StuffWeLike

Copyright Office Examines the Cable and Satellite Statutory Licenses in the Copyright Act

After more than a year of intensive study, the U.S. Copyright Office issued its report on whether to maintain, modify or eliminate Sections 111, 119 and 122 of the Copyright Act. It will serve as the basis for discussion for possible changes to the statutory licenses.

Section 109 of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) of 2004 requires the Copyright Office to examine and compare the statutory licensing systems for the cable and satellite television industries under Sections 111, 119 and 122 of the Copyright Act and recommend any necessary legislative changes no later than June 30, 2008.

The Section 111 license, first enacted in 1976, permits a cable operator to retransmit both local and distant television and radio signals to its subscribers, provided that the cable operators pay royalties according to the formula set forth in the law. The other two licenses govern the retransmission of broadcast signals by satellite carriers. The Section 119 license, first enacted in 1988, permits a satellite carrier to retransmit distant superstation and network television station signals (but not radio signals) to its subscribers for private home viewing and to commercial establishments on a flat fee basis. The Section 122 statutory license, on the other hand, was first enacted in 1999 and permits satellite carriers to retransmit local television station signals into the stations’ local market on a royalty-free basis. These statutory licenses are linked, in many respects, to the broadcast signal carriage rules administered by the Federal Communications Commission.

In preparing its report, the Copyright Office sought comment from the affected industries, copyright owners and other interested parties and held three days of hearings in July 2007 to further supplement the record. The report was delivered to Congress on June 30 by the Copyright Office.

The principal recommendation in the report is that Congress move toward abolishing Section 111 and Section 119 of the Act. According to the Copyright Office, the cable and satellite industries are no longer nascent entities in need of a statutory licensing system. They have substantial market power and are able to negotiate private agreements with copyright owners for programming carried on distant broadcast signals. Moreover, the Copyright Office finds that the Internet video marketplace is robust and is functioning well without a statutory license. The Copyright Office also concludes that the distant-signal programming marketplace is less important in an age when consumers have many more choices for programming from a variety of distribution outlets. The office nevertheless recommends the retention of a royalty-free local-into-local license, because such a license is still necessary and it promotes the general welfare of users, broadcasters and the public.

Despite the Copyright Office’s determination that the ultimate solution should be the elimination of the existing distant signal licenses, it recognizes that the digital television transition in 2009 is likely to generate unanticipated signal reception problems for millions of American households. The office also finds that it is important for Congress to provide a lifeline distant signal service for subscribers during the post-transition period. The Copyright Office therefore recommends the establishment of a new statutory licensing system that would cover the retransmission of distant broadcast signals beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, and ending on Dec. 31, 2014. This will permit users of the license to serve the needs of their subscribers who may experience viewing disruptions. According to the Copyright Office, an equally important rationale for a transitional license is that it will take time for voluntary licensing arrangements to take shape and become widely available. The marketplace will work but it needs to be given time to adapt to changes in the regulatory regime.

Congress may decide that there should still be separate statutory licenses for cable operators and satellite carriers. The Copyright Office, then, makes several recommendations for adjusting Sections 111, 119 and 122. The recommendations in this regard are intended to further parity between cable operators and satellite carriers.

An electronic version of the report will be available under the “Hot Topics” section on the Copyright Office Web site at www.copyright.gov.

Playstation Store Gets its FIRST Third-Party Title

Mastiff, a San Francisco based developer and publisher of videogames, announced today that Nihon Falcom’s action-RPG, Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure has become the first third-party PSP (PlayStation Portable) system title available for online purchase and download to the PSP system through the PLAYSTATION Store and is available now.

Upon its release last year, Gurumin immediately won over the hearts of countless reviewers.

Gamespy, for example, said “Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure delivers the classic Japanese RPG experience and is simultaneously adorable and hilarious. If you’re only planning to get a single RPG for your PSP this year, this could well be the one to play.”

The Associated Press said”Gurumin” is filled with a uniquely Japanese sense of whimsy that translates well into English, and it’s one of the nicest surprises of the year so far.” Review site Deeko said “Gurumin is one of those rare games that should be in every PSP owners collection.” Console Gameworld, echoed the sentiment, writing “Gurumin is definitely one of those titles you have to pick up, period.”

“Charming, full of personality, and with a gentle sense of humor, Gurumin is a bright and catchy portable game,” said Heather Campbell of Play magazine. And Geoff Haynes of leading gaming website IGN.com, called Gurumin “…an excellent title that should appeal to action fans.” Gurumin’s strong reviews earned it a place in the top 50 of almost 1100 PSP titles ranked on IGN.com.

About Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure:
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure stars a strong-willed girl named Parin, who is sent to live with her grandfather in a small mining town while her parents are off excavating an ancient ruin. With no other children living in this town, Parin is surprised one day to encounter a young girl being tormented by a stray dog. After Parin drives off the mongrel, she is shocked to discover the young girl is actually a monster, and like all monsters, invisible to adults. Parin is soon invited to the mysterious Monster Village, which happens to be hidden right behind her town. Parin has just started making monster friends when evil spirits, known as Phantoms, invade the village and monsternap most of the inhabitants. Parin soon learns of the Legendary Drill, a weapon hidden underneath the village that is powerful enough to destroy the Phantoms. Thus begins Parin’s quest to reclaim the Legendary Drill and set the world right.

Gurumin features Include:
* Non-linear game play in over 30 stages set in a variety of environments.
* 23 non-player characters, 48 unique enemies, and more than 90 items to collect.
* 18+ costumes to unlock, and 15 equip-able headgear to level up.
* Destroy everything in your path with your legendary drill: almost all objects in a stage can be destroyed, and many hide money and valuable items.
* Challenging boss battles, puzzles and traps.
* Mini-games galore!
* Hidden characters, modes and other secrets.

For more information on Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure please visit www.gurumin.us.

BioWare interested in the iPhone

Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday. Veteran RPG developer BioWare mentioned in an interview by MTV that they are interested in the cultural phenomenon that is the Apple iPhone. Of course, there’s no hard words here and it’s all just speculation for now, but BioWare definitely have their eyes on the Jesus phone.

BioWare is currently working on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, which surprised fans since BioWare isn’t exactly known for developing much outside the PC frame. Of course, they did make the Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect, but it was ported over to the PC anyways, so BioWare wasn’t completely out of their element. When asked on the handheld experience, Greg Zeschuk says:

“It’s actually been great fun. That was almost one of the sort of hidden reasons to do a handheld game. One thing was to try something different and explore a different platform, and as you know, kind of sort of work in a lighter flavor of environment in terms of the game we’re working on. We’re nearing the end and it’s turning out really great.

In terms of handhelds, it’s been great because it’s also so fast. The cycle to make changes and improvements is very short compared to the hundreds of thousands of text in a full next-gen console or PC product. The iteration cycle is really short, and that makes it ideal for a short-attention span where you want to do something different every day. [laughs] It’s pretty exciting, actually. It’s been a really unique experience and one we’re definitely interested in pursuing.”

And when asked on whether they are interested in the iPhone,

“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at. Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for. You want to always mash the consumer experience with what you’re building. We want to understand what people are going to do with it. Who knows. We’re definitely looking at every platform.”

Still, BioWare is committed to the PC, for which they will be releasing their original IP, Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG that doesn’t really rock our socks yet. They are, of course, working on Mass Effect 2 and some more mysterious products.

Blizzard Exec: Microsoft not doing enough for PC Gaming

It’s great that there’s a resurgence of PC gaming, or at least PC game development. Valve is already doing fantastic with promising stuff in Steam Cloud. Blizzard show their respect for the venerable platform by making pretty much all their games PC-exclusive (and they’re all big hits, too). I mention this because I believe that Blizzard has every authority of accusing Microsoft for not doing anything for Windows and gaming.

Ever since Microsoft dipped its feet into the console world, it’s never come back, devoting all of its gaming attention to the Xbox and Xbox 360. This is with good reason, as Blizzard COO Paul Sams notes, because it is where Microsoft Games’ bread and butter is, and it is their system, after all.

But they just can’t continue to ignore Windows.“Certainly they have a lot in Windows. And Windows is a system that supports all the business applications as well as games.” he says. That’s true: active participation from Microsoft is what is necessary to bring forth the PC as a gaming platform. Windows is easily the most widespread platform right now, with more copies of Windows in this world than every other console combined.

Take heed, Microsoft, and mend your ways!

Guillermo Del Toro and his Frankenstein

In what must be one of the more interesting adaptations to come in the future, Guillermo del Toro will be working on a Frankenstein adaptation. And he’s planning Doug Jones to play the role of the iconic monster. Details are pretty sparse right now, and I wouldn’t expect this movie to start getting serious anytime before 2010, but it’s pretty interesting all the same.

This news come from ShockTillYouDrop, who interrogated him while on the red carpet at the Hellboy II premiere.

Del Toro will be sticking to the original vision that Mary Shelley had for Frankenstein: “Tall, pale with blackened lips, achingly beautiful but completely flawed.” Del Toro also mentioned Berni Wrightson, famed comic artist and horror illustrator for designing the look of Frankenstein. Apparently, the movie is still so early that Del Toro was surprised when he was enquired about it.

Del Toro has an actor in mind for Victor Frankenstein as well, but refused to mention him. No Igor either. We wonder how the “It’ ALIVE!!!” scene will turn out here. Very intriguing indeed!

Controlling your eMotions

Family games live or die by their controls, and motion controls even more so. Why is it that games like Boom Blox are so instinctive and intuitive, when others like SSX Blur are so forced and laboured? For me it’s that one-to-one freeform movement that brings the magic and makes the games come to life.

Video Games are often at the cutting edge of technology. The latest innovation to sweep the game playing masses is the motion controller. This takes six tiny accelerometers and uses them to work out how the controller is moving in real space.
The first time you take hold of the Wii’s TV remote styles control, or the Playstation 3’s Sixaxis controller, and play a game just my tilting and waggling the experience is almost magical.

After the success of Wii-Sports and Warhawk PS3 a slew of similar games started hitting store shelves. However, these are often less successful as they imitate the real innovations, and lack the investment, of the system selling launch games. After trawling through these various titles the last year, I thought I might try and shed some light on what makes or breaks these gesture based games.

For me the joy of controlling a game by movement alone is the simplicity and directness of the experience. The cause and effect gap that usually separates me from the game starts to disappear. The ball is hit towards me in Wii-Sports, so I simply wait for it to arrive then swing my racket to return it. No buttons, no training, no thinking, just me and the game working together.

This is best delivered when the controller’s motion match real life. Their beauty is that they are flexible enough to be shaped to fit the game you are playing. If these gestures are also in sync with, performed at the same time as, the game world you have a pretty special experience on your hands. Even though the controller might struggle at times, if it generally matches the movements you make you can start to play the game more instinctively. No one has to tell you how or what to play, the freedom of the controls simply invites experimentation.

Games that haven’t had the time and money to develop these nuances usually revert to
using waggles in place of button presses and stick movements. For me this makes a mockery of having a motion controller. What’s more the game would usually be better without the motion controls. Waggling is a rough science, and one not suited for accurate schemes that have been designed for button presses.

Golf games on the Wii present an interesting dichotomy. Some, such as the recent (and by no means poor) We Love Golf from Capcom provide a swing that is based on the player matching their motion to the on screen guide. This takes the usual button presses and replaces them with movements. Others, such as Tiger Woods throw the old control schemes out and simply ask that you swing the Wii-mote like you would a club.

Both these games provide polished enjoyable experiences and have obviously thought carefully about their controls. But for me the joy of the Tiger Woods free swing mechanic simply eclipses any other golf game controls. So much so, that I ended up selling my graphically superior 360 version simply because I couldn’t bear playing it without the instinctive motions. And this is in-spite of the 08 version of Tiger on Wii being a pretty ropey game. Playing with some friends through the winter, we often encountered bugs that resulted in miss-scored holes, inaccurate ball lie and the odd crash. But we were happy to persevere because it was such fun to hit the ball.

This one-to-one real life motion control is few and far between, and for good reason. To produce a game like this requires a team devoted to refining the controls over the life of the development. Many were worried about the added cost of PS3 and 360 high definition graphics and surround sound. Ironically then, it is getting those Wii controls right that will cost the savvy teams most dearly. But make the investment here and the game is simply easier and more enjoyable to play. For a family audience this is invaluable as we can all genuinely enjoy video games together.

You may have noticed that I like to make a bit of a song and dance about games get these controls right in my reviews. Of recent note has been the brush painting in Okami, the one-to-one block nudging wonders of Boom Blox, the well matched motions of Family Ski and the excellent badminton sensitivity of Sports Island. These games are a handful out of the hundreds on offer that simply wouldn’t be as much fun without motion controls. Although they often cost a little more than the movie tie in, or cross platform re-releases, their hand crafted controls create a whole different experience to the tick the box waggling of less devoted developers.