All this debate over Supreme Court nominees is nonsense! Aspiring Perry Masons and Jack McCoys know that cyber law and its implications with the gaming community are where it's at. The State of Play conference series, sponsored by distinguished institutions New York Law School and Yale Law School, just wrapped up its third year of annual discussions that apply real world legal theory to our virtual playgrounds and the work that goes into creating them.
One familiar case was the poster child for the trademark law portion of this year's agenda: Marvel vs. NCSoft. The majority of panel members felt that intellectual property owners are getting a little too aggressive in their pursuits to protect their creations, and the impact on smaller developers who can't afford the legal costs will not only stifle creativity in the industry, but put many companies out of business in the process.
Another hot topic was the extent to which governments should be allowed to intervene when events that take place within a game result in "out of game consequences". And what if these virtual events transcend geopolitical boundaries in the form of disparate players and servers? China has already taken action, but the implications are considerable. Jack Thompson may only be the beginning of the game industry's legal woes.
