Videospelets upphovsrättsliga karaktär och problematik
(2018) JURM02 20181Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Videospelsbranschen växer ständigt och globalt omsätter den idag flera hundra miljarder kronor. Bakom varje enskild speltitel ligger omfattande investeringar av både tid och kapital. Upphovsrätten är den immaterialrätt som ger skydd åt videospel. Att spelutvecklarna kan erbjudas ett effektivt skydd är essentiellt för branschens fortsatta utveckling. Omfattningen av, och formerna för, det upphovsrättsliga skyddet för videospel har emellertid visat sig vara oklara. Syftet med denna framställning är att utreda hur det upphovsrättsliga skyddet för videospel ser ut och belysa eventuella problem och brister med det.
Konsensus är att olika delar av videospelet åtnjuter separat upphovsrättsligt skydd. Skyddet är således till viss del... (More) - Videospelsbranschen växer ständigt och globalt omsätter den idag flera hundra miljarder kronor. Bakom varje enskild speltitel ligger omfattande investeringar av både tid och kapital. Upphovsrätten är den immaterialrätt som ger skydd åt videospel. Att spelutvecklarna kan erbjudas ett effektivt skydd är essentiellt för branschens fortsatta utveckling. Omfattningen av, och formerna för, det upphovsrättsliga skyddet för videospel har emellertid visat sig vara oklara. Syftet med denna framställning är att utreda hur det upphovsrättsliga skyddet för videospel ser ut och belysa eventuella problem och brister med det.
Konsensus är att olika delar av videospelet åtnjuter separat upphovsrättsligt skydd. Skyddet är således till viss del splittrat. I detta arbete visas exempelvis att videospelets programkod kan skyddas som datorprogram, rörliga bildsekvenser som filmverk och figurer som bildkonstverk. Det är emellertid inte utrett hur skyddet för spelet som helhet ser ut. EU-domstolen har i mål C-355/12 förklarat att videospel har ett kreativt värde som inte kan reduceras till enbart programkoden och konstaterar att ett spels skilda delar kan skyddas tillsammans med dess helhet, utan att vidare kommentera hur ett sådant skydd skulle se ut. I denna framställning argumenteras för att spelupplevelsen som helhet inte passar under någon av de befintliga verkskategorierna i URL. Spelet som helhet bör snarare betraktas som någon annan unik typ av verk.
I denna framställning argumenteras det för att en upphovsrättslig syn på videospel som en helhet är att föredra framför ett splittrat synsätt avseende bedömningen av verkets originalitet. Att klassificera videospel som ett verk, istället för flera sammansatta verk, ger en mer rättvis bild av spelets originalitet, och därmed också en mer rättvis bild av det upphovsrättsliga skyddsomfånget. Utöver detta bör en egen verkskategori för videospel övervägas. Det nu gällande splittrade skyddet som innebär att videospel klassificeras som flera olika typer av verk riskerar att leda till inkonsekvent rättstillämpning och osäkerhet kring det upphovsrättsliga skyddets omfattning avseende videospel. (Less) - Abstract
- Every year video game sales reach beyond several billion USD globally and the video game industry is ever expanding. The production of a single game title requires substantial investments of both time and capital. Video games are protected by copyright. Effective copyright protection is essential for the industry’s continued development as it is a major economic incentive for the creation of video games. However, the scope and form of copyright protection for video games have proved to be unclear. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the form and scope of copyright for video games and to illuminate and analyze potential problems and flaws associated with it.
Consensus is that different aspects of a video game are protected as... (More) - Every year video game sales reach beyond several billion USD globally and the video game industry is ever expanding. The production of a single game title requires substantial investments of both time and capital. Video games are protected by copyright. Effective copyright protection is essential for the industry’s continued development as it is a major economic incentive for the creation of video games. However, the scope and form of copyright protection for video games have proved to be unclear. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the form and scope of copyright for video games and to illuminate and analyze potential problems and flaws associated with it.
Consensus is that different aspects of a video game are protected as separate copyrightable works. Thus, the protection is fragmented. In this paper, it is made clear for example that the video game’s computer is protected as software, motion picture sequences as audiovisual works and game characters as graphic works. On the other hand, the classification and scope of protection of the video game as an original type of work is not clear. In case C-355/12, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that video games have a unique creative value which cannot be reduced to its encryption in computer language alone. It further stated that separate aspects of a video game can be protected by copyright along with the game in its entirety, without commenting on the scope or form of such protection. In this paper, it is argued that all current categories of copyrightable works set out in the Swedish Copyright Act are unsuited to encompass the video game experience as a whole. The entirety of a video game should rather be treated as some other unique type of copyrightable work.
It is further argued that a judicial recognition of video games as one coherent type of copyrightable work is preferred, rather than approaching video games as a composition of several separate copyrightable works. This would allow for a more correct appraisal of the originality of a video game and thus also a more correct appraisal of the scope of its copyright protection. Additionally, the introduction of a new category for video games in the Swedish Copyright Act should be considered, replacing the current, fragmented categorization. The result of video games being encompassed by several categories of copyrightable works is inconsistent application of provisions within the Swedish Copyright Act and general issues determining which provisions are applicable on video games. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8941406
- author
- Jung, Gustav LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Issues regarding the copyright protection for video games
- course
- JURM02 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- immaterialrätt, intellectual property law, videospel, video games, datorspel
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8941406
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-18 11:17:06
- date last changed
- 2018-06-18 11:17:06
@misc{8941406,
abstract = {{Every year video game sales reach beyond several billion USD globally and the video game industry is ever expanding. The production of a single game title requires substantial investments of both time and capital. Video games are protected by copyright. Effective copyright protection is essential for the industry’s continued development as it is a major economic incentive for the creation of video games. However, the scope and form of copyright protection for video games have proved to be unclear. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the form and scope of copyright for video games and to illuminate and analyze potential problems and flaws associated with it.
Consensus is that different aspects of a video game are protected as separate copyrightable works. Thus, the protection is fragmented. In this paper, it is made clear for example that the video game’s computer is protected as software, motion picture sequences as audiovisual works and game characters as graphic works. On the other hand, the classification and scope of protection of the video game as an original type of work is not clear. In case C-355/12, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that video games have a unique creative value which cannot be reduced to its encryption in computer language alone. It further stated that separate aspects of a video game can be protected by copyright along with the game in its entirety, without commenting on the scope or form of such protection. In this paper, it is argued that all current categories of copyrightable works set out in the Swedish Copyright Act are unsuited to encompass the video game experience as a whole. The entirety of a video game should rather be treated as some other unique type of copyrightable work.
It is further argued that a judicial recognition of video games as one coherent type of copyrightable work is preferred, rather than approaching video games as a composition of several separate copyrightable works. This would allow for a more correct appraisal of the originality of a video game and thus also a more correct appraisal of the scope of its copyright protection. Additionally, the introduction of a new category for video games in the Swedish Copyright Act should be considered, replacing the current, fragmented categorization. The result of video games being encompassed by several categories of copyrightable works is inconsistent application of provisions within the Swedish Copyright Act and general issues determining which provisions are applicable on video games.}},
author = {{Jung, Gustav}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Videospelets upphovsrättsliga karaktär och problematik}},
year = {{2018}},
}