[MUD-Dev] Re: In Norrath, Tattoine and Rubi-ka, Just What Are Your Legal Rights?

[Scott]

While the contents of Professor Hunter's article are intriguing,
there is little danger to the creators of online worlds resulting
from any property litigation.  Any potential liability is minimized
with a EULA disclaimer that expressly rejects any perceived or
implied property interest in any virtual goods on the part of the
user.

The far more interesting potential legal disputes arise in a
defamation context.  There has been a relatively recent increase in
litigation arising from defamation on the internet.  Regardless of
whether any personal property rights exist in online goods, a pseudo
real world business that operates within that virtual world could
potentially suffer a real world economic loss caused by defamatory
statements made within the game world.  Currently, any entity that
alleges defamation by an anonymous online actor may file a John Doe
suit and subpoena the service provider, or potentially the game
provider, to pierce the anonymity veil and compel said provider to
reveal the actor's identity.  The current test is relatively lenient
given the First Amendment concerns requiring only that (1) [t]he
subpoena seeking the information was issued in good faith and not
for any improper purpose, (2) the information sought relates to a
core claim or defense, (3) the identifying information is directly
and materially relevant to that claim or defense, and (4)
information sufficient to establish or to disprove that claim or
defense is unavailable from any other source.  John Doe,
v. 2THEMART.COM INC., 140 F. Supp. 2d 1088.

While there is little potential legal liability for the provider
(this of course assumes the company or its agents do not defame
their users), there is a very real business concern.  I wonder what
the effect of a few individuals being sued for in game comments will
be?  I will leave it to those of you more attuned to the player base
to decide.
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