priceyrice

Thanks for the reply Qie, it's good to hear some constructive advice. Virtually blind is a good document, have taken a fair few of my points from their. I have mentioned Bragg, however that is not the case I was referring to. I meant 'Carl Evans, Donald Spencer, Valerie Spencer, Cindy Carter, individuals, on Behalf of themselves and for the Benefit of all with the Common or General Interests, Any Persons Injured, and All Others Similarly Situated v. Linden Research' (some info here http://www.virtuallanddispute.com/ if you are curious) and another (I have to trawl through my notes to find the name, but if you are interested let me know and a will find it), very interesting cases, it is just annoying how slow the process is with these types of cases, and most of them settle before court, which is not ideal from a legal standpoint I know my grammar is never great, although obviously I give it little attention on a forum, but luckily for me my girlfriend is an English student so you would hope she can help!!

Thanks for your reply. Sorry about my spelling and sentence structure, it's not my strong point and not something I pay too much regard to when writing on a message board. I am not sure you read my intro did you? It sets out what my topic is on and how it relates to Law. Cyberspace is one of the most interesting current legal topics I think. We will soon be living in a world where we spend most of our lives in virtual worlds, we will shop there, visit friends there, do work there, the possibilities are endless because of the similarities to the real world. With this comes new opportunities for regulation, not something I am necessarily for, but something that will grow in importance to governments and international bodies as our lives evolve to encompass virtual worlds. By the sounds of your message you are American so perhaps you are not aware of how the English university system works. In most students final year they are required to provide a dissertation (research piece, essay etc) on a topic of their choosing. As I have been studying cyberlaw for two years now I thought the rights within Second Life and the way in which virtual worlds are regulated would be a good topic. I can understand your frustrations at the number of people coming on here asking for help with work, but your message is a little pedantic isn't it? I was not exactly asking for someone to do y work, just wondering if there is anyone else out there who has completed similar research or know of any good articles.

Yeah sorry, I didn't realize so many students had taken an interest in Second Life, not until after I posted and then looked through all the previous threads. I am not on here looking for quick and easy answers to my project, it's just useful to hear from the people who have used Second Life for longer than I have. You can do as much research as you like but there is no one better to talk to about the virtual world than those who inhabit it. I think there's is some pride in being the first wave of modern virtual world users, Second Life provided a platform that none of it's predecessors did, the effect virtual worlds have had an real world companies and people is ever increasing. There are many who believe that within the next decade, when we move on the the third generation of cyberspace, most people will spend most of their lives in virtual worlds, when these worlds can incorporate all 5 senses and provide a 100 real life environment where you can smell the aromour of a flower or experience the cold touch of snow. I think it's exciting to be some of the first people to be involved in virtual worlds but the downside is that it is still experimental and there will be more and more research done into virtual worlds as their popularity and usefulness grows.

Thanks for your reply, you seem to get what i am looking at as well. I agree that virtual property is real and i agree the TOS are a good place to start on rights, I am very interested in the recent cases against Linden labs for changing their terms of service without the users consent to try and remove the users rights to their property in Second Life, makes for very interesting reading, if your into that thing! lol Thanks for the suggestion about landowners, i will hunt some out.

Hi everyone, I am new to this board and relatively new to Second Life. I am a final year law student IRL focusing on cyberlaw and have chosen to to my dissertation piece (a 12,000 word essay) on Second Life and was just wondering whether anyone on here has underdone similar work or research and know of any useful articles/websites. Sorry this post may be a little long and not of interest to many, but for those with a deeper fascination of how virtual worlds work and how they can be regulated and the legal aspects raised within them, the topic of my work is quite interesting and obviously I would be happy to share the completed piece. My working title ATM is: 'The rights of players and the issues that arise in Second Life and the means by which they are governed' I have broken my piece down into three chapters: Chapter 1: sets out to define virtual worlds, focusing on the virtual v real world debate and whether virtual property is real looks at the real world issues that can arise in from virtual worlds- such as taxation of money made from Second Life, Intellectual property infringement, money laundering and defamation concerns Look at in world issues that arise, something known as 'fantasy crime', which includes acts such as virtual rapes, virtual pedophilia or age play and harassment (such as the area Wonderland which used to exist in Second Life) - if your avatar has been involved in any of these aspects either as the offender or as the one harassed/violated it would be great to hear your story. Chapter 2: This will focus on the rights of users within Second Life, paying particular regard to end user license agreements/ terms of service I will also look at the problems in regulating Virtual worlds, such as the jurisdictional issues as well as looking at the real v virtual world debate again Chapter 3: I will include an analysis of the current regulatory structure of Second Life before looking at what the future has in store for regulating these online communities, be it through a means of self-regulation by the users and creators or be it through real life government intervention and regulation. Sorry again for the long and a little boring post but any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated, I may also be looking to interview a couple of users who have been involved in a fantasy crime, or have made real money and a career from Second Life. Also if you are one of the many users who spend more time in the virtual world than the real world it would be good to hear what attracts you to the virtual worlds so I can look at the psychology behind the users. Also if anyone knows any up to date statistics on Second Life, such as active users or anything you think may be of interest to me please let me know and what your source is too. Thanks again for reading and thanks in advance for any help Priceyrice