Are developers allowed to copy themselves? | This Week in Business

gamesindustry.biz:

One of the fun parts of being a games journalist for a trade site is that you get to semi-regularly read through impossibly dense legal filings full of painstakingly detailed arguments about the finer points of contract law.

Another of the fun parts is that being a games journalist for a trade site eventually breaks your brain so you really do think that counts as fun.

So let's have some fun this week and look through Nexon Korea's lawsuit against Dark and Darker developer Ironmace accusing the studio of misappropriation of trade secrets and copyright infringement.

Before we start, let's be clear I have no legal training and my assessment of this case should not be trusted or acted upon in any way, shape or form. All I have is years of looking through lawsuits like this and the aforementioned broken brain that derives glee from the kind of brazenly inconsistent or far-fetched arguments companies often make in lawsuits.

As much fun as it is to think of legal cases as Phoenix Wright-like logic puzzles laser-focused on a central question with one clear and true answer, the civil cases we see in the games industry are often better characterized as dueling legal teams armed with feces-shooting chainguns spraying down their rivals' walls to see what sticks.

QUOTE | "These proceedings are invalid because the structure of the Commission as an independent agency that wields significant executive power, and the associated constraints on removal of the Commissioners and other Commission officials, violates Article II of the US Constitution and the separation of powers." - Microsoft's lawyers fire back at the FTC's objection to the Activision Blizzard acquisition by arguing that the US consumer protection agency has no power