Unravelling video game UGC policies: is copyright the answer?

This thesis concerns the gap in the law within the copyright legal framework when concerned with user generated content (UGC). In order to illustrate this, this thesis first sets out academic discourse on the categorization and criteria of UGC followed by existing legal instruments attempting to regulate UGC. This thesis then identifies the gaps that have yet to be regulated within the law. Notably, this thesis identifies that there are no legislative instruments that concern the recognition and ownership of UGC, nor are there any legislative instruments regarding the rights conferred, if any, to the owner of UGC. 

This is followed by examples of in game creation (IGC), a subset of UGC, within contemporary video games. This stands as the primary subject matter of this thesis. Having identified and provided examples of in game creations, this thesis then determines the owners of said IGC by delving into the video games' UGC policies, which can be found in their EULA and User Account Agreement. We find through this analysis that there are instances where the IGC is owned by the user, but this is consequently licensed back to the developer. 

This thesis then identifies issues with current commercial practice of game publishers in their UGC policies including the presumptuous treatment of UGC as property, as evidenced by licensing clauses, and the presumptive categorization of creations as UGC, which this thesis will elaborate, is a predetermination that results in creations not being able to justify copyrightability. 

The penultimate chapter of this thesis will then answer the question of whether copyright might be the solution to the issues raised in the previous chapter, especially the tension between user and game publisher, and proposing alternative suggestions that may be worth further analysis in the future, including a potential neighbouring rights regime to address the status of UGC. 

This working paper is a part of the "Outstanding LLM Dissertations 2023".