Terra Nova has a nice brush up on lawsuits relating to virtual property.Â
Right to terminate serviceÂ
Since 2006 there has been a case going on between Linden Labs (Second Life) and an attorney Marc Bragg. Linden terminated Braggs account because they felt that he violated the game’s terms of service (ToS). Bragg used a technical loophole to acquire property at a very favourable price. Unfortunately the case has been settled. Unfortunately not because I love courtroom action, but because the settlement leaves us with no legal guidelines on when a service provider can terminate service to users. A case on a related subject is Blizzard vs Michael Donnelly. Bilzzard is not satisfied with the fact that Donelly is selling a bot that lets World of Warcraft players automate their play and harvest gold all night long without playing in person. Blizzard demanded that Donnelly cease selling the bot sience using a bot is considered cheating and violating the EULA. So Connelly is suing Blizzard and blizzard is countersuing Connelly. The interesting thing is going to be how Blizzard will show that they have suffered any loss or damage. There is a market for gold but is Connelly responsible for the loss of revenue? Very interesting.Â
Virtual propertyÂ
Terra Nova claims that Eros vs Aaron Long is one of the first player vs player cases. The case relates to the sale of virtual products (fx the SexGen Platinium – I wonder what it does). Aron Long has sold products from Eros that he copied without permission. An interesting thing is that Eros does not know who Aron Long is, only his online identity. So until Eros gets information from ISP´s Aron is just an online persona. Ill post updates on this case as it progresses.Â
ÂÂ