Fan Flick - Denied!

It's stuff like this that gives companies bad names.

"Four years in the planning Damnatus, made by German fans of the Warhammer 40,000 game, cost more than 10,000 euros, took months to film, employs 11 principal actors, dozens of extras and sophisticated post-production special effects. Now finished the film runs to 110 minutes.

But Huan Vu, director and producer of the movie, said Damnatus' creators have now given up trying to get the film in front of an audience." Mostly due to German copyright law:

" Andy Jones, legal and licensing head for Games Workshop, said this law confers rights on the creators of works that cannot be given away. This means that the creators of Damnatus cannot assign their rights to Games Workshop even if they wanted to. But by sanctioning the release of the film without this "assignment" Games Workshop would essentially be giving up the title to the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property."

[link] via bbc

More of the Violence VG

" State of Play: Violence and video games"
"The debate around video games and violence rears its head every few months. But are the right questions being asked?"

[link] via bbc

Mo' Copyright Woes

" The day the music died

Internet law professor Michael Geist examines a legal row which could have grave implications for anyone and everyone serving an online audience."

[link] via BBC

Winsor McCay - early animator - lasting effects

Neat little flash overview of winsor mcCay's lasting influences.

[link] via boingboing

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Moral Kombat Trailer

There's much to say about this trailer, mostly because it seems to align the movie with the 'video games are murder simulators' side, and not the "Pikmin? Animal Crossing? Murder? Eh?!?!" side as much. Sensationalist is the word I'm looking for here :-)

[link] via youtube

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Once More Unto the Breach!

Joystiq has a post on the reaction to the controversial documentary "Moral Kombat" about violence in videogames. Of course it features none other than Jack Thompson, the US"s moral guardian of the people.

[link] via joystiq

Artist Banksy 'captured in photo' ??

Could this smudgy image be of Banksy? Probably not - mostly because it's daylight and, well, the good thing is there are so many Banksy copycats you'd never know for sure. It's amazing to me that he's managed to remain anonymous while selling thousands of pounds worth of artwork!

[link] via bbc