On Virtual Travel

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 Posted in Information Technology, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | 2 Comments »

Why would a denizen of a virtual world want to cross over into another virtual world, especially if she couldn't bring her special powers, skills, or goods into that other world?  This was the question asked in a comment the ...

Laws for the Virtual Universe

Saturday, March 21st, 2009 Posted in Information Technology, Legal Explorations, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | 3 Comments »

What if virtual worlds, no matter their purposes, narratives, unique details, and other variations, could be linked?  What if they had borders between them, keeping the right stuff in its place, but in other ways being permeable? I am in the ...

New ways of looking at video game IP

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 Posted in Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment »

I suggested the other day that we use video games as the industry in which to consider hybrid IP for software. I suggested this because video game software, more than any other kind of software, still retains the elements that were ...

Software IP and Games – which model applies?

Friday, December 5th, 2008 Posted in Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Video Games | 2 Comments »

At the moment, video games, because they are software, are covered by copyright.  But traditionally, games were covered by patent. Hmm.  I've argued before that software should be sui generis, governed by a hybrid model of patent and copyright: The Source Door: ...

Are there benefits to “piracy”?

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 Posted in Business Law, Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Video Games | 1 Comment »

The pro-copyright, pro-DMCA, anti-counterfeit lobby groups would have you believe that all unauthorized reproduction (and distribution), colloquially known (inaccurately) as piracy, is horrid for the industries concerned, and is destroying them.  They go so far as to call it theft, ...

How to make the Massive Tech Show into a massive tech show

Saturday, April 26th, 2008 Posted in Business Law, Communications, Information Technology, Privacy, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment »

I've been critical of the Vancouver Massive Tech Show both here and on Tazzu. I've branded it as boring, uninspired, a waste of an afternoon, and anything but either massive or a show. I've been challenged to propose something better, ...

Fair Play and Griefing in Second Life

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 Posted in Intellectual Property, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | No Comments »

Terra Nova has an interesting piece on the issue of fair play in virtual worlds. I think the question is whether "griefing" could be considered infringement to fair play, which implies that fair play exists as a principle, and ...

Selling your everything: Non-comp clauses, IP, and employment contracts

Saturday, March 8th, 2008 Posted in Business Law, Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | 4 Comments »

I would like to write, today, about a murky subject I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks. The various forms the germ of this post has assumed over those weeks all stem from a particular type of clause ...