Nima Abdullahzadeh games intellectual property protection advices: The blocking of movie download sites , the anger of the users of these sites , filing a complaint with Netflix, and finally Netflix’s unexpected and controversial response to the Iranian platform “Namava” was a chain of events that confronts Iranian platforms and their users with a serious question: if the real owners of the content And if the copyright holders want to react to what is happening in Iran, what options do they have in front of them? In this article, in a conversation with Nima Abdullahzadeh, legal expert familiar with international copyright cases, we answer this important question. Find extra info on https://www.zoomg.ir/game-articles/173424-protecting-your-games-intellectual-property-tgc-2017/.
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.
The legal advisor of the foundation went on to discuss the issue of copyright and said that according to Iran’s law of 1348, which in fact made copyright legal in Iran, when someone publishes an artistic work in Iran, it is included in the copyright law. This means that when a game is developed, when the game or artwork is published, this work will be copyrighted. Abdullahzadeh pointed out that by receiving this right, two types of rights, one economic (material) and the other spiritual, are given to the owner of the work: Economic rights are considered as money and in fact you can earn money from it. Intellectual rights, however, are of a different kind. This means that when someone creates a work, even if the work is sold and fully transferred, the person who buys it must mention the original owner of the work. Copyright belongs to the creator and the publisher must credit the creator, even if the work is purchased outright. In case of failure of this law, the right of complaint is reserved for the manufacturer.
Regarding the content not being subject to sanctions, he also says that Iranian platforms do not have restrictions on purchasing content because OFAC (The Office of Foreign Assets Control) has issued a general license that says the content is not subject to sanctions Nima Abdullahzadeh says : Actually, the content, audio, video, text or a combination of these are not sanctioned. As a result, American companies are not legally prohibited from buying and selling content with Iran. However, it may be the policy of an American company not to sell its content to the Iranian platform, but in any case, Iranians can voluntarily obtain broadcast permission through content aggregators in different regions. But the fact is that buying this license does not give any advantage to the Iranian company.
Abdullahzadeh further pointed to the differences between the copyright law in Iran and the United States and said that in Iran, the law deals with the violator who knowingly violates IP in a criminal manner and with a prison sentence. The copyright law in Iran is defined 30 years after the death of the last author and creator, and this right can be inherited. American law says that if an American work is used, it must be registered in a special system in order to use copyright laws. In Iran, the producer does not need to register a copyright and the works receive this right from the time of publication.
One of the lectures that was very important at the TGC 2017 exhibition was the lecture by Nima Abdullahzadeh, a business development consultant, which was titled “Protection of intellectual property rights of computer games: an overview of copyright laws in Iran and the world”. Nima Abdullah Zadeh is currently working as a legal advisor of the National Computer Games Foundation. He advises Iranian developers and publishers of computer games in the field of intellectual property, tax planning and international regulations. Nima Abdullahzadeh has also been advising start-up businesses for many years to be able to be present in global markets despite international restrictions.