Let’s Play: A Walkthrough of Quarter-Century-Old Copyright Precedent as Applied to Modern Video Games

Looking to the copyright protection over the audiovisual displays of video games, current precedent—created by extensive litigation in the 1980s over early arcade games—may be a round hole into which the square peg of today’s highly complex video games would have difficulty fitting. This is an issue that has increasing importance as the market for the passive consumption of video game audiovisual displays through tournament streams, walk-throughs, etc., continues to balloon. If courts were to apply precedent from litigation in the 1980s to video games as they exist today, the idea that copyright protection automatically attaches to any and all audiovisual displays generated by a game may not hold true. It is uncertain to what extent the reasoning in early arcade game litigation regarding the issues of authorship, the idea/expression dichotomy, and fixation would yield similar holdings. Moreover, it appears similarly uncertain to what extent a retreat from earlier precedent may impact publishers’ rights in downstream uses of audiovisual displays. Even if potential defendants prevailed under either an idea/expression dichotomy theory or a fixation theory—meaning the copyright does not attach to audiovisuals at the outset—later-fixed audiovisuals may still be protectable. The strongest argument potential defendants have, therefore, is that their interaction with the game precludes copyrightability for the audiovisual displays due to a lack of “original authorship” on the part of the publishers

Spectacular horizons: the birth of science fiction film, television, and radio, 1900-1959

&nbsp;<br /

Let’s Play: A Walkthrough of Quarter-Century-Old Copyright Precedent as Applied to Modern Video Games

Looking to the copyright protection over the audiovisual displays of video games, current precedent—created by extensive litigation in the 1980s over early arcade games—may be a round hole into which the square peg of today’s highly complex video games would have difficulty fitting. This is an issue that has increasing importance as the market for the passive consumption of video game audiovisual displays through tournament streams, walk-throughs, etc., continues to balloon. If courts were to apply precedent from litigation in the 1980s to video games as they exist today, the idea that copyright protection automatically attaches to any and all audiovisual displays generated by a game may not hold true. It is uncertain to what extent the reasoning in early arcade game litigation regarding the issues of authorship, the idea/expression dichotomy, and fixation would yield similar holdings. Moreover, it appears similarly uncertain to what extent a retreat from earlier precedent may impact publishers’ rights in downstream uses of audiovisual displays. Even if potential defendants prevailed under either an idea/expression dichotomy theory or a fixation theory—meaning the copyright does not attach to audiovisuals at the outset—later-fixed audiovisuals may still be protectable. The strongest argument potential defendants have, therefore, is that their interaction with the game precludes copyrightability for the audiovisual displays due to a lack of “original authorship” on the part of the publishers

Grid integrated distributed PV (GridPV).

This manual provides the documentation of the MATLAB toolbox of functions for using OpenDSS to simulate the impact of solar energy on the distribution system. The majority of the functions are useful for interfacing OpenDSS and MATLAB, and they are of generic use for commanding OpenDSS from MATLAB and retrieving information from simulations. A set of functions is also included for modeling PV plant output and setting up the PV plant in the OpenDSS simulation. The toolbox contains functions for modeling the OpenDSS distribution feeder on satellite images with GPS coordinates. Finally, example simulations functions are included to show potential uses of the toolbox functions. Each function in the toolbox is documented with the function use syntax, full description, function input list, function output list, example use, and example output

Lessons Learned From A Pressure Gain Combustion Device Test Facility Buildup And Commissioning

Lessons learned during the design, buildup, and use of a test facility for a pressure gain combustion engine are presented. The design of the facility is described including specific hardware selections and special safety considerations related to using hydrogen and oxygen gases. Difficulties with hardware cleaned for oxygen service are described along with mitigating techniques. The iterative improvement of key facility systems, such as feedback-controlled flow control valves, ignitor, and ion probe measurements are described in detail. Complications related to the implementation of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) optical diagnostics are discussed

Inventing new worlds: The age of manifestos and utopias

No abstract available