hunterx11 is exactly right. The 14th Amendment makes the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution) applicable to the states. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor to deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." (emphasis added)
Regarding repetition, it would be interesting to see where these ads are placed. For example, would a potential advertiser pay more for placement near a particularly difficult task that a player may have to repeat a number of times? Going further, would in-game elements and tasks possibly be modified solely to increase ad visibility?
On the contrary, this is a smart move by Be and there will probably be more suits like this.
Recovery of money could be a benefit of a suit like this, but Be simply could not have brought such a suit before now. Be could not finance a long, drawn-out battle with Microsoft to establish Microsoft's abusive monopolistic practices.
The reason Be and other companies will now sue is that Microsoft has already been found by a federal court to have abused its monopoly power, which was a big issue in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
The Feds have done the hard work and now all Be has to do is show how that abuse harmed it.
Abandonment of a copyright and not manufacturing the console are two completely different things.
For abandonment of a copyright to occur, the copyright owner must intend to surrender all rights to the work, in most cases by an overt act.
No longer manufacturing a console has nothing to do with the IP rights in a particular game.
The fact is, once a game has been created (an original work of authorship) and burned to a ROM (fixed in a tangible medium) it is entitled to copyright protection, in most cases for the life of the author plus 70 years.
Slashdot Mirror
hunterx11 is exactly right. The 14th Amendment makes the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution) applicable to the states. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor to deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." (emphasis added)
Regarding repetition, it would be interesting to see where these ads are placed. For example, would a potential advertiser pay more for placement near a particularly difficult task that a player may have to repeat a number of times? Going further, would in-game elements and tasks possibly be modified solely to increase ad visibility?
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-820227.html
Recovery of money could be a benefit of a suit like this, but Be simply could not have brought such a suit before now. Be could not finance a long, drawn-out battle with Microsoft to establish Microsoft's abusive monopolistic practices.
The reason Be and other companies will now sue is that Microsoft has already been found by a federal court to have abused its monopoly power, which was a big issue in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
The Feds have done the hard work and now all Be has to do is show how that abuse harmed it.
Abandonment of a copyright and not manufacturing the console are two completely different things. For abandonment of a copyright to occur, the copyright owner must intend to surrender all rights to the work, in most cases by an overt act. No longer manufacturing a console has nothing to do with the IP rights in a particular game. The fact is, once a game has been created (an original work of authorship) and burned to a ROM (fixed in a tangible medium) it is entitled to copyright protection, in most cases for the life of the author plus 70 years.