Virtual World Law Blog

Bambuser Powers World's First 24-Hour Virtual Tour of New York City

Starting and finishing in Times Square on Tuesday, 1^st November at 9am EDT, Hans Eriksson - executive chairman of the live mobile streaming application Bambuser will spend 24 hours exploring New York, broadcasting all he encounters live onto the web from his iPhone - with his itinerary selected by his online audience.

Square Enix, DeNA Team Up For Japanese Final Fantasy Social Game

Square Enix and Japanese mobile social gaming company DeNA are teaming up to create the first social game based on the popular Final Fantasy series. Few details have been announced regarding the Mobage title, which is based around the theme of "fighting for teammates," but DeNA said it will be developing the game in-house using familair characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series.

Bunchball Wants to be the 'Motivation Engine for the Internet'

Who would have thought that a company located just above an Irish pub in San Jose would grow to be so successful? According to Bunchball's Founder and Chief Product Officer, Rajat Paharia, Bunchball originally had roots in "social gaming", a concept that he admits was a bit too early to market and proved very difficult as a pitching point.

Nirav Tolia launches Nextdoor, private social network for neighbors

"Even though social networks are completely ubiquitous, I didn't see a social network for one of the most important communities in our lives: the neighborhood," Tolia said in an interview this week. Tolia says neighbors have lost touch with each other. He points to a 2010 study from the Pew Research Center that found that 60% of Americans didn't know the people who lived near them.

Video games for sweepstakes argued before NC court

The state is seeking to preserve a law that attempts to rid North Carolina of sweepstakes that use video-style games to reveal winnings but that companies say infringes on free speech rights and should be thrown out.

The Top 10 Most Influential People in Facebook and Social Games

In an attempt at fairness, we took to AppData's developer leaderboard, but also peppered the list with industry transplants of note. We're certain we've glossed over some video game veterans, but did you really want a list of 30 people? So, feel free to give us your two cents in the comments. (We've put on our flame-retardant suits already.) Here are the top 10 most influential people in Facebook and social games...

PBS KIDS Sets New Bar in Educational Gaming Space

PBS KIDS today launched over 40 new cross-platform games designed to help children ages 2-8 build critical math skills. They include PBS KIDS' largest offering of interactive math content for preschoolers to date. The games comprise several suites, each of which is centered around a PBS KIDS media property - from CURIOUS GEORGE to THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT!. Available for free on the new PBS KIDS Lab website (PBSKIDS.org/lab), each suite links a set of games across platforms - accessible through computers, mobile devices and interactive whiteboards - so that kids engage with the same characters as they move from device to device. The content is also linked by a curricular framework, leveraging games on a variety of platforms to support key math skills.

Zynga announces 'CastleVille,' 9 other titles

From its sparkling new headquarters here, the company announced a major new gaming platform, code-named Project Z, that will let its millions of customers seamlessly play games on Facebook and Zynga.com; a lineup of 10 new titles, including Zynga Bingo, Hidden Chronicles and the mobile-only Dream Zoo; and, perhaps, its most ambitious game yet, CastleVille.

Hollywood Taps Videogames as Source of Inspiration

Despite the tarnished history of videogame adaptations, studios are moving forward with more than dozen big-screen gaming movies. What's amazing, though, is it's possible -- just possible -- that some of these films might not stink.

What drives Adidas' virtual wall

So popular was Inside Retail's story about the Adidas in-store 'virtual wall' which took an innovation honour at the recent World Retail Awards, we're revisiting the concept with an interview with designer David Judge from Stuart MacGill.

Oracle To Launch Enterprise Social Network

Oracle Social Network enables users to communicate and collaborate with other people inside or outside of their organization using a variety of tools, such as personal profiles, groups, activity feeds, status updates, discussion forums, document sharing, co-browsing and editing, instant messaging, e-mail, and Web conferencing. Oracle Social Network also provides native applications for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, along with Web browser support, so mobile users can work and interact from anywhere.

The self-imposed guidelines, detailed below, were developed jointly by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the national trade association representing America's leading distilled spirits companies and nearly 70% of all distilled spirits brands sold in the United States, and the European Forum for Responsible Drinking (EFRD), an alliance of Europe's leading distilled spirits companies.

The guidelines consist of a set of "basic principles" together with definitions and directions for implementing those principles. They aim to protect consumers' information while urging responsible marketing practices in the context of digital media such as websites, social networks, blogs and mobile apps. Furthermore, the issuance of these guidelines reflects the fact that digital marketing is increasingly a valuable and appropriate tool for reaching consumers who are legally old enough to purchase distilled spirits.

Per the guidelines, distilled spirits companies should:

1. intend their digital marketing communications for adults of legal purchase age;

2. place their digital marketing communications only in media where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age (and DISCUS notes that Nielsen online syndicated data from August 2011 disclosed that 82.22% of the Facebook audience, 86.86% of the Twitter audience, and 80.96% of the YouTube audience, was 21 years of age or older);

3. require age affirmation (full date of birth to determine if a user is of legal purchase age) when a user first reaches the companies' interactive webpages;

4. display, on their webpages that permit the posting of user-generated content, a disclaimer stating that all inappropriate user-generated content will be removed;

5. monitor and moderate, preferably every business day but no less than every five business days, user-generated content on the companies' webpages and promptly remove inappropriate material;

6. instruct users that digital marketing communications should not be forwarded to individuals below the legal purchase age;

7. respect user privacy in their digital marketing communications;

8. ensure that their digital marketing communications and product promotions are identified as brand marketing;

9. include social responsibility statements in their digital marketing communications where practicable; and

10. display, follow, and encourage users to read before submitting their information, a privacy policy that provides for the following: age affirmation will be used prior to the collection of any other information; user information can only be collected from people who are of the legal purchase age; an "opt-in" mechanism will be used before the user receives a direct digital marketing communication, and an "opt-out" mechanism will be available if a user wants to discontinue receiving such communications; clear information must be provided about the collection and use of personal data; information collected shall never be sold or shared with unrelated third parties; and steps will be taken to keep user information secure and protected from loss or theft.

The full text of the official guidelines can be viewed here.

Although the guidelines are self-imposed and do not constitute a legal regulation, law or statute, failure to comply with these guidelines may have adverse consequences. DISCUS, for example, has said that it will (i) investigate U.S. distilled spirits companies that are reported to be not in compliance with the guidelines and (ii) disclose the results of such investigations on its website. Consequently, we recommend that distilled spirits companies in the United States and/or Europe review the new guidelines and seek counsel on how they might impact current company practices.

Social network ad revenue to hit $10B

Non-U.S. markets would account for slightly more than half, or 51.9 percent, of the US$10 billion global ad revenue in 2013, the research firm said in report Wednesday. While revenue growth would be in the double digits in the United States, higher growth elsewhere meant that spending in non-U.S. markets would account for a slighter greater share each subsequent year, it explained.

Steve Jobs: Accidental video games visionary

Sure, Jobs had some history in the space. He took a job at Atari as a technician in the mid-'70s, but this was because he was looking for money to fund a spiritual retreat to India. Later, with the release of the Apple II in 1977 he helped usher in a golden age of video games by providing a platform for the explosion of creativity that came in the early '80s: Bubble Bobble, Beach Head, Boulder Dash, Choplifter, F-15 Strike Eagle, Hacker, Hardball!, Karateka, King's Quest, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Leisure Suit Larry, Lode Runner, Might & Magic, The Oregon Trail, Raid Over Moscow, Skyfox, Ultima, Wizardry, Zork. So many games that so many of us remember fondly, and all of them made possible because of the Apple II and Jobs.

Supreme Court Dodges Video Game Fee Request

In a surprisingly precarious move, the U.S. Supreme Court took no action Monday on a request from the video game industry for 1.4 million dollars in attorneys' fees and expenses incurred fighting the unconstitutional violent video game ban law, originally passed in California. 

How will Facebook's newest changes affect gamification?

If you're at all interested in the world of social and casual games, and the gamification of social media, the stream of major and minor changes from Facebook over the past week or so has got to be top of mind. Besides the major F8 developer conference, which introduced Timeline and an updated version of Open Graph, we've also seen the introduction of Facebook subscriptions and an updated news feed in the past few weeks.

What the iPhone 4S Means for Mobile Gaming

Some of the best news is that the iPhone 4S is getting a power upgrade. The 4S is getting a dual-core 1GHz A5 processor with dual-core graphics. That means the 4S have comparable graphics to the iPad 2. Games are almost guaranteed to run smoother and faster on the new 4S, since it will be about 7 times faster than the old iPhone 4. However, gamers might not be able to enjoy the increased details due to the tiny screen size which stayed at 3.5".

Augmented Reality Meets Location-based Social Networking

A new app in this field is TagWhat. Part augmented reality-app and part social networking service, it lets people check and view locations along with additional random info like the place's history, the famous people who lived in it, anecdotes about the neighboring establishments, or any other information that can either be trivial, interesting, or extremely useful.

The Supreme Court has validated the ability of software developers to prevent customers from owning the copy of software they acquire. Because software developers can limit the customers rights to a mere license, they can impose restrictions that can prevent the customer from reselling the software. This is a huge win for software companies as it limits the resale market, which cuts into sales of new software. This ruling may also benefit the virtual goods industry which also commonly uses a licensing vs. sale model. However, it is important to note that in order to get the benefits of this decision, the software distributor must carefully craft their End User License Agreement.

On October 3, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court declined the petition for certiorari regarding the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc. As we outlined in a previous post, the Vernor decision held that software developers can grant mere licenses and that doing so does not violate the First Sale Doctrine," which states:

"[T]he owner of a particular copy...lawfully made under this title...is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy..."

This doctrine applies if the initial distribution is a sale. As the Ninth Circuit held in Vernor, software developers can legally prevent customers from owning (and distributing) the copies of software that they purchase. This is accomplished by drafting software purchase agreements (e.g., End User License Agreements) in a way to avoid the first-sale doctrine, such as by structuring the agreement as a license or placing valid restrictions on the customer's use of the software. Under such an agreement, software developers can retain ownership in the copies they distribute and customers merely have a license to use the software.

Extending the Vernor holding to virtual goods and currency, this ruling seems to provide additional ammunition for the validity of merely licensing virtual items to users instead of selling the items. This approach is commonly used with virtual item models.  In light of Vernor, it is clear that the "license" which is included in the terms of service must be carefully drafted.  But if done properly, this can help prevent unauthorized resale of virtual items via secondary markets or otherwise.

For more information on the legal issues with virtual goods, click here.