[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[amanda at alfar.com]

"Caliban Tiresias Darklock" <caliban at darklock.com> wrote: > From: <amanda at alfar.com>
>> "Caliban Tiresias Darklock" <caliban at darklock.com> wrote:

>>> Mythic can't say that. It's beyond their rights as a vendor of
>>> goods and services. You can't sell me a product on the condition
>>> that I don't do certain things with it after I own it,

>> Of course I can.

> Not without a specific individual contract, which does not exist
> in the case of a software service or a CD sale, but DOES exist in
> the case of real estate.

And, of course, an account which authorizes you to play an online
game.

> The CD sale example you provide seems to forget that the CD
> manufacturer doesn't say you can't do these things, the LAW says
> you can't do them.

No, the LAW only says that you only have the rights granted to you
by the publisher.  The publisher decides which rights those are for
each publication.

I'm not a lawyer, but I do make my living by selling rights to my
intellectual property, and I'd really suggest reading up on
intellectual property law before pontificating.

> The manufacturer may not further add that you can't listen to
> track 4 in your car stereo.

Well, as of the DMCA, they can, but that's a rant for another
mailing list.

> In the case of real estate, anyone who thinks getting an account
> on a MMORPG is like buying real estate needs a reality check.

You're confusing parts of the dicussion here.  You claimed that a
sale can't come with post-sale conditions on use.  I gave several
examples demonstrating that it can indeed.

> But that's not anticompetitive. You may say that I can't eat these
> things in your theatre, but you can't say I'm not allowed to eat
> them or buy them at all.

Well, I'm sure Mythic doesn't mind if you don't use the mithril
armor you bought from BlackSnow in the actual game...

> But they *cannot* come out of the park and disrupt my personal
> life, like cancelling my auctions on eBay. If the amusement park
> sent people to my house to make sure I was abiding by the rules
> there, it would be harassment.

If you are scalping tickets to an event, or otherwise violating
conditions of sale, yes they can ask eBay to cancel your auctions,
and no, it's not harassment.

<deep breath>

There have been many contributions to this thread which amount to
"they can't tell me what to do" or "they can't kick me out for
that."  When it comes to use of other peoples' intellectual
property, the fact is that this is often not true, even when common
sense might make it seem as though it should be.

Most of the debate, though, is peripheral at best to the issues of
MUD development.  Perhaps we should set up a "mud-biz" mailing list
where business and legal issues could be discussed without having
them interfere with technical discussions on development topics...


Amanda Walker
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