Build your own world
User Generated Content, Second Life and
Creative Commons
Andrés Guadamuz
AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and
Technology Law

A warning about hype...

Web 2.0

Web 1.0 Web 2.0
read only read / write
top down bottom up

Some definitions
Web 2.0
User Generated
Content
Peer-production
Virtual worlds, MMOGs
Cyberspace /
Metaverse

The user is the producer
Blogging
Flickr
YouTube
Social networking
Wikipedia

Obligatory Long Tail slide

However...

Creative Commons

Some concepts
Copyright
Licence
Copyleft
Open Source Software
Open Content licences
End-User Licence Agreement

Spectrum of rights

CC is copyright for Web 2.0

Core Licensing Suite:
Creator/Licensor chooses licence options
Attribution: Every CC licences allows the world to
•
copy and distribute a work provided that the
licensee credits the creator/licensor.
•The author may include these other elements:
NonCommercial: licensees can use the work for
•
non-commercial purposes.
No Derivatives: the work cannot be modified.
•
•
ShareAlike: the work can be copied, modified and
distributed if the author releases the derivative
under the same licence.

s e vit a vi r e D o N - l ai c r e m m o C n o N - n o it u bi rtt A D N- C N- Y B
e kil A e r a h S - l ai c r e m m o C n o N - n o it u bi rtt A A S- C N- Y B
s e v i t a vi r e D o N - n o i t u b i r t t A D N- Y B
e ki l A e r a h S - n o i t u b i r t t A A S- Y B
l ai c r e m m o C n o N - n o i t u b i r t t A C N- Y B
n o i t u bi r t t A YB
Types of licence

Simple License Generator

Human-Readable Lawyer-Readable Machine-Readable
Commons Deed Legal Code Digital Code
<a rel=\"license\"
href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licens
es/by/2.5/scotland/\">
<img alt=\"Creative Commons License\"
style=\"border-width:0\"
src=\"http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2
.5/scotland/88x31.png\" />
</a>
<br />This work is licensed under a
<a rel=\"license\"
href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licens
es/by/2.5/scotland/\">Creative
Commons Attribution 2.5 UK: Scotland
License</a>.

However...

Chang’s family complaint
\"Creative Commons owed a duty to Justin Wong, as a
•
user and beneficiary of its license. Creative Commons
breached this duty by failing, among other things, to
adequately educate and warn him, as a user of the
Creative Commons Attribution license, to warn him of the
meaning of commercial use and the ramifications and
effects of entering into a license allowing such use.\"

Virtual Worlds

Types of virtual world
MMOG
Metaverse
Playground
Console

An important distinction
Client Content
Connects the user to the world The actual virtual world
Can be independent Swords, people, buildings, NPCs

Machinima

The new virtual world...

Augmented reality

Legal issues

Legal classification
“Open source”
Closed content Open Content
content
Proprietary
client
Open source
client

Jurisdiction
Global games Regional games National games

Second Life EULA
“3.2 You retain copyright and other intellectual property
rights with respect to Content you create in Second Life,
to the extent that you have such rights under applicable
law. However, you must make certain representations
and warranties, and provide certain license rights,
forbearances and indemnification, to Linden Lab and to
other users of Second Life.”

Second Life EULA
“You acknowledge that: (i) by using the Service you may
have access to graphics, sound effects, music, video,
audio, computer programs, animation, text and other
creative output (collectively, \"Content\"), and (ii) Content
may be provided under license by independent content
providers, including contributions from other users of the
Service [...]
You acknowledge that Linden Lab and other Content
Providers have rights in their respective Content under
copyright and other applicable laws and treaty
provisions, and that except as described in this
Agreement, such rights are not licensed or otherwise
transferred by mere use of the Service.”

Game Content Usage Rules
\"Here’s the magic words from our lawyers: so long as
you respect these rules, Microsoft grants you a personal,
non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and
display Game Content and to create derivative works
based upon Game Content, strictly for noncommercial
and personal use. We can revoke this limited use license
at any time and for any reason.\"

Bragg v Linden Labs
Mr Bragg is an attorney who exploited a vulnerability in
Second Life's land auction system,
He used it to purchase $8,000 USD (approximately $2
million Linden dollars) worth of land for only $300 USD
investment.
Linden Labs froze his in-game assets, confiscated the
land and terminated his account.
Bragg sued Linden Labs for breach of contract, unfair
trade practices, and later expanded his claims in order to
obtain an injunction disallowing Linden Labs to terminate
users' accounts.

Bragg v Linden Labs

SexGen trade mark cases

Electronic Money
‘Electronic money’ shall mean monetary value as
represented by a claim on the issuer which is:
(i) stored on an electronic device;
(ii) issued on receipt of funds of an amount not less in
value than the monetary value issued;
(iii) accepted as means of payment by undertakings
other than the issuer.

Concluding...

Questions?