Gridiron Champions (IMV Gaming college football Kickstarter)

[War Daddy Rambo]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

I work in this area for a living (Copyrights and brand management, not law specifically) so I'll explain why your use of Sony v Universal is wrong along with some more information. Sony v Universal was a very specific, and special, exception to the rules. What it allowed for is a technology exception that basically says "just because new technology can be used to infringe on copyrights doesn't make them liable as that was not the intent or the proposed primary use of the technology". Where IMV and similar games falter is what is called contributory infringement. What this means is that you knowingly assisted, contributed, or promoted the infringement of copyrights. The issue is in the very way the game has positioned themselves and marketed it. They have publicly stated on numerous occasions they will support community members who build mods for rosters, teams, stadiums, etc. They will then willingly host and facilitate the distribution of these infringements to other customers. If you go and look at what happened with Napster, this is what got them in trouble. Napster tried the Sony v Universal defense, but it failed. The issue was it was so apparent based on the data flowing through their servers what their technology was being used for they should have proactively stopped it from happening. Other similar services have dodged the contributory infringement liability because they didn't or shouldn't have reasonably know their services were being used in this way. IMV will be able to make no such claim as, again they have very publicly stated what their intentions are. As to whether or not anyone would ever come after them, I think it is risky because of the media that will surround the return of college video games. The issue will be that many of the schools are still leery of the fallout from the last time through with the players. If they don't act in the best interests of their players and school, it can be conceived as approval of the behavior through inaction and opens them up to continued legal issues with players. I think some schools will proactively file suit in an attempt to distance themselves from the game while others won't care. As I stated before though, with limited funding it'll take very few legal encounters to end them.

If a fictional college football setting were created, could there be an issue?

I.E. 100 teams (made up names, logos, etc.) spread out across 14 (made up) conferences. Made up bowl game names.

college football under a 100% fictional setting.

no issues?



if team builder was added and you could upload rosters/teams/conferences/etc. only issue would be response time for removing copyright material if report was made?


very interested in the legal aspects that could possibly impact a 100% fictional college football setting (no real teams, universities, players, etc) and if you were to create a parody out of it ... how far would you have to go to avoid similarities of teams, coaches, players, names, etc.


If there was a QB for Tampa Bay University called Jim Jebow and he was a Jesus loving athletic freak who could throw the ball a mile but couldn't hit his receiver on a slant route, possible lawsuits involved?


CFAA (College Football Athletic Association) could you get in trouble for that? since it's similar to NCAA.

The Theisman Trophy...

O'Bannon or O'Gannon or O'Cannon award...

what could a game get away w/ without worrying about a legitimate lawsuit hammer?

[mestevo]

They probably can't get away with it unless they go back on their plans a bit. They've said they'd have a team builder to support people who create rosters that infringe, in response to people asking them to infringe.

So to fix that they have to make something else. Prevent infringement with the tool, otherwise the problem isn't the amount of time it takes to remove it, instead their whole product would be in jeopardy because it was produced with the intent to enable infringement.

Just my opinion, not a lawyer.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Sitting at $80k on hand, $159k pledged including future payments they haven't received yet.

The above was in October. Now at $199k / $260k. $600k from having to issue refunds in 3 months (5/15), $2.25m from getting their publisher to match their funds and create the game.

The above includes people being excited about Sua Cravens' involvement, who has since deleted his Twitter account and his support can only be found via an unlisted Youtube video on their site.

Re: the copyright / trademark infringement discussion, even their first sponsor in a video on their site says he's excited to upload his alma matter and that the game will let him do that ....

[PurdeBoiler1]

https://twitter.com/imvgaming/status...389315584?s=21
Big news coming

[drewst18]

Quote: Originally Posted by PurdeBoiler1

https://twitter.com/imvgaming/status...389315584?s=21 Big news coming

Call me a pessimist but I'll believe it when I see it at this point.

[mestevo]

Maybe they'll say they've come up w/ the other $600k so they don't have to refund anything.

A bunch of their followers are saying it might be a release date ... the game doesn't have a developer yet, they need $2.5m for that. A release date isn't anything to get excited about.

My money is on something related to fundraising though, with just a few weeks to go they're probably making plans to move beyond the 1-year SquareSpace campaign.

[PurdeBoiler1]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Maybe they'll say they've come up w/ the other $600k so they don't have to refund anything. A bunch of their followers are saying it might be a release date ... the game doesn't have a developer yet, they need $2.5m for that. A release date isn't anything to get excited about. My money is on something related to fundraising though, with just a few weeks to go they're probably making plans to move beyond the 1-year SquareSpace campaign.

They have a developer in Big Ant Studios

[UFCMPunk]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Maybe they'll say they've come up w/ the other $600k so they don't have to refund anything. A bunch of their followers are saying it might be a release date ... the game doesn't have a developer yet, they need $2.5m for that. A release date isn't anything to get excited about. My money is on something related to fundraising though, with just a few weeks to go they're probably making plans to move beyond the 1-year SquareSpace campaign.

Most likely, but it seems from this tweet they don't have the funding yet.

IMV Gaming
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@IMVGAMING
7h7 hours ago
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That’s correct. We have to receive the proper funding before development can begin.