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Showing posts from July, 2025

"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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