First copyrighted videogames | Techday, June 17th
On this TECHDAY in history, on June 17th, was the beginning of copyrighted videogames. It was on this day that copyright was officially assigned for the first time to video games. Specifically, the US Copyright Office approved Atari’s application to assign copyright to two arcade games marketed by the company, “Asteroids” and “Lunar Lander”.
Overall, on the subject of protecting intellectual property (IP) of videogames, there are several issues of copyrightability of software. In general, it is a rather new area of the IP law. Built with the concept of reusing game concepts, engines, assets, property protection is necessary, but not a fixed medium. Several issues are copyrighted separately.
Some common assets are available to developers, such as game engines (rendering, audio, artificial intelligence etc.). Of course, there are some hardware limitations as well, and the user input to take notice. Over the years, there have been various changes in the framework of the IP law, especially after 2012.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
