What rights should we have to our virtual goods?

by Shawn Schuster Oct 12th 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Opinion, Politics, Legal, Academic

Are you aware of your property rights as they pertain to the virtual goods in your favorite MMO? Are you aware of the laws in your country as they pertain to virtual goods? Heck, do you even read the EULA?

It seems like these lawyer-speak agreements are becoming more prevalent lately, as we impatiently click the 'agree' button in anticipation of playing the latest MMO. In fact, even older games are reinstating their EULA on the loading screens, forcing players to click through before entering their world. The reason for this basically boils down to inevitable litigation as gaming grows in popularity.

We've all heard the story about the guy in China who got his virtual sword stolen, then proceeded to stab the thief when the Chinese government did nothing about it. This prompted China to enact new laws concerning player rights concerning virtual goods, based on the time and effort put into earning these virtual goods. The United States has kept their distance from anything like this, but when (take note, we didn't say if) someone gets shot irl over their WoW Raid gear, you can bet that something will be done about it. Sure, plenty of cases have come to court over virtual goods, for example the now-infamous Bragg vs Linden case, but when violence comes into play, it changes the rules a bit.

So what should our rights, as players actually be? Should we simply say that the developers own all virtual property and we have no claim to any of it, or should our invested time and effort actually have a concrete value? Let us know what you think!

Tags: agreement, china, eula, in-game, laws, rights, virtual-goods

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jack said on 10:55AM 10-12-2008

Its pretty simple no rights at all, Blizzard make it real clear you do all toons and virtual goods are belong to them. You do not have any claims what so ever...

Its the only way to stop the account sales and so on. I wish that they put there feeds down and shut down all that sites that buy/sale accounts.

Hardy said on 11:13AM 10-12-2008

No right, plain and simple.
Blizzard has it right. You're paying for a service, that is all.
They'll do anything for the most part to keep you enjoying the game and nothing happens to your stuff, but it's not yours literally.

Doubledown Tandino said on 6:00PM 10-12-2008

I actually think this is a fairly simple concept to figure out... but those fatcats in washington and that mainstream media may muck up the proper outcome...

A) Each virtual world has a ToS that declares if the company is giving their users ownership rights. IE: If you make a battlesword in Second Life, its yours in all aspects. In World of Warcraft, that sword is owned by Blizzard.

B) Case by case basis.... (Considering that ToS' are legal and legit working FOR the protection of BOTH the company and the user) Lets let each court case decide.

C) People that want "rights" usually aren't giving enough credit to the platform they're using. Example: Linden Lab has granted us IP rights, their choice. That doesn't mean they aren't helping to facilitate every single creation made in SL.

Everyone seeks credit, and rights, and ownership....
Giving these things away to people makes the world such a happier place, in fact, every one reading this.. try it some time.... instead of trying to claim, possess, own.... why not give that to someone else. It'll make ya feel happy.

PS.... SLART wha wha yeah thats right i went there beotch

steve said on 1:56PM 10-12-2008

my problem with all this is simple time now use too most people spent what 40 hours a week working (not sure if that true anymore).

which add's up to 160 hour's a month

so how many hours a week does it take to get say one raid piece 1 hour or is it more like 40 hours.

so if i spent 160 hours basicly working for the mmo for free i guess i would be a little upset if my item i worked 160 hours for. somthing happen too it