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Avatar abuse: Bedsworth Ponders the Divorce-Criminal-Sentencing Law Nexus

Justice Bedsworth welcomes you to January 2009, with a legal puzzle of almost, hmm, biblical proportion.

Excerpt: ?? Ms. Doe(4) closed the book on Chopin and Haydn one day and fired up the computer for a round of monster-battling, only to receive the disconcerting news that her virtual spouse had divorced her avatar. Divorced! Without warning!

No lipstick on the collar, no long unexplained business trips, no emotional withdrawal, no couples counseling, nothing! The sonofagun just said, ?I divorce you,?(5) and moved on. Without explanation. Just left her there to fight the monsters alone.

She was, of course, distraught. Divorce is always difficult. And this one was greatly complicated by the whole monster thing.(6) Apparently unable to retain a virtual Gloria Allred, Ms. Doe released her own statement: ?I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry.?(7)

But as commonplace as her public statement might have been, Ms. Doe?s revenge was a tour de force of imagination befitting someone with a background in monster eradication. Using login information she obtained when their characters were happily married ? virtually ? Ms. Doe logged in with her virtual husband?s password and caused his avatar to walk in front of a truck.

Yep. Flattened him. Dead before the virtual paramedics arrived?.? (read full essay)

Full post as published by Oregon Legal Research on January 04, 2009 (boomark / email).