Just when you thought the story of Anshe Chung being bombarded by flying phalluses had been neutered, it appears again in an article in the Toronto Star preparing the world for avatar rights.
The Star used the incident to point out that avatars have rights too:
“The popularity of avatars has much to do with the emergence of the online self. Avatars are the custom-designed figures created by computer users to play video games or to participate in a variety of online worlds. Recently, some nasty events have befallen these avatars, bringing moral or financial injury to their creators.”
The Star neglected to mention that the event hosts also had the right to properly protect themselves from griefing, or the reasons for the attack in the first place, and didn’t quite explain the “moral injury” – I’d call it egg on the face, maybe, or hurt pride, but hardly moral injury.
But at least avatars are making the mainstream news these days, at least in my neck of the woods. The Star gives a nice wrap-up of why these issues are important, or even why avatars are worth taking seriously and the legal implications:
“Copyright and other forms of property rights have so far formed the basis of the handful of lawsuits from online realms that are trickling into the world’s courts. These cases typically involve plaintiffs who have lost virtual assets through the termination of their accounts or who have had their merchandise in a game illegally copied by digital counterfeiters.
The notion of using forms of property law to protect online characters does not seem far-fetched. Indeed, Dale-Harris, the Canadian lawyer, suggests that individuals should consider registering their avatars as a means of protecting them.”
But what’s clear about some of this coverage is that the mainstream media is in desperate need of some help from the Lab. From someone. Please.
Regarding Second Life, the article comments:
“With more than 4 million inhabitants, Second Life has a larger population than New Zealand. The game uses a currency (called Linden dollars) that can be exchanged for real world greenbacks and it contains a diverse collection of merchants hawking a variety of products and services. Moreover, major companies like American Apparel and Toyota and even national governments are staking out a presence in Second Life and other games.
The 4,000,000 number is from when? February 2007?
Either that, or Dale-Harris needs to get her facts straight before she packages them up and ships them to the Toronto Star in the hopes of becoming a leading litigator in virtual worlds.
A good press kit maybe. Some updated statistics.
The Linden Lab “press room” over on their Web site is still dated: does Robin have NOTHING better to do than introduce Mitch and muddle up attempts at community relations? Surely they can post something a bit more current than April 22, 2008.
Ah well, we’ll always have the flying phalluses, they’ll forever make a good lead.
