Virtual World Law Blog

Will 2012 be the year of virtual worlds?

What got me thinking about this was a blog post by Maria Korlova over at the HyperGrid Business Blog. In it, she maintains her firm conviction that businesses will soon come around to using these virtual worlds as business tools. Just as the nay-sayers were wrong about the Internet, Software as a Service, and Lady Gaga, we will eventually integrate this technology into how we work.

Courts, Sports And Videogames: What's In A Game?

Although one of the clearest legal thinkers, Louis Brandeis, conceived the modern right of publicity,[1] "unclear" would be an adjective all lawyers would apply to the current state of right of publicity law, regardless of which side of the issue they usually argue. Indeed, although the right of publicity concept was further developed by another very clear legal thinker, William Prosser,[2] he himself alluded to it as the concept "that launched a thousand lawsuits,"[3] few of which can be reconciled with one another.

Insurers Can't Join Coverage Suit Over Athlete Image Use

A Georgia federal judge said Wednesday that four insurers can't intervene in a coverage suit in California over underlying antitrust class actions concerning the use of college athletes' likenesses in video games.

What the Copycat Saw: Creative Theft in Mobile and Social Games

The distinction between theft and inspiration is often unclear in video games. Traditions are formed, broken down, and remade every few years. The most successful ideas are eagerly absorbed by others, from regenerative health in first person shooters to the subdivision of platformer levels into world and stage.

Virtual worlds training for federal cyber pros in the works

A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media.

Piracy battle goes to CES, Wikipedia may join SOPA protest, Google social search faces privacy concerns

A contentious battle over Internet anti-piracy legislation shifted from Washington to the Consumer Electronics Show, The Washington Post reported. The Consumer Electronics Association, which is behind the show, has been a vocal opponent of the two bills circulating in Congress that would help Hollywood titans, record labels and pharmaceutical firms enforce copyright infringement laws online.

Mobile virtual currency market to hit $4.8bn by 2016

In fact, a study released yesterday from Juniper Research predicts that the amount of money being spent on virtual currency in mobile apps is going to more than double in the next four years, going from $2.1bn last year to $4.8bn by 2016.

Bethesda Buys Interplay's 'Fallout' Rights, Ends IP Suit

Interplay Entertainment Corp., original developer of the "Fallout" line of video games, on Monday forfeited its rights to continue work on the series -- resolving a trademark dispute with former business partner Bethesda Softworks LLC.

Domino's Pizza uses augmented reality offers to boost food sales

Domino's Pizza, which has already been testing the waters of mobile marketing for some time now, has started a new campaign that includes the use of augmented reality, to add a whole new dimension to its latest 555 pizza offer.

CES: Better augmented reality with high-tech contact lenses

Augmented reality has made progress on smartphones, with apps letting people layer information and graphics over a view of the real world. A startup from the Seattle region is looking to take the next step toward an AR future with special contact lenses that make it possible to view objects projected onto glasses a short distance away from the eye.

Banks start playing games with your money

A new video game has gotten its hooks into Brian Kealer, a 26-year-old San Francisco software engineer. He's not killing birds or using his vocabulary to impress his friends. No, Kealer is after real prizes, like the iPad2 he just scored. And he's playing with his bank account. 

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