turtlethink.com » Archive » Intellectual Property in Virtual Worlds

Intellectual Property in Virtual Worlds

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP released a copyright report titled “Generating and Protecting Intellectual Property in Virtual Worlds” The report is not particularly in depth, however, it does offer a brief overview of copyright issues that we will see in the near future.

Two interesting points from the report:

1. “Currently, the governance of virtual worlds is chiefly controlled by end-user licensing agreements, website-specific terms of use and privacy policies, and “real world” law. However, the anonymity of virtual-world participants and the novel technological context of virtual-world operation and events can pose unusual challenges in identifying wrongdoers and securing remedies for IP violations.”

2. “Also, due to (at least initially) the anonymity of many virtual-world users, IP
enforcement actions may require, if appropriate, pursuit of simultaneous claims against
both the site operator and the owner of the infringing avatar or virtual business. The
extent of the site operator’s participation in or encouragement of the infringing activity
can also affect the determination of whether the site operator qualifies for immunity
under the DMCA.”

See the full report here.

The legal system is going to have to make some significant strides in the future to enforce the complicated IP issues that will come up as virtual worlds move closer to the mainstream and the complexity of virtual IP issues becomes a common paradigm.

I believe we need to meditate on the perspective of Lawrence Lessig and consider the user-generated culture we are presently living in as well as they way we enforce the expression of creativity at the end-user level. I am not encouraging the overlooking of IP enforcement at the level of big business, but we can not have blanket policies in such a complicated and intricate digital legal climate (at least one we are quickly moving towards).