Nima Abdullahzadeh games IP protection advices: 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. Find more details on نیما عبدالله زاده.
However, Nima Abdullahzadeh says there is also the possibility that the issue will go beyond the DMCA, or attempts to remove content from various platforms, and end up in court. In this case, the owner of the work sues the court for “Copyright Infringement”, which can create very serious challenges for people who are infringing copyright internationally. The first big challenge is that if the CEO or board members of these companies have dual citizenship, they are criminally and legally responsible in the second country, which is most likely a member of the Berne Convention. Abdullahzadeh says: In this case, the owners of the work can complain directly to each of these persons who have dual citizenship. Even the fact that the CEO and members of the board of directors do not have dual citizenship is still not an obstacle to file a complaint. They can file a lawsuit, but its outcome depends on various factors. But the most important point is that the vote is not enforceable in Iran. Finally, there may be restrictions for these people who cannot leave Iran . “Supposedly, the complaint can be made in Canada, and in this case, if the person enters Canada, he will be arrested and must pay the fine.
After presenting the headlines of the conference, Nima Abdullahzadeh explained the importance of intellectual property at the beginning of the speech and by explaining that intellectual property basically refers to anything that is created with thought, she said that basically a game is considered a constructive intellectual property that consists of components. There are different types and each game is an Intellectual Property (IP). Abdullahzadeh further added that by making games, game makers have in fact created IP, and if there were no copyright and intellectual property, there would be no game industry.
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.
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.