A US gamer has filed a 鈥渇irst-of-its-kind鈥� lawsuit in an acrimonious dispute over the sale of virtual land within the online role-playing game Second Life.
The suit highlights the large amounts of money many gamers are now spending in the hope of reaping a profit within their chosen virtual world.
Second Life lets players buy land and build structures that can then be leased or sold on to other players, often for a profit. The game鈥檚 currency, Linden dollars, can be easily exchanged for real cash.
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Marc Bragg, an attorney from Pennsylvania, US, filed the suit against the company behind Second Life, Linden Lab based in California, US. He accuses the company of deactivating his account after he discovered a loophole that enabled him to buy virtual land cheaply within the game.
Intangible purchases
The suit, filed in a local district court, seeks financial restitution for Bragg who claims he invested around $32,000 in the virtual land. 鈥淭his is probably the first dispute of its kind,鈥� Bragg says in a statement posted online. 鈥淭his suit challenges the legitimacy of a virtual intangible purchase of an asset.鈥�
Bragg adds that the dispute could test the relevance to virtual worlds of existing laws. 鈥淟inden Lab is still obligated to honour real-world contract law and consumer law, even if their world doesn鈥檛 really exist,鈥� he says.
Linden Lab, however, asserts that Bragg鈥檚 suit is unfounded. 鈥淲e intend to contest this in the appropriate forum,鈥� general counsel Ginsu Yoon told Wired News. 鈥淲e believe the suit to be without merit.鈥�
Contract dispute
But Bragg maintains his account was terminated after he discovered a way to buy plots of Second Life land, known as 鈥渟ims鈥�, via the game鈥檚 auction system for a fraction of the normal price. This involved manipulating the URL for an auction to ensure that no one else bid.
Joshua Fairfield, a legal expert at Indiana University Law School in the US who specialises in virtual worlds, says the case does not really concern property. 鈥淭his is just a straight-up contract dispute,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. He likens the situation to a simple dispute over an incorrect price on a website.
Nonetheless, Fairfield notes that the case has generated a great deal of interest among other players and observers. 鈥淭he reason there鈥檚 so much buzz about this case is that everyone is waiting for a real property validation case,鈥� he says.
