Comment on Japan determines copyright doesn't apply to LLM/ML training data
red@sopuli.xyz 5 months agoPoint: regardless of the HOW it was made, the process of figuring if it infringes on something is the same. It’s still not always easy and due to the shittyness of current IP laws, even long time professional artists sometimes make mistakes.
tabular@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I am familiar with SEGA owning a software patent on Crazy Taxi’s “arrow above car points where to go” because my interests in creating games happened to lead me to an article stating such.
That seems related to HOW my works are made, to me. I know of no other way to find that out.
pirat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Like this one in Midtown Madness? Did MS actually have to pay SEGA to do the same thing? Both were originally released in 1999, it seems. I’m unsure which came first, but does it even matter if SEGA managed to get the patent first?
MS Midtown Madness gameplay screenshot
tabular@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Midtown Madness 1/2/3 all have the arrows from what I’ve seen. At least 3 has a part where you pick up people in a taxi.
I am unsure what would happen if Midtown Madness did it first but didn’t patent it, software patents are not common (I hope…). Perhaps they knew they could win but didn’t want to lose money fighting the Microsoft of that time? I can find no mention of MM regarding the Sega v. Fox lawsuit where Fox settled over Simpson’s Road Rage in 2003.
pirat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Interesting! I had never thought of this sort of arrow as something that would have a patent. Isn’t it pretty common in various other driving/racing games? Maybe not?! MM1 & MM2 definitely had the arrow — I’ve spent way too many hours fucking around in those as a kid! Sadly, I’ve never tried MM3, since it was never released for PC, iirc only for Xbox…