second life ownership of items

Lawsuit Questions Whether Or Not Second Life Users Really 'Own' Their Virtual Land (TechDirt, 11 May 2010)

IP belongs to Linden Lab now; but ambiguity is there about ownership

Copyrights

The bug in HADOPI 2 (French version of three strikes law for piracy) was "patched" by governmental decree or statutory instrument, with the possibility to ask for damages in the criminal proceedings. But some more difficulties have been highlighted, mainly due to the administrative status of HADOPI which does not have the quality of police officer and thus can't receive complaints linked to criminal charges and torts claims as an officer would.
"L’argent du beurre des ayants droit : Hadopi 2 bientôt patchée" PC INpact 5 March 2010

"French Government Looking To Set Up The Great Firewall Of France?" TechDirt 18 February 2010

While most European countries are happy with the secrecy surrounding ACTA (and the EU COmmission also), Sweden, the EU data protection agency, and the EU Parliament are quite worried about it.
"Parliament threatens court action on anti-piracy treaty" EurActiv 10 March 2010
"La « Cnil européenne » demande plus de transparence sur l'Acta", 01net, 23 February 2010
And yet, Sweden accepted that the expert who has worked for the music industry in the Pirate Bay case could be head of the IT crime unit.
"Swedish Investigator Hired By Warner Bros. During Pirate Bay Investigation Now In Charge Of IT Crime In Sweden" TechDirt, 26 February 2010

THose copyrights claim are becoming ridiculous, as even a video of PRof. Lessig has been taken done on YouTube. Ironically, Prof. Lessig was in favour of copyrights in Second Life
"Bogus Copyright Claim Silences Yet Another Larry Lessig YouTube Presentation" TechDirt, 2 March 2010

Online personality and offline identity

Techdirt Daily Email for Tuesday, 09 March 2010 - Outlook Web Access Light

and "Turns Out That People Are Actually Pretty Honest About Themselves Online" TechDirt 19 February 2010

Not many studies appear on the theme; I suppose that the methodology to research online is not the easiest to practice. BUt it seems that people behave offline and online in pretty similar ways. It certainly corresponds to other studies that examine how people on the long term would present themselves and the discovery that the differences between online and offline are minor.

Virtual worlds and theft

Apparently, somebody has been arrested for theft for hacking into accounts, use avatars and steal the virtual possessions. "Real-world arrest for man who stole RuneScape virtual characters" (Times, 30 November 2009)
For disapproval, "If You Gain Unauthorized Access To A Character In A Virtual World, Is It Theft?" (TechDirt, 01 December 2009)
Contra: "Is virtual boom our industrial revolution?" (TheGuardian, 10 September 2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/09/victor-keegan-virtual-world-revolution

Virtual worlds and money makers

well, anybody ready this blog would have guessed that the title of the post attracted me. It's about scams in virtual worlds to get people to sign/buy things they don't really need. It's a technique which builds up on what virtual worlds are made for, earning money, although the technique is in itself quite inadmissible and should be distinguished to the features offered to participants such as additional memberships etc...
But what really is interesting are the comments made after that post. I particularly liked one made by JGM on NOvember 9th, who explained, if I understood him/her well, that virtual goods are a valid business model because it is programmers selling the fruit of their labor in a very competitive market. As such, the sale of virtual goods was completely different from scam/spams which rely on illegal actions to force somebody into spending money (=fraud).

Virtual Goods, Scams, Investigative Reporting And The Media (TechDirt, 9 November 2009)

Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods | Techdirt

Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods | Techdirt: "Three Economic Nobel Laureates In A Row Recognizing Power Of Infinite Goods"

Virtual property or no property?

with obviously its repercussion on criminal law which is based on the notion of having property rights... Why Virtual Property Doesn't Make Sense (TechDirt, 17 August 2009)

Linden Lab Sued Over Copied Virtual Goods (TechDirt, 18 September 2009)

China Tries To Ban Virtual Gold Farmers | Techdirt

China Tries To Ban Virtual Gold Farmers | Techdirt (30 June 2009)

China Government announced it was cracking on the practice. As noted in the post, hard to see why such a stance. The practice does not have an immense impact on the country's economy. Social rights of workers? hardly so. Does the Government want to control the practice in order to do it itself?

Gaming, robots and criminal law

Jacques-André Dupuy (Operantis)"Nous faisons du serious game pour les pilotes d'avion" (JDN 25 June 2009)
Use of 3D games to train pilot - positive use of technology, but one cannot be left but to wonder whether the reality of those games could have adverse effects in certain conditions and be responsible for more violence?

And what if the robots copy 'bad' behaviours and commit crimes? fiction? not so much if one believes this article about a child robot which memory increases by copying real human behaviour. "CB2 : parfait pour un prochain film d'horreur" http://www.journaldunet.com/hightech/salon-multimedia/dossier/ils-sont-la-et-nous-ressemblent-les-robots/cb2-parfait-pour-un-prochain-film-d-horreur.shtml
this made me think about the work of Michelle Hildebrand from Rotterdam/Brussels...

Virtual worlds - copyrights claims to be sustained?

Not directly linked to criminal law, despite the offence of piracy that could appear, the opinion of the Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann is of interest as it questions the parallel made between real laws/worlds and virtual worlds. Applying copyrights laws to virtual worlds like Second Life creates havoc as even publishing the view of a street could infringe a user's copyright. My question is this - and so far, I have no answer-: is it the principle of applying real world law that fails, or is it copyrights law themselves that are completely inadapted to the digital age (but not non-copyrights laws) as the Pirate Bay case illustrates?

"EFF Agrees That Copyright In Second Life Is A Mess" (TechDirt, 4 May 2009)

Second Life - for the best or the worse?

Three interesting uses or outcomes about Second Life - will write later about it as I am a middle of a research on it for hate crimes

"Other Tools Terrrorists Might Use: Voice, Pencils, Fax Machines, Email, Mobile Phones, Etc." (27 October 2008)

"That Was Fast: Woman Arrested For Virtual Murder Of Virtual Husband" (23rd October 2008)

"Well, At Least Second Life Won't Need A Gov't Bailout" (20 October 2008) because it has already crashed? "No, Second Life's Bank Crash Did Not Predict Real World Bank Crash" (26 November 2008)

Avatar, copyrights and money

Not at first sight a criminal law problem but nonetheless related. To ask for copyrights for art copied to create an avatar; what about the reverse?

Artist Demands $500 From Guy For Using His Image As An Avatar (November 2008)

Second Life - Real economy on virtual property?

Second Life hit by the financial crisis? yes, well possible because the so-called virtual currency of LInden Dollars has nothing virtual but it's name as long as you can exchange it against US Dollars. Now that's interesting because what about Second Life regulated by the FSA or the European agency that may be created? and what about bankruptcy laws???
On Second Thought, Maybe Second Life Does Need A Bailout, (30th October 2008 - Tech Dirt)

Virtual worlds - real law

Just the beginning of the problems with virtual worlds: why applying real laws and which laws? Tax and laws linked with money, it's easy: those virtual worlds produce real economics, so no point in hiding being the notion of "virtual" world. Next is what about criminal law and criminal procedure? China Sends Tax Collectors Into Online Worlds (3 November 2008)

Crime in virtual world

Back from holidays, late on posting, but could not resist this one: according to McAfee, one of the multiple anti-virus companies, illegal behaviours are now numerous. Viruses, scams, phishing etc... all flourish and it is not a virtual behaviour. The financial consequences are real because virtual currency can be converted into "real" currency. Maybe it should be time to stop talking of virtual and real, and use concepts like "online"/"offline" currencies, both being real in their existence, and not always immediately tangible.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39466789,00.htm

Second life and copyrights virtual claims

Yes, it happened! A lawsuit launched, now dropped, about copyrights in Second Life. Apparently a company specialised in writing scripts for virtual sex toys and M. Leatherwood a year ago did copy the items to sell them on Second Life. The company sued him for breach of copyrights. The case (federal) was dropped after settlement with no admission of liability.
Reading the article, I was interested in the plaintiff's argument that the legal rules of the real world apply to online universe like Second Life. And the contrast to M. Leatherwood's approach to the breach: "I did it in private," he said. "I wasn't out to do a huge market thing. I was doing it for a little bit of money." In other words, breach was implicitly acknowledged; motive (=money) was at the heart of the action, like most copyrights infringment by the way; defendant did not really challenge the fact that real world rules could be transplanted to virtual worlds. Is it because money is at stake? Second Life currency being exhangeable against real dollars?
See TEchDirt 27 March 2008 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080326/164522658.shtml refering to
26 March 2008 on SignOnSanDiego http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TECHBIT_VIRTUAL_SEX_MACHINE?SITE=CADIU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
and even the Forbes newspaper mentioned it : "Lawsuit over online sex toys settled" (26 March 2006) http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/26/afx4817411.html

Second life: Second crime?

Rare are the articles or comments about Second Life and cybercrime. Here is an article in French (yes I know, there is no translation so far), which in substance says the following:
1) although a virtual world in theory, its impact on the real world exists simply because the currency in Second Life can be exchanged againts... real dollars. Hence a lawyer (!) suing the publisher LInden Lab for loss of 8000 dollars because he was evicted when buying property (he did not comply with some rules). What I have not investigated and is unclear from the article is whether the eviction was based on virtual rules designed to prevent fraud...

2) the charity Familles de France (literally Families of France) is suing the publisher ... because the contents on Second Life give easy access to children to violence and pornography. The First Instance Tribunal rejected the claim on the basis the evidence presented was not tangible enough. But what if it becomes? What about the other violent games available on the market whether through or outside the internet?

By the way the article is an interview first published in December 2007, Michael Malka "Le droit dans «Second Life» (interview) " http://www.juriscom.net/pro/visu.php?ID=1039