Internet news websites have been commenting on a copyright infringement case involving sex toys in Second Life. With spectacular titles like “Sex Toy IP Scandal Rocks Second Life“, one would imagine thousands of depressed avatars shocked by the news of a lawsuit involving sex toys. The lawsuit involves something called Read more
Terra Nova reports on the potential business migration from Second Life, due in part to its “clunky technology”. Some of the early comers in the virtual market, such as Well Fargo, have left and set up their virtual tent elsewhere. I agree with TN about the fact that this is Read more
(via Colin Miller) As part of my growing interest in virtual economies, here is an eye-opening look at the gold of Chinese gold farmers from Julian Dibbell, including some video footage of their virtual sweat shops (you can sort of smell that the term could be quite literal as well). Read more
(via Terra Nova) I missed this one during my travels, but I find it such a great story. A Florida law firm has initiated a class-action suit against Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), a gold farming company based in Hong Kong and Delaware. According to the plaintiff, one Mr Antonio Hernández, Read more
(An auction house in City of Heroes) (via Ashley Theunissen) The UK’s Fraud Advisory Panel has issued a recommendation asking for regulation of the fledgling economies in virtual worlds. According to this group, virtual costumers are increasingly involved in commercial transactions in virtual environments. These virtual online communities “… are Read more
The mainstream press has been reporting on what could very well be the world’s first cyberwar. A diplomatic conflict between Estonia and Russia over a bronze statute has resulted in what seems to be a series of coordinated attacks against Estonian institutions. Denial-of-service attacks have brought down websites belonging to Read more
Because nothing says “I’m a geek” like a piece of plastic with the picture of an elf on it. So many jokes, so little time… (via Colin Miller)
This seems to be an urban legend or prank, but I found some of the potential legal implications quite interesting. Supposedly, a female gamer from New York placed an advert on Craigslist stating that she would have sex in exchange for 5000 gold in Wolrd of Warcraft so that she Read more
The Beeb runs a story on a new report by research consultants Screen Digest on the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) market. The big headline in the report is that the MMOG market has now passed the $1 billion USD revenue mark from subscriptions worldwide. While big revenue is to Read more
One of the most traumatic events for the fledgling field of IT Law was the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001, when the artificially inflated electronic commerce market suffered a re-adjustment and a crash to weed out all of the pretenders and irrelevant market dwellers, producing some of the Read more