Nintendo of America, Inc. vs. Blockbuster LLC. (original) (raw)
Nintendo of America, Inc. vs. Blockbuster LLC was a 1989 legal case related to the copyright of video games, where Blockbuster agreed to stop photocopying game instruction manuals for Nintendo. Blockbuster publicly accused Nintendo of starting the lawsuit after being excluded from the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act, which limited the rental of computer software but allowed the rental of Nintendo's game cartridges. Nintendo responded that they were enforcing their copyright as an essential foundation of the video game industry.
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| dbo:abstract | Nintendo of America, Inc. vs. Blockbuster LLC was a 1989 legal case related to the copyright of video games, where Blockbuster agreed to stop photocopying game instruction manuals for Nintendo. Blockbuster publicly accused Nintendo of starting the lawsuit after being excluded from the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act, which limited the rental of computer software but allowed the rental of Nintendo's game cartridges. Nintendo responded that they were enforcing their copyright as an essential foundation of the video game industry. The dispute began in the late 1980s, when video rental shops began to rent computer software to capitalize on the growing software industry. This practice was legal thanks to the first-sale doctrine, which allows anyone to distribute an instance of a copyrighted work that they have legally purchased. This led the Software Publishers Association, as well as Microsoft, the WordPerfect Corporation, and Nintendo, to lobby United States Congress to limit the rental of software. The Video Software Dealers Association offered a deal to the software publishers, promising to support the new rental limits if they still allowed the lucrative game cartridge rentals. A draft of the new rental protection bill passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee, limiting software rentals for computers while allowing stores to rent Nintendo game cartridges. With no legal remedy to stop the rental of their games, Nintendo sued Blockbuster for reproducing their copyrighted game manuals. Blockbuster quickly ended the practice, and decided to hire third-parties to create replacements for any lost or damaged manuals. They settled the lawsuit with Nintendo a year later. Soon after the settlement, the Computer Software Rentals Amendment Act passed with protections against software rentals, excluding Nintendo cartridges from similar protections. Although Nintendo criticized game rentals, they came to accept it, even working with Blockbuster to offer exclusive rental versions of their games. The first-sale doctrine was eventually subverted by end-user license agreements, which describe that the consumer is purchasing a singular, non-transferable license to the software, thus limiting the sale of used software. (en) |
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| dbp:court | District Court of New Jersey (en) |
| dbp:dateDecided | Settled outside of court, 1990 (en) |
| dbp:fullName | Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Blockbuster LLC. (en) |
| dbp:judges | Alfred M. Wolin (en) |
| dbp:name | Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Blockbuster LLC. (en) |
| dbp:opinions | The photocopying of video game manuals was an infringement of copyright, but the rental of video games was completely legal (en) |
| dbp:priorActions | Letter of Request from Nintendo to Blockbuster, requesting cease of manual reproduction. (en) |
| dbp:quote | This subsection does not apply to— a computer program which is embodied in a machine or product and which cannot be copied during the ordinary operation or use of the machine or product; or a computer program embodied in or used in conjunction with a limited purpose computer that is designed for playing video games and may be designed for other purposes. (en) |
| dbp:source | Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 (en) |
| dbp:width | 50.0 |
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| dcterms:subject | dbc:1990_in_United_States_case_law dbc:1990_in_video_gaming dbc:Blockbuster_LLC dbc:Copyright_infringement_of_software dbc:Nintendo dbc:Video_game_copyright_law dbc:United_States_District_Court_for_the_District_of_New_Jersey_cases dbc:Copyright_case_law |
| rdfs:comment | Nintendo of America, Inc. vs. Blockbuster LLC was a 1989 legal case related to the copyright of video games, where Blockbuster agreed to stop photocopying game instruction manuals for Nintendo. Blockbuster publicly accused Nintendo of starting the lawsuit after being excluded from the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act, which limited the rental of computer software but allowed the rental of Nintendo's game cartridges. Nintendo responded that they were enforcing their copyright as an essential foundation of the video game industry. (en) |
| rdfs:label | Nintendo of America, Inc. vs. Blockbuster LLC. (en) |
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