Judge Posner and Second Life

I have a dear friend to whom I mentioned several months ago the remarkable developments going on in cyberspace.  I cited the rise of on-line virtual reality worlds, such as that in Second Life (see here), and I've been sending him links to newspaper stories about the phenomenon on a regular basis. 

Second Life has been growing extremely rapidly and even attracting the attention of law schools (such as the Berkman Center at Harvard, which has set up a site in Second Life) and of distinguished law scholars, such as Professor Charles Nesson.  I have pointed out to my friend the large sums of real money that are involved, the fact that Reuters now has a full-time reporter stationed in Second Life, and that there are some people who make a comfortable living buying and selling goods and services in the game.  (Interested readers should go to www.ssrn.com and download two articles by Greg Lastowka and Dan Hunter, "The Laws of the Virtual Worlds" and "Virtual Crime.") 

Now comes word that Judge Richard A. Posner, in the form of his avatar, will appear in Second Life this Thursday, December 7, from 6 pm PST, to be interviewed about his new book, Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency.  New World Notes, which is a blog about events in Second life, has the story here.  You will need to sign up to reserve a spot in the "Center Auditorium in Kula."   

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