Deakin home > Deakin University Library > Deakin Research Online > Can virtual world property be considered a digital good?

Can virtual world property be considered a digital good?

Patterson, Nicholas C. and Hobbs, Michael 2010, Can virtual world property be considered a digital good?, in IADIS ITS 2010 : Proceedings of THE IADIS International Conference : Internet Technologies & Society, IADIS Press, Perth, Australia, pp. 33-40.

Attached Files (Some files may be inaccessible until you login with your Deakin Research Online credentials)
Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads

Title Can virtual world property be considered a digital good?
Author(s) Patterson, Nicholas C.
Hobbs, Michael
Conference name International Association for the development of the Information Society International Conference on Internet Technologies & Society (2010 : Perth, W.A.)
Conference location Perth, Australia
Conference dates 29 Nov.-1 Dec. 2010
Title of proceedings IADIS ITS 2010 : Proceedings of THE IADIS International Conference : Internet Technologies & Society
Editor(s) Kommers, Piet
Issa, Tomayess
Isaias, Pedro
Publication date 2010
Conference series International Association for the Development of the Information Society International Conference on Internet Technologies and Society
Start page 33
End page 40
Total pages 8
Publisher IADIS Press
Place of publication Perth, Australia
Keyword(s) digital goods
virtual property
virtual world environments
real money trading
virtual property theft
piracy
Summary What types of goods should be considered digital goods? This paper discusses the question of whether virtual property, such as items available in virtual world environments like Linden Lab’s Second Life and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, should be considered a valid digital good. The makeup of a virtual property items are explored in this paper and their key features compared and contrasted with that of digital goods. Common examples of digital goods include: electronic books, software, digital music and digital movies. These goods are considered a tangible commodity, that is they have an unlimited supply and secondly they are in a digital/binary form (a sequence of 1’s and 0s’). When looking at why a virtual property items should be included in the category of ‘digital goods’, it is important to consider how items in a virtual world come to exist and how the availability of these items are often controlled by publishers and developers. The aim of this paper is show that digital goods should not be limited to the traditional views such as electronic books, software, music and movies; but in fact the term ‘digital good’ should also include the active market of virtual property
items.
ISBN 9789728939311
Language eng
Field of Research 180115 Intellectual Property Law
Socio Economic Objective 970110 Expanding Knowledge in Technology
HERDC Research category E1 Full written paper - refereed
HERDC collection year 2010
Copyright notice ©2010, IADIS Press. All rights reserved
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30033766

Document type: Conference Paper
Collection: School of Information Technology
Connect to link resolver
 
Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in Deakin Research Online is owned by the author, with all rights reserved.

Versions
Version Filter Type
Access Statistics: 195 Abstract Views, 6 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Wed, 06 Apr 2011, 17:30:34 EST by Sandra Dunoon