Ripple Effects

     In the world of videogames, developers need to make they have all their legal bases covered. Since the dawn of the video game age, there have been countless court cases that deal with copyright or patent infringement.
Some cases see the big developers win, in others the smaller company or individual wins. Whatever the outcome of the case is it does have some effect on other areas of the videogame industry and not just the development world.

     One court case I found is of James Brown vs. Sony and EA Games over the use of his likeness in the popular Madden NFL games. James Brown, a Hall-Of-Famer that played in for the Cleveland Browns (jersey number 32), told the courts he never allowed the use of his likeness to be used in any videogame. He also argued that EA was using his likeness to endorse the game. However, it was found that the avatar that shared James Brown likeness was not identified and wore a different number. The court ruled in EA’s favor saying that the First Amendment protected EA’s right to use such an avatar in the game. It was Sony’s expression and was never identified as James Brown. Now, while this case did not directly deal with sound design, it does affect that part of videogames.

    A videogame developer can create a game where a game requires a unique car sound that only one vehicle makes. In turn,  the car manufacturer has engineered this car to produce said sound and has a copyright and patent on it. The developers get permission to use the car in the game but not the sound, due to its uniqueness. The developers go on to use a close reproduction of the sound in the game. Can the car manufacture go after the developer over the likeness of the sound? Will it fall under the First Amendment right of the developer? It would be an intriguing court case if it were ever to happen.

    Another case that got my attention was EA vs. Zynga. In this case EA claims that Zynga copied EA’s Sim Social game when Zynga created The Ville. Both games share a remarkable amount of likeness; however, The Ville only came out after Sims Social. Zynga countersued and called the lawsuit “baseless”. Eventually both EA and Zynga settled (which has not been disclosed) and both claims were closed and never to be reopened. It leads me to think on what the outcome would have been in this case. If Zynga won, this would of opened the doors for other companies to step in and create game clones (legally) with no fear of lawsuits. These clone games would have been able to recreate the sound effects of the games. Cloning the games could of cost both the original game developers and the sound design companies a lot of money. The cloned games might of taken out a share of the market that the original game was targeting.

    The last case I would like to write about is one that deals with Sony vs. Bissoon-Dath. Jonathan Bissoon-Dath is an author "of a series of related works of fiction, including Olympiad, a screenplay.” He has stated that, in 2002, he sent his work to Sony Pictures in an apparent attempt to have it produced into a movie. Fast forward to 2005, Sony’s God Of War video game came out in and was said to have taken 3 years to develop. Jonathan stated that the videogame shared many elements of his works. In essence, Jonathan Bissoon-Dath was saying that Sony took his fiction writings and used them as a base for the God Of War videogame. The courts said that Greek gods and their stories cannot be copyrighted. The outcome of the trial was that the court could not find any similarity between Jonathan’s fiction and God Of War and ruled in favor of Sony. This case can affect sound design in a somewhat similar manner. If I create some sound effects that somewhat common (like a ringing phone or doorbell) and market it to a studio. The studio does not want them, but a few years down the line I hear an extremely similar sound effect that is like those I shopped around. Would I be able to claim that those are a variation of mine? Will the courts see it as such a common sound that can be created by anyone? If I created such a sound effect, then it should be copyrightable.

    to help build my company and ensure its success.

These cases are just some that can affect sound designers directly and indirectly because their rulings. While they did not deal with sounds, they did have an impact in them. From these cases and their outcomes, I now have a better understanding on what I have to do in order to protect myself. I can go on confidently knowing that I have more tools