Running head: Week Five Discussion 1
Week Five Discussion
Davidson & Assoc., Inc. and Blizzard Enterprises v. Internet Gateway, Bnetd.
Stacey Freeman
Liberty University
Ethics and Legal Issues
BMIS 570
Professor Dwight Elliot
Week Five Discussion 2
Week Five Discussion
Read the case Davidson & Assoc., Inc. and Blizzard Enterprises v. Internet
Gateway, Bnetd.
Davidson & Assoc., Inc. and Blizzard Enterprises filed a claim against Internet Gateway
and Bnetd for Trademark and Copyright Infringement, as well as breaching the "End User
License Agreement" and their "Terms of Use Agreement." Blizzard Enterprises is an online
gaming platform that licenses its software. To download one of their games, the user has to agree
to an "End User License Agreement" and a "Term of Use Agreement." Even after doing so, a few
programmers, with the help of Internet Gateway, used reverse code to make Blizzard's games
available to the public. The lower court and the Court of Appeals both sided with the plaintiff
because the "End User Agreement" and the "Terms of Use Agreement" are legally binding
contracts, where by checking the box, they gave away their "Fair Use" of the reverse code.
Describe how the parties could have resolved this issue without resorting to
litigation.
Although in this case, the lower court and appellate court are in agreement, frequently
intellectual property cases of this sort are appealed having opposite rulings and can drag on for
years. Intellectual Property, sensitive data such as patents, source code, formulas, or engineering
plans, is detrimental to a company. ( Kim and Solomon page 74 Fundamentals of Information
Systems Security) Arguing these types of cases can cost both sides of the legal argument
significant amounts of money, time, and resources. According to Schreider (Schreider & Noakes-
Fry, 2020), for a lawsuit to have merit, a basis should be established on either a contractual
dispute with a failed obligation (contract law) or a failure of one of the parties to exercise
reasonable behavior (tort law). Once this is established, some steps can be taken before entering
Week Five Discussion 3
a court proceeding known as ADR. ADR or Alternative Dispute Resolutions are requests to end
disagreements before they enter a courtroom. One of these ADRs is Mediation Law. Like it
sounds, the parties invite a third party to mediate a nonbinding agreeable settlement. Another
form is Arbitration Law. In this form of ADR, one party is usually required by law or contract to
invite an arbitrator to help resolve the matter, which can be binding or nonbinding. The most
common of these Alternate Dispute Resolutions is Dispositive Motions, where one party files for
the judge to dismiss the case before the lawsuit moves forward. For ADRs to be successful, there
must be communication and trust with both parties acting in 'good faith".
As counsel to the plaintiffs, and you won the case, you know there will be more
defendants in future cases. What other legal strategies can you offer plaintiffs?
Some companies are now creating a position in their organization for an ADR Expert.
This person would be responsible for implementing and monitoring an ADR policy for the
company, sometimes mediating and hypothesizing possible situations. Many technology
companies now require a business to have an ADR Policy before negotiating contracts. This
scripture from Ephesians 6:13-17 emphasizes the importance of a good offense, "Therefore put
on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your
ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth
buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. 15, and with your feet
fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
Week Five Discussion 4
References
Allison, J. R. (1990, January 1). Five Ways to Keep Disputes Out of Court. Harvard Business
Review. https://hbr.org/1990/01/five-ways-to-keep-disputes-out-of-court
Kim, D., & Solomon, M. G. (2013). Fundamentals of Information Systems Security. Jones &
Bartlett Publishers.
Lipinski, T. A. (2013). The librarian's legal companion for licensing information resources and
services. Neal-Schuman, An Imprint Of The American Library Association.
Find Video Solutions for STEM Textbook Questions | Numerade. (n.d.). Www.numerade.com.
https://www.numerade.com
Schreider, T. (2020). Cybersecurity Law, standards and regulations. Rothstein Associates.
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