Policy
top level general category
RuneScape Theft – Dutch Supreme Court Decision
On the 31st of January 2012, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands found that items in the online game RuneScape had been stolen from a player. This is a ground-breaking case as it is the highest national court in the West to rule that taking virtual objects in this way is theft under national criminal law. This ruling may have broad implications for the online games industry.
The case dates back to 2007 when two youths used violence and threats of violence to forced another player to log into the game of RuneScape. After the victim logged in to the game one of the defendants transferred virtual items and virtual currency from the victims account to their own. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction for theft but reduced the number of hours of community service to be served (taking into account Juvenile detention served).
The appeal did not turn on the material facts, i.e. whether there were threats were made or items were transferred. Rather, the appeal centred on the question of whether what had occurred was ‘theft’ as defined by the law of the Netherlands.
Key Arguments
The key arguments against the incident being defined as ‘theft’ considered by the court they were as follows:
- Virtual items are not goods but an ‘illusion’ of goods made up of bits & bytes i.e. they are data
- Virtual items are Information
- The point of the game is to take objects from each other
- The virtual items are and remain the property of the publisher of the game not the victim or the defendant - hence they could not have been stolen
Read more…
Policy Bites: EU Commission’s Proposed Data Protections
On the 25th of January 2012, the European Commission published a set of proposals relating to data protection. The proposals are not law and will not be law unless agreed by the members of the European Union but if they are agreed, they will make large changes the balance of power between EU citizens and all companies, giving greater power to the former and increased duties to the latter.
“I don’t speak on behalf of…” Agile Movements, Fluid Politics and the new Democratic Bargain
Abstract
The internet has brought about a radical shift in politics through three As: Amplification, Association and Agency. The combination of these factors is leaving traditional politics in its wake, yet power is still largely controlled through established institutional structures. This widening gap is problematic for everyone.
Online politics is the flowing, ever-shifting practice of micro-political decisions and stances, which might be termed “Liquid Politics”. The powerful currents of these Liquid Politics tend to go unnoticed until they come together in one of the many “Agile Movements” that emerge from time-to-time. Movement such as Anonymous and the Tea Party are not political organisations as traditionally understood. They are generally leaderless and coalesce around a vague yet simply stated ideology. But if we look inside these movements we see complexity, and we can detect a core of deeply rooted pre-industrial human behaviours mediated through a digitally interconnected global society. This combination of ancient practices and new technology means that Agile Movements, or something like them, are unlikely to be a fad.
The result of this widening gap between the powerful flow of Liquid Politics and the static institutions of traditional politics is hard to predict. However we can speculate about the spectrum of outcomes that may lie before us. At one end we may see very little change as the power of institutions withstands these social forces. At the other end we may see collapse in party politics and asynchronous processes of representative democracy, as we know it. What seems likely is a mid-point where traditional institutions and structures become more open, participative and malleable recognising that a connected society needs a new dynamic democratic bargain.
Online Games impacted by Canadian ISP
In September 2011 CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reported that Canadian ISP Rogers had used traffic prioritisation (i.e. breaking Net Neutrality) which negatively impacted online computer games.
CBC reports that CRTC (the Canadian Telecoms Regulator) too action after a complaints from the Canadian Gamers Organization. Rogers recognised that the problem impacted World of Warcraft and it is suspect that many other games, including Call of Duty Back Ops, have been impacted.
Full Story: Rogers asked to fix game throttling problem (16 Sept 2011)
Policy bites: Net Neutrality
Network Neutrality
What is it?
Net Neutrality (NN) is the debate over whether the internet should operate pretty much as it does at the moment or whether ISPs should be able to block or charge differently based on the application that a user is using, or alternatively give preferential treatment to a company e.g. Media Company X’s content streams just that bit faster than everyone else’s.
Net Neutrality stems from fact that some users consume a lot more bandwidth than others and often this is for services that are damaging the business models of existing companies. For example someone using Skype no long has to pay for their local phone company for long distance calls. The debate tends also to be linked with illegal downloading hence peer to peer services can find themselves being blocked.
Why it matters?
Net Neutrality seems like one of those obscure policy issues that never has an impact in the real world. But already companies have been caught out by non-neutral ISP policies. The kinds off issues that Net Neutrality presents for any game company with an online component (even if it’s just downloading patches), include:
- Online games can be inadvertently blocked
- Games that use peer-to-peer (p2P) networks for downloading can be blocked as bi-product of trying to cut down on illegal downloads
- Voice over IP (VoIP) services can be blocked, impacting the increasing number of games that have integrated in-game voice
- Ping time, which is critical to some games, is generally not part of the discussion but could be impacted
- To avoid these blocks companies may be charged by ISPs
For social media the potential direct impact on big providers is that ISP’s may come asking for more money for preferential treatment. This will be an additional cost of business for big providers and possibly a killer for small providers. What’s more users on different ISPs may start to see the internet very differently impacting the kind of sharing that fuels Social Networks.
See more from tVPN on Net Neutrality: http://www.virtualpolicy.net/tag/netneutrality
tVPN support IEEE and the VECoLab
the Virtual Policy Network is supporting the creation of a body of practices and standards for virtual environments through the IEEE sponsored Virtual Environment CoLAB (VECoLab). The VECoLab is a group of individuals and organizations working to further the adoption of virtual environments. Its draft charter states:
“Virtual Environments CoLab is hereby established to achieve standardization within and among virtual environments to enable vast technology/medium to intertwine their respective capabilities in a manner which exponentially increases potential and effectiveness of the virtual realm. As proponent, the VE CoLab (purpose and role) intends to act as advocate and mediator through the direct and significant involvement of the IEEE Standards Association, facilitator organizations and key professionals working within the communities of interest of internet technologies, production media and virtual environments, et al.”
For more information see:
- VECoLab Site: http://www.vecolab.org/
- IEEE: http://standards.ieee.org/news/vpearl/index.html
White Paper: Virtual Items and Public Policy
7 February 2011. Today the Virtual Policy Network has released a White Paper on Virtual Items and Public Policy. The Paper provides an overview of virtual items and virtual currency are – covering the spectrum from Xbox points to MMO characters. The paper defines what the key public policy interests are in virtual items, and provides a survey of the legal responses to issues involving virtual ‘goods’ from jurisdictions as diverse as China, Korea, Finland the US, citing a number of cases of virtual ‘theft’.
Released today as a .pdf under Creative Commons, the white paper will also be a living document held as part of the Virtual Policy Network’s database of resources. See the new Global Policy section of the site for details.
the Virtual Policy Network is looking for people to support this work, extend the number of countries covered and keep our database up to date with legislative changes impacting convergent media – if you would like to become an associate of tVPN or support our work in other ways please contact us at: info AT virtualpolicy DOT net.
Art and the IGF
At the Internet Governance Forum meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Gender in 2010 it was decided that members of the group should organize some form of art for the 2011 IGF meeting in Nairobi Kenya.
A group of UK delegates agreed to take on this project, these are:
- Dr Marianne Franklin (Goldsmiths College, London)
- Dixie Hawtin (Global Partners)
- Ren Reynolds (the Virtual Policy Network)
Aims
- Facilitate the presence of art and artists at
- EuroDIG 2011 (Belgrade, Serbia, May 2011)
- IGF 2011 (Nairobi, Kenya, November 2011)
- To facilitate art works of quality, and ideally meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Utilize network technology
- Comment on networked society – including issues such as privacy
- Created by women artists
- Art works can be of any type, including
- Artifacts
- Online
- Video
- Performance
- Facilitate an IGF workshop on art
Budget
- Currently there is no budget of this project, thus artists will need to be self-funded
- The organizers are exploring funding options and interested parties should contact us
Next Steps
- Please contact us if:
- You are an artist that want’s to participate
- You are a potential sponsor
- You can help with logistics
- You have knowledge of Kenyan human rights law
Moseby
Andy Moseby
Andy is a corporate partner at Kemp Little who specialises in advising technology and digital media companies on their domestic and cross-border M&A strategies. He also works with both capital providers in respect of their investment portfolios and with entrepreneurial companies on all stages of the funding cycle (including seed capital, development funding and exits). Andy has over a decade’s experience in advising video games companies and online businesses and leads Kemp Little’s focus on gaming. Andy is listed as a “computer games expert” in Legal 500.
PLAY
tVPN and The Play Ethic propose a festival of PLAY, as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad’s Inspire Programme. The festival will center on play as a fundamental human activity that is the connecting principle between Sports and Arts. The festival will have multiple strands – in venues, the built environment, rural areas and online.
We seek partners and sponsors for this project. If you are interested in being a part of PLAY contact us on: PLAY AT virtualpolicy DOT net.
The centerpiece of PLAY will be an international conference on play drawing together and bringing into contrast disparate strands such as non-human play, play learning and innovation, play and citizenship. Around this there will be various events such as an un-conference and strands such as Education and Arts. Always though, the festival will seek to bring fresh and diverse views e.g. what do computer game designers have to say about education, what to artists have to say about sports, what do civic activists have to say about festivals.
We are currently talking to a number of organizations about being potential partners for the London hub of PLAY and the site of the academic conference.
Specific proposed activities include:
- A multidisciplinary PLAY conference
- A companion PLAY un-conference
- Innovation workshops focusing on creating new ways for children, young people, adults, seniors and people with disabilities to play together and to enable and empower people to generate more cross-group and cross cultural play
- Exploring sport and art through mechanisms such as digital media, data mashup’s and data visualization
- Alternate Reality Games bringing a new perspectives to places through the use of the environment as play space
- Workshops exploring the use of play to support local communities in creative and decision making projects
