Top game publishers sue Games X Copy maker

Three major game publishers - Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games and Atari - have filed a lawsuit against 321 Studios, creator of the Games X Copy application, accusing the company of violating American copyright laws.

The federal lawsuit, which has been filed in New York State, claims that the Games X Copy suite - which 321 Studios boasts can "make a perfect backup copy of virtually any PC game" - breaches the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Under the terms of the DMCA, products which are specifically designed to circumvent copy protection measures are illegal - although this presents an interesting dichotomy where copy protected media is concerned, since consumers also in theory have the right to make a backup copy of media they legally own.

321 Studios claims that its product is designed for that purpose, rather than for use by pirates - with its website stating that it "opposes piracy of any kind" - and indeed, Games X Copy does go to some lengths to prove that it isn't a piracy tool, with electronic watermarks embedded on each disk created allowing pirate copies to be traced back to the originator, codes which prevent the copies from themselves being copied, and electronically embedded disclaimers on all backup copies of DVDs.

However, Doug Lowenstein of the Entertainment Software Association dismisses 321 Studios' claims, describing the application as piracy software "masquerading as a consumer-friendly tool" and stating that "video game copyright holders stand to lose an enormous amount from the piracy enabled by products like Games X Copy."

"What's at stake here is a rather important legal principle," he told the Associated Press this week, "that products with no purpose other than to circumvent copyright protection are illegal."

This isn't the first time that the company has come under legal fire; earlier this month, 321 Studios was sued by copyright protection software firm Macrovision for selling tools which were designed to allow users to make backup copies of DVD videos protected by the Macrovision system. Macrovision also sells copyright protection software for videogames.

However, episodes like this are likely to shine the spotlight on the types of copyright protection being employed by the games industry as much as on those who sell tools designed to break them. Even if 321 Studios is forced to remove Games X Copy from sale, there are a large number of tools available on the Internet whose express purpose is to break copyright for piracy reasons - rather than for personal backup reasons.

An alternative copy protection mechanism for PC titles is being proposed by California-based digital distribution firm Trymedia, which has adapted its online distribution software for use in traditional boxed game distribution. Using the Trymedia system, users can freely copy the CD for backup purposes or even for distribution to friends - but when the CD is used on a system which is not "activated" to play the game legally, it reverts to being a game demo rather than a full-game, effectively turning the traditional piracy channels into promotional channels for the title.

The advantage of Trymedia's system - a similar technology is also possessed by other digital distribution firms such as Softwrap - is that it allows consumers to back up their software, as is their right, without presenting any piracy danger to publishers. As cases such as the 321 Studios lawsuit focus attention once more on the issue of PC game copy protection, it seems likely that next-generation protection systems such as this will become more prevalent.