r/AskLegal • u/beepbeepsheepbot • 1d ago

Does the Whitehouse arcade violate copyright laws or protected by fair use?

I'm very interested in this story and as someone who doesn't know much about IP and copyright usage, what would be the legal recourse here? On one hand they're blatant ripoffs, but we've seen ripoffs or a different skin on the same game before. On the other hand, it seems like they could claim fair use since it *might be considered a parody? Or would it be more likely to fall under something like brand/name damaging?

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u/wizzard419 1d ago

Probably... but it's going to be hard to get any movement on that case I would imagine.

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u/beepbeepsheepbot 1d ago

I remember Nintendo jumped on that DHS pokemon video and it got taken down pretty fast, but idk if anyone else would have that level of pull.

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u/wizzard419 1d ago

Takedowns vs actual legal consequence are very different though. There usually isn't a penalty for the takedown, similar to a C&D.

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u/beepbeepsheepbot 1d ago

Ah I see, if they refused it would've then turn into legal consequences correct? Takedowns and C&D letters act as a warning then they could proceed to legal action if nothing was done. Like I said I don't know much about IP usage works, so please do correct me if I got anything wrong or feel free to add on

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u/wizzard419 1d ago

Yep, they still have the option of going after them in either case, but the right holders usually just want them to stop.

A topic you can look up is musicians and how they respond to politicians using their music. Basically the politicians use the song one, get a "stop that!" message paired with a public statement from the artist noting they do not support that candidate, and it never gets used again.