Legal+Perspective

__**Legal Perspective**__

__**Xbox Kinect**__ The Xbox Kinect is one of the most successful new controls for video games today. As written on the Kinect page, the product sold 8 million units when first introduced to the consumer for purchase. Adding to the success of the Microsoft Corporation, the Kinect offers players a chance to get off the couch and get involved physically in the game they are playing. The Kinect system uses a newly invented method that allows the unit to calibrate a persons movements into its hard drive, and replicating those movements back into the games people play.

Unfortunately the components of the Kinect it's self are getting the Microsoft corporation in quite a bit of trouble. According to some reading I did on the subject, Microsoft has found themselves defending their product in the United States courts system. Motorola a rival company, has brought a suit against the Microsoft Corporation. Motorola claims that the creation of the kinects individual components have broken patent rights owned by Motorola. It seems to be that the Kinects portable communication device and corresponding method of operation was previously invented, and patented by the Motorola Company. The suit has not yet been settled, but supporters and consumers of the Xbox 360 system will have to wait and see what the future brings for such and awesome video game system.

Much like its friend the Wii, Xbox Kinect has also be accused of damaging owners property. An internet blog written by an unhappy customer of the Kinect, recently wrote that they were the victim of property damage at the hands of the Kinect system. According the blog one specific person stated that during an intense match of table tennis, he broke his brand new flat screen television. When using their hands as required by the game to spike the ball, this particular person was not aware that they had placed their entertainment system directly under the ceiling fan. This resulted in the person spiking the virtual ball, and hitting the the chain for the lamp, launching a rather large piece of the link into the television screen permanently destroying the brand new TV.

Some say that it is only a matter of time now before the law suits start rolling into the court systems. It has been predicted that some people will make such mistakes as playing the game a little too hard and destroying the environment around them. To make matters worse the Kinect has also been legally questioned for supposedly having been responsible for creating the " red rings of death" a they are commonly known in the world of video game entertainment.

__**Nintendo 3DS**__

Nintendo 3DS offers the great technology of 3D imagining in a portable hand held device. The Nintendo 3DS is capable of showing both 2D and 3D graphics on the screen. When playing on the Nintendo system any person is afforded the luxury of seeing the screen in 3D without the use of special glasses ( like the ones required in movie theaters), Cameras on the device also allow for three d pictures as well as being able to move the picture, simply by moving the game device around.

As awesome as it sounds, Nintendo has taken extreme care to make sure that law suits do not arise by the general population of consumers. During the release of the portable game system, Nintendo announced that children younger than six years of age should keep the game in the optional 2D mode. It was forewarned by the company that the graphics may make children six years and younger ill to watch the game in 3D mode. Nintendo is also not the first company to issue a warning protecting them legally against the 3D technology. Sony, and Samsung also issued similar warnings for 3D technology of their own released earlier that year.

While looking for further legal problems with the Nintendo 3DS, there did not seem to be that many at all. A patent suit was indeed filed against them however that was quickly settled and seemed to present no real crippling problems for the Nintendo company. The latest and what seems to be the only legal issue with the Nintendo 3DS system is the possible health risk related to vision. But Nintendo has done everything in its power to legally protect its self should such a situation present a challenge. Eye specialist have also come in on the side of Nintendo and have said that the system does not at all cause a health problem, in fact it may be a great tool for discovering damage to the eye at an early age.

__**Wii**__

The Wii entertainment system is an incredible gaming console that allows its players physical interaction with the game that they are playing. When introduced to the market the Wii controller technology was at the forefront of video game design. it was the first system to come out that allowed the motion of the players hand and controller to be tracked and phased into the specific game that is being played. When it came time for the Wii to become available to consumers thousands flocked to the stores for holidays and birthdays buying up the Wii Console at an alarming rate. They also bought some of the most popular games including Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

However what seemed to be the ultimate video game system, was not without it's snags. As the console became more popular legal issues began to come out of the wood work. Once case in particular stands out in popularity within in the Wii community. The infamous case of throwing the remote control through the television screen. While playing and intense round of a Wii game on owner let the controller slip and fly through the air ultimately going through and cracking the screen on the television. Wii has since then taken legal action to protect themselves against damage claims from Wii players who made the same fatal mistake of letting go of the remote during play and destroying their personal property.

To further protect themselves Nintendo has implemented a rope on the end of each controller. The rope is adjustable to any sized wrist, and has a draw string to secure the Wii remote to the players hand. The new addition to the controller has insured Nintendo legal safety from property damage claims. Be that as it may should the draw string fail, and the evidence be traced back to a design flaw within the controller, Nintendo may be held responsible for any damages done to the players home or personal property.

Having washed their hand of damage claims, Nintendo stepped into multitude of new law suits. Like the Xbox 360's Kinect, Nintendo was being sued by three different company for violating patent laws. According to a Wikipedia article the controller technology was already patented by several other companies, angry at the release of the Wii technology they decided to drag Nintendo into a legal battle over patent rights. Interlink electronics sued for; infringement of their patent on pointing functionality of the Wii remote. A company based out of Texas called Anascape sued for infringement of their patent on the Wii controller. Anascape actually won the suit and Wii was not allowed to sell the classic controller in the United States again until 2010, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Nintendo. And last Nintendo was sued by Hill Crest laboratories for violating three of their patents. Hill Crest sought to freeze the selling of Wii consoles, However Nintendo and Hill Crest came to a settlement in 2009. The details of such a settlement are not available

__**Social Networking Games**__

In about the last ten years Social networking games have become a massive new trend. Everyone everywhere has probably played some sort of social networking game. weather it be call of duty, World of War craft or one of the many online games. their never fails to be a large following behind it. Social networking games have allowed people to trade information, make new friends ( some times new foes) and to verbally bash one another. Face book is perhaps on of the largest catalysts for these kind of games. Games on face book like, mafia wars, and Farm-ville have very big followings with thousands of people talking and trading information every day.

From a legal perspective these social networking games are a possible hot bed for issues. For example identity theft is likely the biggest threat to any any kind of legal issue that could come up in the area of social networking. Games within the Face book community require an access to Face book, simply playing a game like farm ville with your friends puts a person at risk for identity theft. Also the Ceo and owner of face book is legally allowed to keep any and all information provided by you on face book, even after that account has been deactivated. There is not true way for you to completely erase this information.

Another issue with the social networking games is the company fighting over advertisement rights and names. A company by the name of Zynga has filed for a patent on the word ville. This way they can continue to make a entire market of games with the ending ville, and no other company will be allowed to do so without paying them for use of the name "ville" More recent news dealing with farm ville and face book is a class action suit.

Recently players of the online game farm ville have filed a class action suit against face book and Zynga. the players are claiming that the games are causing them real money. the people are arguing that prompts in the game are activating unauthorized charges and forcing the players into unwanted enrollments. Two of the concerns in particular are incidents where, a game required the player to take an IQ test. the player was to enter his/her phone number, and was unexpectedly text messaged then charged for the message. Also some games required a sign up for a free subscription of green tee. After signing up for the green tea, people found it very difficult to get unsubscribed. Some found themselves with unwanted green tea pill arriving at their door step every month.

Over all the idea of social networking games is good. yet there seems to be some very big potential for these games to get ugly fast. I think it is safe to say that if the gaming networks continue to slip in sneaky tricks, leading people to unwanted nuisances there will be many more class action suits against Face book and other social networking sites that provide social games for their users