[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

From: <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>


> Then again these guys really are jokers imho.

I know... it's such a shame that the suit couldn't have been brought
by someone with an apparent emotional age of more than
twelve... while it may be dressed up as a major IP issue, it's still
suspiciously similar to something out of a fraternity's "rush week".

The more I consider this, the more it looks like a question that has
nothing to do with intellectual property at all.

Mythic are essentially saying "if people can sell game items for
real money, then a nonzero number of people will treat the game as a
business and not a recreational activity, which will damage the game
environment and cause serious social issues within the game" which
is absolutely true.

Blacksnow are essentially saying "whatever I do when I'm not on your
game is none of your damn business" which is also absolutely true.

Compare it to the word Semprini. Nobody owns the word Semprini, and
who owns it really doesn't make a difference. Mythic may want to
forbid people who say Semprini from playing the game, which is
pretty much their right.  Blacksnow, however, may think they have a
perfect right to say Semprini -- and they do. They simply do not
have the right to do both. As long as they want to play, they do not
get to say Semprini. This is not because Mythic owns the rights to
Semprini, or because Blacksnow does not own the rights to Semprini,
it is because Mythic has the right to say whether or not you can
play their game... and if they want to make that decision based on
the word Semprini, they can do that. Blacksnow are welcome to say
that Mythic are being silly, and maybe they're right, but Mythic
also have a right to be silly.

The problem is fundamentally that Mythic have allegedly told auction
sites that they *do* own the game data, since this complaint is
grounds for the sites to close any auctions involving that
data. That's just a big lie, which almost certainly constitutes
obstruction of commerce and probably harassment as well. (It is
further questionable whether this constitutes monopolistic
behavior. Mythic apparently wants to be the one and only company
authorised to engage in commerce involving DAoC items and accounts,
and has exerted distinct effort to prevent others from engaging in
commerce of that nature; this would quite possibly plop them into
the basket with "Every person who shall monopolize [...] any part of
the trade or commerce among the several States".)

So it seems clear that (if the allegations are true) Mythic is in
the wrong on this, because at the very least they have deliberately
misrepresented the facts in order to impede Blacksnow's
activities. Mythic is certainly not allowed to lie for purposes of
stopping this activity. Mythic may be perfectly noble in their
goals, perfectly correct in their insistence that they have a right
to stop this, and own every last bit of the data involved -- but it
does not matter. They are *not* allowed to achieve their ends
through fraud, no matter what those ends are.

And chances are this is how the whole thing is going to play out in
court, because it makes the entire intellectual property issue
irrelevant. And judges don't *like* to make intellectual property
decisions unless they have no choice. (Especially today, when IP law
is so woefully inadequate to modern IP issues that almost EVERY
question is fertile ground for a doctoral dissertation.) So when the
opportunity to dodge the bullet and rule on a more cut-and-dried
foundation presents itself, they tend to take it and run.

But then again, as we can see from Lee's response to the press
release, the allegations are by no means trustworthy. DAoC has had a
posted online auction policy since *before* day one, said policy
being "don't do it" -- and Blacksnow have ignored that policy. It's
arguable that Blacksnow just don't listen and have no bitch coming;
DAoC officials may also be perfectly aware that the complaint is
without grounds because the alleged events quite simply never
occurred. If Blacksnow goes into court and seeks a remedy for events
that never happened, how much of a remedy do you think they're going
to get?


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