Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Do players own the stuff they find in Diablo III?

Intriguing thoughts.


I have written about a related issue some time ago, but unfortunately in German. For those who never learned one of the most complicated languages in the western hemisphere, here's a quick breakdown: the existence of digital properties will pose some serious questions in the future when the first big company goes bust. Imagine, for example, Facebook defaulting and a Chinese state-controlled hedge fonds bidding to buy all these nice servers full of information. There would be at least some debate about whether to allow the transaction. Imagine Valve declaring bancruptcy and shutting down Steam. Seriously, I paid for these games, and now I can't play them anymore? I demand a buy-out like they did for General Motors! Save Steam so I can play on. Amazon being a goner would at least affect all those who ever purchased ebooks or used the library services, and so on. How much of these digital goods do you actually own? And are you feeling a bit uncomfortable now? There's some stuff for lawyers ahead, to be sure.

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