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Ubiquitous Computing, Virtual Worlds, and the Displacement of Property Rights
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Boone, Margaret S. |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | Examining one emerging technology, virtual worlds, may provide us with insight about another emerging technology, ubiquitous computing. The rapid increase in both the popularity and economic value of virtual worlds has resulted in a conflict over whether players in these worlds have any property rights with respect to virtual world objects associated with their avatars. A close examination however reveals that even if such rights exist, they can be overridden though the combined use of contract and technology. This observation may in turn provide an insight about the future of real world property. The emerging technology of ubiquitous computing shares technological characteristics with virtual worlds such that ubiquitous computing would make a displacement of property rights in real world objects possible in the same way that virtual world technology makes such a displacement possible for potential property rights in virtual world objects. “It is coming because there are too many too powerful institutions vested in its coming, knowing what enormous market possibilities are opened up by the conquest of the everyday. It is coming because it is an irresistible, ‘technically sweet’ challenge, for designers no less than Associate Professor of Law, Appalachian School of Law. I would like to thank Charlie Condon, Judie Barger, David Ritchie and James McGrath for their helpful comments on drafts of this article. I would also like to thank for their comments the participants of the Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium, the participants of the Intellectual Property & Communications Law and Policy Scholars Roundtable sponsored by Michigan State University College of Law, and the participants of the annual meeting of Southeastern Association of Laws Schools. The research assistance of Russell Kloosterman and Justin Williams was also immensely helpful. I/S: A JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY FOR THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 2 I/S: A JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY [Vol. 4:1 engineers. It is coming because something like it effectively became inevitable the moment our tools, products and services started communicating in ones and zeroes.”1 1 ADAM GREENFIELD, EVERYWARE: THE DAWNING AGE OF UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING 3–4 (2006). |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/is/files/2012/02/Boone-Formatted-4_1.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
