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Does virtual reality need a sheriff?
Reach of law enforcement is tested when online fantasy games turn sordid

By Alan Sipress

Updated: 11:30 p.m. MT June 1, 2007
UNITED NATIONS - Earlier this year, one animated character in Second Life, a popular online fantasy world, allegedly raped another character.

Some Internet bloggers dismissed the simulated attack as nothing more than digital fiction. But police in Belgium, according to newspapers there, opened an investigation into whether a crime had been committed. No one has yet been charged.

Then last month, authorities in Germany announced that they were looking into a separate incident involving virtual abuse in Second Life after receiving pictures of an animated child character engaging in simulated sex with an animated adult figure. Though both characters were created by adults, the activity could run afoul of German laws against child pornography, prosecutors said.

As recent advances in Internet technology have spurred millions of users to build and explore new digital worlds, the creations have imported not only their users' dreams but also their vices. These alternative realms are testing the long-held notions of what is criminal and whether law enforcement should patrol the digital frontier.

"People have an interest in their property and the integrity of their person. But in virtual reality, these interests are not tangible but built from intangible data and software," said Greg Lastowka, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law at Camden in New Jersey.

Some virtual activities clearly violate the law, like trafficking in stolen credit card numbers, he said. Others, like virtual muggings and sex crimes, are harder to define, though they may cause real-life anguish for users.

Virtual killings, muggings, rapes
Simulated violence and thievery have long been a part of virtual reality, especially in the computer games that pioneered online digital role-playing. At times, however, this conduct has crossed the lines of what even seasoned game players consider acceptable.

In World of Warcraft, the most popular online game, with an estimated 8 million participants worldwide, some regions of this fantasy domain have grown so lawless that players said they fear to brave them alone. Gangs of animated characters have repeatedly preyed upon lone travelers, killing them and making off with their virtual belongings.

Two years ago, Japanese authorities arrested a man for carrying out a series of virtual muggings in another popular game, Lineage II, by using software to beat up and rob characters in the game and then sell the virtual loot for real money.

Julian Dibbell, a prominent commentator on digital culture, chronicled the first known case of sexual assault in cyberspace in 1993, when virtual reality was still in its infancy. A participant in LambdaMOO, a community of users who congregated in a virtual California house, had used a computer program called a "voodoo doll" to force another player's character to act out being raped. Though this virtual world was rudimentary and the assault simulated, Dibbell recounted that the trauma was jarringly real. The woman whose character was attacked later wept -- "post-traumatic tears were streaming down her face" -- as she vented her outrage and demand for revenge in an online posting, he wrote.

Since then, advances in high-speed Internet, user interfaces and graphic design have rendered virtual reality more real, allowing users to endow their characters with greater humanity and identify ever more closely with their creations.

'Double-edged sword'
Nowhere is this truer than in Second Life, where more than 6 million people have registered to create characters called avatars, cartoon human figures that respond to keyboard commands and socialize with others' characters. The breadth of creativity and interaction in Second Life is greater than on nearly any other virtual-reality Web site because there is no game or other objective; it is just an open-ended, lifelike digital environment.

Moreover, Linden Labs, which operates Second Life, has given users the software tools to design their characters and online setting as they see fit; some avatars look like their real-life alter egos, while others are fantastical creations.

This virtual frontier has attracted a stunning array of immigrants. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has opened a virtual campaign headquarters. Reuters and other news agencies have set up virtual bureaus. IBM has developed office space for employee avatars. On May 22, Maldives became the first country to open an embassy in Second Life, with Sweden following this week.

Second Life is intended only for adults, and about 15 percent of the properties on the site -- in essence, space on computer servers that appear as parcels of land -- have been voluntarily flagged by their residents as having mature material. Though some is relatively innocent, in some locations avatars act out drug use, child abuse, rape and various forms of sadomasochism.

"This is the double-edged sword of the wonderful creativity in Second Life," Dibbell said in an interview.

One user found herself the unwilling neighbor of an especially sordid underage sex club. "Tons of men would drop in looking for sex with little girls and boys. I abhorred the club," wrote the user on a Second Life blog under the avatar name Anna Valeeva. She even tried to evict the club by buying their land, she wrote.

Disagreements among countries
The question of what is criminal in virtual reality is complicated by disagreements among countries over what is legal even in real life. For example, virtual renderings of child abuse are not a crime in the United States but are considered illegal pornography in some European countries, including Germany.

After German authorities began their investigation, Linden Labs issued a statement on its official blog condemning the virtual depictions of child pornography. Linden Labs said it was cooperating with law enforcement and had banned two participants in the incident, a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, from Second Life.

Some Second Life users objected on the blog that Linden Labs had gone too far.

"Excuse me. You banned two residents, both mature, who did a little role-playing? No children, I repeat no children, were harmed or even involved in that act," protested another user on the Second Life blog. "Since when is fantasy against the fricking law?"

Philip Rosedale, the founder and chief executive of Linden Labs, said in an interview that Second Life activities should be governed by real-life laws for the time being. He recounted, for example, that his company has called in the FBI several times, most recently this spring to ensure that Second Life's virtual casinos complied with U.S. law. Federal investigators created their own avatars and toured the site, he said.

In coming months, his company plans to disperse tens of thousands of computer servers from California and Texas to countries around the world in order to improve the site's performance. Also, he said, this will make activities on those servers subject to laws of the host countries.

Rosedale said he hopes participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system.

"In the ideal case, the people who are in Second Life should think of themselves as citizens of this new place and not citizens of their countries," he said.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

__________________
And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." --George W. Bush, Jan. 29, 2007

Nah ... I don't think virtual reality needs a sheriff - where we would draw the line? Should we prosecute characters on online games for shooting one another?

As for the mentioned case, online "children" existing purely in digital format aren't humans and so the same laws do not apply.

I do think ISP's (or email providers, etc) should have turn over information to the Feds/other authorities if online events could lead to a real crime occuring (ie. if an adult is trying to date kids, or something of that nature), but other than that, I don't think any other measures are required ...

It's interesting how much press coverage Second Life gets, given its extraordinarily limited membership. It seems like the media has some sort of stake in its success, because they push "stories" about it like it's somehow the be-all, end-all of online existence. I read one analysis that put the actual number of users somewhere around 25,000 people. Pretty insignificant compared to the 8 million on World of Warcraft.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Im gonna be angry if they jailed my char!

Digital characters are not real people.

The law should require users to be shown and sign off on agreements spelling out exactly what can happen to their avatars.

It also raises two questions:

1) If some slimeball gets his jollies raping virtual kiddies, will that eventually get stale? Will he be more likely to move on to the real thing? Or is knowing there's a real person attached to the avatar enough to get his rocks off?

2) Can users go after the giggling freaks who write this sort of software in civil court?

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"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself especially, are in a state of shock and disbelief." - Alan Greenspan

Hmm. These are just games.

If rape is possible in the game, the programmers made it so.

But really, any activity that can happen in the video game is not criminal. It might be a good idea to employ a virtual sherriff by way of an admin or something.

At the most, the only real-world action that might be taken is putting someone who does the act on some kind of watchlist. Just like Dateline Predators....it's not a crime to say anything you want in an internet chatroom, but it should be flagged just in case someone intends to follow through with their online fantasies in the real world.

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Congratulations President-Elect Obama

Friggin carebear weenies. You've have got to be kidding me. This is so wrong on so many levels.

For starters, somebody explain to me how, in WoW, somebody can "make off with your virtual belongings"? Granted, I stopped playing before "the expansion", so maybe player corpses drop loot on PvP servers (seriously doubt that, though)...

"Players said they fear to brave them alone"? These people should be identified via in-game poll ("Are you in fear right now? Yes/No") and immediately purged from the player database if they click "YES".

WTF would those pansies do if they were playing, say, the original [Microsoft] Asheron's Call. PvP servers on that game had zero safe zones. No "towns" with "guards". Nowhere to hide. Shopping? [WHACK!] Chatting? [WHACK!] You happen to log out and log back in, later, to find a group of 30 [player] enemies is having a guild meeting atop of that particular spot (happened to me)? [WHACK!] Solution? Uh, play on one of your mules (other characters) for a day or two, cuz that other one ain't going anywhere any time soon. (And, yes, you actually lost stuff when you got killed.)

Of course in the case of Asheron's Call, people would work together to create their own safe zones (take over towns and provide "security")...but it was all people, not game mechanics providing the safety. A town that was as safe as Mayberry at 3:00pm might be utter chaos at 3:00am.

For any authority to get involved in this stuff outside the realm of actual theft is absolutely ludicrous. Tards always looking for the Easy Button™.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

That's a good question. I'd like to hear from those interested in this subject. There is an international group of people who are drafting a "virtual country", which will elect its own sheriff, or maybe a president. Opinions are welcome here or at Wirtland Blog
The virtual country can be found at: Wirtland

I hereby found the virtual dictatorship of Drakeland. I also declare virtual war on Wirtland, virtually invade and virtually annex it. With my virtual citizens erecting statues of me in the virtual streets while my virtual tanks ride by in the virtual parade I'm off to insult the UN and hopefully still have all my virtual money in the virtual Swiss banks.

Greetings and Felicitations,

You can't rape anyone in Second Life. Rape is sexual congress without someones permission. While there are lots of sexual outlets in SL they require the permission of all participants. In order to instigate virtual sex you have to have permission to animate a character. You can't just take over someone else's avatar willy-nilly.

This just goes to show that whoever filed this claim didn't know anything about Second Life and was just looking to sue someone.

Does VR require a sheriff? Perhaps. That will have to be determined when actual VR takes place. SL is many things but actual VR it isn't. It's simply an interactive 3D MMORG that lets you control your own creations without the directedness of a game. I say this because there isn't a goal created by someone else that you have to follow through. The real breakthrough that Linden Labs did was when they gave creators permission to copy protect and sell their own creations.

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

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Greetings and Felicitations,


Continuing with the subject. Perhaps what virual reality needs is a required psyche evaluation to participate.

North Carolina woman tried to 'kidnap virtual ex-boyfriend'

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

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There was a neterview they had with this one avatar who was a really popular 'escort'. They asked her if she ever would hook up with any of her customers in rl. Her answer was no, "Well, they may be really nice guys, they may be good looking and have nice jobs, but, after all, in the end they paid me to have cartoon sex."

Your war declaration is denied, sorry. Wirtland is not a computer game. It is a real country, without actual land (yet). Read more in Wirtland's sites and feel free to comment.

There is no doubt that the entire online sphere is a new frontier - a "Wild West" without much established law and order. This brings us back to the broader issue of making sure our leaders address the new challenges presented by expanding technologies, including regulation and expansion. Far too often these issues are overlooked and the emphasis is on making policies about what happened a couple years ago, not about what is or what's coming.