Pete Is an Accountant and Judy Works in a Bank

question 52

Multiple Choice

Pete is an accountant and Judy works in a bank, but every evening of last year they worked to create a clever computer game. When they finished, they had no difficulty in gaining the interest of a publisher. Pete and Judy hired a lawyer to draft a licence agreement in which they would give the publisher exclusive rights to sell the game in North America for royalties based on gross sales. When the game was published, the advertising was rather vulgar but acceptable to Pete and Judy. They learned, however, that there was a further change - the villain had been changed and clearly represented a world leader of an Asian country. Pete and Judy were embarrassed and outraged. On these facts, which of the following is true?

• A) They have no cause of action because once there has been an assignment of rights, the creators would not have their name on the product and thus no right to sue.
• B) They have a cause of action, even though there has been a partial assignment, if the modification is prejudicial to their honour or reputation.
• C) They would have a cause of action only if the contract provided that there should be no alterations without their consent. Such a change would then be a breach of contract.
• D) There is no protection here since a game is not something that can be copyrighted.
• E) They have no protection here since they failed to register their copyright in the game.

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Definitions:

SMS

Short Messaging Service, a text messaging service component of most telephone, internet, and mobile-device systems.

MMS

Multimedia Messaging Service, a standard way to send multimedia content via mobile phones.

Cellular Network

A wireless communication network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver, for mobile phones and data transfer.

Debit Card

A card that directly withdraws funds from a user's checking account to cover the cost of a purchase.