Pinball and Dancing: Closer Than You May Think

Legal Information:
So what do Pinball and Dancing have in common.
They can both be loud.
They can both involve bright lights.
They both are fun ways of enjoyment.
They both can be banned from small town America.

Yes ladies and gentlemen Very much like the ban of dancing in the 1980’s musical Footloose, Pinball that game that goes back even to the 1920’s and 1930’s is banned in 2010 in the small town of Beacon, New York.

This Archaic law which goes back decades on the books forbids the operation of any video or pinball arcade in Beacon. The law is not the only one of its kind although it is one of the few that has not been ripped off of the books or is enforced.

In the 1930’s with the growth of the Mafia and organized crime pinball machines and arcades were seen and bad influences and perpetuated the mafia racket. This is mainly due to the fact that the pinball machines of that time lacked the little flippers at the bottom making pinball quaint essentially a game of chance. This lead to a strong venue for gambling which organized crime started to have a strong liking.

Machines were banned in most major cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. After the ruling in New York more than 3,000 pinball machines were destroyed and their metal used for the war effort.

In 1947 the integration of flippers at the bottom of the Pinball machine changed the dynamic of the game and most bans were lifted and forgot about.

But what does this have to do with anyone anymore. I mean with Xbox’s, Playstation’s and WII’s around every corner and in every home who goes to video game arcades anymore?

For Fred Bobrow this law still on the books but untouched for almost a century means that he had to shut down his pinball museum or be jailed and or fined. This being said most of the town people enjoy Bobrow’s business and says it fits well with Beacon ‘s atmosphere but still he is shut down 18 months after opening up its doors.

Bloggers Bit:
Ok, Who did this guy make mad? 18 months after opening they close him down. Come on that’s over a year. Most cities have a planning and zoning commissiosn in which he would have had to get permission to open. Although the law is very old and unused most of those individuals on these commities have to know about all of the legislation dealing with their field of review. I also feel that this law is so quirky that someone somewhere in the town would have used it as a joke some where. “Did you know that we can never play pinball.. oh that’s funny“ Then the City Council shut him down and said they would review the legislation but it may take awhile. Come on City Council, don’t kid us. Beacon is not a metropolis and I am sure that your all’s agenda is not full to the hilt.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, all Mr. Babrow wants to do is fulfill his dream of running his own business. Just let the man be.


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In The Beginning...

Legal Information:

Plaintiff: Magnavox

Defendant: Atari

Allegations: In 1972 Magnavox released a table tennis game for their play at home video game system called the Odyssey. The Odyssey was the first at home video game system. The system and its games were shown, played and marketed all over the growing world of Video games and at Magnavox trade shows around the world. This ping-pong game created for the Magnavox Odyssey was the first electronic table tennis game ever.
That same year after the release of the Magnavox Odyssey’s at home version of Ping-pong an Arcade version of the same type was created by Atari and was released under the name “ Pong”. Other smaller knock off versions of the ping-pong game also followed. After three years of pressure, in 1975, Magnavox sued Atari for patent and concept infringement of their ping-pong paddle game. Magnavox had evidence that the ideas leading up to the creation of their ping-pong game went back as far as 1966 and they had proof that the lead inventor for Atari’s pong had visited.

Status:
The case was settled out of court in favor of Magnavox in June 1976. Atari was to pay Magnavox $700,000 to become a license of the product. Other companies producing pong like games would have to pay royalties. Also, Magnavox obtained all rights to any products Atari created during the next year.


Bloggers Bit: It just shows you that even in the beginning of video games looking over your neighbors shoulder would hurt you in the long run. Patent law is tricky and even in today’s games especially with competing systems have similar games that are just enough different is essential. Personally at the time feel Atari got screwed. Lets just say that. But they really brought it upon themselves. Magnavox would probably have had a weak case if the head designer for Atari had not signed the guestbook at a Magnavox event showcasing the early stages of the game. If you know anything about designing game it takes a while to design a game and depending on the time frame Atari could have used that as a defense. Overall Magnavox only really won because they were the bigger dog in this fight. If they took it to court Atari may have had a chance. Unfortunately Atari was a newer company and the estimated court costs would have been approximately close to 1.5 million dollars, which would have taken them out of the running. In the Long run I feel Atari won. First of all Atari did not develop any products during the year in which Magnavox had control of them. It has been said all work was done under the table and covered very well. Secondly and most importantly how many people know what an Odyssey is but how many people know what Pong is. There you go Atari.

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Virtually Disabled

Legal Information:

Plaintiff: Alexander Stern

Defendants: Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America

Allegations: Unlike other entertainment corporations including Blizzard entertainment, Sony refuses to accommodate their video games in a way which would allow visually impaired players the same opportunities as Normal Players within the gaming world. In doing these actions they are in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA states "No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation." Since the Plaintiff requested there be changes to the games created by Sony and Sony declines these requests, the plaintiff alleges that Sony is in violation of the act.

Status: Dismissed by U.S. District Court for the Central District of California due to the fact that Sony is not a 'place of public accommodation' so it does not fall under the Act.

Bloggers Bit:
Some may find this lawsuit extreme and with them I slightly agree. I understand the point in which Stern is trying to make. Why can’t the visually impaired enjoy the ability to play video games? Just for the record the visually impaired also does not just mean complete blindness, it can constitute anyone with some kind of visual impairment. Although it might seem like a stretch to try and make accommodations to a media which is almost completely visually driven, it has been done before in the past. Instances in which accommodations have been made are seen in such games as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, which has modified itself in a way to allow outside aids and in the PC game Terraformers which had developed different audio aids to help the visually impaired. This type of aid is not anything new to the gaming worlds, Sony is just not being the most accommodating to all individuals, which is surprising considering if they were accommodating they would be able to sell their game to a wider audience.

Where Stern goes wrong in his suit is not the intended outcome of inclusion of individuals with disabilities but the statute in which he hangs his hat. The Judge was right in the fact that Sony is a privately owned company and is not a place of public accommodation. Because of this, it does not fall under the state of the ADA. Hopefully this litigation brings to light the fact that Sony is unaccommodating and will urge a change in the company’s programming. It is all up to the future to tell. Good try Stern but you just fell short.

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Bang... Bang... Your Virtually Dead

Legal information:

Legislation: HB 1009
State: Washington
Sponsor: Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (Democrat)
Description: To fine and ban the sale of violent video games to minors ( under age 17) which portrays violence to police officers.
Status: Passed and first of its kind in the country but later declared unconstitutional

Blogger’s Bit: As we grow up we are socialized to respect and honor the civil servants who put their personal well being on the line for the American public everyday. But everyday in Movies and in video games Police officers are the targets or crimes and violence. It is something we cannot hide from. It is more disturbing to me the length at which video games such as Grand Theft Auto , Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Postal III and Minority Report: Everybody Runs exploit violence on police officers. Their is a fair amount of research done on violence first player games and how they effect individuals and most of this research points in the negative direction . It has been Highly publicized that The United States military uses violent video games to desensitize shooters and to teach them how to kill. Why would we want video games which are used for this reason to be altered and used for the purpose of hurting and creating victims of our police officers. I don’t see a reason in which injuring police officers are something which should be sold to children younger than 17 if sold at all.

The unconstitutionality of this was challenged and brought down in a following lawsuit. The reason for the overturning of its constitutionality is blamed on the broad language of the statute and its ability with this broad language to infringe on the freedom of speech promised by the First Amendment.

The first amendment does state.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I am a firm believer of all these freedoms and the actions they protect but I just feel as though these actions just like spices should be used to their fullest extent sparingly. Where do we draw the line between having the ability to show and allow gamers to shoot police officers and the actual usage of it in a game.


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You can play my song… Just not my sound.

The Legal Facts:

Plaintiff: The Romantics

Defendant: Activision Inc

Allegation: Activision is the creator of the best selling series of guitar hero games. The Romantics song “ What I Like About You”. Is used along with about 30 other songs in the series 80’s music installment. Activision to the necessary precautions needed to secure the rights of the music and used a cover of the band as to not involve the original artists. The Romantics are not seeking any claim to copyright infringement but are suing Activision for loss of their own right to their likeness. The Romantics seek unspecified damages and an injunction, which would stop the further sale of the game.

Judgement: A Detroit Federal Judge ruled against the Romantics and for Activision Inc.

Reasoning: Activision had acted in good faith by securing the rights to record a cover version of the contested song.

Blogger’s Bit: Ok. I see no good outcome of this lawsuit for the Romantics. First of all the Romantics did not have to many hits to begin with and in pretty sure “ What I Like About You” , is the biggest they had. Guitar Hero is one of the more recently successful franchises of games out there today. It opens up the world of music to a new generation and allows children and adults of all ages to enjoy music while competing. In the game itself eyery song is giving attribution to the writers and the original artists. Do the Romantics not realize how much money they are probably making from the usage of their song in the game? They may not be making money from Activision Inc. itself but how many people have downloaded that song after hearing it for the first time on the game? How many younger audiences ( born after the 80’s) have bought their music after finally being introduced to it. I understand The Romantics feel that they lost their likeness but maybe they should look at the big picture. Besides making themselves look money hungry and as though they have nothing else better to do with their lives than litigation over their only real hit, it makes them look bad. Romantics take the free publicity from the game for what its worth. You don’t have to sue to get your name out there, let the game do its job.

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What? What! Im Addicted!!

The Legal Facts:

Plaintiff: Craig Smallwood of Hawaii
Defendant: NCsoft of South Korea

Allegation: NCsoft knowingly created an addicting videogame ( Lineage 2) and put it on the market without any kind of warning to consumers. The Plaintiff then became addicted to said videogame due to his lack of knowledge of its addictive qualities. Claims he would have never played if he knew of risk. Legal claims against NCsoft include negligence, gross negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Status: Judgment pending

Bloggers Bit:
Ok, we all understand that America has become a society, which strives on litigation. But really, they didn’t tell me that the game could be addicting so I didn’t know? I feel this is a weak argument but I have seen cases weaker than this change the life and world, as we know it. If this successfully goes through the legal system and the decision falls to thee Plaintiff, our children may grow up with video games that not only have a rating system but addiction warning labels. There were many other claims thrown at Croft not just the claims of negligence, gross negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The presiding judge threw out the other claims even before it went to trial. What else is there to try and use to legally prove the point that the video game made you addicted and it wasn’t your fault?

The main question this lawsuit places to me is when do Americans take responsibility for their own actions. When do they stop pushing the “buck” or their own issues onto other organizations, individuals or apparently items? I didn’t make myself fat the cheeseburger did it! I didn’t mean to get addicted to the game but the makers made it addicting! Where is the level of responsibility? If we totally negate this level and allow our poor actions to be blamed on the ignorance of all things then where does that leave us. I whole hearted understand that there are addictive items, behaviors and personalities in the world. And I understand addiction is a disease but anyone can become addicted to anything it is just how the individual handles it. I feel if Americans continue down this road, chocolate, facebook and malls will all have warning labels too. I just don’t see litigation like this leading anywhere good for the American people.


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The Law and Order of Video Games

Every inch of our country and culture is quickly being taken over by legislation and lawsuits. It has been said that we are a pretty litigation happy society and the Entertainment industry is just the latest frontier to this movement. From movies to music, internet and most recently the Video Gaming world have been drawn into and succumbed to the world of government censorship, politics, civil and criminal litigation and legislation. Trust me there are reasons that EA Sports and Activision have many high paid lawyers at their disposal with advanced degrees in entertainment and communications law. (On a side note this maybe the reason communications and entertainment law are two of the fastest growing areas of specialty ) But they are just games? How can they be such a topic of debate in the black and white legal world? Their influence and content, effect or claimed effect on individuals has opened up this world. In numerous states certain violent video game legislation had been passed and in others lawsuits has been one weakening the world of games. What influence do these laws and lawsuits have on the medium? How does their precedent affect future games and current ones. My research will take a look into the wild world of the law and order of video games. From new laws to the lawsuits from politics and playing the world of video games is growing quickly and the laws are right there to catch it. These are their stories.

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And In This Corner!!!

The Internet is absolutely full of vast amounts of information, the good the bad and the ugly. Websites must compete for viewers of all different genres and must be the best if they ant to be effective and the ” Champion” Since I soon will be creating my own website about all aspects of the topic of makeup about I set out on a journey to find information, design styles, organizational approaches and ideas from existing web pages on my subject. I was actually quite surprised by what I found.

In the red corner of competition was the first website I looked at called Makeup411. It is one of the VERY few websites which I could find on the topic of makeup which wasn’t just an article or blog type writing on the topic. The first thing I noticed as it stepped into the ring was when I entered the page is the bright use of color to catch your eye. The use of color and font gives the page a “hip” feel and makes it seem as through it is aimed at the younger twenty something crowd. One thing I do not like is the fact that is has an extremely crowded homepage. Not only does it have lead articles posted but also tons of advertisements and mini articles. The homepage itself is sensory overload.
I do like how the sub pages are across the top and easily navigational. They are easily tabbed and gave me some more ideals about extra pages which I can add to my own structure of my webpage. They have a complete section about makeup in music videos which completely did not cross my mind as a medium and use. I can now add it to movies and the stage as media uses on my future site. But sadly the sub pages across the side are unmarked advertisement and I do not like the fact that they are given to the audience as fact ony to later been seen as an advertisement.
Overall I have mixed feeling about this website. I believe a website can hold a lot of information but its structure must be clean and this website is most definitely not. It is way to cluttered and just not my cup of tea I will definitely use some of the things from it to better my future website. It was a good fight but definitely not a knock out.

Since finding a website about makeup that is not an article or blog is harder than finding a needle in a haystack, no lie. It really opened my eyes to the fact that there are really not too many websites out there that cover the information I would like to put in my future website. It made me excited that I maybe pursuing new territory and my website may actually be of use to other individuals someday. Because of this I decided to take a different approach with my second website. I chose to look at a past students website that way I can see what is accomplishable with the resources I am allotted.
So stepping up in the blue corner and underdog in the internet world is a students website about the New York Jets Professional Football team and their 50th season. This website came highly recommended as a good learning tool so I decided to give it a try.
I was highly impressed with the website itself. It was clean and well organized. I found it highly efficient to navigate and was able to use it rather quickly. There was only one thing which I think I would have liked differently. I think the organization was great but in a few areas the creator combined topics which I felt could have stood on their own pages and allowed it to move smother as I navigated the site. I ended up having to go back instead of using links.
And now to the judges…. It was a tough battle but the decision is unanimous… NY Jets wins!! Overall this website kept my attention and was easier for me to use than the big name website with all of the advertisers and money. Sometimes simplicity is the key and that’s the knowledge im walking away from this fight with.


websites used
http://makeup411.com/web/
http://webpages.shepherd.edu/PDISAN01/history/index.html

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Can you Pass Me A Skittle??

In the United States prison culture women will lick skittles and use the coloring off of them to apply makeshift makeup to their faces since they are not allowed the use of cosmetics while incarcerated. What is it about our appearance that makes even women who has lost their freedom find ways to make themselves feel as though they must look presentable for the other inmate population? An individual’s appearance is something that all societies use for judgment and placement. In different societies the ideals are unique from one another but body modification in each is unique. The quickest and easiest form of modification is make-up. Through out history in times as early as the ancient Egyptians and before, make-up has been used to signify stature, roles and increase believed beauty. In other areas of the world it had been used for ceremonies and expression. Although the ingredient components of these makeup’s may not be what we find in modern day cosmetics, the use of makeup has traveled through the ages, and evolved into the world of make up we see today. The make up world has boomed into a multi million dollar business. And does not only include what we consider average everyday wear makeup but also professional stage makeup and special effects makeup just to name a few. For a product which is supposed to hide your own imperfections but be invisible to the eye it sure is a powerful component of women’s culture worldwide.

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Use The PowerPoint Luke!!!!

PowerPoint?? The vain of all existence or a tool which if used correctly brings a visual aid to the world of business communications. I’m a firm believer in not choosing binary opposition in sides, black or white, good or evil, Sith or Jedi. I believe there is a lot of grey matter in the world and in this area. The PowerPoint itself is not what is the problem but just like the force if it is used incorrectly it could be mayhem to the effected audience. Edward Tufte, our very own Darth Vader, sees PowerPoint as only evil. He sees it as something that will dumb down our youth and communications. I have seen PowerPoint done this way. There was a presentation in my past in which I could not understand a wick of what was going on do to the crazy animation, very loud background and unusable text. This can also be said for putting too much information on a PowerPoint. In one of my courses the teacher copied and pasted from an online resource her entire PowerPoint. It was too overwhelming and I lost focus rather quickly. But if we see the world like our own PowerPoint Yoda, David Byrne, if used in the right way PowerPoint can bring out the best in presentations and allow a great visual medium for learners who are visually inclined such as myself. I had a teacher onetime who always took time in their presentations made them visually interesting but used them as an outline not a script for their class. In this way it helped me stay focuses and elaborated on their subject matter in a way in which I could understand better. In the end it is not the tool that is good or bad it’s the user. A light saber can kill just as easily as it can be used to protect. So the next time you sit down to create a presentation just remember… Let the force be with you!

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