[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[Jessica Mulligan]

At 12:03 AM 3/29/2002 -0800, "Caliban Tiresias Darklock" 
<caliban at darklock.com> wrote:
> From: "Jessica Mulligan" <jessica at mm3d.com>
>>> On Mon, 25 Mar 2002 02:49:55 -0800, "Caliban Tiresias Darklock"
>>> <caliban at darklock.com> wrote:

>>> Your statement also ignores the critical point that persistent,
>>> online-only games are both a product *and* a service; they are
>>> inextricably linked.

>> The game doesn't enter into it.

>>   1. I talk to you somewhere else.
>>   2. I say I can do something for you if you pay me.
>>   3. You give me money to do it.
>>   4. I go onto the game.
>>   5. I do what I said I would do.
>>   6. You come onto the game.
>>   7. We meet in a prearranged location.
>>   8. I deliver the results of the promised action.

>> Now, the important thing to realise here is that there are TWO
>> SEPARATE TRANSACTIONS. Steps 1 through 3 take place OUTSIDE of
>> Mythic's service and without the use of Mythic's property. Steps
>> 4 through 8 take place on Mythic's service, and Mythic has
>> control over whether and how these are permissible.

>> The *problem* is that steps 4 through 8 are in most cases
>> perfectly permissible (or at the very least not preventible), and
>> there's no way Mythic can prevent them without irreparably
>> damaging the appeal of the game.  So Mythic wants to say that
>> their players are not allowed to conduct the first three steps.

>> 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, and you
>> can't sell me a service on the condition that I *don't* purchase
>> certain services from others. These are anticompetitive
>> practices. So even if Mythic's EULA says things like that, it
>> can't legally enforce them.

Your thesis is flawed by the assumption that the players do, in
fact, 'own' the characters they play in the game and that what is
taking place is transfer of ownership.  The key here is that Mythic
isn't selling, it is licensing, in effect leasing, the use of the
game for specific purposes.  It maintains ownership of the 'goods.'
In that sense, it is no different than a car rental agency
forbidding you to sell a car you rent to your neighbor.  Mythic is
well within their rights to say "You can't purchase services from
others that involve transfer of ownership of my property without my
permission."

So your 8 step example should be 9 steps and actually read:

   1. I talk to you somewhere else.
   2. I say I can sell you something *I don't own* if you pay me.
   3. You give me money to do it.
   4. I go onto the game.
   5. I do what I said I would do.
   6. You come onto the game.
   7. We meet in a prearranged location.
   8. I deliver the results of the promised action.
   9. Mythic bans the character, I sue, I lose, the court makes me
   give the money back and the D.A. starts an investigation into
   whether I have violated any criminal statutes.

And you may believe the courts will determine that Mythic is selling
goods and the player owns the characters, but I don't.  To
paraphrase Dickens, the law may be an ass, but not that big an ass.

-Jessica Mulligan


_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev