Slashdot Mirror
LittleBigPlanet Creations Raising Copyright Questions
Joystiq's Law of the Game column uses the recently released LittleBigPlanet to address the question of intellectual property rights for user-created content within and for games. At this point, Sony's ToS claims a great deal of control over users' work, unlike Second Life's, which is much more permissive. GiantBomb has a related story pointing out creations within LittleBigPlanet that are copies of other games, and how they could lead to legal troubles for Sony if they aren't quick about taking them down.
They could just say 'anything you do here is your own responsibility' and leave it at that.
If they were stupid enough to allow claims of copyright or copyright infringement in their game it'll die like a jolly fast dying thing, of death.
I mean seriously.. its a game...
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head there. The only thing really new in this whole thing is that Sony is claiming ownership of their users' creations - something that even Microsoft wouldn't attempt. If Sony hadn't claimed ownership, there would be no issue.
I mean, really, PCs have had user-created content for ages. And by ages, I mean "since the start of the PC," since I recall using a level editor to create new content for a simple sidescroller 20 years ago on the PC. Level editors? Not new.
PC game publishers have never had an issue with user-created content. If the user creates it and it infringes, that's their problem, not the publisher or developer or anyone involved in the original game.
The only new thing that Sony brings to the table with LittleBigPlanet is their restrictive license where they claim ownership of your creations. Otherwise LittleBigPlanet is just a generic sidescroller with lousy jumping controls and the world's creepiest avatars.
Sidescrollers with level editors have been done before. It's just that no one before Sony was stupid enough to claim ownership of content that users created, so this issue has never existed before.
Sony's dumb license, Sony's dumb problem. End of story.
So by Sony's logic, if I fire up Microsoft Word and write a document, then Microsoft owns the copyright to my creation?
I fail to see the difference between this game and a word processor.
"And then I visited Wikipedia
Actually, that's standard verbage and would be far more acceptable than claiming ownership.
EA's EULA simply says that you are giving them permission to use your work. Sony's is actually claiming your work is theirs.
The difference is, with EA you still own your work and theoretically could do whatever else you wanted with it.
The modding toolkits that come with PC games usually contain clauses that say the PC game developer or publisher owns the rights to all content created with the mod toolkits. UnrealED is a great example of this.
Defending Sony? You're damn right I'm posting AC! Now as I understand it Sony is making two claims of relevance here:
1. You may not sell your content without our permission.
2. We may sell your content without paying you.
Both of these provisions have pretty reasonable justifications in affording Sony legal protection in the event of two types of inevitable situations.
1. You create something that violates copyright with their software, sell it on their network, and turn a profit. In doing so Sony is also turning a profit from whatever cut they take of your income, exposing them to the legal consequences of your copyright violation. Their first provision allows them to prevent this without having to argue with you or waiting for a DMCA takedown. Furthermore it allows them to block you from distributing anything they find objectionable or subversive to the spirit of their community; which they have a right to do.
2. Suppose you create a wildly popular level and sell it. Then you quit the game, and sell your copy. Your content is still on the PSN store, still making money for Sony. The second assertion prevents you from coming back in 5 years after your abandoned mod has sold a million copies and trying to sue Sony for money due you, the creator. One could argue that they really do owe it to you, but from the standpoint of a large corporation trying to protect its shareholders from the million potential litigants it hopes to sell its software too; its not an unreasonable move.
On their face, neither of these stipulations indicates that Sony intends to prevent you specifically from selling anything, or intends to withhold your fair share of the market price. It just allows them to do so on a case by case basis if, for example, you're making a nuisance of yourself legally or otherwise.
Though it bears mentioning that thinking Sony is seriously considering allowing you to profit off your content in any real way, when they could just as easily pocket all the cash themselves, is pushing my powers of infernal advocacy to their breaking point.