Lawyers are Expensive - Ask Here

Ask legal questions about game development/publishing here. I'll do my best to give general guidance. Not legal advice, hire an actual lawyer, etc. Anyway, just answering questions for my bros.

Izo_sl said:

Watch Out for the Law Trolls - The Blog Herald | The Blog Herald
Would you consider the above link good advice?

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I don't see a lot of advice is that post, other than maybe the bottom line which is:

You owe it yourself as a blogger and as Web user to be aware of what the law actually says and ensure that you can both protect your rights and not infringe on others.

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I don't think you will find anyone that disagrees with the above. Every person should have at least a basic understanding of the laws that are applicable to the space in which they operate, professionally or personally. Doctors should know malpractice rules. Hunters should know hunting rules. Media representatives (including bloggers) should know the rules that govern that. Pretty common sense.

That said, the notion of "legal trolls" is not new by any stretch. Patent trolls have been around for a long time. The more neutral term for patent trolls are called "non-practicing entities" or NPEs. What that basically means is that they don't really use the patents that they sue over, they just buy them for the purposes of stopping others from using it (or more directly, collecting a royalty on such use). People's opinions vary greatly on the ethics of this practice. On one hand, the purpose of the patent system is to incentivize innovation and disclosure (which leads to more innovation) by granting a state sponsored monopoly on anything that you invent. NPEs really don't fall into that category because they often didn't invent the item, nor do they innovate on it. However, the other side of the coin is that somewhere along the way, an inventor, presumably skilled in some area of expertise, made money on those patents because the NPE purchase it or at least paid for the right to sue on it. The inventor might not have the means, standing alone, to force others to "play nice" so to speak, so the NPE's play a role in ensuring that those inventors that are too small to enforce their patents, get compensated.

No matter which way you look at it, though, one thing is for sure. Anyone can sue for anything. Even if they are wrong, it takes time and money to demonstrate that they are wrong. Because of this fundamental aspect of our legal system, there will always be an opportunity for "abuse." Like many things, whether or not someone is exercising its legal rights, or abusing the system often depends on where you are situated. One of the most public examples was the music industry. When the music industry started going after peer to peer music transfers, many people were up in arms. The big bullies are forcing little Timmy to incur thousands of dollars of expenses to do what everyone does. On the other hand, the music industry said, quite correctly, I understand, but they are stealing. Both sides were right. It doesn't seem fair that a company with millions and millions of dollars can bring a claim against an individual with very limited resources. Even if little Timmy didn't do anything wrong, what is he going to do? Pay a lawyer for years to defend himself? It is easy to feel helpless when, even if you are right, you can't afford to prove it. On the other hand, the music industry's goal is to protect stealing. It doesn't get much more simple than that, right? If you don't want to get bullied, don't steal.

So is it abuse or is that exercising a legal right? It's probably a little of both. The advice in the article is right. Know your rights and do your best to adhere to the applicable rule. Then, hopefully, you wont have to deal with legal problems at all, whether by a troll or by someone enforcing their legal rights. After all, trolls typically only go after "low hanging fruit" because it often costs them a lot of money to force people to the table as well.