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"Digital-Only" Games are a Nightmare - Sony PlayStation is Exhibit A

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The PS5 Pro is certainly one of the consoles of all times. It boasts a $700 price tag, a selection of games only purchasable through the PS store, and a disc drive... sold separately for $80. It's a trend Sony started with their original PS5 launch in 2020, offering a digital-only console for cheaper than its disc drive counterpart. This followed after a decision in 2019 to prevent retailers from selling digital game codes. From get, it was clear what Sony wanted to accomplish - a monopoly on digital games.  In 2021, an  anti-trust lawsuit was filed against Sony Group Corporation and its entertainment subsidiary under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which outlaws monopolization through anti-competitive practices. A settlement was submitted to the  U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in December of 2024, offering to give out $7.8 million of electronic credits. This was denied by the judge this past July, frowning upon Sony's offer of a "coupon set...
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Spotify's Planned Premium Tier is the Death of Music Copyright

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Earlier  in the year, Spotify teased a new "Music Pro" tier for their subscription model. Besides bringing the high fidelity audio that other large platforms have already incorporated , they plan to include a way to remix Spotify songs through AI and post them. This brings up many questions as to their legal status.  In previous articles, I've talked about existing laws regarding transformative works. Remixes are not always considered transformative. They can  be a whole new song, but they are derivative works that take from the original composition, which violates the composition rights of the copyright holder. To upload a remix, you need permission from the owner. There's a couple of ways Spotify can make this happen. They can update their terms and conditions for artists that upload to the platform, having them consent to their music being remixed. Or, they could allow anyone to upload then moderate the content later, similar to SoundCloud's guidelines . Either...
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Is AI Art Piracy? Your Favorite Media Giants Say Yes

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It's pretty clear that, when someone owns a copyright, they want to prevent their works from being copied. This includes any derivative works that aren't being made for a fair use purpose. Yet, how does this look when we add generative AI to the mix? Our laws don't have an answer for us yet. Nonetheless, courts have, and are in the middle of, responding to this controversy. The Times has reported that media conglomerates Disney and Universal Studios have filed a joint lawsuit against Midjourney, an AI image generation tool. Founded in 2021, the platform raked in $100 million in revenue last year through its subscription model. It relies on a massive dataset of media that isn't available for public scrutiny, making it questionable whether any data was sourced with the approval of the original copyright holders. It's this fear that has led many independent artists to "poison" their images with the hopes of tricking these generation tools into producing inc...
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Stop Killing Games: A Movement Against Live Service Models

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In a previous article on intellectual property (IP) restrictions in gaming, I made one thing clear  - you don't really own your games. Live-service games are an example of this. They rely on an internet connection to access most of the games features. If Fortnite  or Valorant  shuts down its servers, you effectively can't play the game anymore. These models thrive due to a variety of paid cosmetics that keep the game free-to-play, allowing it to be accessible and retain players. When a live-service game isn't free-to-play, however, shutting down servers means a guaranteed loss on your investment into the title.  In response, a movement called Stop Killing Games has started. It aims to influence governments to pass laws requiring publishers to maintain games in a working state after servers shut down. It uses 2014 Ubisoft racing game The Crew  as an example, which shut down its servers in 2024 with no refunds to long-term players. The game was never marketed as...
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Kickin' It with the Sponsors: The NBA and Sneaker Endorsements

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Showing off your brand new pair of sneakers on the court wasn't always very easy. The story behind the Air Jordans, as told in the 2023 film Air , involved a bit of activism on the part of Nike to change strict regulations  by the NBA that governed what shoes athletes could wear. No doubt, it's a legendary story that sells the idea of a shoe representing the essence of whoever's wearing it. So, what's the story behind sneaker deals today? As I've mentioned in previous articles, the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) spells out the rules for all NBA athletes and teams to follow. Salary caps is one of the many ways teams are prevented from being "pay-to-win" and funneling all of their funds into a handful of players. It's great for the league! For the athletes that would love an extra check in the mail, not so much.  Sponsorships are some of the ways athletes can have extra freedom over how much they get paid. This is partially subjected to limit...
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Are We Paid Yet? House v. NCAA and its Projected Effect on Collegiate Sports

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On June 6th, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California approved a settlement that would finally allow college athletes to rake in the big bucks (as they deserve to). This comes four years after the U.S. Supreme Court case National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston , 594 U.S. 69 (2021), ruled that limiting compensation to student athletes violates the Sherman Act. This paved the way for student athletes to receive compensation directly from schools for playing college sports. As Dan Murphy, writing for ESPN, puts it: "college athletics should be treated less like an education-based endeavor and more like a lucrative entertainment industry." The long wait comes from the slew of legal challenges to the NCAA's rules as a result of the decision. The settlement, nicknamed the House settlement after its case name, opened the floodgates to the NCAA must not only pay back $2.8 billion in damages for all the uncompensated years for its athlet...
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Look What You Made Her Do: Taylor Swift's Fight for her Master Recordings

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Pop icon Taylor Swift recently bought back the master recordings for her first six albums. The nostalgic trip behind the "Taylor's Version" albums was a way of circumventing the restrictions placed on her due to not having access to releasing her original records.  That's because, until 2018, Swift had a record deal with music label Big Machine, which gave them the rights to the master recordings of these six albums released with them. Swift rejected the offer to rejoin the label in exchange for access to her master recordings. Afterwards, Big Machine was acquired by  Ithaca Holdings, which is owned by Scooter Braun, whom Swift has a history of dispute with. Eventually, Ithaca Holdings sold her rights to Shamrock Holdings in 2020, who re-released part of her masters in an effort to exert their control of her works. Re-recording albums was her way of fighting back.  Music compositions are made up of many different copyrights, even down to who owns the recording. The ...
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