Nov 18 2024 53 mins 2
Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Andy Hunter, and Phil Thomas. Today, we dive into the legal battle over video game likeness rights and how some experts argued the name, image, and likeness rights of college athletes came in conflict with video games' growing free speech rights in the 2010s. This discussion will get us one step closer to learning how college athletes received NIL (name, image, and likeness) rights and set the stage for EA Sports College Football 25.
Topics discussed include: The legal image rights of dictators (and athletes), the twisted legal battle over Tony Twist, probably the first reference to the 1990s movie Solo in 30 years, and what's the legal standing of buying things ironically?
For more on arguments for free speech in the Hart v. Electronic Arts suit, check out: Greg Lastowka, “The Erosion of Creative Freedom? The Battle Over Publicity Rights,” Gamasutra, July 11, 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20120717033755/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/173890/the_erosion_of_creative_freedom_.php; see also: William Ford and Raizel Liebler, “Games Are Not Coffee Mugs: Games and the Right of Publicity,” Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal 29, No. 1 (2012): 1-99: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj/vol29/iss1/1/.
For more on SAG AFTRA's AI rights deal, check out: "New SAG-AFTRA and Ethovox Agreement Empowers Actors and Secures Essential A.I. Guardrails," SAG AFTRA, October 28, 2024, https://www.sagaftra.org/new-sag-aftra-and-ethovox-agreement-empowers-actors-and-secures-essential-ai-guardrails.
More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.
