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[fender1]

Lets say company X produces a game. We would like to organize a club that plays that game. The club would be a non-profit organization, but would charge membership fees in order to cover the cost of providing a place to play, an informational web site, etc in association with the club.

The catch is that company X says doing this would be copyright infringement and that they will then sue, even though we all bought the game (and presumably also a license to play it, I would think). How exactly does that work?

[Isaac]

I'm not convinced that it does work.  I don't believe that
playing a game even in public would infringe on any of the exclusive
rights reserved to copyright holders.

At least I'd argue that way for non computer games.  For computer
games I suppose the vendor could reserve the right to play
the game to certain settings because simply playing the game
makes copies subject to copyright law.

[fender1]

Definitely not a computer game.

The club would compete with a similar service provided by the company, so they're trying to leverage their IP to quash us, but I can't find any legal basis for them to do so. It appears to be a simple case of "we sue, you can't afford a lawyer, we win." I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth the effort to find and retain a lawyer, really.

[JimIvey]

I'm imagining a game like Dungeons and Dragons (oops, now I look even more geeky than usual!).

I don't think they can stop you from playing.  Assuming someone has a valid copyright on the game, they might be able to prevent you from making the n-sided dice and the cards, charts, etc.  But I really don't see how they can stop you from pulling out lawfully purchased copies of the game and playing them in a group.

At the same time, if they're really motivated, you might have to expend time and money to convince a judge and maybe a jury that they're wrong.

Regards.

[JSonnabend]

If you are merely playing legally purchased copies of the game, then I think you are squarely in the right.  While Jim is right that you may have to defend a suit, I, for one, think you'd be in a good position to bring a frivolous suit counter-claim to recover your costs of defending the action.  The whole thing sounds like serious summary judgment stuff to me.

- Jeff

[Isaac]

A case that may be on point is Allen v. Academic Games
89 F.3d 614 (9th Cir. 1996).  The appellate court found that
playing Allen's game in public did not constitute a public
performance of copyright protected material and did not find
that any of the other exclusive rights of copyright holder's
were infringed.