US hates on Chinese IP Enforcement, Nintendo Agrees

The US trade representative has filed for formal consultations with the Chinese government over there IP protection policies, or lack thereof. China is one of the worst offenders as far as respecting world IP rights, with little or no punishment for counterfeiters who largely escape punishment or even the closing down of their operations. Nintendo has identified China as the greatest exporter of infringed software and hardware, estimating losses to the industry of $762 million. China claims to be dismayed at this request for formal consultation, but I doubt anybody takes them seriously: they do practically nothing to stop piracy.

China...Piracy...No Way!

Nintendo points out that over 7.7 million infringing products have been seized from 300 factories over the past four years.

Ghost Rider Creator Sues T2, Marvel, Sony

Gary Friedrich, co-creator of Ghost Rider, is suing Take-Two, Marvel, Sony and a host of other for copyright infringement of his Ghost Rider character and his alter ego, Johnny Blaze. Friedrich claims that the copyrights in these characters reverted to him in the 2001, and that the named defendants undertook a long and extensive campaign, including movies, toys and video games that utilize his copyrights.

Ghost Free-Rider

With an estimated Box Office gross of $215 million, Mr. Friedrich stand to gain quite a bit.

Microsoft's 360 Ad Banned in the UK

Microsoft was forced to pull an ad from British TV after there were fears that the ad could encourage illegal street racing behavior. The ad featured two drivers weaving between traffic in pursuit of each other and culminates in one driver crashing. Despite the disclaimer at the bottom of the screen warning viewers not to try this at home and that the ad is a dramatisation, the UK Advertising Standards Agency banned the ad for glorifying street racing. Curiously, the ad is not for a specific game, but just for the Xbox 360.

MS's Street Racing Ad Banned

The ASA ruled that the advertisement breached health and safety and driving standards rules. So if a movie showed a car chase in its preview, would that be unacceptable? It is hard to see how an advertisement for a video game system could encourage driving violations - you'd think if a particular game encouraged this bad behavior then an advertisement could have the same effect, but that is not the case here. I wonder how important it was that the ad related to video games as opposed to some other area of entertainment. I doubt the ads for Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift got pulled.

Piano Hero Maker Sent Cease and Desist from Activision

Nicholas Piedgon, a programmer working for Halite studios, designed an open source software package called Piano Hero, a homage to guitar hero but free. Activision, being the super-cool dudes they are, immediately sent a cease and desist letter alleging trademark infringement and dilution. Mr. Piedgon complied with the letter immediately. The following link leads to the correspondence between the two parties.

Activision sues over Guitar Hero again

Is it just me, or does Activision occupy more than half of my blog entries? Talk about being concerned with the franchise IP. Still though, I want to play some piano hero. I bet it is more productive than guitar hero since it can actually teach useful music skills as opposed to GH's dumbed-down, albeit, more fun almost playing.

FBI to Investigate Second Life Gambling

Following the passage of a bill last year that prohibits online gambling, Linden Labs has invited the FBI into Second Life to figure out the propriety of virtual casinos that have popped up there. LL is unclear whether wagering in a virtual casino with virtual money, which can be converted to real money, is illegal under the new legislation.

FBI Investigates 2nd Life Casinos

I do not see why this would be any different than other online gambling. Usually the whole virtual currency things throws bureaucrats for a loop, but people gamble with virtual money all of the time: they're called chips.

No Criminal Charges Filed in Hold Your Wee for a Wii Contest Holders

Sacramento County has decided not to sue the radio station that held a water drinking contest for the Nintendo system and resulted in a contestant's, Jennifer Strange, death. The county concluded that the employees actions did not reach a requisite height of criminality; however, the employees did get fired. The family's lawyer said he was still planning to sue for the wrongful death of Mrs. Strange.

No Criminal Charges in Radio Contest

See Hold Your Wee for a Wii for a link to the news story.

Activision settles with former Guitar Hero Producers

Activision has settled its litigation against three former Guitar Hero producers. The suit alleged a whole host of IP infringements by the producers, including copyright infringement, trademark infringement, misappropriating trade secrets, breach of contract, etc.. Activision and the defendants agreed to a temporary injunction effectively prohibiting the producers from working on any rhythm-based video games for the next year.

Guitar Hero Producers suit settles

Given that these producers have teamed up with The Ant Commandoes, also a defendant in litigation involving Guitar Hero, it would seem that while this injunction is helpful, it will not effectively stop the producers from using whatever proprietary knowledge that Activision claims was improperly gained. Perhaps there was no impropriety...

See Guitar Hero Defectors Sued for a recap of the litigation when instituted