Tag Archives: Video Games

On Virtual Travel

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Jeremy Costin

Why would a denizen of a virtual world want to cross over into another virtual world, especially if she couldn’t bring her special powers, skills, or goods into that other world?  This was the question asked in a comment the … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Technology, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Laws for the Virtual Universe

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Jeremy Costin

What if virtual worlds, no matter their purposes, narratives, unique details, and other variations, could be linked? What if they had borders between them, keeping the right stuff in its place, but in other ways being permeable? Continue reading →

Posted in Information Technology, Legal Explorations, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

New ways of looking at video game IP

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

This is where we tread the line between copyright and patent – between creative work and invention – that has plagued software intellectual property protection for a very long time. The game bears enough in common with its paper-and-dice ancestors to merit some form of patent consideration; yet the invention here is in fact a platform for storytelling – a tool to inspire and facilitate the creation of content by its users. Continue reading →

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Software IP and Games – which model applies?

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

At the moment, video games, because they are software, are covered by copyright.  But traditionally, games were covered by patent. Hmm.  I’ve argued before that software should be sui generis, governed by a hybrid model of patent and copyright: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments