By tVPN Admin on February 1, 2012
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
Posted in Intellectual Property, News, Policy | Tagged Crime, Criminal, law, Netherlands, Policy, RuneScape, theft |
By tVPN Admin on January 28, 2012
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.
Continue reading “Policy Bites: EU Commission’s Proposed Data Protections”
Posted in EU, News, Policy | Tagged Data Protection, DPA, EU, EU Commission, Personal Data, Regulation |
By Ren Reynolds on December 20, 2011
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
Posted in Global Policy, Governance, News, Policy | Tagged Governance, ISP, NetNeutrality, PolicyBites |
By tVPN Admin on November 29, 2011
tVPN were commissioned to provide input to the Council of Europe’s 2011 exchange on religious dimension of intercultural dialogue. The focus of the 2011 meeting was:
Media, Beliefs and Religions
“The role of the media in fostering intercultural dialogue, tolerance and mutual understanding: freedom of expression of the media and respect towards cultural and religious diversity”
- Agenda
Text of tVPN Submission….
Continue reading “Council of Europe Exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue”
Posted in Council of Europe, News | Tagged diaglo, faith, new media, religion |
By tVPN Admin on July 29, 2011
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:
Posted in Global Policy, News, Policy |
By tVPN Admin on February 7, 2011
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.
Download Virtual Items and Public Policy (.pdf)
Posted in - - - Policy Themes, Children & Child Protection, China, EU, Global Policy, Governance, Korea, News, Policy, Taxation, UK, US, tVPN | Tagged Crime, Governance, law, Property, virtual, Virtual Items Public Policy |
By tVPN Admin on July 22, 2010
Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh
27 August 2010 (10:00 – 16:00)
John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, the University of Edinburgh.
Overview
The Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh (DIS:E) is an annual event organized by the Virtual Policy Network in conjunction with the University of Edinburgh.
The Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh 2010 focuses on the legal issues of computer games, virtual worlds and the issues that arise from the convergence of new and traditional media. Speakers include both academics and practicing lawyers.
Continue reading “DISE:10 Games, Media Law”
Posted in Business & Innovation, Governance, Intellectual Property, News, Policy, UK, tVPN Events | Tagged BIS, conference, Edinburgh, EU, event, IP, law, Policy |
By tVPN Admin on July 20, 2010
A number of bodies around the world are conducting various forms of action in respect of so-called Network Neutrality. While the United States’ FCC (Federal Communications Commission) public consultation phase (see FCC News Release) has just closed the EU and UK are currently in consultation phases that end in September 2010.
the Virtual Policy Network encourages the online games, social media, location based and augmented reality industries, interested academics and policy makers to respond to these request for comments.
Specifically tVPN draws actors’ attention to some of the unique aspects of these technologies that might not be highlighted from the digital elements of traditional media industries. Such specific may include:
- Importance of ping times to some types of gaming
- Equal access a range data sources in populating augmented reality layers
Further details on the European consultations, including background documents, consultation question, reply dates and response details follow.
Posted in Business & Innovation, EU, News, Policy | Tagged EU, NetNeutrality, Network Neutrality, Ofcom, Policy |
By tVPN Admin on February 14, 2010
The World Bank’s infoDev is launching a research and innovation project into the potential of the Virtual Economy to aid Developing Nations. The project titled “Converting the Virtual Economy into Development Potential” is co-sponsored by the UK Government’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) Research4Development (R4D) program (see: http://www.research4development.info).
The two year project has three main phases as follows:
1. Knowledge map on the virtual economy.
2. Report on business opportunities and business models to convert the virtual economy into development potential
3. Workshop and research dissemination using virtual economy tools
More information can be found on the infoDev site: Converting the Virtual Economy into Development Potential
Posted in News, Policy | Tagged developing nations, virtual economy, virtual goods, world bank |
By tVPN Admin on February 9, 2010
tVPN was created to maximize social flourishing through virtual worlds, social media, computer games and other convergent media. As part of this mission we seek to make information as widely known as possible. To this end all content on the tVPN site is now licensed under Creative Commons unless stated other wise. We encourage any group wishing to commission or work with tVPN to follow this practice where practicable.
Small print tVPN is using the standard Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License, standard form details are as follows: the Virtual Policy Network by the Virtual Policy Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Based on a work at www.virtualpolicy.net. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.virtualpolicy.net.
Posted in News |