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when gamers go to court

Just read this opinion for my Copyright class:

“Duke Nukem routinely vanquishes Octabrain and the Protozoid Slimer. But what about the dreaded Micro Star?

FormGen [and their counterparts] made, distributed and own the rights to Duke Nukem 3D (D/N-3D), an immensely popular (and very cool) computer game.”

And later in a footnote:

“If another game could use the [infringed material] to tell the story of a mousy fellow who travels through a beige maze, killing vicious saltshakers with paper-clips, then the [infringed material] would not incorporate the protected expression of D/N-3D because they would not be telling a D/N-3D story.”

Micro Star v. Formgen, 154. F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) (emphasis added)

This judge must have a 15-year-old kid who will one day get a degree in something computer-related, start a website named after a goofy song, and then go to law school. Or, as my textbook points out, this judge reviews new games for Microsoft’s e-zine Slate and writes similar articles for other periodicals as well. Go figure.

Comments (4)

swandive00:

yes. (no...[shakes head sadly])

p-man:

URL: http://
steve - do speed and it'll make more sense. sd - hey, that rhymes. was that on purpose?

URL: http://stevehouchin.blogspot.com
This is much better. It doesn't sound at all like a speed-freak. Duke Nukem and the like give me motion sickness. I can't play them.

swandive00:

just keep doing the things a particle can, p-man...

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