From the OtherWorld Express: RolePlay and Intellectual Propterty is a heartfelt essay by a role-player from Everquest, Nepenthia, posted in response to the fallout from evil elf backstory controversy. She (?) oberves in herself and in other players the feeling that role-playing requires storytelling, but if these online games are going to take such a strong stance on owning and policing users's content then players can not feel like they are a part of the project.
Sadly, already some fan-sites are suspending publication simply because they feel it is not worth sharing their role-play stories with others if it means that they might be prevented from playing at all. Also and equally sadly, players are deciding to remove their characters from Everquest because they feel that the invitation to role-play there has, in essence, been rescinded or weighted with such restrictions and tonalities of possible censorship that it makes playing there an ethically untenable position. Role-players are perceiving that the activities traditionally associated with their gaming, if used in a virtual world created for profit, may endanger their ability to play in that world. They are also finding that, in fact, the expression of the creativity that is the mark of excellent role-playing may actually become a barrier excluding them seeing themselves as a part of a game community. As the famed bard Jythri stated in his goodbye message, "It's clear to me now that it is 'your world'. I will never be able to call it mine."
ISSUE # 144
October 7th - October 13th, 2000
ROLEPLAY AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
If I started this essay writing in character as Nepenthia, it's quite likely I'd describe her as frequenting an inn in Freeport, or searching for scrolls about Tunare, or perhaps even (as set out last week in that rather silly poem about dresses) as initiating a quest to marry Aradune. It would seem entirely natural to place Nep in Norrath, using the possibilities of that huge and fascinating world for her stories because that is where Nep now spends her time, meets her friends and experiences adventures. Even though Nep wasn't born in Norrath, the place of her birth actually having been a ship that sailed far, far away and long, long ago, she has traveled through a variety of realms on her way there. In each of the places she has inhabited, and currently in Everquest, it has always seemed natural to find her practicing her bardic craft using the images, history, geography and characters she has found. How else could she connect her ongoing history with others of the citizens in the communities? How else could she grow and find a life and personality of her own if not from the worlds she experienced and the relationships she formed within them?
As seen above, Neppie is obviously a role-playing character, developed to allow her creator to participate in role-playing MUDs and games. However, the recent banning from Everquest of a role-player who wrote background stories as a means of trying to fully develop his characters, brings up some major issues about where and when and how I (or others with their own role-play characters) can role-play and/or publish stories or poems about Nepenthia and the world she finds herself in right now, Norrath. After all, I, as the creator of Nep, am in Norrath because Verant developed a role-playing game. They opened the doors to the realms, inviting me and thousands of others to purchase their Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game software and to come into their world and role-play.
While it is true that Verant partly enabled me to introduce Nep to Everquest by using the computer code to decide on Nep's looks, her gender, her stats, her race, her class and her religion, that really is only a limited start to developing a character. In order to role-play my character, it is necessary to flesh her out . Beyond the effects given by the software code, it's up to me to figure out what to do with her. Of course, I could choose to narrow my definition of role-play to simply the creation of the figure, Nep, and I could choose to run her around Norrath focused on accumulating in-game computer-generated rewards. The computer will actually accomplish that goal for me as long as I press the right keys. What the computer will not and cannot do though is create a role for Nep set in the Norrathian history and geography, nor can it give her personality, speech, connections and relationships. I am her creator and it is both my play and pleasure to develop those aspects for her in game and to more thoroughly solidify her existence through the use of the traditional role-play tools of background stories, current tales of adventures, art, poems, etc., possibly published on non-Everquest-owned sites like this one. However, the moment I write or draw anything that connects Nep with her current role-play environment, i.e., Norrath, even if it is not posted on a Verant or Sony site, I am potentially in danger of being found in violation of the EULA and the Terms of Conduct (which maintain a contractual relationship between me as a player and Verant/Sony as the game software provider) and copyright or other intellectual property laws. I, as her creator, could suffer the repercussions of this even though she is being role-played in a world created solely for the purpose of inducing me and others to purchase entry into it to play our characters and even though any publications I make (such as the ones here on EQ Express) are not on any Sony-owned sites as specified in the Terms of Conduct.
As matters stand, it seems like role-players must either have a sophisticated understanding of both intellectual property law and contract law in order to publish any works about their characters and stay in good standing in Everquest, or they must have reliable, clear and legal guidelines within which they may choose to work. If they do not have either, then they must face the possibility that anything they create that links their character with the world of Everquest, whether by a few words or by many, might get them banned from play or worse. Sadly, already some fan-sites are suspending publication simply because they feel it is not worth sharing their role-play stories with others if it means that they might be prevented from playing at all. Also and equally sadly, players are deciding to remove their characters from Everquest because they feel that the invitation to role-play there has, in essence, been rescinded or weighted with such restrictions and tonalities of possible censorship that it makes playing there an ethically untenable position. Role-players are perceiving that the activities traditionally associated with their gaming, if used in a virtual world created for profit, may endanger their ability to play in that world. They are also finding that, in fact, the expression of the creativity that is the mark of excellent role-playing may actually become a barrier excluding them seeing themselves as a part of a game community. As the famed bard Jythri stated in his goodbye message, "It's clear to me now that it is 'your world'. I will never be able to call it mine."
Beyond the uniquely personal issues that role-players may experience from identifying with the author's dilemma, the banning has raised a complexity of issues, some of which are new to the courts as they arise out of what is an at-times "extra-legal" environment on the internet. This incident began when a person published a role-playing story, using a scant few references to Everquest content, several months ago on a third-party server. At the time of publication, the site did not object to the story's content, nor did they ever receive any communication from Verant or Sony about it. Much later, apparently on the basis of the story's content and then, later, on the basis of infringement of intellectual property, the author through his player account was banned from Everquest without notice. Out of this situation have arisen several major issues and several difficult questions. The issues identified by player posts so far include the following: breach of contract between Verant/Sony and the player (governed by contract law in the civil courts); intellectual property disputes applying both to this matter and to all those who write EQ related articles or stories or who maintain EQ related websites (especially focused on copyright law and the, as yet, unsettled position of fan fiction); discrimination of a business against the content of writing by only one person while allowing others unhindered publication (possibly laws controlling the ability of a business to discriminate); and harassment (as in using the severing of a contractual relationship as a means to retaliate against someone a company disagrees with or doesn't like). There are questions too. Can a corporation face legal challenges to its policing actions beyond its domain? Can a player's behavior beyond the domain of Sony be grounds for ending a contractual business relationship founded on a license to use software? Can Verant legally set guidelines for or censor fan-fiction or even end it? Can Verant set rules for acceptable ways to role-play when not in its domain? Can EQ fan fiction published outside of Everquest/Sony sites be grounds for ending the contractual software use relationship between it and the writer if the writer is a customer of Sony? Should responses to reactions (such as a parent's) to a third-party site publication that may invoke the world of Norrath be policed by Sony even if Sony has no actual ability or legal responsibility to do so.
As anyone might guess, I don't have answers to all these questions, nor does Nep. In fact, she would prefer to retire to a nice soft bed about now to dream sweetly and she isn't too fussy about what fantasy city the inn is in. I intend to sleep on it too and think about it some more, hoping to get a clearer view of whether or not it is safe for me to write about Nepenthia or other characters and still remain a player in Norrath. In the meantime, if Jythri has indeed left Everquest, I'd like to simply say thanks for the role-playing, the Soerbaird and the products of his creativity. He has made my life richer and I deeply appreciate it.
As a final note, there are some very helpful sites on the net to help each of us try to muddle through the maze of legalities and fan-fiction problems. Oghma has kindly furnished several site addresses for me and I pass them along to you. Especially helpful were
http://users.erols.com/tushnet/law/fanficarticle.html,
http://www.whoosh.org/issue25/lee1.html,
http://members.aol.com/olwynm/fanfic.htm, and
http://www.inkspot.com/amanda/fanfic.html
Article by Nepenthia
Posted by justin at October 27, 2002 05:21 PM