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Mario Pirate Agrees to Pay $1.3 Million
According to a report Tuesday in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, a man has agreed to pay Nintendo 1.5 million Australian dollars (or $1.3 million) for loss of sales revenue after he allegedly illegally copied and uploaded to the Web the New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii prior to the game’s Australian release last year.
Read the story here.
Chess Master Faces Life in Prison
About two months after his capture in the Central American country of Belize, former fugitive, convicted sex offender and chess master Robert Snyder — author of the “Chess for Juniors” series — faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison after entering a guilty plea Friday.
Read the story here.
Dungeons & Dragons Prison Ban Upheld
In an opinion issued on Monday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected the claims in a lawsuit challenging a ban on the game Dungeons & Dragons by the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
The suit was brought by a prisoner, Kevin T. Singer, who argued that his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights were violated by the prison’s decision to ban the game and confiscate his books and other materials, including a 96-page handwritten manuscript he had created for the game.
Read the story here.
Settlement in Dispute that Riveted the Chess World
A legal dispute that had riveted the chess world and hobbled the United States Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, has been settled — mostly.
Papers filed on Friday in Federal District Court in Lubbock, Tex., stipulate that two former federation board members, the federation and some of its other members are dismissing almost all of their claims and counterclaims. The dispute began with accusations over Internet postings and evolved into a series of lawsuits in several states.
Read the story here.
Analysis: Clone Games & Fan Games — Legal Issues
There are a few misconceptions in the indie development community concerning the definition and legality of clone games. Some take it as given that a legal clone can be a fan game, including many of the same visual and sound elements as the original.
Others believe that because some game companies don’t enforce their IP rights against fan game developers, all fan games must be legal. Some may even believe that a game is simple and general enough to not warrant IP protection. This entry is designed to dispel some of the confusion and inaccuracy surrounding clone games and fan games.