Digital Law Conference - September 23, San Jose (CA)

Digital Law Conference provides a detailed examination of the legal issues raised by games, social media, virtual goods and virtual worlds and offers key insight into where the industry is headed and what the associated legal implications are. 7 credit hours of CLE accreditation has been applied for in MCLE states.


Detailed schedule available here.


This is just a part of Engage! Expo which is taking place September 23-24 at the San Jose Convention Center and provides insight into the best practices, current trends, and effective strategies of social media and user engagement.

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Rights of virtual communities - presentation

Presentation - Leipzig GCO2009: Gods, Democracies, and Dictators: roles and rights of virtual communities



Available on Nic Suzor's blog


(I recommend *.odp format)

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Economy of Virtual Worlds by Edward Castronova

Edward Castronova (PhD, Economics, Wisconsin, 1991) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the father of economic analysis of virtual worlds and has numerous publications on that topic, including Synthetic Worlds and Exodus to the Virtual World. He delivered the keynote address for the Washington and Lee School of Law symposium Protecting Virtual Playgrounds: Children, Law and Play Online.

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Gold Farming illegal in China?

According to the official news release of Ministry of Commerce the People's Republic of China:

China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit its possible impact on the real financial system.

The government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cyber-games, according to a joint circular from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce Friday.

"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services." it said.

More references and comments:

InformationWeek

CNET

Virtual goods news

Law of the game

Terranova

CNN

Play no evil


and CNBC video:

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MacArthur Foundation enters the Metaverse

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Virtual Worlds and the Law at Metanomics

How emerging case law and legislation will affect the future of virtual worlds?


Discussion with the participation of prof. Robert Bloomfield and James Gatto took place yesterday on Metanomics islands.









you can also watch the video here

to read the transcript click here

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Notes on the State of Cyberspace

Quite interesting interview with David Post, one of the most original thinkers about the Internet and digital culture, the author of the widely acclaimed new book "In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace".



The example of fraud in Second Life starts at 05:30.

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Taser International, Inc. v Linden Research Inc.

On April 17, 2009 Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit against Linden Research Inc. and others containing various trademark infringements. Taser claims unauthorized sell of virtual versions of its electric stun guns. The company seeks damages in excess of $75,000. The list of defendants is strictly related to Linden Lab and covers not only entities like Virtuatrade, LLC (the former owner of XStreet SL) but also individuals (generally Linden Lab's management).

The complaint alleges that Linden Lab and others are engaging in conduct which is damaging to Taser’s reputation and hurting its sales. Taser also claims that its brand will be damaged via association with virtual sex and virtual drug use occuring within Second Life. One of the businesses that makes Taser replicas (The Newman Group) does a trade in an urban role-play called The Crack Den.

The suit is entitled Taser International Inc. v. Linden Research Inc., 2:09-cv-00811, and is venued in the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona (Phoenix). The case will be heard by the federal judge Roslyn O. Silver.

It is the first time a major company has sued Linden Lab for infringement which occurred in Second Life.

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Don't be an outlaw

With a reference to the previous post...




Machinima.
...It has been hailed as the art form of the 21st century.
...It is redefining music videos.
...And reinventing the videogame.
...It might be the future of cinema.

But there's a catch: if you make machinima, you might be breaking the law.

Register now at http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/playmachinima

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Machinima Law Conference

Play Machinima Law is a two-day conference that will explore a series of key issues relating to what is often called "player-generated" or "user-created" content based on digital games or created in game and virtual worlds. Experts from the major players in the digital game arena, lawyers, practitioners, and academics will convene at Stanford to discuss the legal issues associated with gameplay in regards to user-generated content, machinima, and game-related practices.

date: April 24 - 25, 2009, 8:00am - 5:00pm

location: Stanford Law School

sesions: link here

agenda: link here

speakers: link here

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The end of the Polish Republic

After eight months the Polish Republic ended its existence cause of financial reasons. This great machimina made by Ayumi Cassini shows the history of that unique self-governmental community of Polish residents.

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Gaza protest

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The feudal world of Second Life

It would be difficult to deny the claim that the closest real life analogy to the "land ownership system" in Second Life is the old-fashioned feudalism.

Second Life even sports a parallel to feudalism’s hierarchical chains of subinfeudation. Several large commercial operations purchase entire Regions from Linden, landscape and subdivide them, and then rent or sell plots to users. Like feudal lords, these “land barons” play a major role in dispensing justice related to landownership. Many of them impose “covenants” on their land, such as a prohibition against running businesses from virtual homes. Tellingly, users upset at a neighbor’s violation of the covenant must look to the land baron for recourse; Linden Labs has no involvement in these local disputes. Similarly, Linden stays out of seignorial disputes between these (land)lords and their tenants. Whereas offline landlords are expected to rely on the state when evicting recalcitrant tenants rather than self-help, Second Life land barons have no recourse but self-help.

Written by: James Grimmelmann, Virtual World Feudalism, 118 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 126 (2009),
http://thepocketpart.org/2009/01/19/grimmelmann.html.

Image by Torley

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Panopticon

A few words on issues of privacy in the context of virtual worlds with an excellent comparison to the prison.

The essential irony of virtual worlds is that populations seeking to build new lives away from the public eye are moving into an environment that is subject to constant surveillance. Virtual worlds currently operate like Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison. The Panopticon permitted a single guard in the center of the prison to monitor all of the prisoners. The same degree of surveillance exists in virtual worlds. The denizens of virtual worlds are constantly under surveillance by “game gods,” the private companies that design, maintain, and administer virtual worlds. The game gods then must comply with government requests for call details, wiretaps, stored chatlogs, and other business records. The result: game gods’ cameras are on all the time and the footage reaches law enforcement and the intelligence community.

Written by Joshua Fairfield, Escape into the Panopticon: Virtual Worlds and the Surveillance Society, 118 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 131 (2009), http://thepocketpart.org/2009/01/19/fairfield.html

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Real banking coming to virtual worlds

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) has granted a license to conduct banking activities to Entropia Universe developer MindArk PE AB's wholly owned subsidiary Mind Bank AB.

According to the company's official statement:

Mind Bank AB will be the first bank that fully incorporates real money transactions with activities in a virtual world. Milions of transactions can be processed by the bank for further transer to MindArk and the virtual universe. Mind Bank will also offer selected bank services to customers on the conventional market

More info: link here

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The rule of law

Participation in virtual communities is said to be governed by the contractual documents written by the proprietors and 'agreed' to by the participants. In a system where governance is controlled by contract, then the limits of contract are essentially constitutional principles. Where, then, can we find the limits that we will impose on contractual governance?

Very interesting analysis by Nic Suzor.


Full post: link here

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Understanding Islam

Some of Metaverse Law's readers may remember in-wolrd presentation of self-govermental project called Al Andalus Caliphate. Here is great machimina about Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds and some similar initiatives including Al Andalus.




More info about the project:

Full video: link here

Paper: link here

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Cross-world IP rights infringements

Two interesting articles was published recently:



1. Trust Revisited: Content Creation Theft and Open Source Grids:

Very detailed story of legal issues related to transfering work form Second Life grid to Openlife grid.



2. IMVU Avatars “stole” my eyes (textures):

Vint Falken's story of Creative Commons licensed pictures published on Flickr and used in IMVU.

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Security of Virtual Worlds

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) released an interesting position paper on some of the concerns associated with virtual worlds. The report published in November 2008 is entitled:

"Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds"

Link here



ENISA an
EU
agency
created
to
advance
the
functioning
of
the
internal
market.
The agency
is
a
centre
of
expertise
for
the
European
Member
States
and
European
institutions
in
network
and
information
security,
giving
advice
and
recommendations
and
acting
as
a
switchboard
of
information
for
good
practices.
Moreover,
the
agency
facilitates
contacts
between
the
European
institutions,
the
Member
States
and
private
business
and
industry
actors.


The report identifies 12 recommendations to tackle some of problems:

To the European Commission and National Governments (Government Policy Recommendations)

1. Support
the
setting
up
of
an
industry wide
forum
for
MMO/VW
service
providers
to
share
information
and
best practice
on
security
vulnerabilities.
In
such
a
competitive
sector
there
is
a
clear
need
for
a
neutral
forum
to
exchange
information
on
security
incidents
for
the
benefit
of
all
concerned.
Given
its
mandate
to
foster
a
culture
of
information
security
and
bring
together
stakeholders
in
Europe,
ENISA
would
be
in
a
good
position
to
stimulate
such
an
initiative.


2. Fund
work
on
legal
clarification
of
key
issues,
such
as
the
status
of
intellectual
property,
acceptable
risk
and
personal
information
in
MMO/VWs.
Although
this
is
not
an
information
security
issue
per
se,
a
lack
of
legal
clarity
is
at
the
root
of
many
information
security
problems
identified
in
this
report
and
therefore
an
effort

to
address
this
issue
by
appropriate
bodies
should
be
part
of
the
solution. NB:
This
is
not
a
call
for
extra
legislation
but
only
a
call
for
clarification
and
interpretation
of
existing legislation.


3. Encourage
and
fund
independent
dispute
resolution
for
player-to-player
disputes.



4. Create
financial
procedures
appropriate
to
MMO/VWs
in
order
to
prevent
virtual
asset
theft
using
chargebacks.
Again,
this
is
not
an
information
security
issue
per
se,
but
it
is
a
root
cause
of
the
information
security
problems
identified
in
this
report.
This
should
be
in
partnership
with
MMO/VW
providers,
banks,
credit
companies
and
online
payment
services.

5. Investigate
and
address
MMO/VW
provider
concerns
about
conflicting
obligations
brought
about by
legislation
on
common-carrier
status.





To MMO/VW providers

6. The
five
most
important
technical
issues
to
be
highlighted
in
this
area
(see
full
report
for
more
details)
include item-duping,
end-to-end
security
and
MMO/VW
specific
denial
of
service.
In
general,
providers
should
create
an
appropriate
balance
between
security
measures
aimed
at
detection
and
response
and
those
aimed
at
prevention.
Detection
and
response
is
often
a
more
effective
means
of
addressing
security
issues
in
MMO/VWs
than
prevention.


7. Privacy
policies
should
clearly
specify
data
collected
as
part
of
anti-cheating
measures
and
data
available
to
other
users
(eg,
via
eavesdropping),
including
any
information
which
might
identify
a
user
uniquely.



8. Providers
should
consider
charging
a
token,
returnable
lodgement
fee
for
all
ODR
complaints
to
prevent
false
complaints
(eg,
€50).



9. Any
initiative
which
increases
the
strength
of
user
authentication
(while
maintaining
an
appropriate
balance
between
usability
and
cost)
should
be
encouraged.



10. We
recommend
a
standard
set
of
governing
documents
and
terminology,
a
single
point
of
reference
where
governing
documents
may
be
obtained,
and
the
input
and
participation
of
end-user
groups
in
their
design
and
development.



11. As
an
option
for
more
security-conscious
users,
in
certain
MMO/VWs,
a
bootable
CD
image
(Live
CD)
containing
necessary
software
can
be
made
available;
this
is
already
a
well-known
measure
to
improve
security
in
critical
online
operations
such
as
online
banking.


Awareness raising and research

12. Awareness
raising:
We
describe
issues
to
be
highlighted
in
awareness
raising
campaigns,
such
as
how
to
detect
account
theft,
how
to
deal
with
inappropriate
behaviour,
privacy
risks,
in-world
property
risks,
etc.


Research: The
group
has
identified
some
future
trends
emerging
in
MMO/VWs
which
have
important
security
implications,
including
effective
content
filtering
for
MMO/VWs, security
and
reliability
issues
of
open
world
formats,
and
security
vulnerabilities
in
corporate
worlds.

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