Lawsuit Questions Whether Or Not Second Life Users Really 'Own' Their Virtual Land
from the ownership-society dept
For many, many years, we've discussed the problems of trying to apply real world laws to virtual worlds. The reason many real world laws are in place is to deal with the facts and limitations associated with the real world. But, when you move to a virtual world, where the actual physics (literally and figuratively) may be entirely different, real world laws might not make much sense. For example, if you "steal" a magic sword in a virtual world, is that theft? What if the point of the virtual world is to pillage and steal? Then things get troubling. Virtual worlds should be effectively separated entirely from real world laws, because the basic reasoning behind the real world laws doesn't apply in the virtual worlds -- and mixing the two only leads to problems down the road.That's why, despite the cheering from many folks who we normally agree with, we were somewhat worried, back in 2003, when Second Life announced that it was letting people actually "own" their own virtual goods and land in Second Life. Those in favor of this seemed to think that this was better than Second Life making arbitrary decisions, but the downside was that it brought all the problems of copyright law into a virtual world where the very basis for copyright law didn't quite apply. Bringing the outside law into a virtual world just seemed like a dangerous precedent.
And, now, it looks like Second Life may be regretting that earlier decision. Apparently, it recently tried to move away from at least part of it, changing how the virtual "land" that people had bought was defined, so that it was no longer "property" owned by the users, but a "service" provided by the company, Linden Lab, that runs Second Life. In response, there's now a class action lawsuit against Linden Lab, suggesting there was some sort of bait-and-switch, in that people were told they were actually buying "property" that they would own, but with a single change to the terms of service, that property reverted back to Linden Lab. While I think the latter position is the only really legally defensible one for Linden Lab to take, it brought this on itself by thinking it should bring outside world laws of copyright and ownership into the virtual world in the first place...
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, ownership, second life, virtual worlds
Companies: linden lab
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Virtual Acts of God...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Virtual Acts of God...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
godmode="on"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Begs the question
But in the virtual world unless you are paying taxes or planning on selling your virtual items, proof that it is indeed yours shouldn't be necessary. Selling land was just a money maker for 2Life. The people who actually bought it should have known better. It's just like buying gold in other virtual world games, the owner of the game/eula can take it from you at will based on licensing etc. Your just the idiot who paid real world $ for virtual world objects that aren't anything more then 1's and 0's.
Software developers update their EULA's all the time. 98.7% of us never read them and just accept. At any point they can just slip in the adjustment clause that says anything and everything your character owns is not actually his but property of the gaming company.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/04/15/gamestation-we-own-your-soul/1
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Begs the question
In this case, the developer SOLD something of value and then changed the thing they sold in a way that removed the value it previously had. In this particular case, they essentially took the ownership of that item back, but it ties in pretty well with the recent change to the PS3 that took away the "other OS" feature many users "purchased".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Begs the question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Begs the question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Why do people pay money for digital goods anyway?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Any "pirate" that wants to "copy" them face two problems: 1) the actual ability to perfectly replicate the goods (which may not be possible for example for: autographed box sets) and 2) spending money on infrastructure and raw materials.
None of this applies to digital goods, since duplicating an item goes like this: "copy a -> b"
Since, for example, a music disc that has no additional value (reason to buy) except for the 0s and 1s it contains, it is not the plastic in the disc that the "infringers" want, it is the music, which can be copied endlessly at negligible cost.
And that is why you fail economics forever.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Virtual hoodies are not scarce at all since I can make an "infinite" number of copies with virtually no effort or cost. Time is not a problem either since I can make enough copies to dress the entire second life universe in half the time it will take you to make a real one.
Now, given these facts, the only way virtual hoodies can become scarce is if I artificially limit them by only making a limited amount available and by putting copying restrictions, so nobody can make more.
Notice that "making a limited amount available" actually means that I am only willing to make a limited number of copies of those virtual hoodies, but I still need to make sure nobody can copy these goods, or else, my whole business goes down the crapper.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
is that the real question?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think the petitioners would be a lot less enthused about this lawsuit if the IRS viewed virtual property as real property. Be careful what you wish for.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The 'winners' are alternative, open source and SL content-compatible metaverse platforms such as OpenSim, and the worlds built using them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is because ALL contract changes MUST be agreed by both sides, and one side cannot withhold services until the other person agrees to a change.
This basically strikes out all games that make you click AGREE after they patch the game/change the EULA and won't let you into the game otherwise.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Linden Labs guarantees nothing at all
[ link to this | view in chronology ]