Fair Play and Griefing in Second Life

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 infers some kind of legal basis for it.

Fair Play (at Terra Nova)

Following is from my paper, “Riding Waves of Code: Looking for Infringement in the Evolution of Game and Virtual World Mods”:

Is it possible to protect game-play as expression? What is game-play in its expressed form? Going beyond the video game as either merely a non-linear audiovisual work or merely a literary work of code and rules, it is the interactive synergy of those elements as a platform, combined with the human choice elements of the user/avatar cyborg. The game is not a game without the player, but merely an opportunity — a potential. Though copyright subsists in the component elements of that potential, there can be no doubt that the game-in-action expression as well.
…
If copyright subsists in game-play as expression, who owns it, and what constitutes infringement?
…
Yet the courts have not found that the platform creators have rights in the actual game-play. Looking at the Game Genie cases, … the courts seem hesitant to deem title in a copyright for game-play as an expression.
…
Is there a right to fair play that can be derived from the moral rights in collaborative creation of game-play expression?
…
Moral rights can be seen as a hybrid of Freedom of Expression and Copyright — a right to control your expression without undue or unjust interference or distortion by others. This was violated in the Mr. Bungle affair in LambdaMOO, and this was violated in the Black Snow affairs. A previous paper argued that the consent given to engage in virtual mortal combat between two avatars does not include consent to actions outside of normative combat. That paper argued mainly against inappropriate verbal expression … but if game-play is expression, then is not cheating, or competitive advantage modding [or griefing, in the case of this post] also inappropriate expression…?The protection of game-play as expression … is a foundation for the establishment of fair play.