NEWS: Sex, Laws, and Internet: When Second Life and Real Life Collide

GEEK: Sex, Laws, and Internet: When Second Life and Real Life Collide

The Internet is an fascinating thing: you can, to some degree, live out a whole separate life in here, fully removed from the confines and limitations of the world into which you were born. This is the basic concept behind Second Life. In case you've been living off the grid lately, Second Life is a "virtual world" unleashed on the intertubes back in 2003 by would-be Greek god Philip Rosedale. (UCSD alumni, holla!) It's sort of like The Sims meets an MMORPG -- populated by thousands "playing" in real time, the only quests are to work, go to school, see shows, acquire real estate, make awkward sexual advances at clubs, and spend lots of money. What's more, there are no epic weapon drops at the end of the tunnel. A welcome respite from real life, I suppose, because in Second Life at least you can approach this virtual mirror world as your true mental self (bondage-laden woman with a tiger face) rather than the false body you were born into (49-year-old hardware store clerk with a paunch). Therein lies the draw that has made Second Life one of the most massive and hyped internet applications to date.

The same dynamics endowing Second Life with its rich tapestry of social weirdness have also made the game, as it were, a financial dream. Big business aim to thrive, as your virtual self buys virtual Coke with real money, but far more interesting are the small-time upstart entrepreneurs. Enter: Kevin Alderman. This mild-mannered, middle-aged coding carpenter from Tampa, FL, works day and night building up a small business called Eros LLC, bringing with it an indispensable service to the Second Life community -- the craft of pixelated furniture that animates, with a simple click, your avatar in the act of hot, full-on, graphic (hey-o!) lovin'. But in a world where no one has to know your story, where an internet handle practically becomes an extension of one's own real name, how do you know who to hold accountable when business goes awry? This is the problem facing Alderman now, as he is presented with the odd situation of trying to sue someone he has no concept of in real life.

On paper, it's undeniably straightforward: someone stole Alderman's code for SexGen Platinum, one of his hot love creations, and is now selling the bootlegs illegally. It's a fairly clear-cut case of copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. The catch: Alderman doesn't even know the thief's name. What to do in such a situation? The only logical thing in a Second Life mentality: sue the avatar.

As my crackerjack legal counsel explained it to me (just before advising me to rent a very fast car with no top), "it would be like you suing me as 'Subrosa,' and not 'Dr. Gonzo*.'" A bizarre concept, to be sure, and certainly one that could only be yet another new and wonderful product of the internet. Catherine Smith, marketing director of Linden Labs (the lab responsible for the online world), states that she's never heard of any real legal dispute between two avatars before; Alderman's lawyer, then, is faced with the apparently unprecedented task of tracking down this "Volkov Catteneo" character in the outside world and serving him (her?) some justice. Luckily there's a bit of a lead, what with the internet leaving a somewhat-traceable digital trail and all.

Debates over intellectual property theft have been around practically since the Mesozoic era, and the internet, with its relative ease and everyman-an-entrepreneur attitude, just provides one more way to go about it. Some, such as the forward-thinking Portuguese Ministry of Justice, are even planning ahead by building in-game "e-justice" arbitration centers to settle disputes without taking the fight outside, but whether or not such mediation can really be enforced remains to be seen. Still, while justice departments are gearing up for a potential long haul of brand-new avatar criminals, it's definitely a unique situation at the present. If anything, any upcoming trial ought to be interesting.


_DictionaryGirl_, who prefers pretending she's Eddie Van Halen for her virtual kicks, tips her hat toward the incomparable Subrosa for a truly excellent story.

*Real name omitted to protect the innocent!

Sounds like Second Life is going to need virtual judges in virtual courtrooms staffed with virtual "Rusty the Bailiffs".

Maybe I should run for that position? I can see my avatar now: "Judge Dredd." I'll slam down my virtual gavel and shout "I am the law!" Case closed.

There was a great article in The Walrus a few years ago about the economics of MMORPGs, I suggest anyone give it a read if they find this stuff interesting. Though it's probably a little dated now... as a lot has changed in three years.

I'm imagining this kind of thing it going to get more common as time goes on and this won't seem like such a big deal. I'm 24, and I remember a time when no one used cell phones. I remember a time when no one used debit cards, or when personal computers were pretty rare. But see, even kids today just hitting 18... they've ALWAYS had this stuff. It's not so strange.

It's OK. My real name actually is Dr. Gonzo.

Great piece, DG.

ahaha that was great.

i don't understand the appeal of this second life game at all. are so many people's lives so terrible that they resort to a fantasy online life...that is pretty much an imitation of everyday real life?

I imagine if you're a middle-aged adult with a Second Life avatar and some money to throw at it, you'd be like a kid in Willy Wonka's factory, except you'd be making the candy, eating the candy, and having sex with the candy. It's really kind of insane.

Great article. I was in SecondLife for a short bit, but it seemed a lot like walking around the mall with no money in my pocket. I eventually abandoned it and jumped onto another MMORPG. Killing stuff and getting swords is more fun for me, but I've kept my eye on the developings in SeconLife all the while. It's a very interesting concept. Their technology is excellent, and they seem to be setting one precedent after another in the "real world"

Everybody interested in this might check out 'The Thirteenth Floor' to see where all this may end. -so to speak.

I was fine with the whole Second Life thing until I got to the part about spending real money on fake shit for your avatar. I prefer to spend my real money on real shit for my real self.

see: Silliness.

I tried Second Life for about 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, I was waiting for my avatar to load....and waiting....and waiting....

When I finally said "screw it", my avatar was nothing more than a floating hair-do. No body at all.

I know, I know, it is country. Shoot me. But it amuses me, and could amuse you.

Anybody who finds this topic interesting should read Lawrence Lessig's books.

weirdo nerds.

Come on, people! No love for the Second Life? The sheer amount of things to do is reason enough to at least give it a chance!

Once and a while, Radiohead performs IN THE GAME WORLD for your viewing pleasure! You can't get much cooler than that (aside from seeing Radiohead perform in real life, of course).

Second Life is conceptually really interesting and full of potential. All of which is utterly crushed by a) HORRIBLY unoptimized code (I turned all of the options I could down to the absolute minimum, and I still couldn't get much above 10 FPS, this on a computer that can run next-gen games like Oblivion and Lost Planet smoothly at high settings.), and b) rampant stupidity.

I think it's kind of insulting that the ONLY way to "define" yourself and thrive in Second Life is get a job and make money. How banal. From what I've read and heard, it's next to impossible to interact in the Second Life community for more than a few days without some form of contribution to the socio-economic machine that ties everyone together.

I'm not a Marxist, but holy Christ, Second Life sounds like American uber-hyper-Capitalist-Consumerism run amok. You're a cog and nothing more (but at least you can be a sexy cog).

Buy! Sell! Contribute to the GDP!

I have enough of that in my FIRST life, thank you.

I only sue Subrosa as Subrosa.

I just joined Second Life out of curiosity and I guess it takes some getting used to, but the concept was interesting. You basically need money for everything or else you're just left wandering around. My friend also joined and was only in there for 10 minutes when he was hit on by a Second Life prostitute who wanted him to pay her for sex! Haha!
How would you even know the 'her' is a 'her'?
Pretty sad really.

Second Life is pretty cool. I got into it for the building things and scripting them aspect rather than the pretending to be a sexually deviant club-goer (ie: the social or role-playing aspect).

Everything in SL is made by residents. So you can buy land, build something on it, script it to do things, sell it, whatever you want. And you can make real money in it. Some people make over $100,000 a year in real dollars, but they are pretty few. It has a currency exchange and everything. Hell, you could even make hundreds of dollars just buying and selling currency, but I think the prices have stabilized to where that's not feasible anymore.

In other words, it's not a MMORPG, or even a game.

Ha! Sucker! I'm only a lawyer on the interne...

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Second life feels weird to me.