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
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?
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 internalmarket. 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)Read more...
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 formore security-conscious users, in certain MMO/VWs, a bootable CD image (LiveCD) 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.
Another outstanding issue associated with virtual property is ownership. Who actually owns these objects, characters, and land after they are "purchased" from the company? Most EULAs state the game company owns the intellectual property in the objects and the players are merely purchasing a limited license. Still, this is changing with some companies, such as Linden Lab, experimenting with EULA provisions that grant limited ownership rights in user-created virtual property. In fact, the Bragg case was only possible because that particular world, Second Life, acknowledged some limited player rights in virtual land. There are also companies like Metaplace that are developing technology that allow users to build their own virtual worlds, literally creating the world with their own IP.
An interesting article by Michael Passman.
More on Virtually Blind.
It's not a secret anymore.
The Terms of Service are not very surprising and generally look similar to Secondlife TOS.
Two the most important differences:
1. Lively doesn't have currency.
2. The content in Lively is mostly generated by vendors working for Google and a small number of trusted testers.
So it looks more like clone of IMVU (combination of "chat with friends" in cartoonish 3D) than Secondlife or the Metaverse.
An interview with Dr Melissa de Zwart from australian Monash University’s Law Faculty.
Here you can listen or download the podcast. Worth your thirty minutes, in my opinion.
You can also read an article by Dr Melissa de Zwart, where she explains why our legal system can't ignore the rapidly growing interest in virtual worlds.
"In Europe, terms of service can't always be changed when they need to because you have to tell the users up front in what situations you may change the the terms of service," said Lober. "It's hard to function in practicality -- how can you know all the situations that might come up in the future? You'd need a crystal ball!"
"In the US the kind of notice you have to give changes by state, and there are gambling laws to take into account sometimes. So you try to balance something that works in most of the states, and sometimes you can balance it based on where you know you'll be getting your customers from," said Augustino. "If you know most of your customers will be coming from California, you know you have to comply with California law. "
From Linden Lab blog:
Today we invite you to check out the new Second Life Brand Center. The Brand Center explains how Residents can promote their own brands, products and activities in the Second Life world and use appropriate logos to enhance their message.
With the Brand Center, we’re also launching the inSL Logo Program, which provides a new community logo for Second Life Residents. Display the inSL logo to show you and your brands are a part of the Second Life community. This logo may be used on your website, business card, promotional materials, product packaging, and in many other places where you may wish to promote your contributions to the Second Life world. When using the logo, be sure to follow the Guidelines for Using the inSL Logo.
There is a transcript from the in-world event with an intellectual property law attorney available at Slog. Frank Taney represents many Second Life companies and content creators, for example The Electric Sheep Company, Eros (Stroker Serpentine), Nephilaine, Munchflower, Crucial Creations and many more. Four categories of IP that are likely to be at issue in SL were covered: copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. The sim was packed to capacity so new events of specific topics are planned!
Another transcript from IP event this time with Benjamin Duranske aka Benjamin Noble is available at Business Communicators of Second Life® blog
Very interesting lecture by Profesor Joshua Fairfield (Washington and Lee University - School of Law).
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