Copyright and the Player

Thomas, A. (2023) Copyright and the Player. Working Paper. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. (doi: 10.5281/zenodo.8135895).

Abstract

This paper explores the ontological construction of the player in copyright law. The player has a central role in interactive entertainment; their presence is both invited, and necessary – one must play a game to experience it. Yet, play is transformed into an engagement with copyright law through the many underlying copyrights of the primary game creators. The player is now a user of a proprietary work. This is assumed self-evident, by design, but the user is both recreational and re-creational. Does the player make decisions in a game which are original creative expressions, or are they merely following the rules of a system to its logical conclusion (playing a game)? The paper reviews existing copyright doctrine which construct the player as either an author (or performer) or a user. It focusses on the value playing a game itself, rather than any ancillary or spin-off game products. The paper forwards a normative argument which emphasises understanding play as existing outwith this reductive production consumption binary: rather, we should try to understand play, and by extension the player, on their own terms. Those terms may exist outwith the boundaries of copyright. Debate has undercurrents of a strive towards legitimation – the award of a proprietary right or the endorsement by the law of the excepted activities. Play is not necessarily either of these things – but we should also resist the argument that everything worthwhile is productive.

• Item Type: Research Reports or Papers (Working Paper)
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Thomas, Dr Amy
• Authors: Thomas, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Publisher: University of Glasgow
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in CREATe Working Paper Series 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence