[MUD-Dev] FW: [uodevlist] OT - Lawsuit on Lum's

[Dave Rickey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Olson <jolson at micron.net>

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Dave Rickey" <daver at mythicgames.com>
>>     Volunteer programs are dead, I'd expect UO's to be disbanded or
>sharply
>> cut (to reduce potential liability without giving the plaintiffs more
>> evidence) within weeks, and EQ and AC to follow shortly thereafter.
>Future
>> titles won't have them.  Overall CS quality is going to drop
>significantly.
>
>That's quite a prophecy.
>
>It's been said here repeatedly: don't bother trying to interfere with what
>players want to do.  Volunteer programs are a one-two punch: players want
to
>do it AND it benefits the company.  Where there's a will, there's a way...
>volunteerism will be back.
>
    It will, but not until the lawsuits have been completed and we know
*what* we can use volunteers for, and how, without exposing ourselves to
legal liability.  That's going to take at least another 2-3 years, an entire
generation of these games will get built under the assumption that there
will be *no* volunteer program.

    What scares me is that it's not much of a stretch to applying the same
rules to all of the for-profit websites out there that use volunteers for
moderation of web forums and news posting.  For years we've been applying
the "help yourself by helping others" ethic of the internet to our business
models, with little or no thought about what that might mean under the labor
laws designed for an industrial economy.  Now the laws are finally taking
notice.

--Dave Rickey




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