Just a quick post closing out an ugly week in virtual law on a more upbeat note. On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending a solid presentation on legal issues facing virtual worlds in Second Life. The presentation was given by ‘Shmapple Patrono,’ the avatar of a student at Ithaca College. It was well attended, and covered topics ranging from the Bragg v. Linden Lab lawsuit, to intellectual property infringement, to Second Life’s EULA. Ithaca College Assistant Professor Kim Gregson has posted a short summary and a few screenshots here.

Allegations of simulated and actual child pornography in Second Life have attracted the attention of mainstream international press outlets including the BBC, the CBC, and Australia’s The Age. Linden Lab says that it is cooperating with authorities, and that it has banned the accounts of two users (a 27 year old woman and a 54 year old man) who controlled avatars which appeared to be involved in simulated sexual acts between an adult and a minor.

The reports all stem from a German television news story that ran on a show called Report Mainz on Germany’s ARD network. The report itself (in German) is available as a RealPlayer video here. [Note: Particularly explicit portions of the video are "blurred," but it is NSFW, and some readers may find the video disturbing.] There is a transcript of the report, also in German, here (Google translation here). The story focuses on depictions of apparent in-world sexual contact between adult avatars and avatars with child-like appearances, but also claims that photographs of real-life child sexual abuse have been made available in Second Life.

Unlike the United States (where the Supreme Court, in 2002, struck down a law prohibiting “virtual” child pornography on First Amendment free speech grounds), many countries criminalize non-photographic images that appear to depict minors in sexual situations.

A complete survey of the law in this field is beyond the scope of this article, but a quick search reveals that a number of countries, including at least the U.K., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and Italy, have laws on the books banning virtual child pornography.

Any discussion of this issue inevitably leads to the fact that in virtual worlds, a small number of residents engage in “sexual ageplay” involving avatars that appear to be minors, but which are (presumably) controlled by adults.

There is an ongoing debate over whether sexual ageplay is a healthy outlet for adult fantasies, or a scourge of virtual worlds. That debate is not the subject of this article, but for the record, sexual ageplay practitioners differentiate themselves from pedophiles (who, they point out, are sexually interested in actual children, rather than in adults who roleplay children). Right or wrong, there is little question that sexual ageplay in virtual worlds does violate various countries’ laws prohibiting virtual child pornography.

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Virtually Blind periodically runs “quicklinks” — items that are not long enough for a full story, but are worth a click. Here’s today’s batch:

• Several sites are reporting that Germany joins the list of concerned countries (who aren’t the US) that are looking into sex and pornography crimes in Second Life. This time, it’s an accusation that real-life pornographic images of children were made available in-world. Appropriately, these reports have a slightly more serious tone than the usual stuff on virtual pornography. Why so much concern from abroad? That one’s easy: most Second Life users are now not from the US.

• On a less serious note (though you’d not know it visiting their headquarters) The Blog of Love has an interesting post up that discusses, among other things, a self-appointed vigilante police force in Second Life. They fight griefers, stand up for the rights of virtual citizens, sell police equipment, and, if they’re anything like everyone else in Second Life, probably spend a fair bit of time getting their uniforms just so. The highlight is this bit of dialog: “Love: ‘You guys just decided to become cops?’ Cop: ‘Sure, it’s Second Life.’”

• And finally, an academic note: CALIopolis reports that Gene Koo at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society has a paper out called “New Skills, New Learning: Legal Education and the Promise of Technology.” It’s going on my reading list. A wiki based on the paper is here, and there’s a .pdf of the published version there too.

Okay, okay. I give. I revisited “There” today after getting an invitation for a tour (and also a fair bit of well-deserved crap) in the comments to an earlier post where I criticized There for looking like a toy, having a terrible interface, and limiting me to an ugly orange shirt.

I didn’t manage to connect with the two readers who offered to show me around, or with another reader who offered to give me some stuff to get started (but thanks ‘SailorGuy,’ ‘aztec3,’ and ‘TheyCallMeNascar,’ I will look for you later). I did, however, spend some time exploring There on my own.

Partly to appease my loyal readers from the land of There, and partly to give it a fair look, I forked over the $9.95 for a “Premium Membership.” I also gave Makena Technologies another ten dollars so I could buy my very own blue oxford shirt, khaki pants, oxford shoes, and tortoise-frame glasses. And I got a haircut. Collectively, this de-newbifying shopping spree pretty much wiped out my Hamilton, which goes some distance toward clarifying Makena Technologies’ business model.

The clothing was a little steep, but that $9.95 I paid for premium status? It’s a one time charge. And there’s more to premium membership than getting to change your wardrobe. For your $9.95, you get permanent access to a bunch of nifty features, including voice communication. That’s right, it’s There already, and it works really well. How do you like them apples, Second Life fans?

I stand by my critique of the visuals (incredibly dated) and avatar customization options (very limited). And the interface is inferior to Second Life’s in every way, particularly for camera positioning. But that all said, I now see some genuine advantages to There.

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