A former plumbing contractor who has made a new career selling virtual cyber sex toys in the virtual world of Second Life, has now brought suit against another player who is allegedly copying and selling a device called the Sex Gen. The plaintiff, whose avatar is known as ‘Stroker Serpentine,’ is seeking the real name of the copycat entrepreneur. The reporter describing the lawsuit included commentary from a cyber law professor whose university maintains a virtual Supreme Court in the Second Life world.

Notwithstanding the facts, it is interesting on how the "real" Federal Court would rule on such demand especially when the damage is in the virtual world, but it may have some indirect connection to real-world damages (e.g. when you convert your Second Life currency into US dollars).

More.

I received this book a couple of weeks ago but my schedule was very busy so I just had a chance to review and comment on this new book. The book is a very interesting collection of essays from leading scholars and practitioners in the area focusing on the “newness” of cybercrime prosecution and law enforcement. This site aims to highlight the new ways of committing crime and the new ways that are required to prevent it, combat it, and prosecute it so the book is a good paper source for those readers who like this site.

The book is divided in five major parts - the new crime scene, the new types of crimes, the new cops, the new tools available for prosecution, and the new procedural aspects of cybercrime. Among the topics covered are crimes in virtual words, policy issues of cybercrimes, Internet surveillance, cybercrime conventions and legal issues surrounding digital evidence. The selection of authors is excellent - the presence of authors such as Orin Kerr, Susan Brenner, to name a few, lend a great deal of credibility to the entire collection.

My thought - an excellent selection of relevant materials. The timing of this book’s release cannot be better - legal crime issues in virtual worlds, surveillance of electronic communications, and the procedural and substantive legal issues with cybercrime are something courts and practitioners should be well familiar with.

You can purchase here.

Disclosure - I am not affiliated with any of the authors, editors, or the publisher of this book. I do not stand to gain monetarily or in any other way from this book.