“Virtual Land Deal” Goes Sour and Leads to Lawsuit
The PRNewswire, which as best I can tell is a site that collects press releases, has a press release on a new lawsuit filed over a “virtual land deal” gone awry. From the press release:
In May 1st, 2006, a possible first-of-its-kind lawsuit was filed in local district justice court to seek remedy for a virtual land deal gone sour. The suit seeks financial damages in the thousands, in part for a breach of a virtual land auction contract and for violation of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. This suit is unique because the land doesn’t actually exist.
Marc Woebegone, known in the real word [sic] as Marc Bragg, has filed suit in the local district justice court in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a small town located 25 miles west of Philadelphia, PA. Bragg purchased virtual land, known in Second Life as “sims,” using real US currency. Bragg learned of a way to purchase virtual land significantly below market values, and invested thousands of US dollars purchasing land in an attempt to resell this land at a profit. Bragg claims that employees of Linden Research, Inc., the company who creates, manages and maintains this online world, 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. Bragg’s calls to customer service and Linden Lab’s legal counsel have gone unanswered. Bragg’s final option? Seek relief in a real world court.
A decade ago, this lawsuit would have triggered 20 law review articles and a few books about the new world of cybercitizens buying cyberproperty to make a cyberprofit (or for other cyberreasons), and then bringing cybersuits in cybercourt to enforce their cyberrights. Am I right that today we can see this as pretty much just a standard breach of contract claim? Woebegone, known in the “real word” [sic] as Bragg, purchased a set of rights. The company did not give him what he claims they promised to give him, leading him to sue for breach of contract. Seems pretty old-fashioned to me.
On an unrelated front, am I the only one who thought of Dr. Evil after reading that the complaint seeks financial damages “in the thousands”?
WordPress database error: [Incorrect key file for table 'wp_comments'; try to repair it]
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '177' AND comment_approved = '1' ORDER BY comment_date