Authorship and Moral Rights in Video Games
Abstract
The complex and multimedia nature of video games results in several original and derivative works of copyright contained in a single game. Although there is no need to establish a new category of work and the current state of law offers comprehensive protection of the works, it also means there can be many different authors in a single production, so assignment of rights can be difficult.
This interrelation of works and their respective authors can also have a negative effect on authors' moral rights, or, more specifically, the right to claim authorship and the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work.
This article analyses the current law of the United Kingdom with regard to authorship and ownership of copyright in video games and underlying works before analysing and evaluating the moral rights of video games' contributors.
References
Cornish, W. (1989), Moral Rights Under the 19888 Act, European Intellectual Property Review, 11(12), 449-452.
Davies, G. and Garnett, K. (2010), Moral Rights. London.
Doi, T. (2001), Japanese Cpyright Law in the 21st Century. Dobbs Ferry.
Garnett, K. and Harbottle, G. (eds.) (2010), Copinger and Skone James on Copyright (16th ed.). London.
Grosheide, F. W., Roerdink, H and Thomas, K. (2014), Intellectual Protection for Video Games, Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology, 9(1), 1-13.
Intellectual Property Office (2009), © The Way Ahead: A Copyright Strategy for the Digital Age. Retrieved from http://webarchive. nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140603093549/http://www.ipo.gov.uk/c-strategy-digitalage.pdf
Lyon, A., (2014) A European Invasion: The effect of Infopaq on the 'labour, skill and judgement' criterion of originality within UK Copyright law, The Student Journal of Law. Retrieved from http://www.sjol.co.uk/issue-6/a-european-invasion-the-effect-of-infopaq-on-the-labour-skill-and-judgement-criterion-of-originality-within-uk-copyright-law
McLaughlin, M., (2013) New GTA V releases tipped to rake in £1bn in sales. Retrieved from http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/technology/new-gta-v-release-tipped-to-rake-in-1bn-in-sales-1-3081943
Parliament (1987), Hansard, House of Lord Debates, 5th series, Vol. 491. London.
Ramos, A., López, L., Rodríguez, A., Meng, T. and Abrams, S. (2013) The Legal Status of Video Games.
Retrieved from http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/copyright/en/creative_industries/pdf/video_games.pdf
Stein, J. (2015) The Legal Nature of Video Games – Adapting Copyright Law to Multimedia, Press Start, 2(1), 43-55.
Sundara Rajan, M. (2011), Moral Rights. Oxford.
Tessensohn, J. (2000), Mishima and the Virtual Sweetheart – Moral Rights Protection in Japan, Entertainment Law Review, 11(5), 109.
Torremans, P. (2013). Holyoak & Torremans Intellectual Property Law (7th ed.). Oxford.
Waelde, C., Laurie, G., Brown, A., Kheria, S. and Cornwell, J. (2014) Contemporary Intellectual Property: Law and Policy (3rd ed.). Oxford.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for papers and articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the University of Glasgow. It is a condition of publication that authors license their paper or article under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
