Legal Research

Virtual Law: Gaining Ground in Both Real and Virtual Worlds

By Connie Crosby

While researching articles discussing virtual worlds (including both Internet-based games and social networking spaces) I came across an upcoming conference on virtual law. The Virtual Law 2008 Conference is being held April 3 - 4, 2008 in New York City in conjunction with Virtual Worlds 2008 which is running concurrently.

You would think by now these things don’t surprise me, but I have to admit being a bit “gob-smacked” when I came across this conference. Are there really enough lawyers practising in this area to build a whole conference to address it?

Digging a bit further, I learn that the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law has even created a new committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games.

In addition to multiuser online games such as World of Warcraft and casual immersive worlds such as Second Life and Club Penguin, there are also numerous virtual interfaces being created by companies to help build networks/communities around businesses and products, both publicly from their websites and privately.

I suppose, then, that I should not be that surprised. Again, I am interested to see how this develops. I hope some of the attendees blog about the conference so we may learn more!

Some related links:

Virtually Blind - blog on “virtual law/legal issues that impact virtual worlds” - edited by writer and IP lawyer Benjamin Duranske

Video Game Law Blog - from Davis LLP in Vancouver

Canadian Firm Opens New Office in Second Life - Slaw report on Davis LLP

Second Life Bar Association

Virtual Worlds - The New Legal Frontier - Practising Law Institute - Audio Program from November 2007

Virtual Worlds News - from Virtual World Management

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).