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

[Dave Shepherd]

Rudy Fink wrote:

> Well constructed EULAs should effectively limit liability.  The
> user is purchasing a service and that service is provided under
> the stated terms.
 
> I have felt a legal challenge to this coming for a while.  Users
> invest a huge amount of time and in some cases personality in
> their online characters.  Under most commercial EULAs users have
> no rights to anything related to their avatars.  Regardless of the
> contract they recognized many feel it is their property and/or
> identity.  The loss of 0 - 4000 + hrs of time does not come easily
> for some.

> I would be quite surprised if ME looses.  In the long run I would
> expect growing rights for avatars from legal or market forces.

The EULA is just a statement of intent from the seller.  It still
takes a c= ourt of law to determine the legality of it, and this is
done with cases su= ch as these.  I would also be surprised if ME
loses, yet by designing a gam= e in a style that is known to have an
out-of-world economy they should not = be surprised to have lawsuits
brought against them.  Either embrace an out-= of-world economy a la
Achaea or remove the perceived value of items and cha= racters by
getting rid of loot and the levelling treadmill.

Let's see what Tweety thinks of EULAs 

  http://www.bowlofmice.com/tweety/some_thoughts_on_the_eula.html

Regards,

Dave Shepherd

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