Courts, Sports and Video Games: What's in a Game?

摘要

The genius of the common law is the incremental formulation of rules through case-by-case analysis in order to cover the infinite variety of human behavior. As Brandeis said in his seminal article on the right of publicity, genius "in its eternal youth, grows to meet the demands of society."22 That genius is blunted when, as in the case of video games simulating athletic events, overly broad rules are applied. Scoring a touchdown, for example, can be many things: thrilling, skillful, ingenious, etc. It is not, however, expressive. It simply is a way of scoring six points by crossing a line. No style points are given, regardless of the artfulness of the score.