Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate California’s Gambling Law–Mason v. Machine Zone (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Angie Jin [Eric’s note: Angie Jin is a Cornell Law 3L who volunteered to write up this post on a case that was festering in my queue for a few months.] Plaintiff, Mia Mason, filed a Class…
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 5 (Miscellaneous)
* Ars Technica: How the feds took down the Dread Pirate Roberts. A great story on how hard it is to remain anonymous online against determined federal agents. * Nice Reuters retrospective on Judge Rader. * DailyDot: The battle to destroy Wikipedia’s biggest sockpuppet army. Related: Is Wikipedia…
Copyright Suit Over Second Life Terraforming Survives Summary Judgment, Then Settles — FireSabre v. Linden
What happens when a virtual world designer sues for “unauthorized” use of a virtual “island?” In late September, a New York district court denied summary judgment and cleared the way for a full trial on a virtual world copyright infringement…
Illinois Supreme Court Says Woman Deceived by Fake Online Relationship Can’t Sue for Misrepresentation -– Bonhomme v. St. James
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Bohomme v. St. James, 2012 IL 112393 (May 24, 2012) Most people take for granted that people aren’t 100% truthful when interacting online. On one end of the spectrum, people make misstatements that are widely acknowledged…
SuperPoke! Pets Virtual Gold Dispute Worth Over $5 Million–Abreu v. Slide
By Eric Goldman Abreu v. Slide, Inc., 2012 WL 1123367 (N.D. Cal. April 3, 2012). The Justia page. Google bought Slide, which operated the SuperPoke! Pets online game. Wikipedia has some of the game’s history. As part of the gameplay,…
MapleStory Enforcement Action Leads to Ridiculously Large Anti-Circumvention Damages–Nexon v. Kumar
By Eric Goldman Nexon America Inc. v. Kumar, 2012 WL 1116328 (C.D. Cal. April 3, 2012) It can be disconcerting when UGC websites turn into IP enforcement plaintiffs. Perhaps the biggest offender has been Craigslist, which has brought numerous ill-advised…
Users Can’t Sue Sony for Changing Online Terms to Require Arbitration – Fineman v. Sony Network Entertainment
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Fineman v. Sony Network Entertainment, C 11-05680 SI (N.D. Cal.; Feb. 9, 2012) In a move that caused a stir among consumer activists and others, Sony revised its EULA in September 2011 requiring PlayStation 3 users…
New Essay on 47 USC 230(c)(2)
By Eric Goldman I have posted a new essay, Online User Account Termination and 47 U.S.C. §230(c)(2), to SSRN. I wrote this essay as a contribution to a virtual world symposium at UC Irvine, and it will be published in…
UC Irvine Virtual World Conference Notes
By Eric Goldman Last week, I attended and spoke at a conference at UC Irvine entitled “Governing the Magic Circle: Regulation of Virtual Worlds.” I didn’t take notes for every speaker, and as usual, these notes are my impressions, not…
Second Life Forum Selection Clause Upheld–Evans v. Linden
By Eric Goldman Evans v. Linden Research, Inc. (E.D. Pa. Feb. 3, 2011) This lawsuit is similar to the Bragg lawsuit from a few years ago, which argued that land purchases in Second Life were equivalent to real property purchases…