The fact is lawyers have been “specializing” in videogame law since the 1980s. When I began working as General Counsel for a multimedia developer in the early 1990s, the basic legal issues of videogame law already had been well established. What was still unclear was the appropriate business model/licensing structure for such games – particularly when a videogame was to be based on a movie, or when a multimedia product was going to include pre-existing content (music, video clips, text) from other sources. And while entertainment companies and videogame developers are still debating which entity provides the most “value” to a given interactive product, the basic legal issues surrounding their relationship are well settled.

When the Internet emerged as a burgeoning field in the mid-1990s, a lot of young lawyers touted “Internet law” as the next big thing. However, except for a few areas, such as domain names as trademarks and privacy issues, most of the bread-and-butter legal issues (copyright infringement, licensing, business deals) were merely variations on what had gone before.

And while it is true that the emergence of MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games) have given rise to several interesting new issues (particularly ownership of “virtual property”), most of what lawyers do in the videogame arena is well-settled.

The fact is that “Videogame Law” is so well established that law schools are offering courses (see here and here) in the field to law students.

In light of these facts, it is hard to understanding why two well-respected newspapers would run articles on this issue as if it was something brand new. Perhaps a slow news day?

Toward the end of the 1970s, advances in semiconductor technology permitted the development of the first inexpensive, relatively small computers – ushering in the personal computer era. Most of the early companies have been long forgotten – such companies as IMSAI, Cromemco and Osborne. One company, literally started in a garage, however, has survived. Apple Computer provided the first, fully assembled personal computer, and looked like it would dominate the personal computer industry.

Then in 1982, IBM announced that it would begin manufacturing its own personal computer. And not only that, but that its computer, unlike Apple’s, would be based upon an open architecture – that is, any company that wanted to could build and sell an IBM-PC compatible machine. Other companies quickly entered the field with IBM PC-compatible machines, including Compaq and HP. What was most significant to the computer industry (at least in hindsight) was that IBM chose Microsoft to provide the operating system for its PC, and allowed Microsoft to provide the same operating system to any other manufacturer who wanted it.¹ (More after the jump.)

The dawn of the PC industry saw an explosion in the number of software companies, and with that an enormous demand for lawyers who could provide legal services for all of these start-ups, from incorporations to funding to licensing, IP protection, domestic (and later international) distribution agreements, and so forth.

Toward the end of the Third Epoch a new field of practice began to develop – multimedia law. Higher processing speeds, CD-ROM technology, the enormous installed base of PCs, and a group of entrepreneurs who saw the potential for bringing entertainment to the PC by teaming up with the entertainment industry, all converged at this time.

The term “multimedia” became hot. Any company that had the word in its name, or claimed to be developing a multimedia product, was flooded with funding propositions by venture capitalist and other investors who wanted to get in on the ground floor of the “next big thing.” The CD-ROM-based multimedia market looked like a sure thing – until the emergence of the next “bigger” thing – namely, the Internet.

© 2007, 2008 Michael D. Scott. All rights reserved.

Next: “History of Computer/IT Law Fourth Epoch (1993-2001).”
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1. IBM had originally contacted Digital Research (DRI) for the operating system, since DRI had the leading personal computer operating system at the time – CP/M). However, although the stories vary, DRI apparently snubbed IBM and IBM then went to its second choice – Microsoft. See S. Krause, Short History of MS-DOS.