Like so many things, virtual law started with sex. Specifically, the
first known legal case originating in a virtual world was over a bed
designed for rolls in the virtual hay.
Eros vs. Volkov Catteneo was not unlike business dustups that happen
in the real world every day. One person created something and sold
it, and another person allegedly copied it and sold cheap knockoffs.
The only thing novel about this case is that the item in question was
a piece of furniture made entirely of computer code, and it was
bought and sold by 3-D avatars in Second Life, a virtual world run by
San Francisco's Linden Lab.
Second Life user Kevin Alderman of Lutz, Fla., created the very
interactive bed, which enabled avatars to engage in a range of
activities (cuddling, more). But when another user started selling
copies, Alderman hired real-life lawyer Francis Taney, who tracked
down the real person behind the bed-copying avatar and secured a
consent judgment from Florida's U.S. District Court ordering him to quit.
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/27/BUH0172A42.DTL>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/04/avatars-attorneys-in-new-world-of.htm>monochrom
at 4/28/2009 10:15:00 AM
