Atari filed suit yesterday against StateFarm for their blatant IP theft of Crystal Castles in their Gamerhood ad series.

[CapitanClassic]

57 minutes ago, ukiha said:

I’m sure if Atari pursued this, they might succeed, they’ve lived and died by their licensing for decades at this point, it’s clearly damaging to them if a large company can just use their work for free.

I forgot about the market to sell or license your IP. So I shouldn't have said 0%. I still think this figure is vanishingly small. Atari is probably going to agree to a sub 5-6 figure settlement, and state farm will admit no wrongdoing. Atari has to show actual damages, and How large of a license deal could they seriously get for arcade wrap art.

[mr_me]

3 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

No the judge clearly threw out of court the other 4 claims, because they couldn't be argued in court. The copyright claim is the only remaining claim, and the eventual ruling will be fair use (have not read Atari's claims closely, not watched the commercial recently, but I doubt any inaccuracies would change the results much ). What might (unlikely) happen is that their claim of copyright infringement is so weak and indefensible that they may have to pay state farms lawyers.

 

 four factors of fair use are: 

•  Purpose and character of the use - State Farm is just displaying the side art of the cabinet. The purpose of the commercial is to appeal to "retro" customers (or old people), not recreate the art of CC to sell to customers. Even things like Art of Atari books may not be infringement, because they change the nature of the work. collecting all the cool covers and displaying them in an encyclopedic fashion. Anytime video games are shown in sitcoms, they use the waka-waka Pac-Man sound. I doubt they have a license.
• Nature of the copyrighted work - it's nature has changed. It is now in a digital video, not a piece of vinyl. If SF was making mini arcade CC cabinets (without software) or keychains they might have a better case.
• Amount or substantiality of the portion used -;The arcade wrap is 100% copied,
• Effect on the potential market for or value of the work: - 0%. If anything, the use of CC in the state farm commercial might increase demand for CC game sales in collections.

•  

No. That isn't how copyright works. You don't need to defend it. People cannot make and distribute copies of your copyrighted work. Trademarks need to be defended (but those claims were thrown out), but not copyright. If Atari continues the lawsuit, they are just throwing money away. 

I don't think that meets the criteria on the first two factors. On these points the use should have an alternative benefit, e.g. educational, journalistic, parody. And the commercial use works against a fair use argument here. It's still the judgement of the court.

 

[CapitanClassic]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

I don't think that meets the criteria on the first two factors. On these points the use should have an alternative benefit, e.g. educational, journalistic, parody. And the commercial use works against a fair use argument here. It's still the judgement of the court.

You are correct. I was trying to do this from memory.  The first two factors of fair use, purpose/character (in this case commercial, not educational) are against SF. Also included is the transformative nature, which is in SF favor (not reproducing the arcade wrap for an arcade machine). The second factor, it's a creative work, not just a factual retelling of Information.

 

I still don't think Atari has much of a case, and will likely just settle out of court. 

[PowerDubs]

8 hours ago, ukiha said:

While normally I treat PowerDubs posting with a little more scrutiny than most… reading the court document, I actually somewhat agree with his likely belief of State Farm’s wrong doing.

 

 

Which is funny... because I generally post info and let people make their own choice...and if I state something- it usually is factual.

[PowerDubs]

4 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

I still don't think Atari has much of a case, and will likely just settle out of court. 

 

Seems the court thinks there is a case...and while I agree it will likely settle...I think it will be Atari with the fatter wallet.

 

SF tried to kick all this to the curb... and once it didn't... they are likely to cut their losses.

 

One thing insurance does is run the numbers....

[ukiha]

4 hours ago, PowerDubs said:

 

Which is funny... because I generally post info and let people make their own choice...and if I state something- it usually is factual.

If a person has some bias, I am just more attentive with reading and checking what they say, its no personal slight.