First blog post back at school and we're already hitting on some serious material. This week we focused on how we can legally protect what we do online through the use of copyrights, patents and trade secrets. For this blog posts however I will be going in depth on the patenting process; What it does to help us and how it can go wrong.
First, how can patents help us. Well at a basic level they protect our ideas. Trademarks and copyrights can go a long ways toward protecting our physical products but one important commodity in the game design industry is ideas. This is where things get tricky. Unfortunately while copyrights can keep people from pirating our work there is nothing in a copyright that protects the ideas and techniques that go into creating a masterpiece. This job is left up to patents which allow you to have exclusive use of an idea for up to 20 years after its filing. (by US regulations after or on June 8, 1995) This means you can sue cheaters who use your design ideas for crappy rip offs, like what happened between Pac-Man and Piranha. But, where do patents go wrong? When large companies use patents to stifle the creativity of small companies they start to lose their point. In Magnavox v. Atari (1975) Magnavox sued Atari's Pong even though Atari's idea for Pong predated Magnavox's patent. That is unfair. It is a shining example of how patents, while a lovely idea, favor large companies and corporations. This ultimately stifles the creativity of any who doe not have a large sum of money to fight off it's potential competitors. The fact that patents can reserve ideas allows large companies to collect them like cards. They don't need to use them. In fact many patents spend their whole lives in some corporations closet waiting to be pulled out when the company wants to sue a competitor. Is this really what we want to help improve the quality of American goods. No. The answer is no; these restrictions can only serve the people who can pay for them and solidify the capitalist aristocracy. An aristocracy who has no interest in going anywhere since they are already on top. So, what is a perfect patent system. A system that allows people to make money off they're original ideas, but at the same time allows those ideas to be expanded upon and improved. There are a plethora of steps the system can take toward achieving this goal: shorter patent lifespans, more extensive regulations regarding how much one person can patent, stricter regulations regarding what even can be patented. No matter the form. Change is needed.
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Copyright is the legal protection of "original works of authorship". Examples of it is all around us; books, pictures even building designs are legally protected by copyrights. Today many copyrighted items are digital and easily pirated. We also see examples of this all around us in copies of programs or songs shared shared between friends. Even though sometimes these rules can feel excessive and unfair, after seeing it from the developer's view I have now developed a soft spot for the rights of the creators. It seems that according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 if anyone violates a copyrighted work the author can easily sue the person who illegally used his work and get a hefty compensation. However many times this is not true as it could hurt the author and his company if any digital community finds out about it and thinks it's unfair. This has happened to many big companies such as Nintindo and could happen even more easily to a small Indie company.
So how can you protect yourself from infringement and piracy? A good place to start is to consult with a lawyer who can help you decide whether or not to pursue the issue in court. On youtube you can use copyright strikes and Content ID to find and take down illegal videos. Copyrights are all around us and with that come infringement. Copyrights protect our products and make sure game creators can make a profit off of their games if they choose. But with that comes the responsibility to up hold those laws and make sure that piracy does not go unpunished for the sake of the people who worked hard to create an awesome game to play, or program to use. |
AuthorSamuel Henry is a Senior at DSA in NC. He has 3 years of prior experience in the game design pathway and he's looking forward to becoming a great game designer. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools Categories
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