Commentary by Steve Aranoff & Robert FitzPatrick, The EAGLE

In the 1st part of this article, we introduced the virtual world, second life, and suggested that there were sufficient real world business opportunities therein to be worth thinking about in a businesses first life.  For example, in these early days of SecondLife, there are already many Members/residents that have a creative background, such as artists and designers. They use SecondLife not only as a platform to demonstrate their art from their real life, but also to express themselves differently and to create new (virtual) art. Modeling tools in SecondLife allow the artists also to create new forms of art, that in many ways are not possible in real life due to physical constraints or high associated costs. The virtual arts are visible for example in the SecondLife Louvre, a virtual representation of the Louvre Museum. And, the artists own their Intellectual Property as if it had been created in the real world. 

Says Linden, the developer: But, as the world matures, much of this art will come in to the mainstream and be translated into print and other salable forms.  From our viewpoint, what’s really neat about this is that Linden Lab's Terms of Service agreement recognizes the Residents' right to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create in SecondLife, including their avatar characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. This right is enforceable and applicable both in-world and offline, both for non-profit and commercial ventures. You create it, you own it - and it's yours to do with as you please, just like in the real world.