TechLawProf

That's correct. And it has been very educational to read all of these replies. I only regret that I can't respond more fully to all of them. Thanks, @Sid Nagy

Thank you, @Rowan Amore. Yes, I read the terms. They're similar to other website terms of service. And it seems beyond dispute that websites can terminate accounts for (mostly) any reason without liability. The only wrinkle is that users might have a claim for certain digital entitlements they purchased with real money that have not yet been exercised (e.g., access to an online event that has not yet transpired). But my project isn't so much to assemble any kind of case under current law as it is to analyze the theoretical implications of the lack of property on the internet more broadly. Appreciate the input.

This is fantastic information. Thank you so much, @animats. I'll DM you shortly.

Sorry for my delay in responding. Because I'm a new member, I quickly hit my limit on forum comments (6 total, I believe) and had to wait for 24 hours before before I could comment further. I really appreciate the responses thus far, including the critiques. I'm obviously new here, and I'm still learning about SL's cultural norms. I apologize for any faux pas I may have committed (and any others I'll likely commit in the future). Folks have asked fair questions about my pedigree, my research, and my agenda. I really didn't want to draw much attention to myself (as opposed to my questions) in this thread, which is why I didn't initially disclose those details. But the questions are fair (and I can see that folks are wary because of the past behavior of researchers or journalists who have opened these kinds of threads before), so I'll answer them. I'm a law professor at the University of Tennessee. Here's a link to my faculty profile: https://law.utk.edu/directory/nicholas-nugent/, and here are a couple of my recent publications: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol98/iss2/7/, https://ctlj.colorado.edu/?p=708. Although these articles are more in the field of Internet Governance and may or may not be of interest to folks in SL. The papers are doctrinal, rather than empirical, which is standard fare for legal scholarship. My project here is also Internet Governance-related. My purpose is to analyze the concept of digital property, inclusive of identity (aliases, avatars, etc.), goods (tokens, resources, entitlements), and realty (mostly websites). I'm interested in SL because of how much users invest into building up their avatars and acquiring digital goods. To what extent should the law treat such resources as property? (If you're interested, there's at least one case on this issue, which focused on SL assets: https://casetext.com/case/evans-v-linden-research-12). So, my methodology here is qualitative rather than quantitative. I just want to understand how people think about their digital identities/goods and what kind of deprivation it would be if they lost them. That's why I haven't asked these questions in the form of an empirical survey in order to derive statistics or the like. Moreover, to be transparent, my research on SL will comprise only a portion of my research. The rest will be boring stuff like property theory and caselaw. The output of this research project will be a full-length article in a legal academic journal. I'm not a journalist, and I have no intention of writing any kind of web article that would put SL users in a bad light. I'm just trying to understand the culture and the behavior, and talking directly with veteran users will provide the most direct path to that kind of information (although I will continue to explore the world myself in parallel). Many thanks! Nick

Great point. I'm very interested in that as well. What is a not-crazy-amount of money a SL user might invest into his/her avatar? What are some of the crazier amounts of time/money you've heard of that a user has invested?

Fair enough. To make it worthwhile, I promise to share the results of my research on this very thread.

Thanks, Randy. I'm also doing that in parallel. But I'm finding that that mode of research, while valuable, yields very different information than simply asking people direct questions, especially veterans who can describe the macro changes they've seen over the years.

Why don't you have much incentive to log in these days? Why is being your friend the worst thing someone can do in SL?

I'm currently researching for an article related to digital identities. I'd like to better understand how people interact with Second Life and what community norms are around avatars. If anyone regularly participates in Second Life and has a good handle on the platform and community norms, I'd love to talk to you. In addition, I'll post some questions to this forum for anyone to answer: How long have you participated in Second Life? How many hours per week (on average) do you participate in SL? How much time have you invested in your avatar? Do you make your real identity known, or do you remain pseudonymous? What is the worst thing a person can do in SL? Thank you, TLP