Law

EA has won the dismissal of a lawsuit by former Rutgers University quarterback Ryan Hart which alleged the publisher used his likeness in NCAA Football 2006 without permission. While the game didn't refer to Hart by name, his lawsuit pointed out that the virtual quarterback for Rutgers shared his general appearance, attributes, uniform number, height, weight, home state, and even a distinctive left hand wristband he wore, Gamasutra reports. US District Judge Freda Wolfson said EA’s right to free expression under the First Amendment outweighs Hart's right to control the use of his name and likeness. EA lawyer Elizabeth McNamara said the judgment "validates Electronic Arts' rights to create and publish its expressive works". Similar cases brought against EA by Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller and former Cleveland Browns player Jim Brown remain active.

Rock Paper Shotgun reports that Ubisoft has fulfilled its promise to remove From Dust's always-on DRM in a patch; update the game through Steam now and play offline to your heart's content. Meanwhile, Ubisoft confirmed yesterday that the Eric Chahi god sim will finally be released for PlayStation 3 on September 14 in Europe, and September 27 in North America.

In July it was noticed that the domain modernwarfare3.com redirected to EA's Battlefield website. Activision sought to gain control of the domain, and a three-person panel at the US National Arbitration Forum has ruled in its favour. According to Fusible, the previous owner of the URL Anthony Abraham had argued that the phrase "modern warfare" was generic, but Activision satisfied three essential criteria: that the domain was identical or "confusingly similar" to its trademark; that Abraham had no legitimate interests in owning the domain; and that it had been registered and was being used in bad faith.

Martin Edmonson, founder of Driver San Francisco developer Ubisoft Reflections, has thrown his weight behind the publisher's controversial always-on DRM that has been a constant source of frustration among PC gamers since its debut last year. "You have to do something," he told Eurogamer. "It's just, simply, PC piracy is at the most incredible rates. This game cost a huge amount of money to develop, and it has to be, quite rightly, quite morally correctly, protected. If there was very little trouble with piracy then we wouldn't need it." Edmonson also defended the recently introduced Uplay Passport, saying: "If people don't buy the game when it first comes out and wait and pay for rental or for second-hand usage, then the publisher sees absolutely nothing of that. [The online pass is] just one of those things we have to get used to. It's going to happen."

The suit, brought by one Aaron Martinez, accuses Take-Two subsidiary Visual Concepts of failing to pay testers for all the hours they worked, or provide the required rest and meal breaks. Take-Two denies the allegations, but as Martinez is seeking class-action status for his suit, the publisher has written to former employees to inform them they may be contacted by the plaintiff's legal team.

Following last week's furore over the data-mining clause in EA's Origin EULA, the publisher has since redrafted the agreement. While its content is almost identical to the original, EA has toned the language down significantly. "EA knows that you care how information about you is collected, used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly," it reads. "Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users' machines." Which is all very well, but there's still no way to opt out of the specific clause; if you don't like it, your only option is to not install Origin.

The publisher has pulled a series of volte-faces regarding From Dust's PC DRM, with conflicting statements and forum posts promising the DRM would be removed or toned down. If the latest one is to be believed, however, the controversial always-on DRM is to be removed. "We recognise that one of our posts in the From Dust forum regarding the need for authentication in the game was not clear," it reads. "We sincerely apologise for the misunderstanding. Our tech teams are working on a patch that should release in approximately two weeks that will eliminate the need for any online authentication."

The Facebook gaming king was sued for patent violation by Segan LLC earlier this month, and now Bloomberg reports that Zynga is the subject of further litigation. The complainant this time is Agincourt Gaming, alleging that Zynga is in violation of patents covering "credit-based online gaming and a prize redemption system based on the outcome of gameplay." Bill Carmody, senior partner at Agincourt's lawyers Susman Godfrey, said: "Agincourt's patents cover the most lucrative aspects of online social gaming - including those comprising the bulk of Zynga's revenues - as they contain the crucial 'link' that allows for global, interactive prize redemption over the internet." Agincourt seeks unspecified damages and an injunction; looks like Zynga has another battle on its hands.

Ubisoft has been busily raising the ire of PC gamers for some time now, delaying the release of many of its games and, in Driver San Francisco's case, requiring a persistent online connection for the game to be played. "We've heard your feedback requiring the permanent internet connection requirement for Driver and have made the decision to no longer include it," the publisher told Rock Paper Shotgun. Instead, the game will only require an internet connection for a single check when the game is launched.

Full of joie de vivre following his recent nuptials, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has suggested his Mojang studio and Bethesda settle their legal differences in the most unusual of fashions. Earlier this month, Bethesda's lawyers wrote to Mojang demanding that it not name its next game Scrolls, arguing that it infringes its Elder Scrolls trademark. "I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3," Persson writes on his blog. "Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you're fine with. I am serious, by the way."

The Federal Trade Commission has hit the Zombie Duck Hunt developer with a $50,000 fine for violating child privacy laws with its iOS game Emily's Girl World. The FTC found the app asked children to email in comments for an in-game blog, and in the process collected the email addresses of thousands of under-13s, in violation of the Children's Privacy Protection Act (Coppa). Chairman Joe Leibowitz said: "The FTC's Coppa rule requires parental notice and consent before collecting children's personal information online, whether through a website or mobile app. Companies must give parents the opportunity to make smart choices when it comes to their children's sharing of information on smartphones."

The International Business Times reports that a class-action suit has been filed by Ryan Graves of Indiana, who allowed his Xbox Live subscription to lapse and, after updating his credit card details, found that Microsoft charged both his new and old cards - and refused to refund him. Graves seeks compensation for "breach of contract, unjust enrichment, conversion, and violation of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act" on behalf of himself and those similarly affected. The suit also complains the Xbox Live terms and conditions are "vague and onerous," and therefore unlawful.

Gamespot reports that the patent application, which was published last week, covers a singleplayer game in which the player's actions in the game world affect the world of another player, without the two needing to interact. It notes: "Those who want to play games that are more dynamic, not based on AI and not pre-scripted like multiplayer games, however, don't want to 'deal' with people, [and] appreciate the privacy it provides." One example given was a player stumbling across a pile of materials, and building a house; when another player reaches the same spot in his world, he finds only the finished house. The application, which was filed in 2010, also reveals that Nintendo's original plan for Wii U may have been quite different, suggesting the idea be implemented on "a home videogame system such as the Nintendo Wii 3D videogame system, a Nintendo DS or other 3D-capable interactive computer graphics display systems."