Reports emerged this week that allegedly that Apple is now longer making games which have been removed from the App Store available for re-download by existing purchasers. Cue Internet consternation. But what’s the actual legal position?
Category: Distribution
Can you pirate your own video game?
Hotline Miami 2, the forthcoming sequel to the excellent indie game Hotline Miami (note: I wrote that in bold, underline and italics to show how much I mean it), has been denied classification in Australia (another victim of the relatively restrictive local age rating system there). So its developer instead just told Australian fans to pirate the… Continue reading Can you pirate your own video game?
Digital resale rights in the EU: the state of play
What happens when you decide that you no longer want an e-book, film, tv episode, music track or video game which you bought and downloaded? What happens if you decide you want to give it to a friend, relative or just someone who wants to buy it from you? We’re in the middle of trying… Continue reading Digital resale rights in the EU: the state of play
An international legal guide to games development and distribution
Last year I gave a lecture at the Gamer Tech Law conference in Seattle with the rather ambitious title of “Going Global: legal and business issues for international games development and distribution”. As you can imagine, that’s a lot to cover – even in a lecture directed at other lawyers. Anyway, below is the lecture… Continue reading An international legal guide to games development and distribution
The legality of second hand software sales in the EU
The second hand sale of physical and digital software has effectively been declared legal, according to a judgment published by the Court of Justice of the European Union today. This has the potential to have a real impact on the way that software is sold and consumed – but at the same time the case… Continue reading The legality of second hand software sales in the EU
Games Law Update: May 2012
Hi everyone – sorry for a delayed May games law update. Blame the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which gave us a 2 day national holiday here in the UK (maybe it’s disloyal to blame the Queen? Oh well). Here goes:
Are second hand software sales legal?
The second hand sale of software excites lots of emotive debate: is it a good thing for consumers by giving them choices at more flexible price points, or is it killing publishers? Both? While that debate continues to rage, a couple of recent legal cases have got me thinking: are second hand software sales actually legal?… Continue reading Are second hand software sales legal?
Games Law Update: April 2012
Hi everyone – here’s your dollop of games law news over the last month, curated by yours truly… Lawsuits: The big daddy in games lawsuits approaches: the Infinity Ward/Activision/EA lawsuit apparently has a trial date set of May 29th 2012. Regular readers will know I’ve been following this lawsuit with great interest for some time. … Continue reading Games Law Update: April 2012
Games Law Round-Up: February and March 2012
Sorry – this is two months’ worth of games law news updates, since GDC got in the way of finalising the February update. Still, what a couple of months it’s been! Here we go…
Some thoughts about SOPA
I don’t need to tell you all what the US Stop Online Piracy Act is about, because the Internet has talked about nothing else for the last few days (or at least, those parts of the Internet which haven’t been closed in protest against SOPA). It caused a great, great deal of controversy, far more… Continue reading Some thoughts about SOPA