Date: March 6, 2012Time: 8:00am – 7:00pm PTPlace: The Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA The ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries presents Video Games and Digital Media Conference Join Pillsbury as we co-sponsor this exciting and informative event in San Francisco! Learn about: The…
A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media. Will 2012 be the year of virtual worlds? What got me thinking about this was a blog post by Maria Korlova over at the HyperGrid Business Blog. In it, she maintains her firm…
On December 6, 2011 Zynga settled its copyright suits against Vostu USA Inc. and others. The first suit, case number 5:11-cv-02959, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California back in June, alleged that several of Vostu’s games infringed Zynga’s copyrights. Specifically, Zynga had alleged, that…
Given the great interest in “the cloud” from a business perspective, as well as Microsoft’s popularization of the concept with its “To the Cloud!” advertising campaign, it’s no wonder that many game providers are looking to the cloud as the next viable and profitable gaming platform. The cloud movement not…
A great video by Socialnomics on where social media is and where its going.
The Supreme Court of the United States issued a long-awaited decision in Brown v. EMA. The decision authored by Justice Scalia (in which Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagen joined and Alito and Roberts concurred) opined on the validity of California Assembly Bill 1179 (2005), Cal. Civ. Code Ann. §§1746-1746.5…
On April 12, 2011, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue issued Letter Ruling 11-4 holding that a product providing a customer access to information from a Taxpayer’s database is not subject to sales or use tax where the services provided do not involve transfers of prewritten software or a license to…
Copying within the games industry is prevalent. Some people attribute this to the fact that this is just the way it is and has always been within the industry. This is often premised on the notion that the “idea” for a game is not protectable. But as the game market…
On of the announcements coming out of E3 is that GameStop and Virgin Gaming have formed a partnership to power online video gaming tournaments. According to the announcement, Virgin Gaming will be: The preferred online tournament provider for featured console game releases sold in U.S. GameStop locations and through GameStop.com.…
While the National Endowment for the Arts (“NEA”) is traditionally known for providing grants for various “traditional” artistic endeavors, a recent change in its eligibility requirements expands its coverage to certain categories of digital media as well. Specifically, the NEA has modified its mandate to include providing grants for innovative…