Legal Geek No. 39: GenCon goes political to take on Indiana Lawmakers (Updated)

Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we take a look at how GenCon taking a political stand last week could significantly change the future of the country's largest gaming convention.

https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp39

GenCon has been a summer convention staple in Indianapolis since 2003, when it moved from Milwaukee after outgrowing all available convention spaces in Wisconsin. The relationship has been very good for Indianapolis, which holds a lot of conventions and major sporting events but none so big as GenCon. Indianapolis has been estimated to receive over $50 Million in revenue annually from attendees of this four day convention. Indeed, Indianapolis expanded the convention center a few years ago at a cost of $275 Million primarily to accommodate the crowds of GenCon, but also to lure some other big conventions such as the NRA convention in future years.

But last week, the future of GenCon in Indy became foggy as GenCon's CEO sent an open letter to Indiana governor Mike Pence demanding his veto of religious freedom legislation passed by the Indiana legislature a week ago. The letter was also circulated on social media sites. Quoting from the letter, GenCon writes:

"Gen Con proudly welcomes a diverse attendee base, made up of different ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds. We are happy to provide an environment that welcomes all, and the wide-ranging diversity of our attendees has become a key element to the success and growth of our convention. Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state's economy"

Clearly, GenCon is drawing a line in the sand and threatening to leave Indianapolis over the legislation.

The legislation itself is Indiana Senate Bill 101, which would prevent state and local governments from "substantially burdening" a person's exercise of religion unless the government can prove it has a compelling interest and is doing so in the least restrictive means. Proponents of the law note that this is in compliance with the 22-year old federal religious freedom laws. Opponents of the law deem this a potential loophole license for all private companies to discriminate, particularly against gays and lesbians.

Pence signed the bill into law despite the protests from GenCon, making a statement indicating that he does not believe this law authorizes discrimination in any way. However, the opposing economic and political pressure from GenCon, other companies like engine maker Cummins, and the mayor of Indianapolis have apparently been enough to collectively make Pence consider revising or repealing the law to avoid the potential discrimination effect. GenCon released a further letter this week indicating that the governor has reached out to begin figuring out whether an amendment to the bill or enforcement of a current city rule prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation will be enough to avoid having the religious freedom act twisted against its intended purpose.

USA Today reports that 19 other states have similar laws in effect already. Thus, even if GenCon's threat to move is serious, it's unclear what, if any good alternative options are available for GenCon to move to. Should the convention move to a city and state with smaller convention center space, that would likely lead to caps on attendees and ridiculous overcrowding problems. Furthermore, the best alternatives may already have generally competing conventions like San Diego with Comic Con and Atlanta with Dragoncon. If Indiana is bad news for GenCon, the alternatives could be much less preferable. Who knows, if GenCon stays on the same week as Nerdtacular, maybe they could move it to Salt Lake City to appease those few of us who go to both!

Bottom line - GenCon going political to protect all of its diverse gamer attendees is a bold move that should be appreciated by nerd world, but the move could lead to an undesirable relocation that would negatively impact the very gamers who love to attend this convention annually. Even with that relocation risk seeming to be less this week, it would still pose some interesting questions for one of the biggest conventions in America.

For more on this from a sports-related slant instead of geek-related, check out my longer article on Talking10.com about the subject.

----------------------------------

Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy

Legal Geek No. 38: Good and Bad Developments for Privacy Law

Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we take a look at two recent innovations about to affect everyday life and how differences between them are critical according to privacy law experts.

https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp38

Starting next month, Visa will commercially release location-tracking software to many banks, meaning your local bank and credit card companies will offer a location tracking identity safety feature on smartphone apps. This innovation will automatically notify Visa when you travel more than 50 miles from home, helping to avoid flagging non-local transactions as fraudulent when it really is you. As someone who has had a card declined in this manner when trying to buy Bacardi rum in Puerto Rico directly from the distillery, trust me when I say this innovation could avoid some embarrassing situations.

Normally having any private corporation such as a bank track your movements sounds like a real infringement of a consumer's privacy rights, but for frequent travelers, this may properly balance lowering risk of identity theft with a minor increase in information given to a corporation about you. Privacy experts applaud this innovation because the bank apps will need customers to opt-in to use this location tracking, and the opt-in can be deactivated at any time. That means the consumer fully controls when it is needed for the bank to know travel is occurring.

Also becoming more widespread next month will be the use of Google's newly developed ReCAPTCHA login authentication functionality on many third party websites. Instead of standard CAPCTHA which tries to screen out bots by forcing typing of distorted text, the ReCAPTCHA analyzes behavioral cues such as typing cadence, where clicks occur, etc., to determine if you are a human. But this authentication process collects a significant amount of information that could actually identify who the human user is, not just that the user is human. That adds to the substantial profile Google maintains on computer users already, and expands it to many third party site activities as well.

Much like the original CAPTCHA, there is no real opt-in for users of these websites, the new regime just must be accepted. That, plus the lack of much control over what Google can do with this collected information, renders this innovation as one which privacy law experts condemn as possibly a step too far.

Bottom line - when it comes to new innovations which make life more convenient and efficient, sometimes it is better to accept a bit less personal privacy to obtain these benefits. But the ability of consumers to actually control what is shared and when is vital to long-term trust of these companies collecting the information, and companies need to remember that. Privacy law experts certainly will.
----------------------------------

Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy

Legal Geek No. 37: Fan Art or IP Infringement?

Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, based on a listener request from Joseph, we take a look at a question regarding selling fan art and fan made items including famous logos or characters.

https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp37

Joseph asked a question we see a lot during our summer gaming and comic convention series, that being whether booths that sell fan-made items like stained glass windows, leather flasks, and other items with superhero or video game logos are subject to IP infringement, and if so, how do they consistently get away with this?

Here's the deal for such sellers: it's definitely copyright and/or trademark infringement, and they run the risk of receiving a nasty Cease and Desist letter, if not a lawsuit, when they sell items using trademarked or copyrighted logos without permission. However, most of these small time hobby businesses stay below the radar because (a) it's too expensive for companies to go after every potential infringer, and (b) in many cases, the sales actually help the market for the genuine goods, not hamper it. That leads to a laissez faire attitude for many companies relative to these infringements.

Obviously some companies like Blizzard Entertainment are more "scorched earth" approach than others, going after more potential infringers. But every company has a limit as to how much they can pursue infringement issues. And that is precisely why these sellers at your local comic and gaming conventions get away with what is really blatant IP infringement.

The risk these companies run is large. Should they lose an infringement lawsuit, any of the following remedies could apply: injunction to stop the activity, handing over of any profits made, and potentially further money damages. Especially in copyright, some damages can be set by statue to some ridiculously significant value between $750 and $30,000 per infringement! If you remember the record companies going after Napster users and the ridiculous fines/settlements paid, that's statutory damages coming into play. That can make this market a small reward high risk endeavor.

Bottom line - if these companies remain what is truly a small business concern, they likely stay under the radar and probably have a low actual risk of these bad legal things happening. But they are undoubtedly committing infringement, which opens up the possibility of lawsuits. At the end of the day, it's a business decision, with associated risks and rewards like all business decisions.

Thanks again to Joseph for the question!

----------------------------------
Do you have a question? Send it in!
Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy