The State of Play presents an essential first step in understanding how new digital worlds will change the future of our universe. Millions of people around the world inhabit virtual words: multiplayer online games where characters live, love, buy, trade, cheat, steal, and have every possible kind of adventure. Far more complicated and sophisticated than early video games, people now spend countless hours in virtual universes like Second Life and Star Wars Galaxies not to shoot space invaders but to create new identities, fall in love, build cities, make rules, and break them. As digital worlds become increasingly powerful and lifelike, people will employ them for countless real-world purposes, including commerce, education, medicine, law enforcement, and military training. Inevitably, real-world law will regulate them. But should virtual worlds be fully integrated into our real-world legal system or should they be treated as separate jurisdictions with their own forms of dispute resolution? What rules should govern virtual communities? Should the law step in to protect property rights when virtual items are destroyed or stolen? These questions, and many more, are considered in The State of Play, where legal experts, game designers, and policymakers explore the boundaries of free speech, intellectual property, and creativity in virtual worlds. The essays explore both the emergence of law in multiplayer online games and how we can use virtual worlds to study real-world social interactions and test real-world laws. Contributors: Jack M. Balkin, Richard A. Bartle, Yochai Benkler, Caroline Bradley, Edward Castronova, Susan P. Crawford, Julian Dibbell, A. Michael Froomkin, James Grimmelmann, David R. Johnson, Dan Hunter, Raph Koster, F. Gregory Lastowka, Beth Simone Noveck, Cory Ondrejka, Tracy Spaight, and Tal Zarsky.
Part I: Introduction1. Introduction 2. Virtual Worlds: A PrimerPart II: Game Gods and Game Players3. Virtual Worldliness 4. Declaring the Rights of Players5. The Right to Play 6. Law and Liberty in Virtual Worlds Part III: Property and Creativity in Virtual Worlds7. Virtual Crime 8. Owned! Intellectual Property in the Age of eBayers, Gold Farmers, and Other Enemies of the Virtual State9. Virtual Power Politics 10. Escaping the Gilded Cage: User-Created Content and Building the Metaverse11. There Is No Spoon Part IV: Privacy and Identity in Virtual Worlds12. Who Killed Miss Norway? 13. Who's in Charge of Who I Am? Identity and Law Online14. Privacy and Data Collection in Virtual Worlds Part V: Virtual Worlds and Real-World Power15. Virtual Worlds, Real Rules: Using Virtual Worlds to Test Legal Rules16. The New Visual Literacy: How the Screen A?ects the Law17. Democracy-The Video Game: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Collective ActionAbout the Contributors Acknowledgments Case List Index
