World of Warcraft - tricky for law firms
Law companies are starting to see the games industry as big money. Shaun Foust, a lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton (a company with clients such as Yahoo, Samsung and Guinness) says that games are starting to bring up dollar signs in law firms' eyes.
"For a long time, video games flew under the radar", said Foust, who runs a 20-man practice dedicated to the game industry. "That's no longer the case. The number of consumer class-action lawsuits filed against game companies has gone up pretty dramatically over the last three or four years. The pot [of] money is now big enough for plaintiffs attorneys to become interested."
He pointed to some of the aspects of video games that are unique to entertainment and software law and require a specialist approach. Highlighting MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Foust said. "Games aren't like software. People who play them feel a deep intimacy with the game. They feel very attached to the virtual items they acquire in the game through hundreds of hours of playing it. That presents some interesting twists in property law."
Suann MacIsaac, one of the heads of a games-dedicated practice at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger (which has represented Ubisoft, as well as the likes of Tom Cruise and Warren Beatty), pointed to game post-mortems that take place at the end of development. The notes of these critiques can be used in contract disputes. "It's something that's unique to the game industry", MacIsaac said. "Knowledge of how postmortems typically work in the development process can be critical to a case."
On this side of the pond, law firm Davenport Lyons has earned itself a spot of notoriety in its pursuit of games pirates. The firm has attracted criticism of its methods and recently lost Atari as a client after an embarrassing false accusation of a middle-aged Scottish couple.
However much you may loathe lawyers, however, it looks like we're set to see more of them.
Source: LA Times
"For a long time, video games flew under the radar", said Foust, who runs a 20-man practice dedicated to the game industry. "That's no longer the case. The number of consumer class-action lawsuits filed against game companies has gone up pretty dramatically over the last three or four years. The pot [of] money is now big enough for plaintiffs attorneys to become interested."
He pointed to some of the aspects of video games that are unique to entertainment and software law and require a specialist approach. Highlighting MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Foust said. "Games aren't like software. People who play them feel a deep intimacy with the game. They feel very attached to the virtual items they acquire in the game through hundreds of hours of playing it. That presents some interesting twists in property law."
Suann MacIsaac, one of the heads of a games-dedicated practice at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger (which has represented Ubisoft, as well as the likes of Tom Cruise and Warren Beatty), pointed to game post-mortems that take place at the end of development. The notes of these critiques can be used in contract disputes. "It's something that's unique to the game industry", MacIsaac said. "Knowledge of how postmortems typically work in the development process can be critical to a case."
On this side of the pond, law firm Davenport Lyons has earned itself a spot of notoriety in its pursuit of games pirates. The firm has attracted criticism of its methods and recently lost Atari as a client after an embarrassing false accusation of a middle-aged Scottish couple.
However much you may loathe lawyers, however, it looks like we're set to see more of them.
Source: LA Times
Games:
World of Warcraft
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Comments
ghoti 3 Dec 2008 15:02
1/2
The more that lawyers get involved in the games industry the worse it will be for all of us. For example, if we have one or two cases of post mortems instigating law suits, the result will be an end to published post mortems. Companies will become more secretive and we'll lose the benefit of sharing knowledge within the development sector.
Add to that the fact that the whole attraction to lawyers is that they see they can take a slice of the pie. That's another stream of revenue leaving the industry and either pushing up prices or dragging down quality.
Add to that the fact that the whole attraction to lawyers is that they see they can take a slice of the pie. That's another stream of revenue leaving the industry and either pushing up prices or dragging down quality.
Morecostbastards 3 Dec 2008 15:17
2/2
ghoti wrote:
The more that lawyers get involved in the games industry the worse it will be for all of us. For example, if we have one or two cases of post mortems instigating law suits, the result will be an end to published post mortems. Companies will become more secretive and we'll lose the benefit of sharing knowledge within the development sector.
Add to that the fact that the whole attraction to lawyers is that they see they can take a slice of the pie. That's another stream of revenue leaving the industry and either pushing up prices or dragging down quality.
Add to that the fact that the whole attraction to lawyers is that they see they can take a slice of the pie. That's another stream of revenue leaving the industry and either pushing up prices or dragging down quality.
I hate doing this, I really do. But I 100% agree with every single word of that. The only people who would even suggest using what should be open discussions leading to better games as negatives would be lawyers. The only people benefiting? Lawyers.
Another cost for no reason. It's as bad as having second assistant to the assistant producer's assistant.
Brilliant - hope it doesn't get to the UK... or Canada :-)