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Week 7 – 10/15/14: “What’s it all about…EULA?” & Don McGowan
Thanks to Don McGowan of The Pokemon Company for coming up from Seattle and braving a very long wait getting through the tunnel on his way back. The fears around whether Don was mic’d or no proved somewhat exaggerated, though not completely so. The microphone worked fine through most of Don’s talk but then turned […]
Week 8 Guest Speaker: Andy Moore
Andy Moore will be joining us as next week to talk about the future of games, the games industry and the role of “indy developers”. Andy is a programmer by trade (but a teacher at heart), and has helped game studios and other digital-media companies as a consultant, contractor, and specialist; focusing in the […]
$19,000 to play League of Legends.
I spotted this on my newsfeed this morning and jokingly sent it to my brother (an avid gamer who’ll hopefully be off to university in a couple of years). Robert Morris University has offered a huge scholarship (up to $19,000) for people to play League of Legends. A quick Google search told me that RMU’s […]
News of the Week; October 15, 2014
GAMES 1. What Is Gamergate, and Why Is Intel So Afraid of It? + ‘Massacre’ threat forces Anita Sarkeesian to cancel university talk + Brianna Wu is latest dev threatened and driven out of home + Gamergate’s vicious right-wing swell means there can be no neutral stance + “There is a literal war in this industry on women” – Wu […]
The Line Between Code and What You See
Don made a very interesting point in today’s talk about distinguishing who owns the rights to some computer code (the developers), versus who owns the rights to the actual look-and-feel / expression it creates (the studio). I just wanted to add that the line between the two is not always a clearly drawn line in the […]
Video-Blog News of the Week; October 8, 2014
This week “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” featuring “Shadow of Mordor”, what the military can learn from game marketing and President Erdogan of Turkey. Unfortunately no time for Lindsay Lohan and Manuel Noriega 😉 jon
Copyright law amendments for political advertising (& what that has to do with video game law)
This is an interview I gave to Andrew Chang of CBC News at 5 on Thursday, October 9, 2014. It is on the subject of possible (not yet proposed) amendments to the Copyright Act which would create a “fair dealing” exception in favour of political advertising. I basically go through the various reasons why […]
“The Next Frontier” – Canadian Lawyer, October 2014
You may notice a familiar face on the cover of this months Canadian lawyer magazine. This essentially came as a surprise as I gave an interview many months ago and had no idea whatsoever that I might end up on the cover of a magazine. It is particularly nice that video game law is identified […]
Week 6 – 10/8/14: “Frictions & Fictions: Ten Cases-Ten Clauses-Ten Contexts” & Mavis Dixon
Here are video and slides. jon
Week 7 Guest Speaker: Don McGowan of The Pokemon Company International
This week Don McGowan of the Pokemon Company International will be making the trek north from his home in Seattle to join us. Don will talk about video game contracts and turning IP into a franchise. Don is particularly well qualified on these subjects. He has, since August 2008, been the General Counsel of […]