Settlers of the Virtual World: new book

 Posted by (Visited 5402 times)  Game talk, Reading, Writing  Tagged with:
Aug 252008
 

The book's cover

 

Gosh, i am behind on reporting stuff. Anyway.Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds is out.

It’ssort of my book, because I have a chapter in it. But it isn’t really mine. 🙂 it’s more Erik Bethke’s and Erin Hoffman’s. And really, my chapter is just another reprinting of the Avatar Rights piece, which at this point is in a lot of books.

As you may or may not know, they’ve been spearheading a project called Better EULA which tackles the issues of user rights in virtual worlds (there’s a blog too). I am on a panel with them about it at AGDC in a couple of weeks.

 

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Gamers rejoice: you can cancel easily now

 Posted by (Visited 4900 times)  Game talk  Tagged with:
Aug 012008
 

Virtual Worlds News reports that an alderman in Illinois tried to cancel his kid’s MMO account, found it too hard, and took it up with the House. And now it’s the law in Illinois that there has to be a way to cancel on the website, with no phone call or snail mail required.

This will likely be a ripple effect, unless companies are going to make Illinois-facing websites and account management. 😉

Child Online Protection Act Overturned

 Posted by (Visited 10244 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jul 232008
 

COPA, the Child Online Protection Act, has been overturned by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This is actually upholding a lower court ruling from a while ago.

It will be interesting to see what effect this might have on virtual worlds, given the parental pressure for safe worlds and the ongoing political crusades, and the continued rise in kids’ worlds (and in kids who try out worlds not meant for them).

Edit: since there is some confusion about this, here’s a link that points out the differences between COPA and COPPA. In short, COPA is the replacement to the Communications Decency Act, and has to do with publishing adult material on sites minors can get to. COPPA is the Children’s Online Protection & Privacy Act, and has to do with collecting personal data from kids.

Blizzard scores win against WoWGlider

 Posted by (Visited 9638 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 152008
 

Virtually Blind has the scoop, but in short, Blizzard won on all the major points: the court didn’t go for the copyright argument, saying they were bound by precedent and not a policymaking body; and that making this kind of software looks like tortious interference (meaning, interfering with the contract between Blizzard and users). Further analysis at TerraNova.

Blizzard case becoming EULA test case

 Posted by (Visited 10698 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jun 302008
 

Blizzard Responds to Amicus Brief in MDY Bot Suit | Virtually Blind | Virtual Law | Benjamin Duranske

Although it has not put the issue in quite such stark terms, Public Knowledge is essentially seeking a ruling that says that the sale of consumer software is, in most circumstances, a sale, pretty much regardless of what the agreement that comes with the software says. If the court agrees in spite of MAI and its progeny (and the ruling survives certain appeal) then U.S. copyright law would protect, among other things, making copies of purchased software in RAM in order to use the software — no matter what the “license agreement” says. Resolving this issue in favor of Public Knowledge would call into question provisions in EULAs governing nearly every virtual world and multiuser online game, as well as EULAs for other software.

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