Playstation Network: Not a Company Town

Late last month, the Southern District of California held in Estavillo v. Sony that the Playstation Network does not qualify as a “company town”, and therefore not eligible for protection under the First Amendment. By extension, this strikes a blow to virtual worlds exceptionalists, who have long argued that virtual worlds ARE company towns; including notable theorists like Prof. Jack Balkin.  Already a heavily limited doctrine, the court held that it doesn’t apply to virtual worlds because “[i]n providing this electronic space that users can voluntarily choose to entertain themselves with, Sony is merely providing a robust commercial product, and is not “performing the full spectrum of municipal powers and [standing] in the shoes of the State.”

Now, to be fair, the hordes of fanbois on internet forums that rage about their First Amendment rights being violated when their posts are deleted (or they get banned) probably didn’t even know about the company town exception to the state action requirement of the First Amendment. Just the same though, this predictable decision puts a fairly solid nail in their coffin.

Eric Goldman has an interesting opinion on the decision:

Nevertheless, this case could have significant import for academic discourse about the virtual worlds. I believe this is the first ruling to squarely conclude that an online game/virtual world isn’t a company town. As a result, this opinion emphatically rejects a meme that has become pretty popular among virtual world exceptionalists. Some exceptionalists have favored the company town analogy because it enable virtual world customers to reduce an operator’s ability to run its business capriciously.

At the same time, as I explain in my 2005 article, importing constitutional doctrines into paying vendor-customer relationships could have untold detrimental effects on the entire online industry. This efficient ruling will hardly be the last word in that debate, but it should take a little wind out of the sails of the virtual-world-as-company-town meme that gets invoked so frequently in virtual world exceptionalist circles.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Paltalk Sues Sony, NCsoft, ActiBlizz, Turbine, and Jagex for Patent Infringement

Boston.com (via Ars Technica) reports that Paltalk Holdings, (which patent-savvy readers may remember forced Microsoft to settle a patent lawsuit in 2006 over the Halo series), has launched another round of lawsuits for patent infringement, this time covering a bevy of top name MMOG producers. Naming Sony, NCsoft, Activision Blizzard, Turbine, and Jagex as defendants, the complaint alleges infringements of patents covering “sharing data between computers that are connected together so users see the same digital environment”. The patents were purchased in 2002 from a company called HearMe. Shadows of Worlds.com rising? Paltalk is alleging that any MMO game in which players “have to see the same environs simultaneously” would infringe the patent. More accurately, it seems from the Boston.com article that it involves the process for synchronization between the different player’s screens. Given that presumably Runescape (Jagex), World of Warcraft (Blizzard), and Guild Wars (NCsoft) all use different methods of communications and display, from instancing to open-world MMO, to server-side-only calculations, this seems like a stretch, but we’ll withhold judgment for now.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Sony files for trademark on PS Cloud

Sony filed last week for a trademark registration on the mark “PS Cloud”. Here’s the beef:

Serial Number: 77697735 Assignment Information           Trademark Document Retrieval

Registration Number: (NOT AVAILABLE)

Mark

(words only): PS CLOUD

Standard Character claim: Yes

Current Status: Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney.

Date of Status: 2009-03-30

Filing Date: 2009-03-24

Transformed into a National Application: No

Registration Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

Register: Principal

Law Office Assigned: (NOT AVAILABLE)

If you are the applicant or applicant’s attorney and have questions about this file, please contact the Trademark Assistance Center at TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov

Current Location: 042 -New Application Processing

Date In Location: 2009-03-30

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LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD

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1. Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment

DBA/AKA/TA/Formerly: TA Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Address:
Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment
2-6-21, Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku
Tokyo 107-0062
Japan
Legal Entity Type: Corporation
State or Country of Incorporation: Japan

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GOODS AND/OR SERVICES

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International Class: 009
Class Status: Active
CLOUD COMPUTING DATA CENTER MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE; COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE FOR CONNECTING INTERNET RADIO; COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE FOR CONNECTING INTERNET RADIO FOR HAND-HELD GAMES WITH LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS; COMPUTER GAME PROGRAMS; COMPUTERS; CONSUMER VIDEO GAME CONSOLES FOR USE WITH AN EXTERNAL DISPLAY SCREEN OR MONITOR; DOWNLOADABLE ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION IN THE NATURE OF MAGAZINES, BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS IN THE FIELD OF MUSIC, VIDEO AND VIDEO GAME; DOWNLOADABLE IMAGE FILES VIA THE INTERNET; DOWNLOADABLE MUSIC FILES VIA THE INTERNET; ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS AND CD-ROMS, ALL ENCODED AUTOMATIC PLAYING PROGRAMS FOR ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; GAME PROGRAMS FOR HAND-HELD GAMES WITH LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS; GAME PROGRAMS FOR MOBILE PHONE; GAME PROGRAMS FOR CONSUMER VIDEO GAME MACHINES; HAND-HELD DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYERS; METRONOMES; PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS; PHONOGRAPH RECORDS FEATURING MUSIC; PRE-RECORDED VIDEO DISCS AND VIDEO TAPES FEATURING MUSIC, COMEDY, DRAMA, ACTION, ADVENTURE OR ANIMATION
Basis: 1(b)
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

International Class: 038
Class Status: Active
AUTOMATIC TRANSFER OF DIGITAL DATA BY TELECOMMUNICATIONS; BROADCASTING SERVICES AND PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATION ACCESS TO AUDIO CONTENT PROVIDED VIA AN ON-DEMAND SERVICE VIA THE INTERNET; BROADCASTING SERVICES AND PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATION ACCESS TO AUDIO CONTENT PROVIDED VIA THE INTERNET; BROADCASTING SERVICES AND PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATION ACCESS TO TELEVISION PROGRAMS PROVIDED VIA AN ON-DEMAND SERVICE; BROADCASTING SERVICES AND PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATION ACCESS TO VIDEO AND AUDIO CONTENT PROVIDED VIA A VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICE; BROADCASTING SERVICES AND PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATION ACCESS TO VIDEO AND AUDIO CONTENT PROVIDED VIA AN ON-DEMAND SERVICE VIA THE INTERNET; CABLE TELEVISION BROADCASTING; COMMUNICATION BY COMPUTER TERMINALS; COMMUNICATION BY MOBILE TELEPHONE; COMMUNICATION BY TELEPHONE; COMMUNICATION SERVICE BY MEANS OF COMPUTER TERMINALS, VIDEO GAME CONSOLES OR HAND-HELD GAMES WITH LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS; ELECTRONIC MAIL SERVICES; IMAGE AND MESSAGE TRANSMISSION BY MEANS OF COMPUTERS; INTERNET RADIO-BROADCASTING SERVICES; PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT BROADCAST TELEVISION PROGRAMS, CABLE TELEVISION PROGRAMS AND RADIO PROGRAMS; PROVIDING TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONNECTIONS TO A GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK; PROVISION OF ACCESS TO THE INTERNET; RADIO BROADCASTING; RENTAL OF TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT CONNECTABLE TO THE COMMUNICATION NETWORKS; TELEVISION BROADCASTING; TELEVISION BROADCASTING INFORMATION; CABLE TELEVISION BROADCASTING INFORMATION; RADIO BROADCASTING INFORMATION
Basis: 1(b)
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

International Class: 041
Class Status: Active
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES, NAMELY, PROVIDING AN ON-LINE VIDEO GAME THAT USERS MAY ACCESS THROUGH THE INTERNET; ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES, NAMELY, STREAMING OF AUDIO SIGNALS FEATURING MUSIC VIA THE INTERNET; PRODUCTION OF INTERNET RADIO PROGRAMS; PRODUCTION OF RADIO PROGRAMS; PROVIDING DISPLAY OF ON-LINE MEDIA, NAMELY, LITERARY, PICTORIAL, MUSICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL WORKS AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS IN THE FIELDS OF MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, BUSINESS AND EDUCATION VIA A GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK; PROVIDING A COMPUTER GAME THAT MAY BE ACCESSED NETWORK-WIDE BY NETWORK USERS; PROVIDING ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS IN THE FIELD OF MUSIC; PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT RENTAL OF ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES AND BOOKS; PROVIDING ON-LINE, NON-DOWNLOADABLE, ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY, BOOKS AND MAGAZINES VIA AN ELECTRONIC MAIL; PROVIDING OTHER ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION, NOT DOWNLOADABLE; RENTAL OF AMUSEMENT MACHINES AND APPARATUS; RENTAL OF ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES AND BOOKS; RENTAL OF GAME MACHINES AND APPARATUS; RENTAL OF MEMORY MEDIUM RECORDED GAME PROGRAMS FOR VIDEO GAME MACHINES AND ELECTRONIC GAME MACHINES WITH LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY; RENTAL OF PHONOGRAPHIC RECORDS AND PRE-RECORDED MAGNETIC TAPES FEATURING MUSIC; RENTAL OF PRE-RECORDED MAGNETIC TAPES FEATURING MUSIC, COMEDY, DRAMA, ACTION, ADVENTURE OR ANIMATION; RENTAL OF TOYS
Basis: 1(b)
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

International Class: 042
Class Status: Active
COMPUTER SERVICES, NAMELY, APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDER SERVICES TO THIRD PARTIES FEATURING REMOTE HOSTING OF OPERATING SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER APPLICATIONS; COMPUTER SERVICES, NAMELY, PROVIDING VIRTUAL AND CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS ACCESSIBLE VIA THE INTERNET AND ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS FOR THE PURPOSE OF REMOTE MANAGEMENT IN THE NATURE OF CREATING AND OPERATING ON-LINE COMPUTER APPLICATIONS; CALCULATING BY COMPUTER; CONVERSION OF DATA OR DOCUMENTS FROM PHYSICAL TO ELECTRONIC MEDIA; DATA CONVERSION OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS AND DATA (NOT PHYSICAL CONVERSION); DESIGNING COMPUTER NETWORKS; DESIGNING PROGRAMS FOR VIDEO GAME MACHINES WITH TELEVISION FOR PERSONAL USE; DEVELOPING COMPUTER SYSTEMS; DEVELOPING SOFTWARE FOR VIDEO GAME MACHINES; ENCRYPTION OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON A COMPUTER; ENCRYPTION OF COMPUTER DATA IN RELATION TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION; ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING A WEB PAGE IN INTERNET COMMUNICATION; HOURLY RENTAL AND LEASING OF COMPUTERS VIA ON-LINE NETWORK; MAKING, PROCESSING, AND EDITING COMPUTER PROGRAMS; PLANNING, PRODUCING, AND MAINTAINING COMPUTER SYSTEM PROGRAMS FOR DATA SECURITY AVAILABLE ON A COMPUTER; ONLINE VERIFICATION AND ATTESTATION OF USERS IN RELATION TO ELECTRONIC COMMERCE; ESTABLISHING AND MANAGING INTERNET WEB SITES; ONLINE VERIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC MAIL AND/OR WEB PAGE USERS IN RELATION TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION; PRIVATE AUTHENTICATION SERVICES THROUGH INTERNET COMMUNICATION; PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT COMPUTER PROGRAMS AND COMPUTERS; RENTAL AND LEASING OF MAGNETIC TAPES ENCODED WITH PROGRAMS FOR COMPUTER FOR COMPUTER SYSTEM SECURITY; RENTAL OF MEMORY OF SERVERS FOR WEB PAGES; RENTAL AND LEASING OF COMPUTERS AND COMPUTER PROGRAMS
Basis: 1(b)
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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(NOT AVAILABLE)

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MADRID PROTOCOL INFORMATION

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(NOT AVAILABLE)

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PROSECUTION HISTORY

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NOTE: To view any document referenced below, click on the link to “Trademark Document Retrieval” shown near the top of this page.

2009-03-27 – New Application Office Supplied Data Entered In Tram

2009-03-27 – New Application Entered In Tram

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ATTORNEY/CORRESPONDENT INFORMATION

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Attorney of Record
GEORGE W. LEWIS

Correspondent
GEORGE W. LEWIS
JACOBSON HOLMAN PLLC
400 7TH ST NW STE 600
WASHINGTON, DC 20004-2218
Phone Number: 202-638-6666
Fax Number: 202-393-5350

Domestic Representative
GEORGE W. LEWIS
Phone Number: 202-638-6666
Fax Number: 202-393-5350

Oh man, does this sound like OnLive or what?

Popularity: unranked [?]

Sony’s Removal of Advertisements Raises Hypthetical Constitutional Questions

With all the recent discussion about Sony voluntarily pulling ads for Killzone 2 that were near schools in Toronto, questions have been raised about where American law stands on advertisements near schools–despite the lack of government action (or even the applicability of the United States Constitution) in this scenario. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14% [?]

Job Cuts Megapost: EA, Microsoft, Sony

This post brought to you by the letter $, and the number (bottom line).

• In cost-cutting news today, EA announces the laying off of around 200 jobs, most of which are coming from Black Box (a studio of around 350 total.
• Microsoft cuts 5000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT. The cuts will be structured with 1,400 losses today and another 3,600 over the next 18 months. This follows today’s announcement of a 11 percent drop in fiscal second-quarter net income. Microsoft expects to chop its annual operating expenses by about $1.5 billion and slash fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million. Hint to graduating 3L’s: Don’t look in-house at Microsoft. No future. No jobs. Die alone.
• Sony will accelerate cost cutting measures. Sony’s plan: Structurally reform the company’s core electronics operations to better compete with its best in class peers in terms of speed to market and profitability. Continue margin improvement activities to lessen the impact of the weak economic profile of key markets. Accelerate the integration between products and network services by leveraging the combined strengths of Sony’s electronics and computer entertainment operations. One would hope that the final step means that SCEA and SCEE should remain somewhat unscathed. Right?
• Nope! “Sony intends to accelerate these actions, and in addition, implement further initiatives which are being announced today. Through these measures, together with anticipated restructuring to be achieved within the game, music and pictures businesses, and significant cost reductions in advertising expenditures, general expenses, logistics and other expenses, Sony now anticipates that it will achieve group-wide cost reductions of 250 billion yen (compared to the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2009) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.”
• How harsh is this restructuring going to be? “In the Game segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be lower by approximately ¥30 billion. Of this, approximately ¥15 billion is due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen and approximately ¥15 billion is due to lower-than-expected sales.” Kotaku has a good graphic on Sony’s financial woes.
• This is from an allegedly “recession proof” industry. Right. Tell that to the Skate 2 team.

Popularity: unranked [?]

LittleBigPlanet Censo….I Mean Moderation, Won’t Stop

In a blow to creativity, Sony has decided to continue their controversial yankings of “inappropriate” LittleBigPlanet levels. As you may know, LittleBigPlanet is an almost entirely user-content-created game. Sony is relying on the players to develop new content and levels, and exercise their creative spark — and to a large extent, players have done so,  creating calculators, complex machines, even recreating themes from other games.

The latter is where Sony seems to be coming down the hardest. According to Kotaku, Sony has laid down the following rules to avoid your content being moderated:

*Ensure that the content you share with other users is suitable for all ages – everybody has access to your level if you publish it
*Please respect other people’s intellectual property rights. For example, don’t use images, brands or logos that you’re not entitled to use.
*If you come across any content that you feel the need to report, then please do it responsibly. Hoax reports will be considered inappropriate behaviour.

Ironically, the blog that they post it on is named “three speech”. Sony’s argument against using others intellectual property is not as straightforward as it seems. For instance, according to their rules, players can use any images, brands, or logos that they are “entitled to use”. An entitlement to use would include things like fair use. However, Sony does not appear to be considering fair use whatsoever, and rather is just nuking any content, whether fair use or not.

It’s actually logical that Sony would do this, which is essentially arguing that fair use works are still infringements, the same argument advanced by their music industry brother, Universal. In contrast, Microsoft has embraced the usage of their products for things like machinima. Makes sense, since Microsoft actively courts the open-source community, who are notoriously touchy about fair use.

But even taking into consideration the argument of how corporate parents of how Sony and Microsoft’s console game divisions interact with their competitors, I think the explanation is much simpler. Sony just simply doesn’t understand online gamers. There’s so much to say on that topic that one could write a book, but suffice to say, Sony has not tailored their online experience in a way that is attractive to gamers, like Microsoft has with Live. Microsoft is what, days away from publishing the “New Live Experience”, to what appear to be initially positive reactions in the media, while Sony is STILL slaving away to get Home into a functional beta.  Microsoft has tons of interactivity and mashability with their Live account and Gamercard system. Sony?

*Crickets*

I think the censorship of LittleBigPlanet levels, while deplorable, is speaking to a greater problem that Sony has, and that’s their inability to succeed online. Feel free to comment, gripe, and complain on the comments.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Xbox 360 price drop undercuts Nintendo Wii

Kotaku is reporting that Microsoft plans to drop the lowest priced Xbox 360 SKU, the Arcade version, to $199, putting it cheaper (depending on market) than the Nintendo Wii. Most markets are selling the Wii at the $250 and $279 pricepoints, so having the significantly more powerful Xbox 360, which has a significantly larger library and more advanced online capabilities, is a serious threat to Nintendo.

I don’t know if we can bold this enough: This makes the Xbox 360 Arcade the cheapest of the current-gen systems. The other SKUs in the 360 line also get price drops, with the vanilla 360 and the Elite model at $299 and $399 respectively.

The threat this poses to Nintendo simply cannot be understated. When a consumer looks at getting a Wii or a 360, comparing them side-by-side, the only benefits that Nintendo’s console has are its motion sensing controller (something no longer unique to either the 360 or the PS3 anymore, though the Wii remote is obviously more advanced) and the library of Nintendo specific IPs. However, Microsoft wins hands down on size of game library, online games, graphical quality, ability to play DVD and advanced formats, interaction with home computers, and Xbox Live.

Simply put, the casual player will now have a strong reason choose the 360 over the Wii. Given that Nintendo began to develop a hardware dominance over the last six months of FY ‘07 (first six of calendar year ‘08), this puts that dominance in serious jeopardy.

The price drop also is mirrored in Japan, but that is not likely to make any real dents in Nintendo and Sony’s dominance, where the 360 is clearly (and likely permanently) a third place contender among the current-gen systems.

Popularity: unranked [?]

GamesLaw analyzes NPD July 07-08 Numbers

NPD’s console sale charts for July ‘07-’08 are now in beautiful graph form, and the results are interesting. We draw a few conclusions after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]