May 2008

By Shari Claire Lewis

The filing of a complaint by a Pennsylvania lawyer against the operators of an online virtual world, and last year’s decision by a Pennsylvania federal district court in that case, Bragg v. Linden Research Inc., has generated a great deal of interest in the media and among lawyers, as well as in the virtual world community. The attention has gone well beyond that which the decision would have garnered if it had not involved a virtual world and virtual property, given that it simply found an arbitration clause in a terms-of-service agreement to be unconscionable and therefore unenforceable. It is clear, however, that the case reflects the growth of real-life litigation over virtual-world property. Undoubtedly, as participation in virtual worlds increases, real-life lawsuits will be growing in number, too.

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