Comments on: Cybercrime and Fantasy Crime: The Law in Virtual Worlds

By: adele pace

adele pace — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:22:36 +0000

Great article. Thanks. Great point about second life spilling out into the real world. I think there have been a few murders in cybercafes over currency fights in China. I hadn’t ever considered virtual crimes as possible crimes which could be prosecuted under law, being a simulation. However I have read in Wired that it causes trauma to ‘victims’. Even if you hacked into the virtual world and killed an avatar that might amount to a breach of our criminal code? accessing or modifying data without authorisation or similar state criminal law. But without an actus reus I can’t see how it could ever constitute the ‘real crime’.

By: Jack p

Jack p — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:27:10 +0000

I learned a lot of information from this piece and will definitely keep it in my RSS. Thanks for the effort you took to expand upon this topic so thoroughly. I look forward to future posts.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:23:34 +0000

In addressing the legality of sexual ageplay in virtual environments, Professor Brenner doesn’t seem to take the PROTECT Act of 2003 into consideration. Passed in response to Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, the PROTECT Act bans any depiction of child pornography, even drawings, if they are obscene.

By: Ken Walters

Ken Walters — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:14:22 +0000

I’m an artist and builder in Second Life, the type of crime I find most aggravating, is the renting of commercial or residential property then finding you haven’t rented anything.
This has happened to me twice in SL, the second time just a few weeks ago when I rented a vendor space at the Queen’s Hive. I clicked on the rental box as per usual, paid the rent and then the box disappeared leaving a vendor space already occupied.

This can happen because most vendor spaces are put together, then left to run themselves by their owners. So are largely ‘unoccupied’.
The level of theft is small, usually up to L$500 a time. So it doesn’t hit your pocket too hard, but how often do these people take money in this way?. Is it small time pocket money, or do they get lots of such hits and cash their money in quickly.

The most galling thing about it is Linden Labs will do nothing to stop this happening in SL. They offer to help any Police force who may investigate the case, but how many Police outside of America would bother with such a small crime? would Linden Labs give you the real name of the criminal involved? considering the secrecy policy I’d say you wouldn’t get help of that kind. In my opinion Linden Labs is helping these criminals by doing nothing to stop them. What’s the phrase about good people doing nothing while bad does what it wants?