[MUD-Dev] Black Snow Revisited

[Marian Griffith]

On Mon 01 Apr, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> From: "David H. Loeser Jr." <daklozar at insightbb.com>

>> At any rate, we really need to be careful with all of
>> this... What if a writer using MS Word was charged by MS for
>> using Word to write his novel? That would suck.

I highly doubt any EULA, even by Microsoft, would survive even a few
minutes in court if it stipulates that.  A text editor is in essence
a tool, and the manufacturer of the tool never has the rights to
what is produced with it.

> That's not even the issue. The issue here is what if the owner of
> the computer on which the application is running *owns* anything
> that gets done with that application? How many major corporations
> *lease* their computers?  How many use network applications
> running from servers that technically "belong" to their network
> management company? How many allow workers to telecommute and use
> their own computers?

Again, this is highly unlikely to survive in court for the same
reason. The owner of the computer at the most provides a service
which in itself is not enough to support a claim of ownership. I
highly doubt that the legal battle between Black Snow and Mythic is
going to touch this point, as there is a couple of centuries worth
of jurisdiction pointing in the other direction.

> Are we forgetting Application Service Providers, who will
> supposedly provide a rentable-application system where people like
> me -- who use something like 3DSMax twice a month -- don't have to
> pay full price for an application, simply paying on a per-use
> basis? That would certainly make a big difference for some game
> developers, I think, since they wouldn't need to buy $50,000 worth
> of software every three months... unless, of course, the ASP owned
> whatever you made with the applications.

They can not, and even if they claimed in their agreement that they
do, the first judge is likely to toss that part of the EULA if not
the entire agreement.  Not that it is likely that a judge will let a
case degrade into an IP debate if he or she can avoid it.

> I think "suck" does not even begin to describe it.

Actually you probably would see business moved to countries with a
more reasonable approach to the whole intellectual property and
ownership subject. It is sometimes easy to forget that there are 250
million Europeans and 200 million Japanese out there who also have
left the stone age some time age <tongue very firmly in cheek ;>

But in short, I do not think that this whole case is going have much
of an impact.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey

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