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.