Law and Justice

Posts Tagged ‘Video’

In victories against piracy, Nintendo Co Ltd (Nintendo) successfully protected its copyright. These cases illustrate that infringers can be tracked down and with serious consequences

The facts

James Burt, 24, of Sinnamon Park, Brisbane copied New Super Mario Bros — one of Nintendo’s new Wii games — and uploaded it to the internet a week before its official Australian release on 12 November 2009.

Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth), Burt should have sought Nintendo’s permission, as the copyright owner, before copying and distributing its games.

As a result of Mr Burt’s conduct, thousands of people around the world downloaded illegal copies of the game causing substantial loss to Nintendo.

What action did Nintendo take?

Once notified of the breach, Nintendo engaged a private investigator to apply sophisticated technology to determine the identity of the infringer, Burt.

On 23 November 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court order to search Burt’s residence. During the search, Nintendo seized property to use as evidence to substantiate its claims against Burt. The Court ordered Burt to allow access, including passwords, to his social networking sites, email accounts and websites.

What was the outcome?

Nintendo then sued Burt in the Federal Court of Australia. Under an out-of-court settlement in January 2010, Burt is required to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages to compensate Nintendo for the loss of sales revenue and a further $100,000 to pay Nintendo’s legal costs.

Copyright infringement is taken seriously by the courts. This case illustrates the broad range of orders and remedies that can be obtained from the courts to successfully protect your copyright.

The lesson

This case highlights the severe penalties that are imposed on individuals or companies that infringe copyright laws. Be cautious when dealing with copyright material. Even if your breach is unintentional, action can be brought against you. Companies such as Nintendo are becoming more pro-active and innovative in pursuing offenders. In a statement, Nintendo commented that it guards its intellectual property rights to protect the interests of its consumers, its own interests and the interests of game development companies.

Another win for Nintendo

Since this decision, Nintendo has won another Australian Federal Court case. This case was against online console and accessory seller IT Solutions Pty Ltd trading as GadgetGear — involving the gadgets known as R4 cards, which pirate games for its handheld DS system.

GadgetGear and its directors have acknowledged that:

the game copying devices infringe both Nintendo’s copyright and Nintendo’s trademarks; and
they are illegal circumvention devices.

As a result of this case, GadgetGear and the directors have agreed to permanently refrain from importing, offering for sale and/or selling game copier devices.

GadgetGear and directors Patrick and James Li were ordered to pay Nintendo $620,000 in damages and hand over all their stock of copiers to Nintendo for destruction.

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Video games are one of the most addicting things that have been developed right now. In fact, video games have been around for a long time already. The thing about video games is that it is interactive. It allows players to be challenged on the puzzles that have been programmed in them. There are obstacles that need to be overcome and you have to be able to do that to get to the main goal in each video game. It also allows people to pass a long period of time without actually noticing it. This is also one of the reasons why video games have become so popular.

There are different types of video games. You can notice that each video game holds a story and you, as the player, have to work with the story. You will be given scenarios and you will have to be able to solve the problems presented in them. There are stories about fairies and saving forests and there are stories about unlikely heroes who have to save princesses and kings and leaders. However, there are also some which are violent and that is something that has made a number of people be against this type of technology.

In the state of California, there is already an appeal about violent video games and so a bill has been made. However, it seems like it has not been passed and so the state is already asking for it to be sent to the Supreme Court in hopes that it will become real and be mandated already. The law on violence in video games talks about just which ones would be allowed to be sold and to whom they can be sold. Of course, this means that those that are quite violent should not be sold to those who are minors.

The appeal on the violence in video games is being worked on by Jerry Brown, the attorney general of California. He wants that the law be put back and he has brought the law already to the Supreme Court to be decided on. He wants the law reinstated so that violent video games should not be sold or even rented to minors. It has not been stated whether a Lexington law firm is helping the attorney general on this or if there have been Lexington law facts included in the whole deal. However, for many people, the law should be reinstated so that children and minors would not be introduced to violence that early.

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According to a comScore study, it was found that 123 million Americans, or 70% of all North American Internet users, watched 7.2 billion videos over the Internet last year! Of course, these numbers have increased by now. However, this shows that videos are extremely powerful and an excellent way to promote your business over the Internet.

So, what exactly does this mean for law forms who want to use the online medium to market their services? Well, it means that the role of videos can’t be ignored in generating new clients. Here are our five reasons why you, as a lawyer, or your law firm must incorporate video advertising as part of your Internet marketing strategy:

Get Closer To Your Prospective Clients: Audio-visual medium is extremely powerful in convincing people to make a purchase or hire a professional to address their needs. A video displayed on your law firm’s site talking about you can really convince members of the audience to contact you. Videos are excellent Internet marketing tools and if made properly can really play a crucial role in convincing the visitor that you or your law firm is the ‘Best choice’ for them. You can also use videos to portray that you are an expert in a particular field of law thereby improving your site’s conversion rate as well as attract the right audience.

Take Advantage of Google’s Video Search Results: Now, Google even offers thumbnails of the videos at the top of the search pages and allows you to watch them within your search results without ever leaving the results page. Since Google is constantly changing and improving their search, adding video results to search results is indeed a welcome improvement.

Get On YouTube Now: Most Internet marketing experts have a common consensus about YouTube’s effectiveness as an excellent promotional platform. YouTube now has 25% of all Google searches share. With over 75% share of video sites in the country, having your firm’s video on YouTube is one of the easiest and most effective Internet marketing methods to greater visibility! Moreover, audiences are also using YouTube like a search engine to find information. In November 2008 alone, 770 million searches were conducted on YouTube.

Upload Videos On Your Site: A well-tested recipe to get an edge over your competition! Anyone seeking a good lawyer will look over multiple sites and then make the contact the shortlisted attorneys and law firms. The decisions are typically made after reviewing your or your firm’s website. However, by uploading videos about yourself and your areas of expertise, you are ensuring visibility, authenticity and instant connection with your prospective client, thereby differentiating yourself from the competition in a unique manner.

Video Marketing Is The New Mantra: Ask any e-marketer worth his name and he’ll tell you that online video marketing really works. Also, videos improve your conversion rates and generate greater targeted traffic.

We suggest that along with SEO, PPC and other online marketing techniques, you must jump on the online video marketing bandwagon for promoting your law practice and gain advantage by being the first few who realized it potential.