Category Archives: Legalities

Home Affairs minister Jason Clare has made good on his promise to move quickly on Australia’s proposed R18+ ratings category for games.

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UKIE has said it’s to publish a report next week that will outline the specifics on how crowd funding in the UK should be legal.

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Blizzard has brought a case to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Trial and Appeal Board challenging Valve’s right to trademark the word DOTA.

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A scam site luring users with false promises of Halo 4 beta access is the latest target of Microsoft’s legal wrath.

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“We are disappointed that NCsoft is attempting to mar the launch of TERA. Unfortunately we can’t discuss much publicly due to the sensitivity of legal actions, but we do outright reject the NCsoft claims, and we are going to do everything in our power to defend and protect ourselves. To all our supporters who have been anticipating the arrival of TERA – please know that this situation has no impact on our continuing efforts to realize the vision we have for our game. We are committed to making TERA awesome and delivering the game to you on time on May 1. Thank you for your patience and support.” – En Masse VP of publishing Chris Lee responding to NCsoft’s allegations that BlueHole Studios stole software and artwork from the studio to create TERA. Thanks, TenTonHammer.

NCsoft has filed a lawsuit against Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment in the US Court District of New York in an attempt to block the sale of TERA in the US.

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The ESA has announced the state of California will hand over $950,000 to the trade body in order to reimburse it for legal fees incurred from US Supreme Court case against SCOTUS.

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Newly incumbent minister for home affairs Jason Clare has been quick to pick up Brendan O’Conner’s reins, aiming to secure a vote on Australia’s proposed R18+ games rating in February.

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Jagex has won a legal battle with a pair of Runescape bot makers, leaving the defendants “convincingly neutered”.

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Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (NV) has postponed a vote on PIPA due to various issues and protests surrounding the bill, stating there’s “no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.” SOPA has also been postponed for the time being, and the ESA has dropped support of it altogether.

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The anticipated vote on SOPA has been delayed until the US House of Senate can find some sort of “consensus,” its been announced over the weekend.

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The Obama administration has responded to a petition against the SOPA and PIPA bills stating: “any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.”

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SOPA author and US Representative Lamar Smith of Texas has removed a controversial component of the bill, which would have required Internet Service Providers to block access to non-US websites accused of copyright and piracy violations.

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Ahead of a US House Committee discussion on SOPA next week, Firefall studio Red 5 and Destructoid will go offline on Monday for a 24 hour period in protest.

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Kuma Reality Games developer Amir Mirzaei Hekmati has been sentenced to death by the Iranian government which has accused him of espionage and working for the CIA.

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Bethesda parent company Zenimax will pay out $2 million to Interplay as part of a settlement returning all Fallout MMO rights to the Fallout 3 publisher.

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38 Studios founder Curt Schilling has said the firm cannot “in good conscience support” the Stop Online Piracy Act as it is currently written.

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A court judge has dismissed the expert testimony of an accountant Silicon Knights recruited to help solidify its case against Epic Games. In response, the firm’s Denis Dyack said the dismissal would be “one of the few rulings that Epic can say went their way.”

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The US National Arbitration Forum has ruled against EA in a dispute over the SSX.com domain. Domain Name Wire reports the domain was acquired by Abstract Holdings in October, and briefly hosted game advertisements, which EA argued demonstrated bad faith. EA Sports is set to reboot the previously-dormant snowboarding franchise, with the plainly titled SSX hitting PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in late February and early March.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

Epic Games has stated it does not support the current version of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill drafted by Texas Republican Representative Lamar Smith and 12 co-sponsors.

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