Friday, May 27, 2005

Felten's Land without music

A gaming copany were considering including virtual instruments in one of their games, so game characters could play music. Apparently the lawyers advised against it. Ed Felten:

"The plan was that players would get virtual instruments and make music, for all of the reasons people make music in the real world.

But management nixed the idea, on advice from lawyers, because of concerns about copyright infringement. The problem was that players might use their virtual instruments to play copyrighted songs, and the game company might be sued for contributory or vicarious copyright infringement, for failing to prevent this."

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