Virtual Law Bibliography

As part of the preparation for the book on law and virtual worlds that I'm writing, I've been trying to make a comprehensive list of published law review articles and student notes that focus on the intersection of law and virtual worlds. 

Just in case readers are interested, the current version is attached below.  If I'm missing something, please let me know in the comments or by email.

As you'll see, the rate of publications has been increasing, with the majority of the publications coming out in the past couple of years.

1996

• 1.    Jennifer L. Mnookin, Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO,  J. COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMM. 2 (1996).

2002

• 2.    Molly Stephens, Note: Sales of In-Game Assets: An Illustration of the Continuing Failure of Intellectual Property Law to Protect Digital-Content Creators, 80 TEX. L. REV. 1513 (2002)

2003

• 3.    Daniel C. Miller, Note: Determining Ownership in Virtual Worlds: Copyright and License Agreements, 22 REV. LITIG. 435 (2003)

2004

• 4.    Jack M. Balkin, Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds, 90 VA. L. REV. 2043 (2004)
• 5.    Peter S. Jenkins, The Virtual World as a Company Town - Freedom of Speech in Massively Multiple Online Role Playing Games, 8 J. INTERNET L. (2004)
• 6.    F. Gregory Lastowka & Dan Hunter, The Laws of the Virtual Worlds, 92 CAL. L. REV. 1 (2004)
• 7.    David Nelmark, Virtual Property: The Challenges of Regulating Intangible, Exclusionary Property Interests Such as Domain Names, 3 NW. J. TECH. & INTELL. PROP. 1 (2004)

2004/2005 (State of Play Symposium Essays)

• 8.    Jack M. Balkin, Law and Liberty in Virtual Worlds, 49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 63 (2004)
• 9.    Richard A. Bartle, Virtual Worldliness: What the Imaginary Asks of the Real, 49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 19 (2004)
• 10.    Caroline Bradley and A. Michael Froomkin, Virtual Worlds, Real Rules, 1 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 103 (2004)
• 11.    Edward Castronova, The Right To Play, 49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 185 (2004)
• 12.    Susan P. Crawford, Who's In Charge Of Who I Am?: Identity And Law Online, 49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 211 (2004).
• 13.    James Grimmelmann, Virtual Worlds as Comparative Law, 47 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 147 (2004)
• 14.    Ethan Katsh, Bringing Online Dispute Resolution to Virtual Worlds: Creating Processes Through Code, 1 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 271 (2004)
• 15.    F. Gregory Lastowka & Dan Hunter, Virtual Crimes, 49 N.Y.L.S. L. REV. 293 (2004)
• 16.    Cory Ondrejka, Escaping The Gilded Cage: User Created Content And Building The Metaverse,  49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 81 (2004)
• 17.    Tal Z. Zarsky, Information Privacy in Virtual Worlds: Identifying Unique Concerns Beyond the Online and Offline Worlds, 1 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 231 (2004)

2005

• 18.    Robert Bullis & Andrew Schwarz, Rivalrous Consumption and the Boundaries of Copyright Law: Intellectual Property Lessons form Online Games, INTELL. PROP. L. BULL. (2005)
• 19.    Joshua Fairfield, Virtual Property, 85 B.U.L. REV. 1047 (2005)
• 20.    Mia Garlick, Player, Pirate Or Conducer? A Consideration Of The Rights Of Online Gamers, 7 YALE J. L. & TECH. 422 (2005)
• 21.    Eric Goldman, Speech Showdowns at the Virtual Corral, 21 SANTA CLARA COMPUTER & HIGH TECH. L.J. 845 (2005)
• 22.    Andrew Jankowich, Property and Democracy in Virtual Worlds, 11 B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. 173 (2005)
• 23.    Beth Simone Noveck, Trademark Law and the Social Construction of Trust: Creating The Legal Framework for Online Identity, 83 WASH. U. L. REV. 1733 (2005)

2006

• 24.    Woodrow Barfield, Intellectual Property Rights in Virtual Environments: Considering the Rights of Owners, Programmers and Virtual Avatars, 39 AKRON L. REV. 649 (2006)
• 25.    Charles Blazer, The Five Indicia of Virtual Property, 5 PIERCE L. REV. 137 (2006)
• 26.    Allen Chein, Note: A Practical Look At Virtual Property, 80 ST. JOHN'S L. REV. 1059 (2006)
• 27.    Andrew Jankowich, Eulaw: The Complex Web Of Corporate Rule-Making In Virtual Worlds, 8 TUL. J. TECH. & INTELL. PROP. (2006)
• 28.    Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Napster's Second Life?: The Regulatory Challenges of Virtual Worlds, 100 NW. U. L. REV. 1775 (2006)
• 29.    Michael Meehan, Virtual Property: Protecting Bits in Context, RICH. J. GLOBAL L. & BUS. (2006)
• 30.    Theodore J. Westbrook, Owned: Finding a Place for Virtual World Property Rights, 2006 MICH. ST. L. REV. 779 (2006)

2007

• 31.    Farnaz Alemi, An Avatar's Day in Court: A Proposal for Obtaining Relief and Resolving Disputes in Virtual World Games, 2007 UCLA J.L. & TECH. 6 (2007)
• 32.    Jason A. Archinaco, Virtual Worlds, Real Damages: The Odd Case of American Hero, the Greatest Horse that May Have Lived, 11 GAMING L. REV. 21 (2007)
• 33.    John Baldrica, Mod as Heck: Frameworks for Examining Ownership Rights in User-Contributed Content to Videogames, and a More Principled Evaluation of Expressive Appropriation in User-Modified Videogame Projects, 8 MINN. J.L. SCI. & TECH. 681 (2007)
• 34.    Mark Bartholomew, Advertising in the Garden of Eden, 55 BUFFALO L. REV. 737 (2007)
• 35.    Bryan Camp, The Play's the Thing: A Theory of Taxing Virtual Worlds, 59 HASTINGS L. J. 1 (2007)
• 36.    Bettina M. Chin, Regulating Your Second Life: Defamation in Virtual Worlds, 72 BROOK. L. REV. 1303 (2007)
• 37.    Bobby Glushko, Tales of the (Virtual) City: Governing Property Disputes in Virtual Worlds, 22 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 507 (2007)
• 38.    Steven J. Horowitz, Competing Lockean Claims to Virtual Property, 20 HARV. J. LAW & TECH. 443 (2007)
• 39.    Kurt Hunt, Note: This Land Is Not Your Land: Second Life, CopyBot, and the Looming Question of Virtual Property Rights, 9 TEX. REV. ENT. & SPORTS L. 141 (2007)
• 40.    Jamie J. Kayser, The New New-World: Virtual Property and the End User License Agreement, 27 LOY. L.A. ENT. L. REV. 59 (2007)
• 41.    Leandra Lederman, Stranger Than Fiction: Taxing Virtual Worlds, 82 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1620 (2007)
• 42.    Todd David Marcus, Note: Fostering Creativity in Virtual Worlds: Easing the Restrictiveness of Copyright for User-Created Content, 52 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 67 (2007)
• 43.    Juliet M. Moringiello, False Categories in Commercial Law: The (Ir)relevance of (In)tangibility, 35 FLA. ST. U.L. REV. 119 (2007)
• 44.    Juliet M. Moringiello, Towards a System of Estates in Virtual Property, in CYBERLAW SECURITY & PRIVACY (Sylvia Mercado Kierkegaard, ed. 2007), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1070184
• 45.    David Naylor & Andrew Jaworski, Virtual Worlds, Real Challenges, 18 ENTERTAINMENT LAW REVIEW __ (2007)
• 46.    David Naylor & Andrew Jaworski, The Tangled Web of Virtual Marks, Trademark World ___ (June 2007), available at: http://www.ffw.com/publications/all/articles/the-tangled-web-of-virtual-mar.aspx
• 47.    W. Joss Nichols, Painting Through Pixels: The Case for a Copyright in Videogame Play, 30 COLUM. J.L. & ARTS 101 (2007)
• 48.    Cory R.. Ondrejka, Collapsing Geography Second Life, Innovation, and the Future of National Power, 2 INNOVATIONS: TECHNOLOGY, GOVERNANCE, GLOBALIZATION, 27-54 (2007), available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1023493
• 49.    Erez Reuveni, On Virtual Worlds: Copyright and Contract Law at the Dawn of the Virtual Age, 82 IND. L.J. 261 (2007)
• 50.    Erez Reuveni, Authorship in the Age of the Conducer, 54 J. COPYRIGHT SOC'Y U.S.A. 285 (2007)
• 51.    Kevin W. Saunders, Virtual Worlds-Real Courts, 52 VILL. L. REV. 187 (2007)
• 52.    David P. Sheldon, Claiming Ownership, but Getting Owned: Contractual Limitations on Asserting Property Interests in Virtual Goods, 54 UCLA L. REV. 751 (2007)
• 53.    David S. Wall & Matthew L. Williams, Policing Diversity in the Digital Age: Maintaining Order in Virtual Communities, 7 Criminology & Crim. Justice 391 (2007), available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1012702
• 54.    Jason S. Zack, The Ultimate Company Town: Wading in the Digital Marsh of Second Life, 10 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 225 (2007)

2008 & forthcoming

• 55.    Andrea Vanina Arias, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Swords and Armor: Regulating the Theft of Virtual Goods, forthcoming EMORY LAW JOURNAL, available at:: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1012886
• 56.    Caroline M. Bradley, Gaming the System: Virtual Worlds and the Securities Markets, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1022441
• 57.    Candidus Dougherty & Greg Lastowka, Virtual Trademarks, forthcoming SANTA CLARA COMPUTER AND HIGH TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL, available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1093982
• 58.    Joshua Fairfield, Anti-Social Contracts: The Contractual Governance of Online Communities, available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1002997
• 59.    Steven J. Horowitz, Note: Bragg v. Linden's Second Life: A Primer in Virtual World Justice, 34 OHIO N.U.L. REV. 223 (2008)
• 60.    Orin S. Kerr, Criminal Law in Virtual Worlds, forthcoming UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM, available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1097392
• 61.    Greg Lastowka, User-Generated Content & Virtual Worlds,  forthcoming VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT AND TECHNOLOGY LAW, available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1094048
• 62.    Albert C. Lin, Virtual Consumption: A Second Life for Earth?, 2008 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 47
• 63.    David Naylor & Andrew Jaworksi, Virtual Worlds: Children and Virtual Worlds, 10 ECOMMERCE LAW & POLICY (2008).
• 64.    Michael H. Passman, Transactions of Virtual Items in Virtual Worlds, 18 ALB. L. J. SCI. & TECH __ (2007)
• 65.    Jacob Rogers, Note: A Passive Approach to Regulation of Virtual Worlds, 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 405 (2008)
• 66.    Ryan G. Vacca, Viewing Virtual Property Ownership Through the Lens of Innovation, available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1100302

p.s. Note that this list seeks to be comprehensive only with regard to published articles in law journals. (I have thrown in one or two published pieces from other places that seem to have a legal focus, but I'm not trying to be comprehensive there.)  Books, Web self-publishing, and works from science/game studies/business/humanities/etc. are not included (despite the importance of those works to legal scholarship).

Comments

[Kenan Farrell]

1.

Greg, great list. Very helpful resource. You should definitely consider a second list that also includes books. If you need help compiling a list of books, I could provide that, although I'm sure you've probably got them written down somewhere.

[Hendrik Wieduwilt]

2.

Awesome. This is gonna be useful for my doctorate.
For those who are interested, I just made something similar on my Blog for sources in german language.

[greglas]

3.

Hi Kenan --

Thanks.

I do have a pretty long list of books about virtual worlds, and a I also have a pretty long list of books about cyberlaw issues, but I'm not sure what I'd put on a list of published books specifically about law and virtual worlds.

So there's the State of Play book. Jon Festinger's book video game law has an MMOG chapter, as does Greg Boyd's book on video game law. Of course, there is Ben D's forthcoming book and my forthcoming book -- would you put anything else in that group?

[greglas]

4.

Thanks Hendrik!

Another reason to work on my German! :-)

[Kate Fitz]

5.

I have a fairly long (and mostly unannotated) list of both law review articles and books at my website, www.lawspotonline.com, as well as at my in-world library, Second Life Lawspot. Would you mind if I link this? Thanks :)

[greglas]

6.

Hi Kate -- That's a neat resource -- you sure have a lot there. Thanks for the comment.

[greglas]

7.

A new one from 1995, "Virtual Reality Law":

http://www.computerlaw.com/articles/vrlaw.php

It's from a treatise on computer law, so not technically a law review article. But it does have some interesting meditations on virtual worlds...

[Benjamin Duranske]

8.

http://www.usfca.edu/pj/articles/Ultima.htm

Paul Joseph's 1998 exploration of vigilante justice in UO. He was a law professor who would probably be writing for this site had he not passed on in '01. It's not a terribly academic article (it ran on the now-shuttered "Picturing Justice" which usually followed images of justice in cinema) but it is one of the very earliest, and I view Joseph as a true pioneer in this field.

[Benjamin Duranske]

9.

Typo - he died in '03. And I forgot TN doesn't parse links, so here it is again:

http://www.usfca.edu/pj/articles/Ultima.htm

[Kevin!]

10.

I put my paper -- Leave Those Orcs Alone: Property Rights in Virtual Worlds -- up at SSRN

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1113402

I'm increasingly surprised by how few contrarian anti-property rights papers there are.

[Steven Horowitz]

11.

Professor Lastowka,

This is a great resource! I've admired your work in this area for some time, so I look forward to reading the book. I realize the list is about law and virtual worlds, but I can't see leaving out Professor Castronova's important work on economics. It's really central to any arguments about property, I'd think.

Best,
Steve

[greglas]

12.

Hi Steven -- thanks and yes, certainly, Ted's work was a large part of what got me (and many others) interested in this area.

I'll say again what I said in the italics after the list -- I'm only trying to be comprehensive with this list with regard to published law review articles. Non-legal work (like Ted's), Web publications (like Ben mentioned), and SSRN drafts (like Kevin's), are great stuff. But if I tried to list all of those that I'm aware of, the list would be several times longer and not comprehensive. Personally, I've collected over 200 important non-legal articles on virtual worlds over the past few years (including many by authors on the right hand column) Many of them have helped shape my thinking on legal issues, but they're not on this list.

[Hendrik Wieduwilt]

13.

Hi,

I just walked over a text treating avatar and identity problems from a german point of view. (Mostly "personal rights" and IP-Law)

Müller/Souliotis: "Avatars, Personality, and Identity"

[Jamie Kayser]

14.

It is very likely that most of the above mentioned authors used Terra Nova as a starting point, mid-point, or even end point for their work. I know I did.

My (Loyola Law School) hat is off to you.

[mahta]

15.

hello
pl help me
realation between virtual reality(VR)& in law