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Glossing Over ‘The Movies’ |
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Posted 2006-01-27 by Tony Walsh |
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Annalee Newitz has written a glossy little piece on Wired.com concerning machinima generally, and machinima-making game The Movies specifically. Newitz introduces readers to machinima (movies made with video game engines), discusses the recently-acclaimed political film The French Democracy, and pays brief attention to the possibility that machinima might suffer legal troubles in the future. However, Newitz misses some important points about The Movies--glaring oversights considering her affiliation with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that lobbies for freedom of expression and other rights in the digital world.
Peter Molyneux, creator of The Movies, "won't allow any machinima to appear on The Movies Online that might be perceived as obscene," writes Newitz. "If somebody tries to remake Star Wars and has Han Solo doing something disgusting, that's a problem," he told her. No further investigation here. Why does Molyneux get to decide what's disgusting or not? And can fans actually use his game to produce a Star Wars remake? (Not legally, no.)
Newitz, who wrote an article for the EFF entitled " Dangerous Terms: A User's Guide to EULAs," completely ignores the fact that the End-User License Agreement included with The Movies, and developer Lionhead's Terms of Use stifle creativity and grab IP rights of creators. It is absolutely stunning that Newitz didn't mention this. The Movies is not just crippleware, but a tool by which Lionhead accumulates free content.
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15 Comments |
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Comment posted by csven
January 27, 2006 @ 2:03 pm
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That's partly why I took Chris Anderson (Wired senior editor and author of the "Long Tail" blog) to task on his claiming The Movies was real machinima and movies made with videogames like Half-Life 2 was really modding. Bit of rant I laid down on his blog, but it got the point over I believe. |
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Comment posted by csven
January 27, 2006 @ 2:19 pm
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http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2005/11/the_movies_mach.html |
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Comment posted by qDot
January 27, 2006 @ 5:02 pm
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Speaking as the "Elsewhere" from the article (we posted about this over on MMOrgy last night), I'm just as disturbed as you were, Tony. Especially the "obscene" but not "violent", since they mention Jack Thompson like lawsuits in the article. Seems disjointed and annoying all around.
So, since I'm allergic to research... Can others host The Movies created content? I'll be more than happy to create a domain to host the content under MMOrgy. We're already becoming a haven for people who are losing their Yahoo groups accounts due to sexually explicit material. |
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Comment posted by csven
January 27, 2006 @ 5:39 pm
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Hey qDot, I believe the folks over at machinima.com are hosting locally. Might drop them a note to confirm. |
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Comment posted by Jos 'Hyakugei' Yule
January 28, 2006 @ 10:42 am
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The thing to keep in mind is that the publisher still has the copyright to almost all the content _in_ the films produces by "the movies". So, they could shut down a site which is making "the movies" content available. |
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Comment posted by Tony Walsh
January 28, 2006 @ 10:47 am
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Yeah, that's my understanding as well, Jos. I believe users are actually not allowed to make their movies available for distribution (except through Lionhead's site), but I am too lazy to find the supporting language in the EULA and/or Terms of Use. |
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Comment posted by Annalee Newitz
January 28, 2006 @ 5:34 pm
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Actually, Molyneux only controls content on The Movies Online, which is specifically operated by Lionhead Studios. Nobody controls content on the half-dozen other sites where people post movies made with The Movies, such as Machinima.com, etc.
I spent nearly half the article considering legal issues and hacks for The Movies, despite the fact that my task was simply to review the kinds of movies people had created with the game. Sorry if you thought it was too glossy, but I did the very best I could considering limitations in length. Believe me, I *wanted* to find porn made with The Movies, but I couldn't! At least I linked to a hot lesbian movie. Jeez. |
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Comment posted by qDot
January 28, 2006 @ 6:03 pm
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Ok, to clarify my comment, I liked the article, the disjointed and annoying refered to Molyneaux and the modder's views.
I enjoy being elsewhere, heee... ^_^ |
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Comment posted by csven
January 28, 2006 @ 7:00 pm
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Can someone define "controls content" for me?
In light of the Chrysler/Sundance/Lionhead machinima competition, has anyone clearly outlined the rights of machinima makers using "The Movies" to create content? For example, if someone were to hold a Salon-Sundance de Refuse, and submit a film depicting Big Oil Tycoons driving Dodge Ram trucks "Death Race 2000"-style over protesters in D.C., would Chrysler/Lionhead be able to shut them down? It would be using a recognizable trademark, wouldn't it? And seems to me something like that might fall short of the legal definition of "parody".
Any links to something definitive (you guys know I need it spelled out)? |
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Comment posted by Tony Walsh
January 29, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
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Annalee, thanks for commenting here. Have you read Activision's EULA and Lionhead's Terms for The Movies?
I'm not a lawyer, but it seems Activision exclusively owns (and therefore controls) any and all content in users' creations that were supplied with The Movies. Lionhead's Terms give the company a non-exclusive but otherwise unlimited license to user-created content when that content is uploaded to The Movies' official site.
If my understanding is accurate, it would seem the bigger story here is that movies like The French Democracy could be silenced by Activision and are co-owned by Lionhead upon uploading to the official site.
I appreciate the limited amount of space you had to work with, and I can understand that you may have had a mandate to write about The Movies favourably, but it strikes me as koo-koo bonkers that you didn't cover the anti-freedom-of-expression aspects of The Movies. Perhaps my understanding of the legalese is completely incorrect. In which case, my big issue is a non-issue. If you've read the legalese, maybe you can help out with an accurate interpretation. |
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Comment posted by Tony Walsh
January 29, 2006 @ 1:23 pm
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csven, your concerns seem to be spelled out in the EULA for The Movies and the Terms of Lionhead's movie-submission process. My understanding of the wording is that Activision owns anything the user makes that is not 100% original content. I can't see how a user could create something wholly original using The Movies--it depends on Activision's definitions, I suppose. So the way I see it, Activision can shut down any movie it disagrees with on the basis that they own the content. In the case of the Chrysler example, there is some language in the EULA regarding licensed content--I believe this reinforces Activision and/or the licensor's ability to shut down offending material. However, I am not a lawyer. |
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Comment posted by Annalee Newitz
January 30, 2006 @ 6:04 pm
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Tony, I think you're right about the terms of service on the Lionhead website -- they do attempt to control the content there, and are claiming they can use anything you post for whatever purposes they like (similar terms of service can be found on popular social networking sites like Tribe.net, Orkut.com, and MySpace.com).
As for the EULA included with the movies, I don't have the full text in front of me (can you post it?) -- just the exerpt I read in your blog. My impulse on reading that is to say: Go ahead and try to enforce that EULA, Activision, because I know at least half-a-dozen lawyers who'd love to slap you silly with a fair use case. Just because it's in the EULA doesn't mean it's enforceable.
However, I agree that it's heinous and ugly when any company tries to use its TOS or EULA to mess around with players' free speech and/or creations. However, I'm with Fred Von Lohmann on this one -- I think we're liable to see suits against companies like Lionhead for "inducing" infringement, rather than suits between Activision and players over who owns the rights to players' original movies. |
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Comment posted by Tony Walsh
January 30, 2006 @ 6:26 pm
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Annalee, thanks for the confirmation and info -- I am in agreement that Activision's EULA would be difficult to enforce, and also that the company is more likely to get sued for inducement than sue a fan -- I do think, though, that Activision might send cease-and-desist letters to Movies machinimists it disagreed with, which is enough to scare most people. Even with a suit as a remote possibility, it's still a complete turnoff for me as an artist to imagine my work might be able to be interfered with. The safest solution, it seems, is to not use The Movies as a machinima tool.
I'll email you the EULA, I'm a little leery of just posting it outright. If you think I could post it here legally, I've got an annotated version I'd turn into a weblog entry ready to go. |
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