You can always rely on the Virtually Blind blog to get to the legal nitty-gritty in relation to virtual worlds - it's a really useful resource. Now it's been poking into the Terms of Service for Lively, Google's new virtual world platform. It's got some criticisms too. You should read the whole post, but I've summarised the key points below.
- You have to go to the Lively website to read the Terms of Service - they’re not displayed during the installation process.
- There’s a fairly stiff paragraph on Intellectual Property Rights, which Virtually Blind describes as “one of the most direct ‘do not sue us for stuff users do’ provisions I have ever seen”. And if you do, Google will try to collect its attorney fees if you lose.
- At least one legal provision has been copied and pasted in from a Gmail document (accidentally leaving in the reference to, ahem, Gmail).
- Things you can’t do in Lively include “nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. This includes making sexual advances toward other users”. It’s hard to actively police, rather than react to complaints. And several of the first rooms set up are sexual in nature.
Interesting stuff…
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