Despite the need for a Judge Dredd structure, our society still demands an outdated legal system with police, firemen, dogcatchers, and lawyers. It just so happens that as our culture evolves so do all of those aforementioned roles. Ars Technica recently evaluated the rise of the videogame oriented legal firms, detailing two firms that know what publishing and developing are all about and can help sue or defend inside the industry we all love.
One of the examples of new firms dedicated to games is Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, who recently won a 13 million dollar case for Ubisoft. Apparently, MGM was all up in Ubisoft’s face about publishing games connected to the Bratz brand. Greenberg Glusker showed MGM what was up. This firm got into the business of messing with videogame affairs because they view it as “the future of the entertainment industry.”
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton is another, perhaps more striking example. They have a new entertainment branch consisting of 15-25 people watching the videogames industry. An associate wouldn’t disclose who they have represented, but he indicated that they were doing quite fine.
Videogames are becoming increasingly more financially successful and anything that involves money also involves crazy legal things that I don’t fully understand. What I do know is that Judge Dredd doesn’t need a legal division or even take money for his judgments. Neither does Robocop.
