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Legality of Renting Video Games?
Scott McChesney asks: "Where I live seems to be filled with Gamers but there are almost no places that rent console games. This got me thinking about opening one of my own but I have no clue about the licensing of such a thing. X-Box games all say on the back that buying the game does not give you the ability to rent it. I'm wondering what one has to do to be able to legally rent out video games?"
You have to strike deals with game producers and distributors, probably giving them some portion of the rental fees collected.
P.S. Blockbuster rents games, don't you have a blockbuster nearby?
Nope. I spent well over 2 years in a blockbuster and we got all of our games for well below (about $20 less) retail from a company named Waxworks. As far as paying a fee to the production companies I know of only one license fee paid and that was to Blockbuster itself for the store trademark.
I'm unsure and someone will be able to probably correct me but I seem to remember a court case in the 80s regarding rental of copyrighted material.
I hope you die painfully and alone.
17 USC 109(a) permits the owner of a copy of a copyrighted work to use or dispose of that copy as they like, including renting it. Subsection (b)(1)(A) makes an exception for computer software and sound recordings, but subsection (b)(1)(B)(ii) points out that (b)(1)(A) is not applicable to software used for a limited purpose computer designed for playing video games.
So, provided that the owner of the particular game cartridge or disc wants to rent it out, and provided that it is for a console and not a general purpose computer, you can just go ahead and do it.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Funny thing was, cliff took the time to personally respond. I'd paste the message in this post, but I deleted it from the inbox.
Video game rental is a big issue for me because I'm in the process of opening up a gamehouse right now. Most game companies, with the exception of Bioware and Epic have just plain greedy licensing schemes that eat up any profit a game house owner might see.
Here are my thoughts on this issue, posted on the story about the price of commander keen. My argument against these licensing fee's go along the following..
Capcom, Atari, ect all provided more than just a cabinet when they sold you a game. You got a cabinet (physical security) Coin Mech (money validator) Access software (credits) Input Device (Joystick, buttons) Service contracts, monitor, and the game. Usually it was anywhere between a 50/50 to a 25/75 split for the quarters between the cabinet owner and the person that owned the property.
Now with a gamehouse, I'm providing those first 6 items, while the game company only provides the game. After looking at paying off employee's, loans, and a lease, these fee's are going to be eating up enough of my profits to where me, the owner is going to be lucky to break even at the end of the month. On top of all that I have a machine that needs to be replaced every 2-3 years to stay current with the CPL standard so I can host CPL qualifyers at my place.
Companies like Id, Activision, well, everyone except bioware/epic all expect a cut out of your gross profits. I could see them asking for a cut from the net, but the gross? That's just greed. No value added services, no special gamehouse edition, nothing.
I took some time out to write Mark Rein of Epic, to thank him for his companies license free policy. Following is his response.
Toqer,
We've had this policy for a long time. Basically if people play the game at your location they might be encouraged to buy their own copy for home and to tell their friends about it. We feel it's a win-win for both sides. The only think we ask in return is that you legally purchase, and keep on hand at all times, a copy of UT2003 for each machine the game is being played on.
As for images, you're welcome to use screen shots you create for the purpose of positive promotion of our game in your establishment.
Good luck!
Mark Rein
Epic Games Inc.
How fucking cool is that? Not only do they let you rent it as long as you buy a legal retail copy without fee's, they're more than happy to let me use their images/logo's screenshots for my centers motif.
Bottom line is, these licensing fee's suck. Ford doesn't charge me for making money on a truck after I purchase it, and neither should game companies. It's unfortunate that for some games (counterstrike) i'll have to pay these fee's if I want to carry the games that will draw the customers. What makes it even less fair, is I plan on playing by the rules, and there are many many other gamehouses that completely skip out on these fee's. I would love to challenge them in court, but as a startup, i'm in no position to do so.
The Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 17 USC 101 is the law that was passed that you are referring to
r e. Rental.html
http://www.cni.org/docs/infopols/US.Comp.Softwa
Basically Nintendo and others lobbied to get a law passed outlawing rentals, but a clause in the act allows game cartridgte rentals for consoles, but outlawed computer software rentals.
"(B) This subsection does not apply to--
"(ii) a computer program embodied in or used in conjunction with a limited purpose computer that is designed for playing video games and may be designed for other purposes
I know that the local video store in my town used to rent computer games as well as console games in the 80s, but dropped the computer games after the act was passed.