For those who have followed the “WSE” situation.

Quoting myself:

The more imaginative and effective are the weapons that are real. Never pull a baton you don’t intend to use, and batons come in many shapes and forms if you think metaphorically. So when I have time I’ll trot into the metaverse myself…and have a little peek around, talk in a civil manner. I always extend the benefit of the doubt, but intuition is a researcher’s tool and it is ringing- I hope I am wrong.

My hand is itchy, and when a social explorer and experimenter gets an itch, he naturally wants to scratch it. With a baton.

I highly recommend reading: The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society) (Paperback)
by Jack Balkin and Beth Noveck

Read Inside- The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society)

In particular Chapter V- Real World Power: see Essay 15- Virtual Worlds, Real Rules. Using Virtual Worlds to Test Real Rules by Caroline Bradley and A. Michael Froomkin. (Support from University of Miami School if Law)

Topics Covered in this essay, which centers around using virtual worlds as “test” beds for various legal matters and systems (the entire book of essays is a must have) include:

- Real and Chattel Property Regimes

- Tax Policy

- Transactional Law

- Tort

- Insurance

- Dispute Resolution

- Jurisprudence

- Complex Rules

- Family Law

- Administrative Law and the Legislative Process

- Transnational and International Law

- Zoning

- Intellectual Property

More About Text:

The State of Play presents an essential first step in understanding how new digital worlds will change the future of our universe. Millions of people around the world inhabit virtual words: multiplayer online games where characters live, love, buy, trade, cheat, steal, and have every possible kind of adventure. Far more complicated and sophisticated than early video games, people now spend countless hours in virtual universes like Second Life and Star Wars Galaxies not to shoot space invaders but to create new identities, fall in love, build cities, make rules, and break them.

As digital worlds become increasingly powerful and lifelike, people will employ them for countless real-world purposes, including commerce, education, medicine, law enforcement, and military training. Inevitably, real-world law will regulate them. But should virtual worlds be fully integrated into our real-world legal system or should they be treated as separate jurisdictions with their own forms of dispute resolution? What rules should govern virtual communities? Should the law step in to protect property rights when virtual items are destroyed or stolen?

These questions, and many more, are considered in The State of Play, where legal experts, game designers, and policymakers explore the boundaries of free speech, intellectual property, and creativity in virtual worlds. The essays explore both the emergence of law in multiplayer online games and how we can use virtual worlds to study real-world social interactions and test real-world laws.

Contributors include: Jack M. Balkin, Richard A. Bartle, Yochai Benkler, Caroline Bradley, Edward Castronova, Susan P. Crawford, Julian Dibbell, A. Michael Froomkin, James Grimmelmann, David R. Johnson, Dan Hunter, Raph Koster, F. Gregory Lastowka, Beth Simone Noveck, Cory Ondrejka, Tracy Spaight, and Tal Zarsky.

And for Second Life “citizens”- The official guide. A bit dated, but still very useful…

3D social networking atomistic construction Beth Simone Noveck Black Snow Blazing Falls Blogging Bone Crusher Censorship creative commons Dan Hunter Dark Age of Camelot E Commerce Edward Castronova Electronic Arts First Amendment free speech interests free speech law game conceit game items game owners game space Gaming Garden of Remembrance gold farmers Gregory Lastowka Julian Dibbell Lawrence Lessig multiplayer online games New York online context online intermediaries other avatars peer production platform owners Player Data Raph Koster Richard Bartle Second Life Snow Crash Social Networks social software Stock exchange Supreme Court synthetic worlds The Gulag Online The Sims Online Ultima Online Video Video Games virtual assets virtual crimes virtual goods virtual items virtual properties virtual property visual virtual worlds walled worlds wayne porter web2.0 WSE Yochai Benkler

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