Virtual world problems heading for real world courtrooms

Whilst the recession has brought many real world economies to its knees, and many companies looking at cutting down employees number, the good stuffs has taken place in the virtual world. Yes, Second Live and Everquest have gained ground. So have many computer games companies recording strong growth for 2009. And one of the unbelievable things that happened in cyberspace is the stealing of intellectual properties. In cyberspace, you can buy or trade items that others have created to dress your virtual avatars, or to arm them so that they can win combats. There is buying, trading and stealing in virtual space now, and these activities will only increase as the activities claimed more adherents.

Just like in the real world, trading activities of virtual entities have their share of problems. People who patronize virtual websites have begun to horn their skills to such an extend that they have found it necessary to steal ideas and properties designed by others. The alternative is to pay for these items. Instead of buying such objects legally with virtual money, they just copied them without permission. Those who had earnestly spent their time creating these virtual objects are at a lost as to how to seek redress. And bringing these robbers to court might proved to be costly. To make it worse, real world lawyers who can understand this virtual world going on are few and difficult to find.

Just how big is the problem then? It was estimated that the virtual world transaction for 2009 could reach $5 billion! The virtual transaction cost for the US was estimated to be over $600 million for 2009 and growing at a rapid pace. There are many who now spend their full time designing unique caricatures, avatars, weaponry and costumes and put them up for trading and sales in the virtual space. And like the real world, they should have them copy righted, just in case someone comes and just copied it and called them theirs. Although in legal terms, once you have created something, and published it, you should hold the copy right; but in reality, you should seek proper documentations and proofs so that others cannot dispute it in a court. So a little bit of real world practice is needed if you want protection and a peace of mind, cyberspace or not.