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Judge Rules Games Are "Expressive Works"
There has been an ongoing legal battle over the past few years about how and when game makers can use the likenesses of football players without their permission. Former college football player Samuel Keller filed a class action suit in May against Electronic Arts for the publisher's use of NCAA players' information — including things like jersey number, height, weight, skin tone and hair style, but not names — to recreate actual teams within sports games. An earlier suit filed by NFL Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown brought up the fact that video games weren't even a consideration when contracts and licensing rights were negotiated in the '50s and '60s, yet many football players from that era (including Brown) are represented in the occasional sports game whether they like it or not. A ruling came down from a district court judge last Wednesday stating that video games are "expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment," and are thus protected under the First Amendment. Brown and fellow Hall-of-Famer Herb Adderley are now seeking to throw their support behind Keller's lawsuit.
Of course they are.
Its sad when we all applaud a judge actually making a good ruling. Shouldn't that simply be the assumed state of all rulings?
It's a very rare player that has rights to their own name, image, and likeness. For the most part, when you sign your contract with the NCAA and professional leagues you must turn over those rights to the league. This gives them the ability to license that data for things like games.
Whether the games are expressive works or not, the rights to those likenesses should lie with the leagues, not the players.
...does this mean I can create my own football game using the likeness/names of the players without having to license the information? (
Facts and figures cannot be copyrighted. And how can public information be abused? They just want money.
While I don't think an EA football title is the perfect example of artistic expression... it is nice to know that the supreme court is finally giving artists of the digital age their due. There's a reason game design and computer graphics is always filed in a colleges Art's and Sciences program. It's because these fields are the best of both worlds. We might be nerdy but don't forget the art part
Now I can submit my Michael Vick Dog Fighting game to the app store.
Ronald Katz, the lawyer representing Adderley and Brown, wrote in a filing Monday that allowing EA Sports to profit from the use of athletes' likenesses without their permission means "EA could use for free the identity of thousands of present and former collegiate and professional athletes, eliminating any legal reasons for EA to continue any licensing, and giving it a windfall worth hundreds of millions of dollars."
So if this stands, anyone else could produce their own sports titles to compete with EA? Sounds good. I suppose EA feels that the end of licensing fees will be more of a boon than any competition they face.
... if a game was created that had the faces and bodies of various judges (this judge in particular) and politicians and played like GTA complete with hookers and drug use I don't think that said figures would care very much about the first amendment. What if a game about hookers was created with a character that looked like the judges wife? Would he care as much then?
Users... the only thing keeping 1st level support from being the bottom feeders.
The video game company is trading on the likeness of a person. This isn't a painting in a gallery, it is software sold by the millions around the globe, with millions in profit involved.
Personally, I think the obvious ruling here is that you can't put someone's likeness in a game without their consent.
That said, I don't NECESSARILY agree that stats and a hairstyle constitute a likeness.
paintball
In this corner, wearing the blue and yellow trunks, weighing in at 800 pounds, he's pure gorilla madness, we have -- Big Copyright!
And in this corner, wearing the green and pink trunks, weighing in at 800 points, he's the thrilla gorilla, we have -- Big Copyright!
Alright gentleman (and I use that term loosely), I want a dirty fight, with obscure legal references, wildly out of control laws, and frequent appeals to artistic freedom, the rights of the performer, and the advance of the useful arts when you really mean "money." We're also going to expect at least $1 million to go to lawyers on each side, and another $1 million each in extra campaign contributions this year. When you hear the bell ring, come out and start working the groin!
Let's get readyyyyyyyyy to rummmmmmbullllll. (am I going to get sued for typing that?)
Having purchased laws sufficient for them to eat their customers and finding their appetite still unsated, big copyright is now using its own laws against itself. There have been a few stories like this recently. That is so awesome. Mmmmm, mmmm, how does chewing on your own leg taste, buddy? Sure am happy to see that your laws are so strict, and your arrogant contempt has grown so complete, that you have actually started hating yourself. Have fun knuckleheads -- I'll be over here watching user generated content.
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If you see a painting and your only reaction is "oh, that's pretty" it's probably NOT art. If it takes your breath away and makes you say "WOW!" it is art.
No, that's the difference between good art and banal art. NOT the difference between art and not-art.
I heard a definition of art the other day that really seemd insightful (I studied art in college).
That's nice. Lots of people have studied art in college, and actually create art, and have a much broader and less elitist view of the definition of art.
Personally, I like Scott McCloud's definition of art: Everything that isn't directly and solely related to the base acts of survival and reproduction is art.
And a friend of mine, who is a professional artist, gets offended when I tell him that definition because in his view, the act of human reproduction is inseparable from art. His definition is even more expansive than McCloud's.
But hey, you studied art in school and thus can tell what is and isn't art based on how good it is. Tell me, by your own definition of art, have you ever created any? And does your answer imply that you are qualified to judge or not?
The enemies of Democracy are