In an easy-to-miss article, InformationWeek reported on legal challenges that SecondLife, the virtual world, is facing. Since people in SecondLife talk about the virtual world as if it were real (leading some to suspect that the only reason they need SecondLife is that they don't have a first one), some of the residents of SecondLife are suing the company that created it, Linden Lab, for property rights violations.
As the article points out,
[T]he company sells the idea of ownership on its site: "Become a part of history by purchasing land and developing your own piece of Second Life," the site says. "The Pricing and Fees are simple; you pay $9.95 a month plus a Land Use Fee proportional to the amount of land you own."
So what exactly does this mean legally? Do we have property rights to property that lives only on a computer?
Shudder....
Reminds me of The Matrix....
Maybe the people in SecondLife are just a bit too un-focused on their first one...
Virtual Worlds Collide With Real Laws - News by InformationWeek
