Best rated games IP protection solutions by Nima Abdullahzadeh today: Iranian VODs are not illegal in Iran: One of the most important points to be mentioned is that Iran is not a member of the ” Bern Convention ” [to protect literary and artistic works]. The Berne Convention obliges the member countries to protect the copyright of the works of the authors of other signatory countries as well as the works of their own authors. Nima Abdullahzadeh, a legal expert familiar with international issues, points out in a conversation with Digiato that because Iran is not a member of this convention, foreign works are not protected by copyright, and in principle, Iranian VOD platforms do not do anything illegal according to Iranian law. Read more info at نیما عبدالله زاده.
Nima Abdullahzadeh says in response: In this case, the work of the content owners becomes difficult, because first they have to see the content and collect documents. As long as they do not have someone in Iran, they cannot do such a thing. But it should be noted that foreign platforms cooperate with many law firms and it is not difficult to find an Iranian lawyer in these law firms to receive advice and find relationships in Iran to collect documents. This is the reason why many such platforms serve only with Iran’s IP and have made it impossible to access the content from outside. But can this issue be an obstacle to the possible events described?
Describing this issue as important, especially for foreign games, Nima Abdullahzadeh said: A work has copyright in Iran that has been published for the first time in Iran; A work published abroad and then released in Iran does not have copyright. This means that IP in Iran no longer has the above effect. Of course, this issue is not without a solution, and if the publishers publish their game in Iran at the same time, they will include copyright. As a result, Iranian publishers should be careful when entering the foreign market to offer their games simultaneously abroad and in Iran. According to the law, the works in Iran are included in the copyright law on the day of publication, the works must have been published for the first time in Iran.
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.
The computer game intellectual property rights protection conference in TGC 2017 also included topics on how to transfer IP, including Assigning and Licensing sections, as well as the possibility of transferring the game in a limited way and determining the countries in which your product can be sold. In the end, Abdullahzadeh said in response to a question regarding the duty to follow up on the violation of the copyright law that this duty in Iran is assigned to the right holder and Iranian developers must sign a non-disclosure agreement with publishers and all people in general. In other countries, this law is known as Non-disclosure agreement or NDA, and unfortunately, according to Nima Abdullahzadeh, it is not paid attention to in Iran. The TGC 2017 exhibition started on Thursday with the presence of 40 foreign speakers and 20 Iranian speakers and will end today, Friday.
Nima Abdullahzadeh: The industry is formed with income, and if there is no intellectual property, they are practically not a game industry either. At the beginning, I personally expected that this speech would be well received, considering the importance of the copyright issue in Iran and the world and the connection of this issue with the publishing of games in the world markets, but the reception cannot be considered acceptable.