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Selling Your (MMORPG) Soul
Gnpatton writes: "Here is an article about the recent ruling in the Blacksnow/Mythic case. It talks about the EULA (End User Licence Agreement, that thing that you never read) and about how this case might affect the rest of the software industry, not just with game companies. From now on, you might just want to read the EULA before you click 'accept'."
Why is it that you have to purchase the software to read the EULA. What if you don't agree with it and refuse to use it at that point out of spite. You've already opened the package and can't get your money back usually. I just don't get it, never have.
"Most users in this world are tied to a certain operating system (due to the simple lack of equally user-friendly alternatives), and software that comes bundled with it."
They may prefer it, but they aren't "tied" to it. They are free to learn to use one of the alternatives (and this is the first I've seen someone label the Mac "less user friendly").
"Many users are also tied to specific software that they use at work."
Then it is the employer that is bound by the EULA, not the individual.
"If I like Quake, but not the EULA that id software dishes out, I'd probably sign up and play, for the simple reason..."
...that you don't dislike the EULA enough to give up Quake to avoid it. Thus, you _chose_ to accept the EULA.
"Just what purpose does reading the EULA serve,..."
It tells you what you are getting into, should you choose to accept it.
"...when pressing the "I Decline" button is simply not an alternative?"
There is always an alternative. You aren't going to starve to death or die of exposure just because you choose not to use some particular piece of software.
"The root of the problem here is that every single piece of software is a little monopoly..."
None of the software on my computer is a monopoly of any kind.
"You'll usually be able to find two boxes of cereal with similar taste, manufactured by two different corporations."
Many people say otherwise. They insist that there is absolutely no acceptable substitute for the Exploding CatHead(TM) cereal they saw on the morning cartoons. Most of these people are under 10 years old. Sometimes I suspect that most computer users are of a similar mental age.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I think you misunderstood my point. Character data for the game world would continue to be hosted on the Mythic server. However, Mythic would send a copy of the savegame file for the plaintiff to him. They would then remove that savegame from the server.
The result is that the plaintiff has a copy of his character's data (i.e. the information that is the basis of the lawsuit), but the character's data no longer exists on the Mythic server and thus no longer exists in the Mythic game world. The plaintiff would have all the bits that made up his or her character, but it'd be utterly worthless as said bits would no longer affect anything.
The beauty of it is that it underscores the entire problem of the suit. The suit wasn't about knowing or copying certain data or even owning an exclusive copy of certain data, but rather about insisting that the certain data exist in a very specific place on Mythic-owned server. Since attempting to control someone else's server in that manner is somewhat ludicrous, the complain was disguished in the form of data ownership. But if that were the case, Mythic could merely hand over the data and wash its hands of the matter as I've explained above.