Thursday, July 12, 2007

Virtual law

Andres has been wondering about the legal technicalities of the recent lawsuit over the alleged infringement of the intellectual property in virtual toys in Second Life.

"Despite the mirth-inducing elements of the suit (and let's face it, this story has "comedy value" written all over it), there could be some interesting legal elements to this. Firstly, there is the copyright claim itself, as I do not envy the judge who will have to decide on the originality of virtual sex devices; perhaps there are not many ways in which one can invent a pixelated toy, I guess that it would depend on the function (there goes my imagination again!) Secondly, what are the implications of suing an avatar? I'm aware that the avatar is just a way to represent a person who will be identified at a later date, but I still find it interesting that the Second Lice nickname is the one present on the legal documents."

I'm assuming the "Lice" was a freudian typo but let's not go there either...

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