Play Machinima Law Conference
Machinima in Game Preservation: A
Fair Use Activity?
Kari Kraus
Frederick Kilgour,
Evolution of the
Book, 1998:
Technology and
Punctuated
Equilibrium
Might DMCA or licensing restrictions (un)intentionally create an
obstacle for preservation and archiving activities? If so, what are
possible solutions?
• Bring various stakeholders together to share perspectives on Machinima
and fair use, identify points of agreement and disagreement, and arrive at
a set of best practices
– Proof of Concept: Play Machinima Law Conference
• Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point
– Connectors: people with vast social networks that cut across many different
constituencies and communities of practice
• Machinima and fair use exemptions as boundary objects and boundary
negotiating artifacts
– Boundary objects “serve to coordinate the perspectives of various
constituencies for some purpose” (Wenger 1998)
– “Boundary negotiating artifacts are used to record, organize, explore and
share ideas; introduce concepts and techniques; create alliances; create a
venue for the exchange of information; augment brokering activities; and
create shared understanding about specific design problems” (Lee 2007)
– For discussion of virtual worlds and their “governing documents” as boundary
objects, see Grimes, Jaeger, and Fleischmann, “Obfuscatocracy: A Stakeholder
Analysis of Governing Documents for Virtual Worlds.”
Might DMCA or licensing restrictions (un)intentionally create an
obstacle for preservation and archiving activities? If so, what are
possible solutions?
• Working with game companies and lawyers, we
draft an archival exemption clause for EULAs that
replicates some of the same protections afforded
to libraries and archives under Section 108 of the
Copyright Act.
• As discussed yesterday, IP increasingly a matter of
contract law rather than copyright law
• Liblicense
• Created by Yale University Library with support from the
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in 1996
Might DMCA or licensing restrictions (un)intentionally create an
obstacle for preservation and archiving activities? If so, what are
possible solutions?
• Fred von Lohmann: have a debate in the courts
• User assumes the role of plaintiff rather than defendant in
court of law to test and strengthen 1.) the fair use provisions
of the law and 2.) copyright exemptions for libraries and
archives as spelled out in Section 108 of the Copyright Act.
– Proof of Concept: The EFF and Center for Internet and Society
• Shloss v. Joyce Estate
• Fairey v. The Associated Press
• User assumes the role of plaintiff rather than defendant in
court of law to challenge EULAs that contract away fair use
rights or exemptions for libraries and archives as spelled out
in Section 108 of the Copyright Act.
– Proof of Concept: Bragg v. Linden (alleged that EULA was
unenforceable because arbitration clause “unconscionable”)