The opening salvo from Jagex Ltd., the makers of the game RuneScape:
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:43:29 +0100
From: Jagex Copyright Team <copyright@jagex.com>
To: info@gamingpays.com
Subject: http://gamingpays.comHello from Jagex,
I work within Community Management for the massive multiplayer online game RuneScape (www.RuneScape.com).
I have discovered that your website at http://gamingpays undertakes or facilitates trading in RuneScape items to enable cheating at RuneScape.
Such behaviour damages our game and infringes our intellectual property and other legal rights.
Please contact me within 7 days to confirm that you will stop this activity.
Otherwise I will pass the matter to our lawyers.
Sincerely
Mohammed Khan
Jagex Ltd.
The phrase "stop this activity" seemed pretty vague to me. What was I supposed to do, shut down my entire website because I got a short email from Mohammed? So:
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:19:15 -0700
To: Jagex Copyright Team <copyright@jagex.com>
From: Aaron Crow <aaron@gamingpays.com>
Subject: Re: http://gamingpays.com
Hello Mohammed and Jagex,
Thanks for your email and your interest in gamingpays.com.
I've reviewed my site and I don't believe I am violating any laws. Would you please be specific and let me know exactly which content you believe is infringing on your legal rights? I am certainly eager to remove any material that is illegal, as well as make any other necessary changes to remain within the law.
All the best,
Aaron Crow
Author, “Gaming Pays!”
In the meantime, I decided to make contact with a lawyer I had heard of who was familiar with the heavy-handed tactics of certain MMO companies. His name is Greg, and we had an interesting phone conversation. He told me to let him know if Jagex responded to my request for more information. It didn't take too long:
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:13:55 +0100
From: Jagex Copyright Team <copyright@jagex.com>
To: Aaron Crow <aaron@gamingpays.com>
Subject: Re: http://gamingpays.com
Hello Aaron.
When reviewing your site we found the following pdf file:
http://gamingpays.com/TopTenTips/GamingPaysTopTenTips.pdf
The file has information regarding how players can make money from RuneScape. This breaks copyright laws as RuneScape as well as everything within it is the intellectual property of Jagex. Therefore trading someone else's property without their permission, or advising people on how to do so, is against the law.
We would ask you to remove all information regarding trading items in RuneScape for real world money be removed.
Thank you for replying to my previous email, I look forward to your response.
Mohammed Khan
Jagex Ltd.
The irony here is that the PDF file in question was fairly outdated. It was one of the first pieces of information I ever put together to help promote the "Gaming Pays!" concept. It's funny, but before hearing from Jagex, I had actually been planning on taking it down.
This heavy-handed threat of censorship and vague legal theory changed my mind. I forwarded this message to Greg and here's what he wrote to Jagex:
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:24:04 -0400
Dear Mr. Khan,
I am an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington, D.C. I am writing on behalf of Aaron Crow of gamingpays.com. If you are represented by counsel in this matter, please let me know so I can correspond directly with your attorney.
Mr. Crow has informed me that you are claiming that an article on his website at the URL http://www.gamingpays.com/ is illegal because it contains information about how to earn money playing RuneScape. I disagree with your interpretation of copyright law.Merely referring to your game and providing information about how to play it is not a violation of copyright law because it does not involve any copying of your company's content. Writing an article about a game does not infringe copyright in the game, especially when, as here, the article does not even include any copyrighted text, screenshots, or storyline.
In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution firmly protects an author's right to publish an article about a subject even if that subject is covered by a copyright. Indeed, under your interpretation of copyright law, even publishing a review of a video game would infringe the game owner's copyright in the game, and reviews of books and movies would infringe the holders of those copyrights as well. The law, however, does not give copyright owners the power to control the public discourse in this way.
To be clear, I have not yet decided whether to represent Mr. Crow in his dispute with you beyond helping him understand the nature of your asserted claim. I am hoping you will reconsider your claim so that further action on my part will be unnecessary.
Thank you for your consideration.
Gregory A. Beck
Public Citizen Litigation Group
This letter made me feel a LOT better. Even though Greg isn't agreeing to actually take the case, his reply to Jagex was a great relief and gave me hope that I wouldn't be alone in standing up to these guys.
It took Jagex a little while to get the next letter out, and it was a doozy:
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:25:17 +0100
Dear Sir
www.gamingpays.com (“the Website”)We act for Jagex Limited. Our client has owned and operated RuneScape, the well-known online multiplayer adventure game, at a website at runescape.com since 2001. There are currently some 4.1 million active registered players of the game in over 15 countries. Our client’s turnover in its last financial year to March 2005 was in excess of £5 million (approximately $9 million).
Our client has instructed us to reply to your email of 29 August 2006 regarding your client's eBook entitled "How to Make Money with Online Role-Playing Games" available on gamingpays.com. In particular, we write to clarify our client's legal position.
Our client's contract states, amongst ther things:
* "RuneScape items may only be exchanged for other items/services within the game. You must not exchange RuneScape items, gold or in-game services for real-life money, real-life benefits, or benefits in other online games. You acknowledge that doing so would harm RuneScape, by allowing players to 'buy' their way to success, which spoils the experience for others and thus causes damage to us. You must not act as an intermediary to help others make infringing trades."
* "You must not encourage, or attempt to trick other players into breaking our rules."
Your client (assuming he is so) will undoubtedly have used our client's site and become bound by its terms and conditions.Insofar as it relates to RuneScape, your client's eBook clearly encourages other players to break our client's rules. See for example "Tip #10" which specifically relates to RuneScape. The book is associated with Runescape in other ways eg by use of this (trade marked) term in the metatext of gamingpays.com and in ebay promotional text: "My story of fun and profit with online games like Runescape could become yours, too."
So your client's activities constitute a direct breach of contract by it as well as tortious inducement to other parties to break their contracts with our client.
Our client is prepared to settle this matter as follows:
1. Removal of all references to our client from the book and any similar material.
2. Removal of all references to our client from gamingpays.com and any similar website.
3. Your client agrees that it will not associate its book (or any similar material) with our client or our client's game whether in marketing literature or otherwise.
Please may we have this confirmation within 7 days from today. Otherwise our client will have little choice but to instruct a local lawyer to pursue the matter further.
Yours faithfullyAdlex Solicitors
www.adlexsolicitors.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 207 317 8400
Fax: +44 (0) 207 317 8405
Mob: +44 (0) 7775 635 835
76A Belsize Lane, London, NW3 5BJ
A funny thing about this letter is the presumption that I've "undoubtedly" used their site and become bound by its terms and conditions. It's funny, because in fact, I've never signed that ToS for the game RuneScape.
My game time has been mainly devoted to Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest II, and more recently, World of Warcraft and Second Life. I've conducted research of RuneScape through associates and my own independent out-of-game analysis, and written about my findings. (BTW, I think it's a great game idea and serves an important niche!)... but nope, don't believe I've ever agreed to its "terms and conditions".
Which is probably irrelevant anyway, as I don't believe any online game ToS or EULA on the face of Planet Earth is going to nullify my First Amendment rights under the Constitution of the United States of America.
The way I interpret points 1 through 3 of the above letter is pretty much, "STFU". Stop talking about Jagex, stop talking about Runescape, and just be quiet. And if I don't? Well, the phrase "local lawyer to pursue the matter further" seems to have a rather sinister tone to it, wouldn't you say?
I got back on the phone with
Greg and had a serious conversation about the situation. I asked him,
“What’s my next step?”
“The easiest thing is to back down and they’ll go away,” he told me.
Backing
down seems to mean: take down any reference I have anywhere to Jagex
and Runescape on my website, in my book, and any advertising I do
anywhere. IOW, “STFU”.
“Backing down just doesn’t seem very American,” I told him.
He
laughed. “I wouldn’t back down on this, either,” he
said, “I don’t think they have a case. But you need to
decide how strongly you feel about this.”
I thought
about how hard I’ve worked to produce a valuable book for the MMO
entrepreneur. I also thought about the higher ideal, you know–
the idea of freedom of speech.
“Let’s just say I feel very strongly about it,” I said, “and I will not back down.”
“Okay,”
he said, “we’ll send them a letter in response to their
last letter, and clarify our position. Maybe they’ll decide they
don’t have a case, and leave you alone.”
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:15:52 -0400
To: <djg@adlexsolicitors.co.uk>
Subject: Re: gamingpays.com
Dear Sir or Madam:
Please note that, as I mentioned in my last email, I have not yet agreed to represent Mr. Crow although I am evaluating his case for possible representation. Therefore, please continue to direct all correspondence to Mr. Crow. Only he can speak to whether he will comply with your demands. I am cc'ing him on this email.
That being said, Mr. Crow has informed me that he never signed up for the RuneScape service nor agreed to your contract. Furthermore, merely writing about making money by playing online games, with brief references to RuneScape, is not an inducement for others to breach the contract. To hold otherwise would be a serious infringement of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Simply put, you have no right to censor Mr. Crow's book because you are unhappy with its contents. Indeed, if you persist in attempting to stifle Mr. Crow's creative work with these unsupported theories, I believe you may ultimately be liable for his attorneys' fees.
I continue to believe your position is untenable and will seriously consider representing Mr. Crow if you decide to push your claim against him further.
Sincerely,
Gregory A. Beck
Public Citizen Litigation Group
