Second Life Revolt

Second Life users are staging a virtual revolt against a new program called CopyBot, which allows people to copy any object in Second Life.  The program is not only disrupting the personalized creativity in-world, but also the real world economy.

Second Life users are able to purchase virtual items with Linden dollars – a fake currency that has an exchange rate of 271 Lindens to the U.S. dollar.  It is with this currency that people are able to purchase everything from clothing to islands to genitals. However, the new software essentially gives anyone the ability to produce counterfeit bills – disabling the in-world economy and royally pissing off many of it’s creative users who poured hours of time into their creations. 

With a steady flow of real world brands and entrepreneurs setting up shop every day, many fear that CopyBot is jeopardizing their real-world livelihoods.

Second Life is an open-ended, 3D, digital virtual world in which members can create nearly anything they can imagine, and in which anyone owns the intellectual property rights to what they create. As a result, there are hundreds of businesses selling clothing, vehicles, furniture and the like, all for Linden dollars. A complex and stable economy has sprung up around such commerce.

The problem is, it does look like there is anything Linden Lab can do about it. 

Because the tool was created using an open-source license, some Second Life users have gotten hold of it and are now freely using and distributing it.

CNet: Second Life faces threat to its virtual economy