With the explosion of technology, most people today own at least one smartphone, leading to an increasing demand for personal entertainment, especially in the field of online games. Mobile game titles have become diverse and brought huge revenue to companies in the industry. However, the phenomenon of “referring to ideas” is becoming more and more popular, causing many copyright disputes and negatively affecting both the economy and the reputation of game companies. So, what causes copyright infringement in games? Follow the article on VCD below.
1. Legal regulations on copyright in games
A game (electronic game) is a game that uses electronic devices to create an interactive system that players can play. The game is a place for the author to draw a message, a lesson, or a subjective view of the author on the real world in human life. Talking about games is talking about a combination of many fields: code, music, acting, art,…
Game copyright is the protection of rights for game production companies, programmers, and designers (authors) for game source codes, that is, source codes, and sequences of commands written in a certain programming language. Games are intellectual products of humans with investment in scientific, technological, and technical equipment.
In which, game designers have rights to the product according to specific regulations in Article 22 of the Law on Intellectual Property. Accordingly, game designers have the right to legally use a copy of the computer program as a backup copy to replace when that copy is deleted, damaged, or cannot be used, but cannot be transferred to another organization or individual.
If you want to register copyright protection for game applications, you must register in two forms: applied artworks and computer programs. Clause 1, Article 22 of the Law on Intellectual Property stipulates that a computer program is a set of instructions expressed in the form of commands, codes, diagrams or any other form that, when attached to a medium that can be read by a computer, is capable of making the computer perform a task or achieve a specific result. Game applications that fully meet the above factors will therefore also be protected as computer programs.
In addition, the author also has copyright protection for the game application, including personal rights and property rights. Organizations and individuals who exploit some or all of these property rights must ask for permission and pay royalties, remuneration, and other material benefits. At the same time, authors organizations, and individuals who invest in creating computer programs can negotiate to repair and upgrade computer programs and have the right to legally use a copy of the computer program as a backup copy to replace when that copy is lost or damaged.
2. Causes of increasing game copyright infringement
a. Objective causes
First, the regulations on intellectual property and sanctions for handling infringements are not focused but scattered in many different legal documents. The regulations and sanctions for handling violations are not yet complete and consistent, especially the regulations on measures and sanctions for handling violations are only limited to administrative forms that are not suitable for reality and are not deterrent enough. Organizations and individuals are willing to pay administrative fines but continue their violations because the profits they bring are higher than the amount of fines. Second, the regulations on the protection period for electronic games are too long and not suitable for reality. Our country’s law stipulates that the copyright protection period for games is the lifetime of the author and fifty years after the author’s death. Because electronic games quickly become outdated after a short time or are even no longer used, if the protection period is too long and the price of copyrighted games is too expensive, illegal use of pirated games is inevitable.
Third, the information management system on the Internet has not achieved high efficiency. In the digital age, tightening the censorship of information exchange and contact on digital platforms is very important. Because most violations are carried out via the Internet. In addition, the suspension of licensing of online electronic games has also led to a situation where domestic games are blocked but foreign games and pirated games are rampant to make illegal profits openly but have not yet been detected and handled promptly.
b. Subjective causes
First, because acts of infringement of electronic games often create high-profit values, they can attract many participants, including pure laborers. In addition, many subjects with knowledge of information technology have arbitrarily written and created fake games or established pirated online game servers based on copyrighted games. The ultimate goal is still to steal money from those illegal acts.
Second, the income of users is not high. The copyright prices of electronic games today are high while the income of people is still low. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the majority of people who like to use games for entertainment are mainly students and university students. These people live on the allowances from their families, so choosing pirated games will save more money.
Third, the lack of understanding of the whole society about the issue of intellectual property rights is still limited, and the awareness of respecting intellectual property rights has not been formed. People still have the mindset of using for free without having to pay, even businesses still carelessly use electronic games that are downloaded for free or find ways to crack them without thinking about having to pay or ask for permission from the owner. In addition, there is the support of groups specializing in creating game-cracking software, fake tips are widely shared on the internet, helping people not to have to spend too much effort and money to be able to experience products similar to the legitimate copyrighted game system.
VCD believes that to limit the infringement of video game copyright and improve management efficiency, it is necessary to reform copyright laws to adapt to new technology, strengthen deterrence with strict penalties, and raise copyright awareness through education. Promoting protection technology such as blockchain, establishing a specialized monitoring agency, and encouraging creativity from developers are also important solutions to protect rights and create a healthy development environment for the video game industry.
