Silly Wild Games Studio, Trying to Censor the Internet

via @TheDailyDot.

What happens when a video game studio attempts to take down TotalBiscuit, a popular video game critic's, Youtube video? The Internet takes up arms against the studio, of course.

According to The Daily Dot, Wild Games Studio, creator of Day One: Garry's Incident, claimed that the reason why they filed to take down TotalBiscuit's video was because "Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license."

I don't know about you, but this sounds like crap! Fair Use, anyone? Section 17 U.S.C. 107,  contains a list of various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as CRITICISM, COMMENT, news reporting...." TotalBiscuit's video would probably be classified as criticism, and even may fall into the comment category.

According to Kotaku, Wild Games, has since, withdrawn its complaint from Youtube.

Here is TotalBiscuit's original video:



And for those of you who are curious about Wild Games Studio's "Day One: Garry's Incident":

Alec Baldwin Could Have Been in GTA V!

via @Gamespot.

For those of you who do not know what GTA V, or Grand Theft Auto Five, is, it Take-Two's wildly successful video game that was recently released. This game was the first entertainment to reach sales of a billion dollars within three days!

According to Gamespot, who reported it from IndieWire, Baldwin stated in his character would have been a cop-killer and "And I turned them down because [the character] was a cop killer... And I didn't want to get near that [because] of my reputation; I have enough problems with the press as it is. I said no." I think it's pretty interesting that Baldwin believes in the power and reach of this video game- enough to believe that the game would affect his reputation.

I wonder if Baldwin is having regrets based on the explosive success of this game now, with what could have been a lucrative contract with possibly royalties. Baldwin could have joined the ranks of celebrities such as Samuel Jackson.

Do you think he missed out?

Square Enix Files for Trademark in Japan

via @ Siliconera.

Square Enix, the parent company of the wildly successful final fantasy franchise has filed for a trademark "ロスとクルセイド(rosuto kuruseido)," or "Lost Crusade."

Wonder what it will be, some are speculating that Lost Crusade may be a mobile game.

More news to come!

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix out 2014

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 has been unveiled by Square Enix due in 2014 for PS3.

This game will include Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (cinema only).

Who would want to take on Floyd Mayweather Jr.?

Apparently Dash does. Who is Dash? Dash is a composer that composed a piece called "Tony Gunz Beat" (TGB), allegedly in 2005. In 2008, Mayweather's manager provided Mayweather with a CD containing a song called "Yep." Mayweather was informed that Mayweather owned all the rights to the song, however Dash claimed that "Yep" combined lyrics from his music, TGB.

While Dash claimed he created TGB in 2005, he did not file a copyright application until 2009.

The district court held that Dash was not entitled to claim profit damages or actual damages because there was no evidence establishing the connection between the alleged infringement and the claimed revenues. In order to recover actual damages, Dash must demonstrate an actual value to Dash's TGB. In addition, Mayweather's attorney was able to prove that Dash could not claim profit damages because TGB was not making any profit, it was not even claimed on his tax returns!

What do you think of the claim? I can't seem to find Dash's TGB song, but here is Mayweather's. 

 

When your "likeness" is used in a video game

[caption id="attachment_363" align="aligncenter" width="300"] "Ellie" from The Last of Us (left), Ellen Page (center), Ashley Johnson (right)[/caption]

via @Forbes, @Kotaku, and @GameInformer.

When I first stumbled across the game, "The Last of Us" I was surprised at how familiar the character "Ellie" was. That's when I realized that Ellie looked a lot like Ellen Page.

What makes this an even more weird scenario is the fact that Page is the star of Quantic Dream's "Beyond two Souls."

Page was asked about her likeness to Ellie on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" session in which a fan asked "Have you seen any footage of 'The Last of Us' and would you have taken the role as Ellie if approached?" and in which she responded "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated." Talk about awkward!

Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann, responded to such speculation by merely pointing out that Ellie was not played by Page, but by an Actress named Ashley Johnson.

While starMedia, reports that Ellen page was suing Naughty Dog for using her image in the video game, I could not find any evidence of the lawsuit.

This is definitely an interesting scenario. Can celebrities sue video game companies for using their image? What would it take for the suit to succeed?

Curious, indeed.

Will the Success of Video Games End the Box Office?

via @Bloomberg.

With the recent explosive success of Grand Theft Auto V, which took in over $1 billion easily within the first week, many may be wondering if the success of the video game industry equates to the death of Hollywood. I mean, logically speaking, if the video game industry is taking a bigger profit from consumers, this extra money must be taken from a different industry, right?

Video games are no longer associated with the middle-aged person playing in their parents' garage. In fact, playing video games may now be the "cool" thing to do! While this is an interesting development, I personally do not think video games will be replacing the movie industry, even though it has become a pretty common occurrence to see users merge all the cutscenes to a video game as a "movie" and upload it to youtube.

I personally am guilty of watching cutscenes as movies because sometimes I just want to see how the story of the video game plays out, without spending hours and hours and hours playing the video game... (plus, I'm pretty terrible at first-person shooter games...).

It will be interesting to see how these two industries are affected, whether the increase in profits for the video game industry will lead to a decrease in profits for the movie industry.

re: "Multimillion Dollar Shakedown"

I recently read this pretty scathing article about how Google (and other companies) hide behind the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA and the resulting effects on artists (here).

There are more than 60 trillion addresses on the web. Google is a huge company and it is likely very difficult to monitor every single advertising account that it has. In addition, Google recently released a document stating how it plans to fight against piracy.



 

In fact, I've already noticed that many searches to pirate sites have been taken down in compliance with the DMCA.

While the author of the Multimillion Dollar Shakedown points out that Google profits from the piracy sites even when the site is removed, Google does not charge copyright owners for removing the infringing material, and Google has, on average, improved the removal process and typically processes the notices in less than six hours.

What we should keep in mind is that Google is mostly a directory, that points people to what they want to find and they are good at it. With more than 60 trillion websites (and counting!) it is a daunting task to enforce these copyrights.

Perhaps artists and copyright owners should consider developing software to combat these copyright pirates, rather than blaming Google for being good at what they do.

Just my opinion and some food for your thoughts.

BitTorrent 2.0

via @Gizmodo.

Have you seen these signs around town?

 

If so, you probably live in either New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. These seemingly depressing billboards are a marketing tool for BitTorrent who recently made corrections.

Contrary to public belief, Torrenting is just a way to send data, which is not illegal. In fact, BitTorrent has been hard at work, working to prove that BitTorrent is not illegal and does not automatically mean piracy, by creating BitTorrent Bundles, which is a "media store by the people, for the people" where you can direct access to content from artists. 

The signs are a great marketing tool, especially since having these signs out in public may help people understand that BitTorrent is not illegal. 

* Images from here. 

The Brits Are Coming! (To Crack Down on Piracy!)

via @MPAA.

Britain's House of Commons (HoC), the Culture, Media, and Sport Committeee, released a report titled "Supporting the Creative Economy" urging the government to protect and enforce intellectual property rights. In this report, HoC argues that stronger enforcement of copyrights will help the creative economy grow.

There are several key points that stand out to me:

(1) In this report to protect Copyright, HoC strongly criticizes Google and other technology companies for their lack of response to prevent its search engine from directing users to copyright-infringing websites. In addition, HoC recommends that the maximum penalty for serious online copyright theft be extended to ten years' imprisonment.

(2) In order to discourage piracy, HoC recommends the Government to implement an Online Copyright Infringement Code that will be implemented faster than the Government plans to do so. This can be achieved by targeting information letters to the worst infringers to set an example.

Are these consequences too serious? While it is understandable that HoC would become frustrated with the amount of piracy that goes on, coupled with the lagging economy, the consequences appear more serious than deserved. A factor that is extremely worrying is the fact that there is no definition for "the worst infringers" and this could essentially encompass large-scale infringers to a user that simply downloads lots of movies, thereby also infringing.

While the idea set forth by the HoC sounds promising, it would be better for the HoC to define their terms, in addition to lowering the punishment. Understandably the strict punishment is used to deter users, but in the light of all things considered, ten years is probably too long a sentence for copyright infringement for just an average user.

Copyright Pirates

In United States v. Chow Lieh Liu,

The court held that in order to criminally charge an individual for criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels, the defendant's guilt must be determined based on whether he acted "willfully" and "knowingly," meaning the defendant had to know the labels were counterfeit.

In the above named case, Liu was the CEO of Super DVD, a DVD-manufacturing company with replication machines. However Super DVD began struggling and lost the replication machines.

Customs Enforcement agents raided the warehouse of Vertex International trading, a software reseller and discovered purchase order documentation from vendors including Super DVD.

Liu admitted that Super DVD manufactured Crouching Tiger but Liu realized that R&E did not have the actual rights so Super DVD pursued legal action.

Liu denied any involvement of replicating other works and that some Latin music was believed to be his uncles'.

Based on the above facts, the court held that Liu did not knowingly replicate counterfeit DVDs and was not criminally liable for copyright infringement.

This case gives me hope for courts because under Liu, innocent Defendants are protected. While this makes a harder case for the prosecution, the prosecution has the burden of proof.

Belated Tube-y Thursday Video: Motorcycle Gang vs. Range Rover

I know this video is NOT technology related, but have you guys seen this crazy video where a Range Rover is getting chased by a Biker Gang?

As of today, 4 bikers have been arrested and there may have been an undercover police officer that did not report the confrontation, and a local man is being hailed as a hero by stepping in between the bikers and the driver of the Range Rover.

Read the story here. 

CONGRATS to the LOS ANGELES DODGERS

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the Los Angeles Dodgers who beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 and are heading to the National League Series which begins this Friday, October 11.

See Uribe's game saver here and the last inning here.

Take-Two files for Trademarks for Codex, Carnate, and Double Take.

via @GameSpot

Take-Two, is a publisher, developer, and distributor of video games. Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, which is the creator of the wildly popular game, Grand Theft Auto, and 2K Games, which is the creator of the 2K Sports titles and numerous other video games such as Borderlands and Bioshock.

The trademarks for Codex, Carnate, and Double Take were filed September 30th and each trademark had applications for downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.

According to the trademark application, electronic publications includes graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals. Downloadable software will be available for accessing, reading, and cataloging electronic publications and gathering data, details, and comments relating to an individual user's collection of electronic publications.

Physical publications will include graphic novels, comic books, posters, trading cards, artwork, short stories, magazines, periodicals, books, and photographs.

Entertainment and educational services will include providing an interactive website featuring news and information about authors, publications, and the publishing industry; on-line journals, blogs featuring news and information about authors, publications, and the publishing industry; publication of graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals; publication of electronic, non-downloadable graphic novels, comic books, short stories, books, magazines and periodicals

Codex's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Carnate's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Double Take's trademark applications can be found here: downloadable electronic publications and software, physical publications, and entertainment and educational services.



Wonder what Take-Two is up to. Only time will tell, I guess!