Law & Games Seminar

Joshua Fairfiled, The Magic Circle. He writes:

The basic idea is this: Law already governs every aspect of virtual worlds — from the contract law invoked by EULAs, to tort laws premised on various theories of consent, to tax law, to criminal law. But that does not mean that we must give up everything that makes virtual worlds special. The common law has had a long practice of deferring to industry or community customs and practices. There is no reason for courts to stop now. The debate, thus, should be shifted from whether law does (it does) or should (ok, more debatable) affect virtual worlds to what mechanisms we should adopt for sussing out what norms are emerging within virtual worlds, and which of those norms ought to be plugged into the socket in the law that courts reserve for community norms.