Bringing Real Justice to Virtual Worlds: World of Warcraft and Second Life

Bringing Real Justice to Virtual Worlds: World of Warcraft and Second Life

Hunter W. Jamerson (Law Clerk to the Honorable Michael C. Allen, Judge, 12th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, USA)
Copyright: © 2009 |Pages: 12
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-122-3.ch009
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Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to advise developers, content providers, end users, legislators, and business managers about the challenges and ramifications of conducting business in virtual worlds. The chapter examines crime in virtual worlds, as well as evaluates the current status of property rights (real, actual, and intellectual), and suggests changes to the existing legal structure in order to confront virtual crime. Recommendations to the business manager are also included in this chapter.
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Violent Crime And Pecuniary Crime

As early as 1993, it was clear virtual worlds were fair game for some of society’s most vile acts. In the virtual world LambdaMOO, a female user’s avatar was raped. Julian Dibbell later chronicled the event in an article titled “A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens turned a Database into a Society,” published in The Village Voice (Wikipedia, 2008). According to “A Rape in Cyberspace”:

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