Here's a good one for the IP Sig to chew on. Virtual Copyrights---from today's Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500 635.html Where Real Money Meets Virtual Reality, The Jury Is Still Out By Alan Sipress Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 26, 2006; Page A01 Veronica Brown is a hot fashion designer, making a living off the virtual lingerie and formalwear she sells inside the online fantasy world Second Life. She expects to have earned about $60,000 this year from people who buy her digital garments to outfit their animated self-images in this fast-growing virtual community. But Brown got an unnerving reminder last month of how tenuous her livelihood is when a rogue software program that copies animated objects appeared in Second Life. Scared that their handiwork could be cloned and sold by others, Brown and her fellow shopkeepers launched a general strike and briefly closed the electronic storefronts where they peddle digital furniture, automobiles, hairdos and other virtual wares. Veronica Brown is able to make a living selling her digital fashions in the online world Second Life. "It was fear, fear of your effort being stolen,'' said Brown, 44, whose online alter ego, Simone Stern, trades under the name Simone! Design. <snip> See hyperlink for the rest of the article
