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EULAs and TOS as Adhesionary Contracts
As I understand, EULAs and TOS are a type of adhesionary contracts. The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University defines an adhesionary contract as “a standard form contract drafted by one party (usually a business with stronger bargaining power) and signed by the weaker party (usually a consumer in need of goods or services), who must adhere to […]
Why is law so slow to change in relation to technology?
My immediate reaction when this question was asked last week and this week was “because law is slow to change in relation to most things.” For example, last Friday (the 18th) was Persons Day, the 85th anniversary of the Persons Case. Sure took a while for that (now obvious and self-evident to most, I hope) […]
Video-Blog News of the Week; October 15, 2014
This week the connections between cognitive dissonance, journalism and murderous misogyny. jon
Proving the point?
Check out this story from techdirt: Nintendo Bricks Wii U Consoles Unless Owners Agree To New EULA Thanks to Nintendo for their spectacular though inadvertent timing in supporting our course curriculum. Many of the arguments against contractual overreaching through […]
$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 […]
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 […]
Jane McGonigal, Post-Structuralism, and Speedruns
Before the course started, I had begun reading the book “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal. In this book, McGonigal presents the same four necessary components of a “game” that our guest speaker, Mavis Dixon, gave during her talk today: A goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation. Both also quote Bernard Suits, who […]
8-Bit Philosophy
I think this would be a pretty interesting thing for the class to play “spot the intellectual property issues” with, particularly as it pertains to fair dealing and the s.29.21 of the copyright act. http://www.8bitphilosophy.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3eOb6Yl1s How would the IP issues change if the authors looked to gain revenue for their creations, even indirectly?