€10 million fine removed.
Continue reading “Dutch Court: EA Didn’t Violate Gambling Law”
Tag: Law
Tencent Sues Account Rental Service
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NCSoft Files New Trademark For City of Heroes
It has been more than eight years since NCSoft shutdown City of Heroes and unsurprisingly there are still a lot of people who haven’t quite forgiven the developer for its transgressions. As MMO Culture noted this week however, it looks like NCSoft has filed new trademark applications for the City of Heroes brand. Could this mean something new on the horizon for City of Heroes?
Our guess? It might have something to do with the rogue server negotiations that have been going on for some time now. It might also be related to the fact that NCSoft’s trademarks for City of Heroes have all died. The prior trademarks for City of Heroes, Going Rogue, Freedom, etc, have been listed as abandoned for several years now. You see, in order to keep a trademark going you have to show that it is still in active use; a reason to be protecting it.
Since NCSoft has had no interest in the City of Heroes name for nearly a decade now, their lawyer never bothered submitted a notice of continued use. Once a trademark is knocked off for lack of notice, it is unrevivable. You want it back, you’ll need to file a new application. So why does NCSoft suddenly want the trademark back? It could be that they just didn’t notice it had expired, it could be that they are protecting their interest in the names as part of the negotiations with the rogue server teams.
It could just NCSoft wanting to collect its toys so nobody else can play with them. We will have to wait and see.
Source: Trademarkia via MMO Culture
Japan Criminalizes Editing Save Games, Punishable With Jail Time And Fines
Today’s news comes to us from Japan, and if you thought the recent Korean law criminalizing paid boosting was an overreach, just wait until you see this.
Japanese lawmakers passed an amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention law that makes the modification of save game data illegal within the country. The law not only effects services that create tools to modify game saves but allegedly also includes individuals who make the modifications on their own games.
Guilty parties may be punished with forced payments to the game developer, as well as prison time of no more than five years and fines of no more than 5 million yen, possibly both.
Nintendo appears to be behind this new legislation.
Source: NintendoSoup
Electronic Arts Gambles On Loot Boxes, Now Under Criminal Investigation
Loot boxes in 2018 are a multi-million dollar business, and Electronic Arts loves loot boxes so much that it is willing to potentially perform criminal acts in order to keep that sweet cash flowing. Such is the case in Belgium, where the Brussel’s public prosecutor’s office has officially opened a criminal investigation into Electronic Arts over allegations that the company is violating the law against gambling.
Earlier this year, Belgium’s Gaming Commission found several games to be in violation of its anti-gambling laws. EA doesn’t agree, and has simply refused to comply with orders to remove the offending purchases.
“We don’t believe that FIFA Ultimate Team or loot boxes are gambling firstly because players always receive a specified number of items in each pack, and secondly we don’t provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items or virtual currency for real money,” said CEO Andrew Wilson.
(Source: PC Gamer)
IPE News: VIolating A Terms of Service Is Still Not A Crime
Good news, internet-goers, violating a website’s terms of service isn’t a crime. It hasn’t been for years, but a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has gone to solidify and embolden that ruling.
In this case, Oracle USA sued Rimini Street Inc in Nevada District Court over allegations of misuse of their website violating established terms of service. Rimini was brought into court over their use of automated programs downloading support materials from Oracle’s website, which is against the company’s terms of service. Oracle sent a cease and desist, but did not restrict access to said files, and eventually filed suit. The judge ruled in favor of Oracle, stating that violating the terms of service constituted a breach of state computer crime statues.
Rimini appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit who overturned the lower judge’s decision, noting that Oracle prohibiting certain methods of collecting material does not constitute a violation if the material is already readily available. In short, it’s not illegal just because the website owner doesn’t like your methods.
More analysis can be found on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website piece linked below.
(Source: EFF.org)
MMO Fallout 