Tathar

I have to say I love this column. I have an interest in law, especially as it relates to video games, and Supreme Court decisions like this one make me glad that the integrity of our legal system continues to protect our rights and freedoms. Not that it's anything new by now, but when our laws help to protect our freedom of expression, it is a victory for everyone.

P.S. Those who believe that violent video games are bad for our youth are simply misinformed. I hope they will discover the truth soon so we don't have to waste the Supreme Court's time with unconstitutional video game bans.

I'm still thinking about getting a DSi XL actually. My DS Phat randomly crashes every once in a while, and I kinda like the bigger size. I might get a DS Lite instead since my GBA's got a similar problem, though.

Sony's stock isn't affected by it's handheld nearly as much as Nintendo's stock is affected by this announcement.

Not only that, it's printing out money for ME. I've had 55 shares of Nintendo for a while just waiting for an announcement like this.

It doesn't use 3D glasses. If it's anything like the DSi demo of glasses-free 3D, then you could see it in 3D even with one eye closed.

Why can't these companies stick to a simple CD key? No live server to maintain (poorly in this case) and none of the costs associated with the highly intrusive DRM technologies used in recent history.

Heck, it might even bring back some pirates to paying for games. I'm sure there were plenty who pirated their first game -- if blog comments stating such can be trusted -- because of the intrusive DRM used in the legal copy.

You mean that lame cartoon from the 90s?

Yeah, it protects the rights of the copyright owner. These companies are quick to tell you that. What they won't tell you (except possibly in buried legalese) is how they actually manage to do that. It's not good.

So here's a more accurate definition: "Protects the copyright owner's rights while trampling on the rights of everyone else."

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Admittedly I never bothered to check so far into it to confirm my suspicions, but still.

I'm no lawyer either. I just got bored one day and decided to become familiar with what the USPTO says on trademark law.

Or the devs can turn to Flash games, where they can actually make their money by banking on the game getting "pirated" and distributed to the non-paying masses on hundreds of websites.