Post #2943324

2023-06-29 01:40 UTC

@ve7fim@mastodon.social Reminds me of the console CDs (Sega? Memory is fuzzy here) that had the visible pattern "(C) SEGA Corp" actually burned into the CD, and that pattern had to be read by the console's boot code before it would read the rest of the disk. This wasn't really copy-protection, it was so other companies couldn't publish disks without Sega's permission, because they literally had to put the human-readable word "SEGA" on their CDs, and that's a breach of trademark law.

Replies (3)

@eichin@mastodon.mit.edu 2023-06-29 01:53

@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place Sounds like Sega vs. Accolade, sort of (but sega *lost* that, in particular that "function" is not something protected by copyright. ) or was this later than that? @ve7fim@mastodon.social

Open ##2943325
@PinoBatch@peoplemaking.games 2023-06-29 01:57

@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place @ve7fim@mastodon.social US courts proved reluctant to let #Sega assert its #trademark in this manner against an unlicensed game publisher that was otherwise doing nothing to confuse customers. Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade If you want to be extra careful, ask your lawyer if it'd help to do like I did with #SegaGenesis and #GameBoy TMSS and show a notice while the game is loading.

Open ##2943326
@ckape@teh.entar.net 2023-06-29 17:25

@TomF@mastodon.gamedev.place @ve7fim@mastodon.social Nintendo tried to do a similar thing with the Famicom floppy, which had switches to detect that the word Nintendo was embossed with the letters at certain depths, though third party manufacturers were able to work out abstract shapes that also worked.

Open ##2943327