What kind of law should we have in virtual worlds like Second Life?
Second Life is a game, and as long as people aren’t making free copies of the objects other folks make, I don’t see why there should be any rules whatsoever, except to comply with real-world laws. So the following laws need to be in place in Second Life: • Don’t sexually harass people • Don’t put pornography in child-friendly areas • Don’t disclose people’s real identities, especially their SSN’s, addresses, or credit card information There are probably a few others. But the point is that it’s a playground where you can’t hurt each other. It should, ideally, be as close to complete and total anarchy as it can be. Now, your second question is more interesting. Are you thinking Code as Law in the Lessig sort of sense, where code can be thought of as a kind of law, in that it defines precisely what you are and are not allowed to do? That’s a fun and interesting way to look at code. You can swing that around and look at the real world, too, and say that law is sort of like code. The idea i
