Virtual property troubles
p2p news / p2pnet: A lawyer from Pennsylvania is suing Linden Labs over a virtual land dispute in the free form online game Second Life.
Marc Bragg, known in game as Marc Woebegone claims that Linden Labs “breached an auction contract by allowing the land to auction, accepting online payment, and then suspending plaintiff’s account” according to a press release.
Bragg claims he discovered a way to buy virtual Second Life property at “significantly below market values” through an auction system created by Linden Labs who “allowed the auction to be created, and after Bragg paid US dollars for the
land, terminated Bragg’s account, without explanation, without citing any violation of community policy, and have since refused offer a credit or a refund.”
“This suit challenges the legitimacy of a virtual intangible purchase of an asset.” says Bragg.
“If they’re not running their auctions properly to begin with … the onus is on them to do that,” Bragg told Wired News.
Bragg was able to purchase virtual land cheaply by copying the URL for a legitimate auction, then swaping the ID number for land not yet up for sale publicly, so there would be no minimum bid and no other bidders. “They completely froze my account, which is a real problem, (and prevented) me from withdrawing about a million Lindens [around US$3200] that they wouldn’t allow me to exchange,” said Bragg.
Second Life lawyers have said they intend to fight. “We believe the suit to be without merit.”
The case will certainly have ramifications for the legitimacy of online property transactions that involve exploits of the transaction process.
Stay tuned.
Also
See:
Wired News - Second Life Land Deal Goes Sour – 18th
May 2006
PR Newswire – Virtual Land Dispute Spills Over Into Real World – 8th May 2006
