Can Avatars Make Contracts? 134
edadams sends in a story about the legal questions that are starting to crop up over property disputes in virtual worlds. A lawsuit in March 2008 that stopped one Second Life user from selling a virtual product created by another user marked the beginning of a significant amount of casework for several law firms, in large part due to the way Second Life's currency interacts closely with real money. (And yes, apparently the product in that particular case was for cybersex — did you have to ask?) "As transactions grow in volume, it's inevitable that disagreements will crop up. Linden says that although it will enforce its terms of service, including its ban on violating other users' intellectual property, it can't settle most disputes for users." A lawyer for one intellectual property firm handled a case in which the co-ownership of virtual real estate had to be determined, ending with a financial settlement given to two users who helped a virtual land developer run a group of Second Life islands. As virtual worlds get more popular and their business models more directly affect real-life finances, we can expect these legal issues to become more common as well.
Product? I Thought It Was a Service! (Score:5, Funny)
Wow! They've productized cybersex? I thought it was a service! Is it over-the-counter yet? Does it come in a gel or powder that I apply to my genitals? I have so many questions on how it works. Can I get it delivered to my house discretely? Brilliant move but the physics are still a little confusing to me.
Cyberlaw (Score:5, Funny)
Trying to get the long arm of the law around cybersex cases could be a really sticky situation.
You've got to hand it to them though.
Re:Cyberlaw (Score:2, Funny)
is this really all that important? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not the biggest geek in the world but I consider myself to still be very geeky and I find this to be the most pointless waste of time and effort I've heard about since Twitter. Virtual lawsuits? Only if I can DM the lawyers.
I don't think us geeks are going to be complaining about the music kids listen to these days or getting off the lawn, we'll just bitch about how the impractical and useless the latest techno-geek fad is. "Twitter? What, blogs with RSS updates aren't good enough for you, son? Back in my day--"
"Back in your day your CPU only had one core and you liked it, right? Your polygons didn't even have textures, you had to customize your config.sys and autoexec.bat just to play--"
"Aw, shut up. And get off my lawn."
Re:What? (Score:3, Funny)
Pretty soon the English language will consist only of the letters l,o, R, U, s, t, and f.
-b
I can solves puzzle?
To quoth the late George Carlin: (Score:4, Funny)
Selling's legal.
Fucking's legal.
Why isn't selling fucking legal?
Thank you internets, for bringing this time old question back in yet a new way.
Re:Cyberlaw (Score:4, Funny)
A legal reacharound?
Ewwwwwww...
I am incredulous (Score:5, Funny)
I cannot believe that people are interested in playing a GAME where you have to hire land developers and sort out legal contracts. What's next, Virtual Tax Filing and Online Toilet Sanitation?
Re:Product? I Thought It Was a Service! (Score:3, Funny)
Can I get it delivered to my house discretely?
What, as in one at a time?
I'll get my coat...
Re:Argh . . . I run screaming away! (Score:3, Funny)
IAAL... I want to be able to cheat somebody in a (virtual) contract and laugh at them down the barrel of a plasma blaster when they complain.
Confirmed: That's definitely a lawyer.
Second Life (Score:3, Funny)