3 Count: Rule 34

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Texas Court Affirms Game Mechanics Not Protected Under Copyright Law

First off today, Bryant Francis at Gamasutra reports that a federal court in Texas has ruled that board game mechanics can not be protected by copyright and that, even if two games have identical mechanics, there is no infringement unless other materials are copied.

The case pitted DaVinci Editrice S.R.L. vs. Ziko Games. Davinci claimed that Ziko’s game Legend of the Three Kingdoms was an infringement of his game Bang!. Both sides admit that the mechanics of the games are identical but Ziko claimed that it was not a copyright infringement, noting that previous courts have held game mechanics are not copyrightable and none of the other elements of the game was copied.

The Texas court agreed, finding that there is nothing “expressive” in the mechanics of the game. Though courts have found copyrightability is some elements of video game mechanics, such as special moves in Street Fighter II, the courts have consistently ruled that there is no protectable expression in board game mechanics.

2: HBO sues Pornhub over Game of Thrones Copyright

Next up today, Amy Blumsom at The Telegraph reports that HBO, creators of the popular Game of Thrones TV series, have filed a lawsuit against the pornographic streaming site Pornhub demanding the removal of all Game of Thrones related clips from the site. 

Game of Thrones is widely known for featuring a great deal of sex and nudity and many of those scenes are captured by viewers and uploaded to Pornhub, as well as other sites. However, HBO wants those clips down along with several porn parodies of the hit TV show.

According to data published by Pornhub, searches related to Game of Thrones have been extremely popular and routinely peak around the time new episodes appear. HBO has long taken a tough stand on piracy, which has heavily plagued the show, and the battle with Pornhub appears to be another front in that conflict

3: Blizzard are taking down Overwatch porn

Finally today, Kirk McKeand at PCGamesN reports that Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the video game Overwatch, have been aggressively sending Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices seeking to remove pornography made using characters from the game.

Overwatch is a new first-person shooter that’s achieved both critical acclaim and popular success since its release. However, some players have been using Valve’s Source Filmmaker kit to take the models out of the game and orchestrate pornographic scenes with them.

This has prompted a swift response from Blizzard, which has been aggressively filing takedown notices against videos that misuse its assets. Many of those notices have been appearing on forums and community sites, such as Reddit, as users complain about having their work removed.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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