[Infowarrior] - Congress Freaks Out Over Second Life Terrorism

[Richard Forno]

Congress Freaks Out Over Second Life Terrorism
By Sharon Weinberger
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/second-life.html

Oh no, the virtual terrorists are coming to get us! Well, maybe. Congress,
in its infinite wisdom, had an entire hearing about virtual worlds and
terrorism, even calling in the chief executive of Linden Lab to testify
about the possibility of Second Life being used for evil terrorist ends. One
of the concerns, brought up by some members of Congress, was that Second
Life could be used launder terrorist funds.  The possibility was quickly
dispelled:

    The average withdrawal from Second Life -- from Linden dollars into U.S.
dollars -- is one dollar, so it's "relatively easy to spot larger
transactions," [Philip] Rosedale said. "We have managed to maintain a fraud
rate that is a fraction of a percentage point. The industry average is
closer to 1 percent."

    Virtual community Entropia Universe last year earned $400,000 after it
auctioned off banking licenses to several well-known virtual world players.
The licenses allow their owners to lend cash to the community's participants
for the virtual purchase of anything from game-fighting weapons to real
estate.

    Second Life celeb Anshe Chung was among those who purchased a license.

    Lawmakers on Tuesday denied that they were looking to regulate the
virtual world.

    Virtual reality is "going to be a highly competitive world. We just want
to make sure it's not highly regulated," said ranking member Cliff Stearns
of Florida.

There seems to be a trend here: THREAT LEVEL had described the Intel
Community's fascination with fighting terrorism in multi-player games.
DANGER ROOM has written about spooks' desire to recruit in Second Life. And,
as we all know, industry has sunk a lot of money into creating a presence in
Second Life. So perhaps it's no surprise that Congress is worried about
terrorists.

The problem is that Congress clearly doesn't know quite what it's worrying
about; its sounds like some members are getting freaked out by something
they don't understand. As this Wired Magazine makes clear, a lot of the
hoopla is just that:

    Then there's the question of what people do when they get there. Once
you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second
Life, there isn't much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of
the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden's in-world traffic tally,
which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the
big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex. On a random
day in June, the most popular location was Money Island (where Linden
dollars, the official currency, are given away gratis), with a score of
136,000. Sexy Beach, one of several regions that offer virtual sex shops,
dancing, and no-strings hookups, came in at 133,000. The Sears store on
IBM's Innovation Island had a traffic score of 281; Coke's Virtual Thirst
pavilion, a mere 27. And even when corporate destinations actually draw
people, the PR can be less than ideal. Last winter, CNET's in-world
correspondent was conducting a live interview with Anshe Chung, an avatar
said to have earned more than $1 million on virtual real estate deals, when
Chung was assaulted by flying penises in a griefer attack.

Maybe Congress can legislate against by flying penises.