[MUD-Dev] BlackSnow sues Mythic for online property rights

Thu Feb 7 02:29:54 CET 2002

Raph Koster wrote:

> BLACKSNOW INTERACTIVE SUES MYTHIC (DAOC) IN FEDERAL COURT FOR
> MMORPG PLAYER'S RIGHTS

> Caldwell, was quoted as saying, "What it comes down to is, does a
> MMORPG player have rights to his time, or does Mythic own that
> player's time? It is unfair of Mythic to stop those who wish to
> sell their items, currency or even their own accounts, which were
> created with their own time. Mythic, in my opinion, and hopefully
> the court's, does not have the copyright ownership to regulate
> what a player does with his or her own time or to determine how
> much that time is worth on the free market."

Blacksnow's disclaimer reads:

  "Seller is only providing a service to buyer. No goods or property
  are being sold to buyer by seller. Seller claims no title to any
  intellectual property interests held by Mythic Entertainment
  Corporation (Mythic). Except those granted by Mythic, no
  intellectual property interests are being transferred to buyer by
  seller from this transaction. Seller makes no representations
  regarding the transferability, use, and ownership of Mythic's
  intellectual property."

I.e., they are providing a fee for service, not reselling the actual
goods.

But their site indexes all of the 'goods' available for sale, and
defines a pricing structure according to the volume of goods, not
the time associated with obtaining those goods.

There's another company out there which essentially offers to play
your character for you while you're away.  They charge a per hour
rate.  I don't see how this model would violate the EULA.

These guys might have a chance since Mythic's EULA states that they
will not interfere with online trading through auction sites.  And
that's exactly what they apparently did.  Going against their
previous assertion of laissez-faire could indicate a rethinking of
their position based upon the revenue generation potential they're
witnessing.  Not saying it does, but any contradictory stance lends
weight to the plaintiffs' position.

...

It came to me that a good analogy might be ticket scalping.  In the
scalping process, I pay a premium on the ticket price to a third
party to compensate for not having to stand in line.  The ticket
price is also raised according to supply/demand.  Same with the high
level goods in MMORPGs.

I looked around the net for a nice summary of why ticket scalping is
illegal in most places.  I can't find one.  Apparently, it mostly
has to do with the idea of 'fair pricing' regardless of market
conditions (i.e., to avoid price gouging, i.e., to patch an apparent
flaw in the market system), and that the government has no way of
levying a tax on the secondary sale.

I haven't read all of it, but this paper seems the least
ideologically motivated of the ones I came across:

  http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj15n1-4.html

...

How about if I went by a nightclub at 11:00pm.  Saw that the line
was an hour long.  Paid a homeless guy 10 bucks to stand in line for
me while I went for supper.  Came back at 5 to 12, and took the
place of the homeless guy.

I used to do this for a living, actually.  Back in first year, I
worked as a food runner for a small restaurant located in the same
corporate office tower atrium as a larger, much busier restaurant.
The larger restaurant had a 2 hour line to get in each night.  When
we were slow, I'd go and offer to stand in line for people while
they went to our bar and had drinks.  I got tipped quite well.  Our
bar made money, and the people were happy.  Mind you, both
restaurants were owned by the same people, so that probably helped a
lot.  It didn't change the fact that the other people in line were
pissed off when the people came back to take their place.  Even
though they technically had the same opportunity to hire me as the
other folks, the people left in line felt as though some right of
theirs was being violated.  So we stopped the practice.

Now - if the restaurants had been owned by different people, the
larger one probably would have complained.  On what grounds, I don't
know...

...

Or a bicycle race...

  The leader has a bunch of people gaining off his effort for free.
  The leader cuts the wind, and everyone else profits by his work,
  without the leader receiving compensation (actually, almost a
  disadvantage).  Nothing illegal, but definitely appears unfair.

...

Homeless people often try to raise their ability to get coins from
people by holding doors open.

So let's look at a door to a mall...

  Mall: The attraction is provided by the mall.  The homeless guy
  has no role in manufacturing the demand.

  MUD: Mythic makes the reason people are there.  Blacksnow has not
  created the market.

  Mall: The mall created the barrier to entry.  Quite literally in
  this case.  The door.

  MUD: Mythic created the fact it takes a long time to achieve
  things.

  Mall: The homeless guy took it upon himself to hold the door open.

  MUD: Blacksnow took it upon themselves to make the game require
  less time.

Both expect compensation for facilitating acccess to something they 
didn't create.

...

Take a mining town - or any other one horse town.  The main plant
brings the people there.  But the people need a bar, grocery store,
bank, etc.  Does the mining company deserve a cut of the grocer's
profits?  The grocer is facilitating people's ability to participate
in the company's activities.  And the grocer wouldn't have a market
if the company decided to close down.

...

I think it comes down to the fact that in each of these instances,
one party has assumed the vast majority of the risk / cost, but also
inadvertently created a market opportunity that they feel wouldn't
have existed save for their work in the first place, and that they
therefore feel entitled to compensation.

People expect a capitalistic system to be inherently fair.  Profit
according to risk.  Reward according to effort.  But this isn't the
case, here - which makes people automatically believe something must
be wrong.

But I don't think, legally, that there actually is...  Provided 
Blacksnow simply provides a service, and does not engage in the resale 
of the goods.

> "No one has stood up to any of these software giants, until now."

But if they keep using immature rhetoric like this they'll lose my
vote. ;)

G.

------------------------------------
Geoffrey MacDougall
Intangible Productions
geoffrey at intangible.ca
www.intangible.ca
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev