Category Archives: Legalities

The Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency is cracking down on free to play social games which offer random rewards in return for micro-payments.

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Motorola has been granted an injunction against Microsoft on various products in Germany, including Xbox 360.

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Infamous PS3 hacker George “Geohot” Hotz met with Sony engineers to discuss his “methodology” in hacking, its been revealed in a New Yorker profile on the hacker.

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A US International Trade Commission judge has ruled that Microsoft violated four Motorola Mobility patents with Xbox 360. A commission will now review the ruling and determine what action should be taken. The body has the ability and authority to put a ban on selling products which infringe on patents. However, should a settlement be reached between the two companies, the decision would be tossed. Motorola told Bloomberg it filed the complaint because Microsoft alleged the firm’s Android devices were in violation of patents file by Microsoft. Thanks, Gamespot.

Facebook has found itself the target of a legal complaint demanding it refund all Facebook Credit purchases made by minors.

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An author is taking Ubisoft to court over claims the publisher infringed some of his copyrights in relation to Assassin’s Creed. Link author John Beiswenger is taking the action after he claimed the book used a system in where people could access gain access to ancestral memories. The Assassin’s Creed series uses the Animus as a key aspect to its story.

There’s a full report on the case here. Via Kotaku.

A Fallout fan offering free high resolution downloads of his original fanart has been forced to pull his creations from the Internet after receiving a legal warning from a firm acting on behalf of Bethesda.

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Chalk up a new victory to Microsoft’s legal team, as Fusible reports the National Arbitration Forum has shut down another website purporting to offer Halo 4 beta keys. Halo4Beta.biz is now in Microsoft’s hands, evincing from us a stern reminder that Halo 4 beta keys have not been officially distributed through any channels, so don’t go giving away your personal details to anybody claiming to have one.

The Better Business Bureau’s Marjorie Stephens has said it’s possible Mass Effect 3 was falsely advertised due to the lack of “radically different ending scenarios” the public was promised.

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In California, GameStop stores will be required to inform customers that if applicable, the purchase of a used games will require additional fees for downloadable content.

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ESRB president Patricia Vance has told Gamasutra she believes AO ratings are “good for the system” and that she wishes elected officials would stop trying to pass bills aimed at limiting the sale of video games – something she equates with “frivolous lawsuits”.

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Guitar Apprentice filed a patent infringement against Ubisoft last week over its guitar instruction game Rocksmith. According to the suit, the company claims Ubisoft in direct violation of USP 8,119,896 which was created for a “media system and method of progressive musical instruction”. Guitar Apprentice filed the patent on October 12, 2010 and Rocksmith launched in the US a year later. This isn’t the first run in Ubisoft has had over the instructional game, as a band named Rocksmith is currently disputing the title claiming it owns the rights to the name “Rocksmith”. The game is slated for an October release in Australia and Europe. Via: Joystiq, Patent Arcade.

A date has been set for the trial between Call of Duty publisher Activision and former Infinity Ward leaders Jazon West and Vince Zampella.

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The Canadian government has withheld grant money promised to Silicon Knights back in July 2011, as it claims  funding conditions were not met by the developer.

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A California Court has denied EA’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by NFL retirees over the use of the players’ likenesses without consent or compensation.

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This week brings another twist in the long-running legal tussle over Section 8 between developer TimeGate and publisher Southpeak Interactive.

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Adidas’s stymied miCoach tie-in is back on track thanks to the ‘amicable’ resolution of a suit against THQ.

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The Australian Capital Territory will be the first to Australian region to introduce legislation in support of an R18+ ratings category for video games.

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On March 19, US Representatives Joe Baca (D-CA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) once again introduced a bill that would require games to bear a health warning label stating: “WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.”

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An increasing number of angry fans have filed complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission claiming that Mass Effect 3′s ending doesn’t live up to advertised claims.

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