Another great initiative coming out of the University of Western Australia: A Second Life machinima has been custom made for the first time for one of the major units for a degree programme at UWA with the efforts of UWA Associate Professor Natalie Skead, former champion of the international UWA film challenges, Laurina Hawks of Berlin, and UWA virtual worlds founder Jay Jay … [Read more...] about Second Life and Law Teaching
Law and virtual worlds
Virtual worlds and the law: free e-book
Virtual Justice - the new laws of online worlds by Greg Lastowka, is a 226 page tome devoted to the emerging area of law and its application to virtual environments. I haven't read it all, but it's a pretty comprehensive treatise on the whole field, with in-depth discussion of key precedents, virtual property law and a whole lot more. Download it for yourself here - Greg … [Read more...] about Virtual worlds and the law: free e-book
Crime and virtual worlds: the Australian take
Earlier this month, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) released an issues paper titled Crime risks of three-dimensional virtual environments. Written by Deakin University's Ian Warren and Darren Palmer, its focus is identifying the potential harms of 3D virtual environments, discussing best governance approaches and identifying areas for future research. The … [Read more...] about Crime and virtual worlds: the Australian take
Brands under the hammer in Second Life
The Second Life blogosphere is igniting with the news that the listing guidelines for Second Life's marketplace, xStreetSL, have been tightened up. Essentially, it's now prohibited to sell any virtual goods that resemble a real-world brand. That's no shock and probably reasonable. The contention is over the ban on avatars that resemble actual celebrities. It's a pretty silly … [Read more...] about Brands under the hammer in Second Life
The trademarking of an avatar
Late last year, Grossman Tucker Perreault & Pfleger announced that they had successfully registered as a trademark the multidimensional likeness of Aimee Weber, the Second Life avatar of New York content-creator and businesswoman Alyssa LaRoche. While GTP&P referred to it as a groundbreaking decision (it is -- groundbreaking is another word for 'first'), it is not … [Read more...] about The trademarking of an avatar