VideoGameAttorney and co-host Austin Hoffman here to chat about our new podcast, joining the Headgum network, or anything else you want to chat about!

On the Itchy & Scratchy CD-ROM, is there a way to get out of the dungeon without using the wizard key?

I'll field this one. Let me ask you a question. Why would a man whose shirt says "Genius at Work" spend all of this time watching a children's cartoon show?

What's your take on the Digital Homicide / Jim Sterling Lawsuit? Does digi-hom have ANY legitimate case, here? What could be the long-term consequences of this lawsuit when it comes to games criticism and fair use?

It's a nice headline, but aren't they representing themselves? In my experience, if they had any kind of case, with a price tag in the millions, they'd have contingency attorneys chomping at the bit to help.

Honestly don't know enough to comment specifically, but from the little I've read, it seems like nothing Jimmy should even blink twice at.

They're running a crowdfunding campaign to hire a lawyer. They keep taking it down and putting it back up because of "trolls".

Haaaaaaaaaa

I said this one twitter but I LOVE the intersection of philosophy, technology, and other mundane things. Please explore that more even if it's "just your opinion man".

Will you be talking about cases you've worked once they're said and done? I'm interested in knowing how things really work in this field of law as a layman.

I will definitely talk about some old cases, and even am having some old clients on as guests to go into the things we can talk about! Austin is hyper intelligent (despite how dumb he sounds), but knows nothing about law. So it allows for a really good conversation between us with philosophy meeting actual legislation. That said, thanks for suffering through the first episode. We are new at this still, haha.

I'll be honest, the tangent was just about one degree too long but you're a lawyer so I don't expect that to happen often. You both are intelligent and have a lot of good things to say please keep it up. Do you have a release schedule planned out or is it whenever?

Every Wednesday! And no promises we won't ramble here and there, haha

OP, Why does Austin always feed? Please explain!

He does the work that needs to be done. He isn't the pusher you need, he's the pusher you deserve.

Also it's so easy to overextend with Xul, he's a melee specialist with no escape!

Zagara is where it's really at.

Because of Zagara's great escape? Everyone laugh at this man!

Because he's the worst. Always out of position!

Hey VideoGameAttorney, what is your take on the whole Minecraft EULA deal thing a while back (you know, about having pay2win and buying in-game items with real money, even though the EULA prohibits that, but people still do it anyway)? Is there any way to really enforce that rule?

Won't be giving out specific legal advice today, and I recommend you check out one of my legal AMA's over at /r/gamedev that go on nearly weekly, but the long and short is: Of course there is! It's their game, and they control their EULA. If they have a rule you're breaking, your server will get destroyed if they want it to be. There will be no recourse there, despite what a lot of angry forum posters might say ;)

But even though this has been going on for a long time, a lot of servers still do this, and are continuing to get away with this clear breach of the EULA. I have seen a transcript of a conversation between a server owner and a Mojang employee, trying to tell them that they are not breaking the EULA, to a MOJANG EMPLOYEE, and it is the cringiest thing I have read in a while. I can understand why they are doing it, I mean, servers aren't cheap to run, if you're renting one, but surely there must be other ways to finance running a server e.g. voluntary donations with no perks?

All I can say is that everyone has had two years to comply. If they haven't, they're going to soon with they did :(

Won't be second chances or cease and desists before the blacklistings come, in my opinion.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

Wow, VideoGameAttorney, great moves, keep it up, proud of you! ;)

papa bless

Videogame attorney eh? Have you ever had the chance to say "OBJECTION!!" in court?

I just yell HOLD IT instead.

What is your take on free to play private servers.

Do you represent any?

What is the legal ramifications of running one for profit?

When you say free to play private servers, do you mean someone that takes an existing game (let's say everquest) and hosts their own server with a different version of everquest on it? Those are entirely illegal from an IP stand point, and I don't know any legal claims to say differently. I'd love to play some old games untouched from expansions and changes, but if the IP holder doesn't want to release it, not much we can do when that IP holder decides to swing a hammer at a private run server.

Legal ramifications are life shattering. Millions upon millions.

What happened was (today) a private vanilla WoW server (meaning not owned by Blizzard) was DMCAd.

The weird thing about that server is that it had absolutely no money making scheme, not even a donate button. It was 100% free.

One question I have is, considering the fact that vanilla WoW doesn't exist any more in any form (blizzard nuked the original in cataclysm) and that there wasn't ANY monetization, could they form any fair use claim?

Not even a slight chance.

/u/videogameattorney What do you think about Raynor's who have difficulty outrunning lasers, and when are we playing HotS again?

My valla is untouchable. And any time you want! Open invite to everyone on here to PM me and get some sweet sweet HotS action going. (I'm so so sorry /r/dota2...I've sold out so hard...but 20 minute games are amazing)

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Talking all that dota good stuff for so long :). We gotta tag up buddy.

Absolutely! Long overdue

If you love 20 minute games, you should checkout Smite. Think of it as LoL from a 3rd person, over-the-shoulder POV. The official "main" game mode is Conquest, which is the usual 3 lane game mode that every MOBA has, but there are other modes like Arena, which is basically just a 5v5 mayhem with no objectives, and is actually the most played game mode in Smite, and Assault, an ARAM game mode.

I've tried smite, but heroes has all the nostalgia love I was missing as well.

In the podcast, cybernetic enhancements were talked about and it made me think of Greenberg v Miami Children's Hospital Research Institute, Inc. where children with a rare disease gave blood samples but were denied any kind of compensation.

Do you think this will continue if someone's genetic material is used as the base for an enhancement that someone else profits off of?

Ooh that's a great question! Unfortunately, we will probably see people assigning full rights to their genetic code when they get paid the $100 for whatever research experiment they sign up for. I would love to see some law made where your genetics are treated the same as your likeness.

Compared to movies and TV Shows, what are courtroom hearings REALLY like?

Are they as intense and dramatic?

Also, what do "lawyer movies" fail to show? Like the boring stuff.

Entirely different. To move away from the podium, as an attorney, or get "loud" or combative with a witness, you need to get permission to treat that witness as hostile. In movies/shows, lawyers run around the courtroom screaming and shouting. Not how it works. Although, you do get a lot of impassioned speeches, and often times a good salesman/attorney will convince a jury more than evidence. Broken system I tells ya. Thank god I'm charming as hell. (I also don't litigate much, if ever. My partner, Michael Lee, is the bite to my bark).

Thanks for the answer!

Follow-up question, what shows do you think show or are close to showing an accurate depiction of a courtroom drama?

Also, on the lawyer side of things; what's your opinion on Daredevil and Better Call Saul?

Remember that episode of Futurama where the crew has to reenact Single Female Lawyer for the Omicronians?

It's like that.

Spot on

With more and more video games allowing the purchase of ingame currency (i.e. pay real money for smurfberries money), and with the ability to sell/trade ingame items on public markets, the line between video games and gambling is becoming blurred. Do you foresee any kind of government intervention to curb or limit in game currencies? Or any other kind of non-voluntary rules for game publishers working in this grey area?

Yup! Not on ingame purchases as they were. But the skin gambling websites have to go. Or they have to regulate much better.

What was it like to play an autistic savant in Rainman? Did you like working with Tom Cruise?

Please let's keep all questions related to rampart

are you expecting any exciting new types of lawsuits with VR becoming big?

They are definitely coming. I almost can't wait to see the causes of action!

With the attorney general's offices in Tennessee and Alabama issuing opinions that DFS is illegal gambling, what does the future hold for DFS? Also, how do these opinions and other state opinions impact other games labeled as skill games?

We're going to get a federal gambling law soon I think. Not sure if it will allow gambling or ban it, but I imagine we see some central governing there soon.

Is there anything you can say about the PM shutdown? I never read any closure on the matter. PMDT members claimed no legal action was taken, but all signs point to something spooking them into shutting it down, despite the fact that we got an update on upcoming content a mere two weeks prior. So if they didn't receive any form of legal action against them, what happened?

Eeeeeeeeevery AMA gets this question. Eeeeeeeeevery time I say we've said all we're going to say :)

How does one become a Videogame Attorney?

You must master every materia in FF7, make the redhead fall in love with you in Harvest Moon, and not get annoyed by Preston in FO4.

Is it legal to scrape sports data from a sports website like ESPN?

Their ToS should say what they allow

What do you think of The Social Wallet? Would you be interested in talking about this offline?

Don't know much about it, sorry.

Hi. I'm a 1L student at a pretty big law school in Los Angeles, and also an avid gamer. I'm still new to everything, but do you know any places I should start looking at if I wanted to enter in your field?

Network your butt off! Entertainment law is as much about who you know as what you know, so make sure you are at GDC, and every other big industry event. Also try hard in school, of course, but law review is law review is law review. Shaking hands with me or some other insider at an event is how you stand out to us (as stupid as that may be).

VideoGameAttorney, do you have any input as to the current situation regarding Blizzard's World of Warcraft and suing Nostalrius?

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4drzb6/videogameattorney_and_cohost_austin_hoffman_here/d1trhuq

He says that private servers are completely illegal under current IP law, and that there's no recourse for Nostalrius.

Sadly, that's the truth.

What were your thoughts with Hillary Clinton joining forces with Jack Thompson to ban violent video games like the Grand Theft Auto games?

That would be a great television pilot. Hillary and Thompson running around trying to ban fun, while Bernie Sanders runs an underground super fun committee.

Hiring?

Austin might be

Hello Mr. VideoGameLawyerDude,

I am currently studying audio at a creative college and for my major project I have joined a team to create a video game. There are 5 of us.

What are some of the little things that people may forget about when it comes to monetizing a game as a group of people?

This is our first foray into actually attempting to make money from our game and quite frankly our course is a little scarce on stuff like legal documents between coworkers (it rustles my jimmies that's for sure).

Where do we start?

Any info would be wonderful.

Love your work mate,

Cheers.

Always happy to help with this stuff, but won't be giving out much legal advice today. Give a look through my old post history, or feel free to ask next time I do an AMA in /r/gamedev. Sorry we're keeping the worlds separate today :)