Second, due to rich and realistic in-world experiences, a significant degree of personhood is transmitted into cyberspace. Users tend to become attached to their SL personas; their avatars are their extended self.
Looking ahead to regulation
These considerations suggest that tangible harm and injustice can be done to an individual in the virtual world. The line separating the real from the synthetic is blurring, which necessarily means that civil laws will at some point have to extend into cyberspace. If it can be determined that customers are being harmed by the company running the virtual environment, and that the activities and ventures within the world transcend the company-customer relationship, then regulation and policing will have to be considered.
I completely anticipate the day when virtual worlds become regulated. How this will be accomplished, however, is a mystery to me — particularly considering the fact that a nearly unlimited number of virtual worlds can run independent of one another, each with their own rules and agendas. There will be as many worlds as there are ideas, including anarchist states, communist utopias, religious havens, hedonistic wonderlands and surreal environments.
My initial suspicion is that sanctioned and unsanctioned virtual environments will arise. Sanctioned worlds will be regulated and relatively safe, while users will take their lives and livelihoods into their own hands by venturing into unsanctioned areas.
On a related note, a time will come when people start to demand ubiquitous access to the Internet and the right to enter and operate within specific virtual worlds. People will start to insist on safe and fair environments in which they can work and play. Further, they will insist on citizenship rights for integral virtual worlds.
In the meantime groups like the SLLA will, perhaps naively, continue to agitate and fight for increased political rights and economic privileges in cyberspace. They will undoubtedly fail in their attempt to alter Linden Labs' business model, but it's the precedent of their work that's important. Human activity is very quickly migrating into cyberspace and it appears that humanity is taking their baggage with them.
Article comments
1 - Raoul
This is all so silly to me. I just don't see the point of wasting one's time in a virtual world. There's a whole real world out there for humans to explore, love and cherish. That's where I prefer to spend my time.
2 - Prokofy Neva
I'm fairly certain the SLAA is fake, a concoction by metaversal development companies to sort of spoof and guide the media coverage of dissent in SL, to make it look ridiculous and a caricature of itself, and thereby discredit any dissent. Each time some serious criticism or movement gets going in the world, like the Tsar's Secret Police concoction Prompartiya, the SLAA appears and grabs headlines so that the real issues are ignored.
If they didn't exist, someone would have to invent them; and so they did. No one ever heard of them before American Apparel was opened; they have no indigenous roots at all.
It's funny to me that you're just tuning into dissent that seems to fit into some transhumanist worldview of yours, George, and you've ignored other kinds of dissent from liberal to conservative that goes on all the time in SL. You have the long-term problem of people permabanned from the company forums and blogs for critical expression; you have people even permanently expelled who are non-conformists in various ways while a blind eye is turned to those who are privileged coders -- they're given a pass.
I've led the call for demanding a collective seat on the board of Linden Lab for all those paying tier, or maintenance fees -- which now make up 80 percent of LL's bottom line, and are their chief source of revenue. Nothing about us/without us, I say. Profound changes are inflicted on the world and we have little say in them. Ways must be found to ensure representation of all kinds of classes of people -- non-verified no-payment accounts; educators' free accounts, etc.
Imagine, in keeping with a rigid, orthodox notion of "the wisdom of crowds," the Feature Voting Tool does not enable you to vote "no"; it's like a Soviet republic, only yes, and only yes to what already fits the Company's line.
The SLAA never takes up any of the inworld issues and never really grapples with the serious issues of corporate accountability in the real world, in areas such as extractive industries. Instead, it's a caricature of a radical movement with artwork that looks suspiciously like the builders of American Apparel itself -- it's a kind of gag, no doubt, a marketing stunt that lots of people have fallen for.
I do hope you take a closer look at SL and become familiar with the inworld and outworld corporate influence issues. I think the word needs more critical perspectives from all types of worldviews.
More avatar rights are bound to come, but these notions of endless land or property or creativity for everyone has to run smack up to the problem of who pays. Like freedom of the press belongs to him who owns one, maneuverability of governance in SL belongs to those who own land.
3 - Keksakallu Klata
I think Prokofy Neva's tirade is rather ill-informed and prejudiced.
If anyone wants to know if we in the SLLA are sincere or not, why speculate? Come and talk to us inworld. You will meet scores of serious and intelligent people committed to securing a representative institution for avatars.
Keksakallu Klata, Strategy Officer, SLLA