Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A gamers take on the practicalities of moral rights and fair use

Ahh, the synchronicity of interests. I read a lot of Birmo's books, and his blog.  From this, I have run into some other great bloggers, many of whom feature on my blogroll now. One of them is law professor Paul Nicholas Boylan. He has just reposted a great article of his from a faded online law journal.

He said it was quite dry, but I found it interesting withing the context of better understanding the interaction between artists and companies from Europe, the Commonwealth, and the United States.

The internet is full of bush lawyers with all sorts of unproven and untested opinions. They comment on letters of demand to close down web sites, they comment on what they perceive as "draconian" restrictions of free expression, and sometimes the companies seem to work at directly opposition to the expansion of their companies.

The thing I most enjoyed about Paul's article is that it included a lot of plain, clear talk about the law, and the very principles on which the law is based, and the different jurisdictions.

One company I follow very closely is Games Workshop, being a big fan of their games and miniatures lines. They are an English company. After reading the article, I have a great understanding of the complexities of the issue, and more empathy towards those who have to make the decisions about IP for that company.

Well worth a read, and thanks Paul!

4 comments:

Kelvin said...

Sure GW has a right to defend their IP (and I'm all for them doing it) but the bully-boy tactics they use sometimes beggars belief. In many cases I'm sure they could use a more customer-friendly approach to IP issues that would allow them to keep their IP intact while keeping customers on their side.

Anonymous said...

The compliment you pay me here stuns me a bit. I really don't know what to say. Thank you.

Ysambart said...

Anytime! Thank you. With the games we play to such a fanatical level, one of the 'mysteries' is the decisions taken 'due to legal advice'. You have helped it become a bit less of a 'black box' where demands and desires go in, and a mysterious, irrefutable answer comes out.

Ysambart said...

Kel - yeah, the tactics are draconian, but Paul's article helps me follow some of the 'why', without multiple years studying law :)