What the heck is an EULA? In theory, it is an End User Licensing Agreement. A legally binding contract between you and the provider of a product and/or service to indicate the rights and protections each of you has. As a user of software, or as a user of virtual environments and MMOGs, you've seen and indicated your agreement to many of these.

Well, they're really kind of rubbish. Some sort of agreement of terms, rights and protections is clearly necessary, but these do not serve those purposes, for a number of reasons.

Continue reading EULAs: The game outside the game

EULAs: The game outside the game originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

End-User-License-Agreements, Terms-of-Use, Terms-of-Service. Some MMOGs and virtual environments get you to agree to them on first-use. Some get you to agree on every load and/or every login. In all cases, proceeding to click through indicates that you have (a) read it, (b) understand it, and (c) agree to abide by it. It is a legal contract between you and the operators and developers of the service.

But frankly, did you? Do you? If the agreement contains specialist legal terms, it is technically not even possible for the average user to proceed with any level of informed consent without considerable research. It is even possible that many of these agreements may fail to stand up in court -- there's certainly precedent for that, depending on how finely you slice it.

Do you read these manifestly lengthy and fearsomely involuted tracts? Do you understand them? Or do you just click on through and don't care what it actually says?

The Daily Grind: Read and understood originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On 14 November, 2003 Linden Lab caused quite a stir by announcing that users who created or published content via the Second Life service would "retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs."

Essentially, the same rights that they'd have anywhere else (barring assorted terms of use/service to the contrary). It seems obvious, in many ways, but ultimately it's actually very rare. Terms of use/service which express a contradictory position are in the majority. In fact, go to the filing cabinet and pull out the contract for your current RL job. Odds are, there are a whole slew of creator rights that you've already signed away that have little or nothing to do with your job.

That, unfortunately, is the normal condition. When it comes to the new, novel, or creative -- almost everyone wants a piece of your pie, and few want to leave a slice for you, if they can avoid it. Even taking Sturgeon's (second) Law into account, competition for the remaining portion of human content and pop-culture is quite stiff.

Continue reading Peering Inside: The rights of creators

Peering Inside: The rights of creators originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you've been following Hernandez vs IGE, you'll probably be a bit surprised to find that the Plaintiff (Hernandez) has dropped Hong Kong Internet Gaming Entertainment Limited (IGE) from the Defendants. USA IGE US LLC (the other IGE) remains on the docket.

The Plaintiff alleges that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else.

Continue reading Hernandez drops HK IGE - Florida Economic Crimes Office investigates

Hernandez drops HK IGE - Florida Economic Crimes Office investigates originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There has been a new development with the uncertified class action Herndandez vs IGE. The Plaintiff alleges that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else. Defendant IGE filed a motion to stay/dismiss in favor of arbitration on 26 October.

IGE has now changed it's stance and withdrawn that motion, and gives the impression that it will answer the complaint in court. That could only be an impression, however.

Continue reading Herndandez vs IGE - IGE withdraws motion to stay/dismiss

Herndandez vs IGE - IGE withdraws motion to stay/dismiss originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Real thefts occur in the real world all the time - we know that, and our respective justice systems have long since evolved to deal with them.

When it comes down to virtual theft (characters, gold, or items) whether actually taken from an account or replicated by use of an exploit - most people don't really think it matters. It's not happening in the physical world, right? So it shouldn't, right? Well, it does, and here's why.

Continue reading Why virtual thefts matter

Why virtual thefts matter originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Benjamin Duranske at Virtually Blind kicks off coverage of another virtual worlds lawsuit. In this case, it's a third-party beneficiary contract class action claim (Whew. Try saying that three times fast) against IGE and their alleged actions in World of Warcraft.

The plaintiffs allege, basically, that IGE is gold-farming, spawn-camping, devaluing gold, spamming chat, and generally screwing up the experience for everyone else.

Continue reading Class action versus IGE

Class action versus IGE originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.