Virtual vs. Actual Professionalism

This blog is a response to an article written by Jim Horning enititled "Risks of Virtual Professionalism" and can be found at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1240000/1232775/p104-horning.pdf?key1=1232775&key2=4449097711&coll=&dl=ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618

Although many are still unaware of Second Life, the 200,000 who are, know that it is a bursting phenomenon that I think will practically take over the world soon, very soon. Second Life is a virtual world where real life people can go on their computers and create their own person and purchase anything from clothing, to cars, to Islands. After reading this article it is evident that it is a huge growing trend. It probably seems like a joke, but while we are laughing in our actual world, in the virtual world there are arising issues. This article examines a conviction in Texas of a programmer for crimes committed in Second Life. David Josephssen was convicted of an aggravated felony for a theft case against FTLB. Throughout the case, the jury did not even know what to sentence the man to, because Second Life is so new. The report said that the jury understood very little and figured that if “he did that, he’s a hacker..he probably did all those fancy virtual things the DA said” (Horning 2007). There are basically no laws in the books outlining punishments and convictions for virtual worlds. This is because our laws are out of date and do not work in a cyberworld, a world that is taking over what we used to know as actuality.

Due to the new phenomenon that Second Life has brought, there needs to be a change in the legal system. Second Life has grown so fast that what used to be known only as virtual can now be considered real, everyday life. There are a few things that need to be addressed in our society. First off, Mr. Josephssen was sentenced in Texas because it is one of the only states that requires software engineers to be licensed. Every state has different laws, but on Second Life everyone is from the same place. Why should this man have to be sentenced in Texas when he is from Iceland? How do you sentence someone and under what governments interpretation of the crime? I think that there needs to be a new law that pertains just to virtual communities, where it does not matter what country you are from, or where you log in from, but a set of laws that pertain to each criminal or violated action. Moreover, I think that the government should take crimes committed on Second Life more seriously. Should they go so far as to regulate and control it? I believe so. If 200,000 people and growing are members or Second Life and millions of dollars are being made from it, and these members take it seriously, I think that the government should as well. But where do we draw the line? Just a few weeks ago there was a rape on Second Life, should the rapist be put in jail because of a rape in a virtual world? I do not know. Our societyneeds to acknowledge this growing phenomenon as part of reality. Our legal system does not recognize Second Life because it is virtual and this type of life has not been experienced in the past. People need to take it seriously, there needs to be a change. We must figure out where to draw the line soon because Second Life is growing so fast that it may soon become indistinguishable from our actual life!