I just came home from work and found some news around the web that shocked me. This is news to me even thought it may be a week old to some of you! Anyway… Turns out a man by the name of Marc Bragg lost his ‘virtual land’ in the popular world of Second Life. So what does Marc do? He goes to court! In cases like these you never imagine that some guy out there is going to beat a huge company, yet he does.
“Linden Lab and Rosedale made a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction and another motion to compel arbitration. The West Chester judge, however, denied both motions”
I thought this was a HUGE blow to Linden Lab. Technically Linden Labs is correct in saying this Marc exploited the system to gain his property but the Judge didn’t seem to care!
“Bragg is demanding roughly $8,000 in restitution from Linden Lab, and it appears as if this will be the first case over virtual land to make it all the way to court. Some believe that the outcome of the case could affect how the ownership of virtual property is treated in relation to games like Second Life and World of Warcraft, where users often buy and sell items with both virtual and real money.”
Looks to me like Mr. Braggs has left his mark on the virtual property controversy. No doubt many company’s will be reviewing their Terms of Service and End User License Agreements to make sure they don’t get bit in rear.
Source: Second Life “land” dispute moves offline to federal courtroom
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