[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Who owns my sword?

[Ren Reynolds]

Dave,

Very interesting post!

18 September 2003 23:17 Dave Rickey wrote

> It's being treated as a case of intellectual property law.  To the
> extent that database entries have value under current law, the
> value derives from the way in which they are referenced and
> organized.

Property in a collection (in UK and US law) and a database (in UK EU
law) is separate right from the rights in any individual element \
entry of that collection. Rights in a collection do not alter rights
in the elements \ entries that make up the collection, nor do the
confer rights on them where they do not already exist.

> Since in MMO's this is the product of the actions of players, With
> an avatar - it's the product of the action of players and
> developers. The developer designs the schema, the player defines:
> - a unique entry in that schema - their character name - through
> their actions they 'select' other values e.g. strength etc.

So as neither player nor company meet the criteria for being the
owner then the collection \ database then either there is no owner
(I think this is the case), or ownership is joint.

> the EULA asserts that any property interest this re-arrangement
> might create is assigned to the operator of the game (I am not a
> lawyer, but this is the explanation I've been given by those that
> are).  The legal theory is that the entries themselves (which
> happen to look like blar-blar swords, characters, etc., when
> viewed through the client) have no value in and of themselves at
> all, and therefore ownership does not apply.

If it's the case that joint ownership does apply then I agree with
this.  However I'm not sure it does - I'll do some research into
joint ownership when neither of two parties meet the criteria for
ownership (rather than both of them meeting it) and post the results
here.

> Everybody is either waiting for the first crisis, and hoping the
> train wrecks into somebody *else*, or thinking that those who seem
> to worry about it are just playing Chicken Little.

Yes, some one with a significant amount of money needs to take a dev
company \ publisher to court to get to the bottom of this - but any
action would not be economically sensible as I don't think anyone
has accumulated enough virtual property to be worth hiring lawyers
to defined it, though the total worth now is such that the law
should be clarified.

Ren
- been at a conference hence delay in response
www.renreynolds.com
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