The Fall of Infinity Ward – And the New Rise of the Personal Service Contract

Photo Credit: <div xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/747847877/in/photostream/”><a rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/</a> / <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>CC BY 2.0</a></div> (Flickr Creative Commons, attribution required) [You should visit the photo to read to read the narrative, no one was killed in this explosion]. What led to the destruction (total?) at Infinity Ward Studios?(read the other stories tagged Infinity Ward if you’re not familiar [...]

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PS3 Users, log in… so we can “downgrade” your system

PSN has decided that they will “downgrade” the system of users. Here’s the official announcement made recently at THE PLAYSTATION BLOG  : ”will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to [...]

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Games Workshop Sues (Part II)

Well, actually, it’s a new lawsuit.  There are numerous internet sites reporting Games Workshop suing Curse (runs Website Warhammer Alliance). The report from the prolific blog Massively… my favorite quote, “a litany of allegations including cybersquatting, unfair competition, dilution (of the IP), and more”.  They link to the complaint here. Warhammer Alliance response here, or [...]

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New lawsuits update

Infinity Ward Developers sue Activision (for unpaid royalties) From Lawsuits and Settlements Web site (talking about the California state law factor) ; and story from the Vancouver Sun. A slightly different take…The Lawsuit and Public Relations, from Gamasutra.  Other lawsuits, after the jump….

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(Mid-week Meat) Contract from the Bottom Up

Most attorneys do things opposite.  For instance, I’m greatly in favor of reading a contract (player/company, developer/potential-publisher) from the bottom up.  So the next couple of weeks, I’m going to focus on a common theme of the bottom of those contracts: Locality; Globality; and Longevity. Today, an introduction into Longevity as regarding Developer Contracts.

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The “Memphis Mafia” and Running a Company

This is just a short news post about credit card overcharges at Warhammer Online.  It’s so peripheral to the “business” of video games that I don’t have much original to add from a legal standpoint.  But I do have a short personal commentary at the end(after the jump) .

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New wave of copyright lawsuits

Zynga vs PlayerAuctions (From Web site IP trademark lawyer) Zynga Game Network, Inc. v. Playerauctions.com, CV10-2576 CBM (C.D. Cal. 2010). (Zynga says that Player Auctions is making money from their work.  We’ll keep up with this one.)  Others to keep up with after the jump.

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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”

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Gamers Rights Blog: What exactly IS that, anyway?

I tried to lay out a definition when I started, but didn’t know exactly what was out there.  I think I can give a little more refinement to my ideas at this point.  Today’s lesson covers THE BASICS.

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Stefani vs Activision

Well,  I was going to promise not to talk about “the Big A” until next week.  But I read perhaps the best legal article on gamer’s law in six months.  You can read it here… http://copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com/2010/04/law-of-avatars-copyright-act-doesnt.html (Copyright Litigation Blog)  Read the whole thing, and then pop back in here.  I’ll wait. 

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