Fair Use

Spore + Porn = Sporn

July 31, 2008

Will Wright's Spore, due for a September 7th release, is one of most anticipated PC titles ever.

But, as CNN reports, some users of the Creature Creator utility, released last month, have built animals which are apparently intent on breeding. Or, at least coupling.

...Buried among the more wholesome attempts [at Spore creature creation] were two-legged dancing testicles, a "giant breast monster" and a four-legged, "phallic fornication machine," for starters...

 

For EA, the developer of "Spore," it's the downside to tapping into the booming user-generated content arena, which has made sites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook and Second Life so popular... Many of the popular user-generated content sites have faced similar challenges in trying to control obscene material...

 

The creatures are not just static. Users can create animated scenarios for the characters to engage in, some of which include sexually graphic acts.

When EA got word of the "Sporn" creations, it began working with YouTube to pull them down. Spore executive producer Lucy Bradshaw told CNN:

Whether it's modeling clay, dolls or crayons, a small number of people can be counted on to use it for something vulgar.

CNN also spoke to the "Spornmaster," a 37-year-old man who has created a number of reproductively equipped Sporn creatures:

I admit it is silly and juvenile, but I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it. If people find it offensive, they can simply not search for it online. No one is forcing anyone to see this content.

One Spore fan told CNN:

I consider this very similar to child pornography, at least to the extent of distributing the material to children.

GP: Buzzfeed has additional NSFW links...

ESA Annual Report: Game Industry Policy to "Push Back" Against Fair Use

July 31, 2008

The ESA's 2008 Annual Report indicates that the video game industry hopes to uphold the controversial Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against critics who claim that it restricts Fair Use of copyrighted material.

Based on the following passage from the report, the industry's position seems to be that gamers can create user-generated content only to the extent that in-game tools allow them to do so:

The interplay Between Fair Use and Digital Rights Management User generated content (UGC) is a high-profile policy issue in the copyright community, sparked by the phenomenal success of social networking sites like YouTube.

 

Influential policy papers from the U.K. IP Office and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cite UGC as a tremendous social benefit of the Internet and call upon policymakers to tweak current legal regimes to better accommodate UGC. This issue has captured the imagination of critics of the current U.S. copyright system, who argue that Digital Rights Management restrictions confound legitimate fair use.

 

ESA IP Policy staff is bolstering its ability to push back against this assertion. In discussions with domestic and foreign IP officials and the OECD, ESA emphasized the rich and varied UGC-features currently incorporated into DRM-protected games.
 

 

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/20/08 at 10:03pm
PHX Corp: ok, I get it now, no need to repeat it
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:45pm
Brokenscope: The DTV transition doesn't effect the videogame industry.
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:31pm
PHX Corp: If JT attempts to flood his punditry with Gay porn It will cause him to become a Public Nusciense and put him in trouble with the people who run his site
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:22pm
PHX Corp: sigh, nevermind
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:16pm
sqlrob: @PHX: What does DTV have to do with video games? A console doesn't care, and most people are on cable
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:16pm
sqlrob: @d.vel.oper: What protocol? Depends a lot on what you're doing. I think it's 10X+ on CIFS
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:45pm
PHX Corp: Just asking anyway since we have 88 days til analog has finally bitten the dust
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:42pm
PHX Corp: Do you think the Video game industry is already aware of the DTV transistion
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:18pm
Shadow D. Darkman: @PHX: Yo.
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:14pm
PHX Corp: hey shadow
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:13pm
Shadow D. Darkman: Hmm...
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:06pm
d.vel.oper: @sql: Ah. How's the performance? Looking for a quantifiable sum, btw.
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:03pm
sqlrob: when it hits the server. The server doesn't know anything happened
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:03pm
sqlrob: @d: The endpoint doesn't see the change. It's compressed (and other optimizations) between client and hardware, then normal
Posted 11/20/08 at 07:01pm
d.vel.oper: @sql: I'm assuming we're talking about more here than just endpoint compression?
Posted 11/20/08 at 06:59pm
sqlrob: ..., needs the proper network backend hardware for most features, but not all
Posted 11/20/08 at 06:59pm
PHX Corp: WTF, Obama Citezinsip questioned again http://foolocracy.com/2008/11/supreme-court-to-review-obamas-citizenship/
Posted 11/20/08 at 06:58pm
sqlrob: @d.vel.oper: I also don't want to spam. It's a WAN accelerator, runs under Windows and accelerates network traffic
Posted 11/20/08 at 06:56pm
d.vel.oper: @sqlrob: What product(s) do you actually work on, if you're not all NDAized, that is.
Posted 11/20/08 at 06:56pm
PHX Corp: If things go well the Republicans may have to go libertaian if all else fails
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