ActiveX controls
Advertising/revenue sources
What are the models?
Licensing vs. purchase of rights
How do you count use to pay royalties? Various royalty models
Contracting with machines and software agents
Relying on email (draft UCC 2b)
http://www.brownraysman.com/doclib/uccdraft.html
International jurisdiction! Personal Jurisdiction/site of dispute resolution
The varying laws of various jurisdictions, e.g.
- Gambling
- Rights of Publicity and
Privacy
- Even basic contract law
Agreements with web site host services
Hardware
Access and connectivity, loss of service / whose problem if there is an
attack?
Maintenance Ownership (content)
Termination
Privacy
Cookies
PGP's cookie.cutter
Net privacy: What can you do--what DO you do-- with the data you collect
from clients, subscribers, etc?
|
