Nima Abdullahzadeh games intellectual property protection tips and tricks: Iranian VODs are not illegal in Iran: One of the most important points to be mentioned is that Iran is not a member of the ” Bern Convention ” [to protect literary and artistic works]. The Berne Convention obliges the member countries to protect the copyright of the works of the authors of other signatory countries as well as the works of their own authors. Nima Abdullahzadeh, a legal expert familiar with international issues, points out in a conversation with Digiato that because Iran is not a member of this convention, foreign works are not protected by copyright, and in principle, Iranian VOD platforms do not do anything illegal according to Iranian law. See extra details at نیما عبدالله زاده.
However, Nima Abdullahzadeh says there is also the possibility that the issue will go beyond the DMCA, or attempts to remove content from various platforms, and end up in court. In this case, the owner of the work sues the court for “Copyright Infringement”, which can create very serious challenges for people who are infringing copyright internationally. The first big challenge is that if the CEO or board members of these companies have dual citizenship, they are criminally and legally responsible in the second country, which is most likely a member of the Berne Convention. Abdullahzadeh says: In this case, the owners of the work can complain directly to each of these persons who have dual citizenship. Even the fact that the CEO and members of the board of directors do not have dual citizenship is still not an obstacle to file a complaint. They can file a lawsuit, but its outcome depends on various factors. But the most important point is that the vote is not enforceable in Iran. Finally, there may be restrictions for these people who cannot leave Iran . “Supposedly, the complaint can be made in Canada, and in this case, if the person enters Canada, he will be arrested and must pay the fine.
After presenting the headlines of the conference, Nima Abdullahzadeh explained the importance of intellectual property at the beginning of the speech and by explaining that intellectual property basically refers to anything that is created with thought, she said that basically a game is considered a constructive intellectual property that consists of components. There are different types and each game is an Intellectual Property (IP). Abdullahzadeh further added that by making games, game makers have in fact created IP, and if there were no copyright and intellectual property, there would be no game industry.
The legal expert, Nima Abdullahzadeh, says that such an action is highly unlikely because taking a case of copyright infringement to court costs between 300,000 and 500,000 dollars in the United States: “Foreign companies until they are sure that the money they spend will be returned or they will be hit.” They don’t do this if they enter the other side. Because the cost of copyright infringement complaints is a significant cost even for large companies. This is while the DMCA has a very limited cost and removes copyright infringing companies from platforms. According to the recent events, the owners of foreign works are certainly now considering their options, and it is not unlikely that the application of these services will be removed from Google Play as the first option.
An important issue mentioned by the foundation’s legal advisor is the presence of Iran among 29 countries that do not participate in any international copyright convention. From this example, we can refer to the Berne Convention, according to which, if a work is published in one country, it will receive copyright in all member countries of the convention. Of course, the existence of a loophole in this convention has made non-members able to use this law. If the game makers release their game in a member and non-member country at the same time and with a maximum interval of 30 days, the copyright is included in their work. The Internet can be considered as the main key to this solution, and if the game is published in a form that is also offered abroad, the game will receive intellectual property.
Nima Abdullahzadeh, a business development consultant, explained the copyright laws in Iran and the world in a conference entitled “Protection of intellectual property rights of computer games”. One of the topics that is not given much attention in Iran is the issue of copyright or property rights, which becomes more and more important with the increasing development of interactive entertainment. Especially, the holding of B2B events has made the importance of copyright and the laws surrounding it to be seen more and more in Iran, and especially at the time of signing important contracts, we see problems in not respecting copyright in games. Of course, incomplete information about this important issue may be the reason why many game makers do not have accurate information about copyright laws and for this reason they make irreparable mistakes in the supply of their products in Iran and the world.