Fresh off its summary judgment victory against the creator of MMO Glider (a “bot” program that lets people play World of Warcraft unattended), WoW creator Blizzard has now asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for a permanent injunction (.pdf) which would functionally shut down Glider’s WoW presence. In addition, Blizzard has [...]
Posted in Commentary, Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Copyright Law, Lawsuits, Linden Lab, Property Law, Providers, Second Life, VB Features, Virtual Law, Virtual Worlds & Games on July 28th, 2008 2 Comments »
I recently came across an audio recording of Second Life founder ‘Philip Linden’ (Philip Rosedale) speaking at Second Life’s first birthday (.mp3), a bit over four years ago. Philip is addressing a crowd of avatars in-world at what was one of the first voice events in Second Life. Though there’s no single, big virtual law [...]
RCE Universe has some interesting notes from an interview with Lisa Rutherford of TwoFish from a conversation at Casual Connect Seattle. TwoFish, RCE Universe reminds us, is supplying the in-development virtual world-creation platform Vastpark with a “plug’n’play economic engine that provides for real cash economy transactions, banking grade account management, advanced analytics, currency exchange [...]
There’s an interesting point-counterpoint conversation on RMT (”real money trade”) going on over at gamerates.com. The exchange is more thoughtful than usual, which bodes well for the site (I’ve been keeping an eye on it since it launched a couple of months ago). GameRates has a pro-RMT bias in as much as they track gold [...]
VB has obtained a joint motion (.pdf) filed July 11 in the not-yet-certified class-action case Hernandez v. IGE claiming the parties are “diligently pursuing settlement negotiations” and seeking extra time, which the court granted, to file a report so they can continue negotiations. This raises some questions.
[Updated July 21, 2008 - The parties also sought [...]
Virtually Blind periodically runs “quicklinks” — items that are not long enough for a full story, but are worth a click. I haven’t done this in a while, and I’ve got a ton of both on-topic and off-topic goodies, so here’s an extra large batch.
Following up on last week’s first-ever virtual world CLE (Contuining Legal [...]
I’ve got a piece on the WSJ op-ed page today arguing that it is time for mainstream media and business to start paying closer attention to the 3D internet. It will definitely be old hat to everybody who reads VB regularly (business and government buy-in, 3D interfaces, faster processors, etc.) but it will be new [...]
Last month, attorneys from across the state of California gathered in the posh Beverly Hills Hotel, vacation home of the stars, for the Intellectual Property Section of the California State Bar’s conference on Entertainment & Media. (With special guest appearance by Stan Lee!) The panels included one on the law and virtual worlds. (That wasn’t [...]
Blizzard has won its summary judgment motion against World of Warcraft bot maker MDY on copyright grounds. Blizzard also prevailed on its tortious interference claim. This means that liability for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and tortious interference is completely off the table and will not go to the jury at trial in September, assuming [...]
Quick reminder that the SL Bar Association’s first CLE (Continuing Legal Education) seminar will be held in in Second Life at the SLBA offices Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 12:00 Noon Pacific. The seminar will feature SLBA President ‘Solomon Cortes’ (David Naylor) presenting “Virtual World Legal Issues.” This marks the very first time that [...]
