| Online Games have evolved during the Web2.0era, as developers allowingplayers to have more freedom in virtual spaces, such as building their own houses,designing avatars, and gathering by groups, which formed a highly autonomous“virtual society”. With user participation and interactions, online games have literallybecome many independent cyber worlds, within some of which players have thefreedom to create, not merely entertain within, the game environment, or even changethe course of a game. It has enabled more activities and to satisfy the need of users.In some of these virtual worlds, player creations has become the major part of thegame itself. Numerous players are masons building a Babel Tower, handling bricksand mortars all to seek the answer to a simple question: What happens when the limitsof the world are human creativity? However, the virtual Babel Tower is crumbling, asanother question raised, similar to that of those who built the real one3thousandyears ago: Do they really own the Tower?If such ownership has existed upon the creation of a virtual item, then copyrightshall be the best one to describe it to its creator. The creating activity of a player leadsto the existence of such content, so the player becomes an author. But the copyrightdoes not obviously attach to the authors, since they are to face the game developersand operators–the creators and copyright holders of the virtual world itself. Theyhave right to rule the worlds, such right might apply to what players have generated.Consider virtual worlds are mostly artistic works, copyright problem is complicatedhere.So the game became a game between players and developers, and the major partof this game is to balance the rights. It is obvious that some kind of right should beattached to players, with online games as artistic works themselves, however, it seems that players cannot have such rights exclusively. In practice, a theoretical justificationis hard to balance, with risk for either side of the game to withdraw from win-winsituation. For now, player generated contents are considered derivative works ofonline games, and if such works are to be protected by law, game develops have toauthorize players to use elements of the game, or fair use doctrine need to be appliedto works created by player.If Fair use defense cannot help the players, then only through the copyrightagreement should player works be effectively protected. But these agreements areimperfect and robust, with some filled with all kinds of obligations decided by gamemakers, and unlimited rights for themselves. With them having advantage both in theeconomic and professions, players fell to the one end of the balance. Therefore, theycan only rely on self-regulation to find a way to move the Tower of Babel, theplayer’s generated content, out of the makers’ sight, in order to maximize therisk-averse.To solve the problem, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the existinglicense agreement, draw ripe for third-party agreement on user-generated content toachieve a reasonable secondary distribution model for players’ right. On the otherhand, laws of the real world need to break through the boundaries of the virtual world,directly to players in it, to give the player a fundamental protection of copyright law.Fading the boundaries will add a new relief mechanism that in particular cases, thevirtual world and the real world should be treated equally, so the virtual world can bedrawn from the field of private proprietary into the public domain. As a result,copyright law can examine the player works alone without any obstacles, before theestablishment of effective regulation of the legal framework of the virtual world. Andplayer-generated content can be effectively protected. |
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