Posted in Active Worlds, Activeworlds, Inc., Blizzard, Click to Agree, Commentary, Contract Law, Copyright Law, Electronic Arts, Entropia Universe, IMVU, IMVU Inc., Linden Lab, Makena Technologies, Mindark, Providers, Second Life, The Sims Online, There, Trademark Law, VB Features, VB Series, Virtual Law, Virtual Worlds & Games, World of Warcraft on September 30th, 2007 8 Comments »
Guest Commentary - Part One of VB’s “Click to Agree” Series
When you enter an online world or game, you have to click a little box or button and agree to a set of terms, usually called the “Terms of Service” (TOS) or the “End User License Agreement” (EULA).
Although this kind of agreement (technically, a “contract [...]
Linden Lab emailed European Second Life users earlier today to inform them that Linden Lab would begin collecting Value Added Tax on all Second Life fees and other purchases from European users including land use fees, private region fees, land auctions, purchases from the land store, and account fees.
Second Life’s ‘Gwyneth Llewelyn’ (who undoubtedly knows [...]
I recently zeroed in on a clause in Second Life’s Terms of Service which, if enforced, renders all patents — even pre-existing ones — functionally worthless against Second Life infringers.
This comes via a presentation (.pdf) from Fernando Barrio, a Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University. I think you had to be there to follow the [...]
Posted in Commentary, Linden Lab, Providers, Quicklinks, Second Life, Trademark Law, VB Features, Virtual Law, Virtual Worlds & Games, World of Warcraft on September 26th, 2007 No Comments »
VB runs “Virtual Law Quicklinks” whenever we have a backlog of interesting items that aren’t big enough for full posts. One link, one sentence, a little commentary. Here’s today’s batch.
Trademark Infringement in Second Life Noticed Again - Digital Urban joins the many voices singing the trademark infringement in Second Life song (originally a 2005 Tony [...]
IMVU quietly joined Second Life in offering age verification to its members over the weekend.
The process appears similar to Second Life’s (users submit some information from government documents online and the information is instantly matched to the user’s previously-provided name in a third-party database). IMVU currently only offers the service to U.S. members via [...]
Second Life’s ‘Aimee Weber’ (Alyssa LaRoche) recently became the first avatar with a registered trademark. The application for the registered mark was filed February 18, 2007 approved for publication July 7, and published for opposition August 14. According to ‘Weber,’ no opposition was filed, and she plans to immediately begin using the mark. [...]
VB runs “Virtual Law Quicklinks” whenever we have a backlog of interesting items that aren’t big enough for full posts. One link, one sentence, a little commentary. Here’s today’s batch.
Essay on Virtual Courts vs. Consumer Action - Second Life’s ‘Ashcroft Burnham’ has an essay up at metaverserepublic.org arguing that in-world courts are better than boycotts [...]
There was a good in-world presentation yesterday on protecting brands in Second Life. The panel was hosted by ‘Celebrity Millionsofus’ (Mark Allen) of Millions of Us. Panelists included ‘Haver Cole’ (Rebecca Small) of Metaversatility, ‘VirtualWorldsNews Writer’ (Joey Seiler) of Virtual Worlds News, and ‘Nic Whizenhunt’ (Nic Mitham) of K-Zero.
The audio is available for download or [...]
Posted in Blizzard, Commentary, Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Linden Lab, Providers, Second Life, VB Features, Virtual Law, Virtual Worlds & Games, World of Warcraft on September 20th, 2007 23 Comments »
Guest Commentary
A recent guild disbandment in World of Warcraft may mark the beginning of the decline of “Virtual Worlds” into “Virtual Countries,” as conflict of law issues make it nearly impossible to fairly enforce rights and duties.
As first reported by WoWInsider, a World of Warcraft guild called “Abhorrent Taboo” was recently disbanded for allegedly engaging [...]
This short video (by Second Life’s prolific and talented ‘Bernhard Drax,’) takes you inside the virtual Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Second Life. The project resulted from a partnership between Seton Hall School of Law, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bay Area Video Coalition, documentary producer/director Nonny de la Peña, and Peggy Weil, professor of [...]
