Browsing by Author "Rantatulkkila, Jesper"

Video game-related user-generated content (UGC) is a relatively new phenomenon but has already proven to be an asset to gaming companies in the increasingly competitive gaming market. However, an active use of UGC by gaming companies can result in strained relationships between a player who has created UGC and a gaming company who have used it without compensation. Prior to playing a video game, the players have usually agreed to provide the gaming company at least a right to use any derivative works related to the video game that they have created by accepting the video game’s terms of use, but the terms of use do not clarify what such derivative works are. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to bring clarity to the situation. Therefore, it provides means to draw a distinction between new works that only the player has the right to dispose of and derivative works that the gaming company allegedly has a right to use. The method of the master's thesis is legal dogmatic as its main purpose is to study the current state of law in Finland. However, it also contains some comparative elements as a basis for the study is provided by the examination of judgments made by the US courts and discussions held among US scholars about copyright in UGC. The purpose of examining the US position is not to rely on it as a source of law but to get an overview of mainly technical issues related to UGC that might be relevant also in a Finnish context and to get an understanding of how one of the most significant countries with a relatively well-established state of law in the field of video games and UGC operates. In the latter respect, this master's thesis does point out the key differences between Finnish and US assessment on originality. Due to changes in the European landscape, this master's thesis does not only consider copyright in UGC from a traditional Finnish point of view but takes into account relevant judgments given by the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU), as well as the discussion that has followed among legal scholars. Therefore, the master's thesis also considers to what extent the Finnish state of law has changed after the CJEU gave its judgment in Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening and how it has developed to what it is today through the subsequent cases on originality. In that respect, the master's thesis also considers whether the current tests applied in Finnish cases on originality are still valid and how the EU case law may have impacted on the national law even in areas which are not directly affected by the judgments given by the CJEU, such as in the case of parody. As UGC is often based on parts of video games, this master's thesis begins by studying how video games are protected. The US law is relatively well-established on the matter whereas the Finnish state of law regarding the classification of video games is rather ambiguous. The classification has significant implications which are elaborated on in this study. Although a definitive answer cannot be given, this master's thesis suggests that video games should be regarded as composite works under Finnish law rather than cinematographic works. Since UGC is a broad concept, the main objects of study are narrowed down to play objects, player-characters, user interface add-ons and comedies in order to make the study as comprehensible and detailed as possible. However, it should be noticed that since the copyright assessment is closely tied to the facts in a specific case, the main focus in this master's thesis is to identify factors that must be considered. These involve mainly factors regarding the technology used to create a specific type of UGC. This master's thesis demonstrates that the technical constraints combined with the limits set by the form in which an idea can be expressed may significantly affect the originality that a work may express. Each type of UGC examined differ from the others in respect to which considerations must be made. The UGC chosen for this master's thesis are some of the most common types of UGC that players create and are often located in a grey area as to their classification as works.