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An
Avatar's Day in Court: A Proposal for Obtaining Relief and
Resolving Disputes in Virtual World Games
--Farnaz
Alemi, Esq.
Virtual
world games are a hub for worldwide entertainment, social
networking and financial gain. They have also become a venue
for criminal and tortious activities. Human players are using
their in-game players or avatars to steal, defame, mutilate,
defraud, emotionally wreak havoc and disrupt other avatars'
game-play. Not only has this resulted in emotional detriment
to players, but also in property and financial damage. Though
such cruel acts are routinely brushed aside, critics, players
and scholars are increasingly attaching real-life consequences
to in-game activities. Despite the harm, victims are often
unable to seek redress, leading to a negative game-playing
experience, potentially driving away business for game developers.
Though the real world is attempting to recognize in-game property
rights to provide relief, some may think that it is not a
viable solution. As this paper demonstrates, parties face
major obstacles in the real world, attempting to resolve in-game
disputes. Thus, a two-tiered justice system has been proposed
here—the In-Game Justice System (IGJ) and the Real World
Justice System (RWJ)—to provide a potential means of
resolving in-game disputes using various real world theories
of law and judicial proceedings. More importantly, real world
courts would now be sought as a venue of last resort only
if the aggrieved players have Pierced the Virtual Veil (PVV).
This proposal intends to provide justice and relief to victims
of virtual worlds, and hopefully a means towards understanding
the interplay between the virtual and the real worlds.
©
2008 Farnaz Alemi, Esq. All Rights Reserved.
Electronic
State Sovereignty
--Georgios
I Zekos
The
paper aims at investigating the fact that cyberspace has affected
state sovereignty with the creation of electronic state sovereignty.
In instances where the state has to take control of such electronic
state sovereignty, it creates problems of conflict with other
states' electronic sovereignty, in case of intrusion. Cyberspace
is a network, which grew, suddenly, into a global network
of networks, challenging the State's capacity to govern. The
State, with its exclusive sovereign powers, finds the electronic
way to monitor closely and legally the developments in cyberspace,
and intervenes in the case of non-compliance with the principles
of human rights or public policy matters. The State, as a
regulator, constitutes a system of rules that are intended
to resolve the conflicting interests for the protection of
rights or policy objectives through the legal system. The
paper further considers that present regulations of electronic
transactions show that states regard cyberspace sovereignty
as part of their own sovereignty, since electronic actions
affect their own territory.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Spamming:
Trespass or Nuisance?
--Tarun
Jain
E-mail
has become a popular means of soliciting business—especially
with the cost involved being minimal—as a medium to promote
undesirable and obnoxious practices amongst targeted sections
or public at large. All these unwarranted and unsolicited
transactions received by e-mail account holders are collectively
referred to as spam e-mail, or simply spam, and this process
of sending and receiving spam is called `spamming'. To tackle
this menace of spamming, various steps were implemented at
the industrial and legislative levels. While the practical
solutions were quite similar across different geographical
boundaries, the legislations brought forth differed substantially
in spirit. This paper traces the attempts made in different
jurisdictions to curb spamming.
©
2008 Tarun Jain. All Rights Reserved.
LEGAL
PERSPECTIVES
Finality
Rules Within the Law of Domestic Large Value Renminbi Electronic
Funds Transfers in China
--Wen
Li
©
2008 Wen Li. All Rights Reserved. |
