Your Mid-week “Meat” – Authoritative links from serious authors
Well, at least a “little” more serious than me. If you’re of a short attention span you might want to “move along” at this time. Otherwise read on after “the jump”
How to Make Machinima without Getting Sued Blind (Newteevee blog) talks about machinima from a developer’s perspective. Using your game for your own games. “Who does it hurt?” Is that the ultimate question to ask about whether a use is fair use? Not quite. I have nothing major on the subject besides the very well-written articles I’m linking to.
Tangled Web of User-Generated Content Cite as “Gervais, Daniel J., The Tangled Web of UGC: Making Copyright Sense of User-Generated Content (May 5, 2009). Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 841-870, 2009; Vanderbilt Public Law Research Paper No. 09-17. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1444513”
COVER SONGS AND DONKEY KONG: THE RATIONALE BEHIND COMPULSORY LICENSING OF MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS CAN INFORM A FAIRER TREATMENT OF USER-MODIFIED VIDEOGAMES John Baldrica Download at: http://jolt.unc.edu/sites/default/files/Baldrica_John_v11i1_103_144.pdf
Playing in the Virtual Arena: Avatars, Publicity and Identity Reconceptualized through Virtual Worlds and Computer Games Cite as: Garon, Jon M., Playing in the Virtual Arena: Avatars, Publicity and Identity Reconceptualized through Virtual Worlds and Computer Games (March 26, 2008). Chapman Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1334950 (Applicable to this discussion; pages 3-32 are extraordinarily tailored for this particular subject)
Also in Closing: Two of the “Casualties of War” in the IP wars; King’s Quest game snuffed out (from Gamepolitics); Nintendo shuts down fan made Pokem0n (from Joystiq)
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/axelhartmann/4310034154/sizes/m/ , Creative Commons Some rights reserved
Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.
Tags: avatars, machinima, Mid-week Meat, Modding, Mods, UGC, User Generated Content

