It is always played whether big or small, games enjoy great popularity, especially in the virtual area. The market for online games, video and computer games is still booming, the multiplicity of different games, new innovations or playing techniques seems almost limitless.
The Playing
But as great as the fun of playing may be, so there is just in the virtual games area a not to be underestimated component, which is neglected by many users, however it is about the copyright.
The computer program on which the game is based should as a rule enjoy unproblematic copyright protection. But this is certainly not realized by the user often, but rather what constitutes the game: user manual, rules of the game, graphic implementation, characters or the spoken or written texts and the music. All of these components may be subject to copyright protection, with the protection of individual components or related parts of the game always having to be established.
It all starts with the idea of the game: this alone, as a rule, does not enjoy any copyright protection because often many ideas follow the same approach. Often, the player must prevail against competitors – whether real or virtual – or fulfill individual missions.
- The now quite common idea, as settlers, urban planners, etc. to settle the land and make here a functioning community, therefore, for example, should not be protected.
However, this already looks different in the implementation, because here are the game ideas expression in very specific forms, such as presentation, game action and the consequences of the actions of the player consequences, so that here a copyright protection attacks, even for the game idea in combination with its concrete design. In particular, because the game is based on a possibly complicated or complex programming, it would be incomprehensible to deny the creator here a protection. It is also not against the fact that the player influenced by his actions in the game the course, because all possible constellations, game sequences, etc. are already predetermined by the programming. It is therefore only influenced by the player, which game variant continues to run.
However, the prerequisite is always that a certain individuality is to be determined. However, this should not be the problem in most games, because games – despite identical basic structure – for example in the form of the design of the so-called “worlds” or the tasks to be mastered, the protagonists or the available means of transport are so different that each Game is to be individualized based on his traits.
The Strange Thing
It may sound strange at first, but video games and computer games may even enjoy copyright protection as a cinematographic work, which is because the player is often already in a very real-world and, for example, the intermediate and final sequences the player gets to see successful completion of missions or tasks, often have corresponding short film character.
But also a protection of the game itself as a film work comes into consideration, if one considers the game as a complete work. Because even here you control the character through an environment that the user will often feel like a movie. This will of course only be the case if the computer game has been implemented individually and creatively enough.
Of course, the aspect of recognizing a computer game as a cinematographic work is due to the numerous technical possibilities available today. And even if many of them are likely to associate real pictures and characters with a film, or at least consider cameras as necessary for a film, surely no one will deny that the concoctures developed entirely on the computer such as “Shrek”, “Finding Nemo “or” Ice Age “undoubtedly be viewed as a movie. Therefore, it is now taken for granted that a film, regardless of the production mechanisms is worth protecting.
