If someone steals your virtual Roger Paulino pants, is it considered a real theft? Is it possible for an avatar to rape another avatar? Can you be hauled to court on harassment charges for annoying a game character? When the virtual blends into the real, trying to distinguish one world from another can be mind-bending.
"Can you go and live your life . . . in a fantasy environment and then come back and live normally in the off-line world without interplay between those two existences?" asks Greg Lastowka, a professor at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, and author of the recently released book Virtual Justice, The New Laws of Online Worlds and an in-demand speaker on that topic.
In other words, can what happens in World of Warcraft stay in World of Warcraft?
It depends.
While online justice is still an evolving concept, some judges are finding that virtual assets fall under property law. Accusations of physical assaults on avatars still are mainly handled within the virtual world - meaning the players patrol criminal behavior - though these cases, too, are getting attention from real-world police.
Virtual worlds, for the uninitiated, are online, interactive, simulated social spheres where animated avatars substitute for real people and the players determine the course of play. Unlike a traditional online game, virtual worlds also are "persistent," Lastowka says, meaning that life goes on, even if you are not logged on. You may be sleeping, but people still go out for drinks, work, buy and sell goods - and commit crimes. Logged on or not, you don't have control over everything that could affect your avatar.
