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>Don’t Ignore Open Source License Terms
>If you embed open source software in a retail game or in gaming hardware, you should be diligent about compliance with the open source license terms. Otherwise, both you and your retailer may be in for an unpleasant surprise. The Software Freedom Conservancy, the non-profit corporate home of the open-source Linux application BusyBox, and Erik Andersen, one of the program’s principal developers, recently filed suit against a number of technology manufacturers and retailers, including Samsung and Best Buy. The suit accuses the defendants of infringing the copyright for Busybox by using the program in consumer products such as DVD players and HDTVs in violation of the terms of its license (the GNU General Public License, version 2). The complaint, filed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims that the defendants were advised that the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only allowed… Continue Reading
>Implied Licenses with Software Developers
>An interesting opinion denying a preliminary injunction in a software development case has just come out of the Eastern District of Washington. The defendant company, bVisual, was sued for copyright infringement by Numbers Licensing, an independent developer hired by bVisual to do software development work. Committing a surprisingly common error, bVisual failed to get a signed, written agreement with Numbers Licensing that placed ownership rights in the source code with bVisual. Therefore, when the two parties later got involved in litigation, the court found that the developer still owned the copyright in the developed source code on bVisual’s computers.However, all was not lost for the defendant, as the court also found that bVisual had an implied license to continue using and modifying the source code. The court found that the relationship between the parties, the defendant’s payment of a substantial amount of money for the software, and the fact the… Continue Reading
>Tip: Video Game Copyright Registration
>Most folks in the industry know about filing copyrights to protect their source code. One area of concern that I see, though, is a lack of awareness of the some of the Copyright Office requirements buried in the Copyright Office regulations. When filing a copyright registration for a book, it is generally pretty easy to decide when to register (when the book is finished) and what to register (the book). However, software (and games, in particular) is a much more fluid situation. When is a game truly ever finished? And, if we don’t know when the game is finished, what exactly do you decide to register with the Copyright Office? More importantly……the Copyright Office requires that “each separately published version of a computer program that contains new, copyrightable authorship must be registered separately, with a new appliation and fee.” (Circular 61) So, now the question becomes, how are defining a… Continue Reading
>Tip: Work Made for Hire vs. Get the Assignment
>One of the more common missteps involving intellectual property is the concept of a work made for hire. This concept is defined in the U.S. Copyright Act and there is a lot of case law over the years regarding it. Many people believe that “if Company A paid for Person B to develop The Thing, then Company A owns The Thing”… like all things lawyer, the answer is “maybe.” If Person B was an employee of Company A and it was part of Person’s B to develop The Thing, then The thing is a work made for hire. There is a second concept for work made for hire……that is spelled out in the statute, but it requires many other extra hoops for The Thing to qualify as a work made for hire. However, as you can see, not every instance qualifies as a work made for hire. And, if The… Continue Reading
>Tip: Source Code Escrow — Saving Your Game…Literally
>Ascaron Entertainment’s new action RPG, “Sacred 2: Fallen Angel,” has sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, is topping international PC sales charts, and is about to see release on Xbox 360 and PS3. Nevertheless, the German game development studio went into administration a week ago in order to obtain the protection of German insolvency laws. Ascaron’s press release cites development delays associated with Sacred 2 as the reason for its decision to enter banruptcy and reorganize. Ascaron’s announcement officially puts a “game developer FAIL” trifecta into play for early 2009. Midway Games announced, in February, that it had filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy under U.S. law after a late-2008 change in ownership triggered financial obligations that the company was “unable to satisfy.” Midway anticipates that its operations will continue ininterrupted, but one has to wonder: what would happen if the next installation of Unreal Tournament or Mortal Kombat (Midway’s flagship… Continue Reading
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