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Copyrights, Videogames, and LAN Parties?

Posted by simoniker on from the mechanical-royalties-for-mr.quake dept.

mse61 writes "I'm currently the sole organizer for what will hopefully be a large gamer club/LAN party on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. While booking the room for our next event (March 4th 2004) I was casually informed that I had to secure permission from the copyright holders for the games we would be playing. I was quite confused as to why they needed this, and their only answer was that it would be considered a 'public showing of copyrighted work', and therefore I must secure permission. I asked a lawyer about the policy and his best advice was to get a hard copy of their policy and then comply to the bare minimum. The University was unable to provide much hardcopy, but largely referred me to the University rule that all State and Federal laws were in effect. Have any Slashdotters ever run into this problem, and would they have any advice for a gamer lost in the mire of copyright laws?"

6 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Actually... by gamgee5273 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I contacted the companies years ago when I organized a "LAN Day" sort of thing at Wayne State up in Detroit. It wasn't for clearance (nothing of that type was requested of me by the university) but all the companies I contacted responded and some even sent along doorprizes and gifts to be raffled off.

    Call the companies. If there are any public performance issues they're the best ones to tell you if you need clearance. I suspect you don't, but it's always possible that if there is a audience (let's say you have a large bracket tournament for the best Halo player at BG), that the company might want you to get clearance, dictate that no cameras be present, etc...

  2. Copyrights by atomic-penguin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our LUG has a monthly LAN party. We picked a LAN game that was easy enough for everyone in the group to afford: Unreal Game Of The Year -- Retail $10.00 at our local Wal-Mart. We temporarily store it on lab computers as necessary, and remove it after the game is over.

    We require everyone present to have a licensed copy to play. Most people bring in their own boxes, and each have their own copy.

    I suppose it depends on whether the players are using College property or their own personal property to play the game. It is in no way infringing for a group of people to bring in their own personal computer along with their own licensed copy of the game to have a gathering.

    Check the license agreement, for example you don't need a licensed "standalone" game server for Unreal Tournament. The standalone server is publicly licensed, because nobody is using it as a client.

    --
    /^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
  3. Re:Whoever told you that is an idiot by MMaestro · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Think about it this way. Ever been to a public lab? A public high school? A library? They all have computers, all running copies of Windows. Is that a "public performance"? No. As long as you have one license for each computer, you're in the clear.

    Actually a LAN party could be viewed as a "public performance" because of the broad defination of a LAN party. Theres primarily two types. Theres the 'bring your own computer' system or the cybercafe style of 'walk in, pay and play' system. In a broad defination both are LAN parties, the thing is it only applies for the latter. For the former, yeah you'd need one license for each computer (to be on the safe side.)

    It depends on how you view it. If you invited 20 friends over to your house to watch a DVD, yes that could be considered a "public showing". If you were some rich ass mofo and decided to buy 20 Alienware computer and run 20 copies of UT2k4, yes that could be considered to be a "public performance." (For both Alienware and Epic.)

    As for running Windows on multiple computers at a place like a library or a school, thats not really a fair statement. Some schools and libraries recieve the equipment (and software) for free (at the very least, discounted) so I'm sure theres some kind of special license agreements for them.

  4. Re:Yes I have by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had a similar idea a while back... the difference being that in mine it combined the "I'm not using it at the moment" idea with the "time shifting" idea. That is, you can use it for as long as I haven't used it. It's been a week or two since I've used it, so you should be good for well over two-hundred hours.

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  5. Re:Yes I have by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A computer person that doesn't know that both conditions must be met in an and statement? You should read it as "installed on one system" (Assuming you correctly copied the EULA.) If both machines had it installed you violated the licensing agreement.

    Not that I really mind.

  6. Commercial use or not? by RaymondInFinland · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I guess it all depends on the nature of your LAN party. Is it commercial orientated or just some 'geeks' getting together to play some games?

    For example, the product license agreement for my PS2 game Gun Grave reads:

    -snip-

    You Shall Not:
    Exploit this Program or its parts commercially, including, but not limited to use at a cybercafe, computer gaming centre or any other location-based site. Activision may offer a seperate Site License Agreement to permit you to make this Product available for commercial use

    -snip-

    I'm sure PC games have similair terms in the license agreements. It seems that as long as you are not commercially exploiting the games you should be in the clear. But as usual, IANAL.