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The Game That Never Ends

How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry

Part of Game Histories

Author Julien Mailland

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$50.00 US

The MIT Press

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On sale Aug 27, 2024 | 350 Pages | 9780262549394

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A guide to the fascinating legal history of the videogame industry, written for nonlawyers.

Why did a judge recall FIFA 15, a nonviolent soccer game, from French shelves in 2014? Why was Vodka Drunkenski, a character in Nintendo-Japan’s Punch-Out!, renamed Soda Popinski in the US and then in Western Europe, where the pun made no sense? Why was a Dutch-American company barred by US courts from distributing a clone of Pac-Man? Julien Mailland answers all these questions and more in The Game That Never Ends, an inside look at the legal history that undergirds our favorite videogames. Drawing on a series of case studies as vignettes of the human comedy, Mailland sheds light on why and how the role of lawyers is key for understanding the videogame industry.

Each chapter in The Game That Never Ends is a mini-puzzle that pieces together how an important legal issue arose, was resolved, and impacted the industry and the experience of gamers in real time. These chapters are interspersed with shorter chapters called “The Lawyer’s Corner,” opportunities to dive deeper into individual cases. Lightly footnoted, these interludes connect the previous chapters together by providing a conceptual meta-analysis. Offering a comprehensive overview of the global legal history of videogames, The Game That Never Ends will leave readers with a nuanced, in-depth, and more global understanding of the videogame industry.

“Mailland has not just presented a comprehensive review of the legal history of videogames. He also has provided one of the most complete accounts I have seen of the history of the industry itself.”
—Jim Levy, founding Chairman and CEO of Activision

“Julien Mailland’s book tells the fascinating story of the birth of Atari and the videogames industry with telling insights gained from the players who made it happen.”
—Lon Allan, Chairman Emeritus, Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange

“Mailland captures the complex legal intricacies engendered by the competition in videogames in an accessible and humorous history full of captivating stories and lively imagery.”
—Edward D. Manzo, author of Patent Claim Construction in the Federal Circuit

Julien Mailland is a technology industry attorney. He is also Associate Professor of Media Management, Law & Policy at the Indiana University Media School and Adjunct Associate Professor of Informatics at the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. He is coauthor of Minitel: Welcome to the Internet.

Julien Mailland View titles by Julien Mailland

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• Slovenia

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• Somalia

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• Sth Terr. Franc

• Sudan

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Contents
Series Foreword
1   A Tale of Two Cartridges
2   When Losing is Winning: ATARI, Magnavox, and a Tale of Two Patents
3   The Lawyer’s Corner: Ready Law Student One
Intermission: When Reverse Engineering and Legal Engineering Get Entangled in a Never-Ending Dance
4   You’re Just a Bunch of Towel Designers!!: The Genesis of the 3rd-Party Videogame Software Industry
5   The Lawyer’s Engineer’s Corner: How Does One “Break” a Lock-Out Chip? A Primer on Reverse Engineering of Software for English Majors
6   Are Your Lawyer’s Hands Clean?: Legal Responses to the Reverse Engineering of Lock-Out Chips
7   The Lawyer’s Corner: To Sue, or Not to Sue, That Is the Question: Intellectual Property Enforcement Strategies in the First Two Decades of the Videogame Industry
8   Regulating Violent Videogames?: A Story of Thresholds
9   Do You Speak Videogame Law?: Global Industry, Local Laws and Practices
10   The Concluding Lawyer’s Corner: Frenemies
Notes
Index

About

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Julien Mailland View titles by Julien Mailland

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Available for sale exclusive:

• Afghanistan

• Aland Islands

• Albania

• Algeria

• Andorra

• Angola

• Anguilla

• Antarctica

• Antigua/Barbuda

• Argentina

• Armenia

• Aruba

• Australia

• Austria

• Azerbaijan

• Bahamas

• Bahrain

• Bangladesh

• Barbados

• Belarus

• Belgium

• Belize

• Benin

• Bermuda

• Bhutan

• Bolivia

• Bonaire, Saba

• Bosnia Herzeg.

• Botswana

• Bouvet Island

• Brazil

• Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter

• Brit.Virgin Is.

• Brunei

• Bulgaria

• Burkina Faso

• Burundi

• Cambodia

• Cameroon

• Canada

• Cape Verde

• Cayman Islands

• Centr.Afr.Rep.

• Chad

• Chile

• China

• Christmas Islnd

• Cocos Islands

• Colombia

• Comoro Is.

• Congo

• Cook Islands

• Costa Rica

• Croatia

• Cuba

• Curacao

• Cyprus

• Czech Republic

• Dem. Rep. Congo

• Denmark

• Djibouti

• Dominica

• Dominican Rep.

• Ecuador

• Egypt

• El Salvador

• Equatorial Gui.

• Eritrea

• Estonia

• Ethiopia

• Falkland Islnds

• Faroe Islands

• Fiji

• Finland

• France

• Fren.Polynesia

• French Guinea

• Gabon

• Gambia

• Georgia

• Germany

• Ghana

• Gibraltar

• Greece

• Greenland

• Grenada

• Guadeloupe

• Guam

• Guatemala

• Guernsey

• Guinea Republic

• Guinea-Bissau

• Guyana

• Haiti

• Heard/McDon.Isl

• Honduras

• Hong Kong

• Hungary

• Iceland

• India

• Indonesia

• Iran

• Iraq

• Ireland

• Isle of Man

• Israel

• Italy

• Ivory Coast

• Jamaica

• Japan

• Jersey

• Jordan

• Kazakhstan

• Kenya

• Kiribati

• Kuwait

• Kyrgyzstan

• Laos

• Latvia

• Lebanon

• Lesotho

• Liberia

• Libya

• Liechtenstein

• Lithuania

• Luxembourg

• Macau

• Macedonia

• Madagascar

• Malawi

• Malaysia

• Maldives

• Mali

• Malta

• Marshall island

• Martinique

• Mauritania

• Mauritius

• Mayotte

• Mexico

• Micronesia

• Minor Outl.Ins.

• Moldavia

• Monaco

• Mongolia

• Montenegro

• Montserrat

• Morocco

• Mozambique

• Myanmar

• Namibia

• Nauru

• Nepal

• Netherlands

• New Caledonia

• New Zealand

• Nicaragua

• Niger

• Nigeria

• Niue

• Norfolk Island

• North Korea

• North Mariana

• Norway

• Oman

• Pakistan

• Palau

• Palestinian Ter

• Panama

• PapuaNewGuinea

• Paraguay

• Peru

• Philippines

• Pitcairn Islnds

• Poland

• Portugal

• Puerto Rico

• Qatar

• Reunion Island

• Romania

• Russian Fed.

• Rwanda

• S. Sandwich Ins

• Saint Martin

• Samoa,American

• San Marino

• SaoTome Princip

• Saudi Arabia

• Senegal

• Serbia

• Seychelles

• Sierra Leone

• Singapore

• Sint Maarten

• Slovakia

• Slovenia

• Solomon Islands

• Somalia

• South Africa

• South Korea

• South Sudan

• Spain

• Sri Lanka

• St Barthelemy

• St. Helena

• St. Lucia

• St. Vincent

• St.Chr.,Nevis

• St.Pier,Miquel.

• Sth Terr. Franc

• Sudan

• Suriname

• Svalbard

• Swaziland

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Syria

• Tadschikistan

• Taiwan

• Tanzania

• Thailand

• Timor-Leste

• Togo

• Tokelau Islands

• Tonga

• Trinidad,Tobago

• Tunisia

• Turkey

• Turkmenistan

• Turks&Caicos Is

• Tuvalu

• US Virgin Is.

• USA

• Uganda

• Ukraine

• Unit.Arab Emir.

• United Kingdom

• Uruguay

• Uzbekistan

• Vanuatu

• Vatican City

• Venezuela

• Vietnam

• Wallis,Futuna

• West Saharan

• Western Samoa

• Yemen

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

The Game That Never Ends

How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry

Part of Game Histories

About

Praise

Author

Rights

Table of Contents

Other books in this series

About International Sales USA

Penguin Random House

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The Game That Never Ends

How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry

Part of Game Histories

About

Praise

Author

Rights

Table of Contents

Other books in this series

Our Mission Statement

About International Sales USA

Penguin Random House