The legal protection of video games

Abstract

Recent developments in the Maltese infrastructure and economy have brought with them the possibility of a Maltese video game industry. This thesis pre-empts this possibility and seeks to ascertain whether local intellectual property law is prepared to address the issues that may arise due to the peculiar nature of this product. The first chapter will introduce the industry to the reader and attempt to make clear a list of defined terms that may prove to be important if the reader has not come across the terms before. It will also allude to the legal issues that will be dealt with in this thesis. While the study in this thesis will encompass all the instruments of intellectual property law in Malta, the main area that will be examined is that of copyright for reasons which will be made clear as the argument evolves. The thesis will then consider the main issues relating to the video game in regard to copyright law along with patent law to a lesser degree. The focus of the study will seek to ascertain how the program of a video game and its output can be protected and whether this protection already exists under Maltese law. This will constantly involve a comparison with American Law which already has a history with this industry as well as some judgments from the European Court of Justice. The chapter on programming will consider issues arising from reproduction of the code for technical purposes as well as issues of reverse engineering of programming. The subsequent chapter on output will define the works that form the output as well as arguing the merit of protecting these works as a single work or separately. Conclusions will then be drawn as to the adequacy of Maltese law and where it stands to improve.