Meanwhile, today’s post centers on the great work that other lawyer-bloggers are doing, as well as a few professional papers I recommend you MUST read. 

The one you absolutely must study is The Global EULA, by the lawyers at  Sheppard Mullin.  I really felt like breaking down the article or doing my own synopsis, but instead, go there, read it, consider it.  Beautifully done.

Other great articles I have found after the jump……

Recently I posted about the separation of work and play.  Great article about hiring practices entitled “Facebook and Privacy” in the Minneapolis Tribune.  It discusses pre-employment checks of Facebook pages by employers.  My favorite quote:  “35 percent found something that caused them to not hire the candidate.”  In my mind this is a soon-to-be-exploding area of practice, based on disappointed job-seekers.

Mumbo Jumbo games won a victory over casual game-manufacturer Popcap Games in a lawsuit.  Here is the link to the original complaint, (via Courthouse News), and the full story  on Gamer/Law(UK). (note: I read almost a dozen summaries of the case, and this British one was the best by far).  My favorite quote: “a jury…  agreed that PopCap breached the contract when it went behind MumboJumbo’s back and decided to market and sell its games on its own.” (from the MumboJumbo PRNewswire Story).  Popcap vehemently denies the claim, and by all indications may choose to appeal.

Yale School of Medicine receives a large grant to make a vide0-game/simulation for children 9-14.  Full story here… usually I would save this for my education/grants posting, but  $3.9 million is just too large a number to postpone posting this, it is reportedly a game to teach children how to avoid HIV-causing behaviors(sex/drugs/alcohol).  Follow-ups posted here as the national news catches up.

As far as important scholarly papers go, I would like to mention The Fair Labor Standards Act in Cyberspace. Please cite as Cherry, Miriam A., Working for (Virtually) Minimum Wage: Applying the Fair Labor Standards Act in Cyberspace (November 4, 2009). Alabama Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 5, pp. 1077-1110, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1499823.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

The funding money is beginning to be there. It was recently announced that the University of Texas will be using 16 disciplines in Second Life. The details are that “A new, one-year project will set the bar for virtual educational tools as the University of Texas brings 16 campuses into the Second Life world with its Transforming Undergraduate Education system. This plan by researcher and educator Dr. Leslie Jarmon (SL: Bluewave Ogee), recently received a grant to fund the project for a year.” The Linden Lab press release claims “the first statewide rollout of a virtual learning environment in the world.” The release continues to describe the environment as “the initiation of a pioneering statewide virtual learning community of students, faculty, researchers and administrators in Second Life, that offers an innovative, low-cost approach to undergraduate instruction”.

Comments?

Here are some other groundbreaking educational uses for virtual worlds

Autism resources in Virtual Worlds

Swine Flu in Virtual Worlds; Swine Flu Game

QWag changes name to Teleplace; has interactive technology and database integration

US Government resources in Second Life; including Medical resources

Jay Moffitt is a TN attorney. The statements here are not legal advice, and no attorney/client relationship is created. Jay Moffitt claims no certification in this specialty, and TN does not offer a certification in this area of law. Copyright, Jay Moffitt, 2009. Comments are welcomed and will be answered promptly and courteously.