• Online games, massive multi-player games and virtual worlds often use "monitors" or "game masters" to provide real-time help to users within a game and/or to watch out for players who breach Terms of Use.
  • The use of real-time persons to monitor both legal and illegal activities online means that service providers of such games may fall into the category of editors for the purposes of liability for legal or infringing activities.

Comment

Users of any user generated website are required to comply with the service providers' Terms of Use. The Terms of Use are intended to protect service providers from liability for illegal or infringing acts by a user, particularly where the user uploads illegal content, expresses opinions which may be defamatory or infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties.

In the US, the liability of a service provider is covered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In the EU, such liability is managed under the E-Commerce Directive and its implementing regulations in Member States. Broadly, a service provider is required to reserve the right to monitor content and activities. Provided that it deals with illegal or infringing activities as soon as it becomes aware of them and takes appropriate action, it can avoid liability as a publisher.

In Second Life, game masters exist as full time avatars that are available to help where players request assistance, but also have a monitoring role. Many service providers use technology as a mechanism for monitoring and quarantining acts of users that may be in breach of Terms of Use but where service providers use game masters to monitor in real-time, that may mean that the service provider is moving into the realm of editorial control and thus take itself out of the "safe harbour" provisions of the DMCA and the E-Commerce Directive.

Providers of user generated news sites, virtual worlds and massive multi-player games need to take care that their Terms of Use:

  • are fair and reasonable
  • but also protect the service provider at the same time and
  • that the use of monitoring in real-time does not trigger editorial control.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.