Pirates Among the Second Life Islands – Why You Should Monitor the Misuse of Your Intellectual Property in Online Virtual Worlds
Ben Quarmby · bepress Legal Repository · 2008
I. THE RISE OF VIRTUAL WORLDS AND MMORPGS 668 II. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOODS AND PROPERTY 671 A. A Developing Economy 671 B. Virtual World Entrepreneurship 673 III. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL ILLEGALITY IN SECOND LIFE 676 A. Trademark Violations 678 B. Copyright Infringement 680 IV. THE NEED TO MONITOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATIONS 681 A. Whether the Number of Users and the Scale of the In-World Economy Justifies Devoting Resources to Fighting Virtual Intellectual Property Violations 681 B. Whether It Is Costly or Difficult to Monitor Abuse 684 C. But It’s Just a Game . . . 685 V. VIRTUAL WORLD POLICING 686 A. Regulation by Virtual World Administrators 687 B. Enforcement by Owners 691 VI. CONCLUSION 693