Micro Star v. FormGen Inc.

Micro Star v. FormGen Inc.
Court	United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Full case name	MICRO STAR v. FORMGEN INC., a corporation; GT Interactive Software Corp.; 3D Realms Entertainment, aka 3D Realms Entertainment.
Argued	November 4 1997
Decided	September 11 1998
Citation(s)	154 F.3d 1107
Case history
Prior action(s)	Micro Star v. FormGen Inc., No. CV 96-3435 H(CM) (C.D. Cal. September 30, 1996)
Holding
Micro Star infringed FormGen's copyright by creating unauthorized derivative works which were not a fair use
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Alex Kozinski, David R. Thompson, Stephen S. Trott
Case opinions
Majority	Alex Kozinski
Laws applied
17 U.S.C. § 103,§ 106, § 107

Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. 154 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) is a legal case applying copyright law to video games, stopping the sales of a compilation of user-generated levels that infringed the copyright of Duke Nukem 3D. Micro Star downloaded the Duke Nukem 3D levels and re-packaged them as Nuke It, after seeing their popularity on the internet. Micro Star filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, asking for declaratory judgment that they had not infringed any copyright. Game publisher FormGen counter-sued, claiming that Micro Star created a derivative work based on Duke Nukem 3D and infringed their copyright.

At the time, the most relevant case law was Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. (1992), where the court found that the Game Genie did not infringe Nintendo's copyrights, because the device did not store any modified images in any concrete or permanent form. The district court found that Micro Star had likely infringed copyright with their packaging, which included artwork from Duke Nukem 3D, but found that the levels themselves were non-infringing. Both parties appealed the ruling, and the appeal court held decisively against Micro Star. Copyright law gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to make sequels to their work, and the court found that the stories told in the Nuke It map files are "surely sequels, telling new tales of Duke's fabulous adventures".

The ruling continues to apply to the legal status of video game modding, with mods viewed as derivative works that require the consent of the copyright holder. While this may legally limit the creation of mods, machinima, broadcasts, or even cheats, many game developers have authorized and encouraged some of these activities.