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Property rights, legal issues, and business models in virtual world communities

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Abstract

This paper uses a business model framework to help identify the issues that developers of virtual worlds have to address as their enterprises mature. While most virtual worlds have adopted subscription models there is an increasing trend toward selling digital items directly to users. This arises from the emergent markets linking real world currency to items existing on company servers. This practice has resulted in controversial and unresolved legal issues. Communities that arise from virtual worlds can be classified according to level and type of control. Lack of control can lead to a Hobbesian world of predation and vigilantism. Strong developer control can be exerted to protect users but communities adopting shared governance with users are likely to become more common.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, 4-206 Center for Science and Technology, Syracuse, NY, 13244-4100

    Ian MacInnes (Assistant Professor)

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  1. Ian MacInnes
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Correspondence to Ian MacInnes.

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Ian MacInnes joined the faculty of Syracuse University's School of Information Studies in 1999 and is now an Associate Professor. Previously he spent two years at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management after completing a doctorate from the University of Southern California in Political Economy and Public Policy and a master's degree at the London School of Economics. He was also a Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. His current areas of research include pure digital transactions for content, software, and services; industry convergence; electronic commerce transformation; trust and fraud in electronic markets; virtual communities; and business models for online entertainment.

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MacInnes, I. Property rights, legal issues, and business models in virtual world communities. Electron Commerce Res 6, 39–56 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-006-5987-8

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