Today, March 31, is the last day to register for the Virtual Law Conference in New York City, April 3-4. Registration ends at 11:59 eastern time (8:59 Pacific). Your registration fee for the conference also covers entrance to the “Virtual Worlds 2008” conference (which runs concurrently) and all associated events. According to [...]
After years of largely ignoring widespread use of its trademarks on everything from in-world groups to business web sites, Linden Lab recently announced the launch of the Second Life® Brand Center, which features a new set of explicit, fairly restrictive guidelines regarding the use of the company’s trademarks.
Some residents are upset, and with at least [...]
Posted in Blizzard, Contract Law, Copyright Law, Lawsuits, MDY v. Blizzard, Providers, RMT/RCE, Virtual Law, Virtual Worlds & Games, World of Warcraft on March 23rd, 2008 17 Comments »
Blizzard and MDY Industries have filed key motions in their lawsuit over the popular World of Warcraft automation program “WoW Glider” (since renamed “MMO Glider”). Exhibits include an expert report supporting Blizzard from Indiana University’s Edward Castronova (PhD, Economics) regarding the impact of Glider on World of Warcraft.
Substantial excerpts follow; here are the documents:
MDY’s [...]
Posted in DMCA, Lawsuits, Providers, RMT/RCE, VB Administration, Virtual ADR, Virtual Government, Virtual Law, Virtual Law Libraries, Virtual Law Practice, Virtual Legal Education, Virtual Legal Orgs., Virtual Worlds & Games on March 21st, 2008 25 Comments »
I am pleased to announce that Virtual Law is available for pre-order through the American Bar Association’s website. It went to press yesterday, and will be published in April. Virtual Law will be exclusively available from the ABA for a month or so, and then will be released to brick-and-mortar and mainstream online booksellers.
Virtual [...]
Second Arts recently posted a comprehensive transcript of a presentation on content creation and intellectual property rights in Second Life by an IP attorney ‘Juris Amat.’
‘Morris Vig,’ who edits Second Arts, offers some thoughtful commentary on the issues raised in the presentation in the introduction:
The issues are profound. The need for Linden Lab to [...]
Eros, LLC, a Second Life adult-animation creator, has reached a settlement with Robert Leatherwood of North Richland Hills, Texas, originally known only as Second Life avatar ‘Volkov Catteneo.’
Frank Taney, the attorney for Eros, said, “We’ve reached a settlement. The terms include an agreement that Leatherwood will not do any more copying.” According to Taney, Kevin [...]
I’m a bit behind the news here as I was on the road this week, but Reuters confirmed that the fictitious defendant named in Eros’ copyright and trademark lawsuit last fall was correctly identified in court papers as Robert Leatherwood of North Richland Hills, Texas (see VB’s earlier coverage for details).
The confirmation is hardly a [...]
Posted in VB Administration on March 12th, 2008 4 Comments »
I’m working on a new (non-law-related) book, and I am looking for real stories from virtual worlds.
If you’d like to talk about your virtual world experiences, potentially for publication, shoot me a note, and I’ll set up a time to talk to you. I’m happy to discuss the details of the project once we [...]
Virtually Blind has obtained Brock Pierce’s Answer and Counterclaims (.pdf) responding to the Amended Complaint filed by Alan Debonneville (see earlier coverage) regarding various underhanded moves at well-known virtual property dealer, Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE).
As is traditional with formal Answers in U.S. legal proceedngs, the first part of this is pretty dry, full of nothing [...]
Virtually Blind has obtained the Amended Complaint (.pdf) filed in the Central District of California on behalf of Alan Debonneville against Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE) founder Brock Pierce. Debonneville is identified as a co-founder of US IGE.
The Amended Complaint (which I must caution readers is an advocacy document, and thus only reflects one side [...]
