At one point or another all gamers have played the grand theft auto series. It is a rite of passage to know how hijack a car, speed down the freeway in the wrong lane and then walk away from a fiery explosion unscathed. Unfortunately for steam users one of the series has been taken down due to copyright issues. Yes thats right the scourge of the internet and media industry: Copyright. The overwhelming power that snuffs out creativity has taken ruling down on GTA: Vice City, the most arguable best game within the series none the less. Before copyright the notion of property related only to scarce resources like land. The good old days before a company actually went out and patented ambient nature sounds.
GTA: Vice City has been cut down by Sony Music Entertainment due to a music licensing issue based on just the one song: Michael Jackson’s ‘Wana be startin’ something?” on the in game station of Fever 105. If you’ve already got the game then you can relax and continue playing but the game is no longer for sale on the steam shop. Although those that now have claim to Michael Jackson’s intellectual work can take stand against the use of his songs it seems a bit over the top to cause an entire game to stop due to one song on a radio station no one even listened to.
Fair use should have been implemented in this account. Fair Use applies for limited purposes;
Purpose and character of the use.
The nature of working being used.
the amount of work used.
The song isn’t even influential to the game, it should not suffer due to copyright laws. Unfortunately the world, since the creation of copyright laws, has become about control. Copyright, while originally a good idea, became far too powerful in my opinion.
Original Article:
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/music-copyright-vice-city-steam-20121116/
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