Nima Abdullahzadeh games IP protection guides: The use of a tool called DMCA, which happens to cost very little to the owners of the work, is not limited to application hosting platforms like Google Play. In this case, the owner of the work can also target the content of social networks such as Twitter and Instagram of Iranian companies. There is even a possibility that these accounts will be closed. However, Nima Abdullahzadeh says that the most effective use of the DMCA will be related to the Google search engine: “Right holders can remove the link to the infringing content from Google search. Suppose an Iranian VOD platform searches for a word like “Avengers” on the first page of Google. The owner of the work can request Google to remove the links. It’s not just a matter of removing links, but SEO and the ranking of that site in Google will fall.” Discover even more details at نیما عبدالله زاده.
But what you’ve read so far is only a small part of what can happen to copyright infringers. When the problem becomes more serious, the owner of the work may turn to infrastructure such as hosting, domain and CDN companies. Nima Abdullahzadeh explains: For example, maybe an Iranian platform is using the Cloudflare service or is using a foreign data center. Here, the type of treatment depends on the country where the company is located. For example, the policies of an American company differ from a Swiss company based on the laws of its country, but in general, there is a risk that companies providing infrastructure will block Iranian platforms because through the infrastructure, illegal work [according to the laws of the same company and country ] in processing.
Nima Abdullahzadeh also pointed out the importance of the appropriate use of the work and said that if the buyer misuses your work and distributes it in an inappropriate place and insults the creator, the creator will be able to file a complaint. The business development consultant of the National Foundation of Computer Games added that the material right has a wider range and the creator of the work can monitor the publication of his work. Abdullahzadeh went on to discuss the issue of copyright in Iran, referring to the broadness of the laws defined in 1348 and 1369, and said that the broad and broad definition of this law made the game to be included in this law. But a very important point regarding Iran’s copyright law is related to the way the work is presented.
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.
Interaction or encounter? Although according to Iran’s law, what Iranian VODs do is not an illegal act, but the same issue can cause problems for our country’s platforms in the international dimension. The simplest steps are using DMCA and removing applications from Google Play and App Store, limiting social network accounts and even limiting the infrastructure tools of these platforms’ websites. In the next stage, there is a complaint, which involves a lot of money, but if it happens, it can even challenge the CEO and board members of Iranian VODs – on an international scale. What happened with Netflix’s initial move is the beginning of a new chapter; A season that either ends up in interaction or ends in small and big collisions and restrictions. It remains to be seen what will be the approach of Iranian VODs to this issue, but in any case, one thing is certain: big news is coming.