For readers who have been waiting to pick up my book Virtual Law at Amazon, I’m really happy to report that it’s available there now. It’s also available at Barnes & Noble and other online outlets. If you pre-ordered it at one of these sites already, you should get it soon.

You can still get Virtual Law at the American Bar Association’s site too. It’s actually a slightly better deal for me if you order via the ABA, but since it costs a somewhat more there (even with the Science & Technology Law Section discount) definitely hit Amazon or one of the other sites if you’re looking for the best price.

Though the book is published through the ABA, it is not only for attorneys. I tried very hard to make Virtual Law accessible to everybody and minimize the use of legal jargon. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I’m excited to report that starting next week, I’ll be providing deeper analysis of issues in virtual law via industry-focused papers which will be for sale through the Technology Intelligence Group, the most recent project from Christian Renaud.  Renaud, formerly Cisco’s Chief Architect of Networked Virtual Environments, has brought together an ever-growing collection of virtual world and game designers, analysts, academics, and other industry experts under the TIG umbrella, where we can provide deeper analysis than is practical in mainstream articles, blogs, and presentations.  From one of Renaud’s first posts about TIG:

We believe that the best people to provide emerging technology insight are the people in the trenches themselves, the people experimenting and pioneering.  Rather than receive the insight second or third-handed, the pioneers themselves are the contributors and analysts behind TIG.  This has not only the benefit of direct connection to subject matter experts, but allows us to reach far and wide across the emerging technology spectrum for new technologies and insight.  Open innovation applied via an open pool of emerging technology experts that are not proprietary but known experts in their fields.

The most interesting thing about this to me is that TIG isn’t just talking about these spaces, we’ll actively be using them as tools that allow us to provide ongoing analysis to subscribers.  Renaud explains:

[W]e are pursuing a social-hybrid model for the analysis provided by the Technology Intelligence Group.  In addition to deep insight and analysis, we will also be providing regular updates to the research in the form of written updates, audio updates, video updates, forums and virtual roundtables.  Rather than get one snapshot in time, you have the opportunity to engage in a group of fellow subscribers with the subject matter expert for ongoing insight as the technology develops and matures.  Its a conversation between yourself and your peers and the experts themselves.

The main website will go live next Monday, but in the meantime, TIG has been rolling out analyst introductions all week on TIG’s blog, including Dr. Richard Bartle, Dr. Edward Castronova, Dr. Wm LeRoy Heinrichs, Sean Kane, Bob Clay, Dr. James Oliver, and many more.  Drop by and see what we’re up to.

The SL Bar Association, an informal professional organization for attorneys and legal scholars in the virtual world of Second Life that I founded in late 2006, recently concluded its 2008-2009 elections for President-Elect, Vice President of Communication, Vice President of Finance, and three Executive Board Seats.

Stephen Wu, a California attorney who goes by ‘Legal Writer’ in Second Life, was elected as the organization’s third president.  Wu will follow U.K. attorney David Naylor (‘Solomon Cortes’ in Second Life) as President when Naylor’s term expires at the end of January.  From Wu’s nomination statement in the SLBA forums (email-only registration required):

I am a partner in the Silicon Valley law firm Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP.  You can see my background at http://www.infoseclaw.com, but in brief, I have been a California-admitted lawyer since 1999, and was first admitted to the bar in NY in 1989.  My practice includes software licensing, Internet law, other technology transactions, trade secret/copyright/trademark litigation, and general commercial litigation.  My sweet spot, however, is data protection and secure ecommerce, and I have co-written five books on these topics and give frequent presentations on them, as well as presentations on electronic discovery and digital evidence.  I spent almost five years as VeriSign’s second in-house lawyer before starting my own practice, and before that practiced at two large law firms in the areas of IP and general litigation and technology transactions.

The SLBA’s new Vice President of Communications is Second Life’s ‘Cat Galileo’ (real life law librarian Kate Fitz) who maintains the popular Lawspot Virtual Worlds Law Library.  Last year, ‘Galileo’ was on the SLBA’s Executive Board, and was instrumental in organizing the SLBA’s first-ever in-world Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars.

‘Geri Kuhn’ (Geri Kahn in real life) was re-elected to her position as Vice President of Finance.  Over the last year, ‘Kuhn’ has managed the organization’s dues collection and expenditures, and also supervised the process of changing the SL Bar Association’s name (the organization was formerly the “Second Life Bar Association”) in order to comply with changes in Linden Lab’s trademark policy.

Three members were also elected to the Executive Board.  They are Second Life’s ‘Juris Amat,’ ‘Lexis Looming,’ and ”Ida Recreant.’  ‘Amat’ is Tamiko Franklin in real life, a Massachusetts attorney living in Croatia who founded the non-profit Virtual Intellectual Property Organization.  ‘Recreant’ is Ida Jones in real life, a professor of Finance and Business Law at California State University, Fresno.  ‘Looming,’ is A. Craig Abrahamson in real life, a practicing attorney of 27 years based out of Oklahoma.  The Executive Board is responsible for shaping the organization’s agenda for the coming year, and board members frequently head up special projects for the SLBA.

The new Executive Board members and Vice Presidents assume their new roles immediately.  The SL Bar Association has over 100 active members, and regularly holds meetings, lectures, and social events in the virtual world of Second Life.

Lots of blog entries and articles on virtual law recently.  Here are a few links and excerpts.

• Advocate’s Studio, in a post called Pretty Soon We Won’t Need People: “People are connecting on-line in a variety of ways. According to the Legal Technology section of the ABA Journal, legal dinosaurs are going to have to adjust to the virtual practice of law in this Brave New World that is increasingly relying on blogs, social networks and virtual communities.”

• The Cleveland-Marshall Law Librarian’s Blog, in a post called C-M Law Librarians Explore Virtual World:  “As part of a summer seminar on Law Librarians in Virtual Worlds sponsored by the American Association of Law Libraries, Sue and I have been exploring the educational uses of Second Life, the 3D online virtual world. Besides having fun dressing up our avatars, flying from island to island, shopping for freebies, and rezing objects in our virtual office space, we’ve completed a project on the new international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

• Computing, in an article called Very Real Legal Issues Exist in a Virtual World: “While virtual worlds could face more wide-reaching regulation in the not-too-distant future, there will still be jurisdictional complexities to resolve ­ issues that face those tackling cyber crime today and that have yet to be fully addressed.”