Amongst many other things, writer Neal Stephenson is famous for having coined the term “Metaverse” in his 1992 cyberpunk novel “Snow Crash”, but he has also written a lot about virtual worlds in some of his later work, particularly the novel “Reamde“, which is a techno-political thriller which introduces a Read more…
In “The Lonely End of a Cyberjunkie” (paywall), The Sunday Times all but blames games like World of Warcraft for the death of Robin Williams. The article says: “On the surface, Williams had everything: a beautiful wife and three children he adored, multiple homes and shares in his late brother’s Read more…
The UK Government’s senior adviser in intellectual property issues, MP Mike Weatherley, has made the news by suggesting that theft of articles in online environments should be prosecuted just like theft in the real world. He asked the following question to Mike Penning, Minister of State for Policing: “To ask Read more…
It would be an understatement to say that Google Glass is not getting the warmest reception. Restaurants, bars and cafes have banned Google Glass users. The UK Cinema Association has moved to ban Google Glass over piracy concerns. Casinos have joined the fray. And the term glasshole says it all, Read more…
It feels like 2007 all over again. There seems to be a resurgence in articles and blog posts seriously discussing the subject of virtual property and the virtual economy, something that was very familiar in the tech press around the time of Second Life’s nadir. By the way, whatever happened Read more…
I have been playing World of Warcraft again in preparation for the forthcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion (two words: panda monks!). For years I played in European servers the same character, an Alliance Human mage who then switched sides and joined the Horde as a Blood Elf, and finally settled Read more…
IT lawyers are always looking for the Next Big Legal Thing (and they also like grandiose generalizations, but I digress). From ebooks to iPods, you can always find an article describing the latest gadget in legal terms. For people involved in this area of law, it is always important to Read more…
I’ve been reading and watching with interest a UK Channel 4 report on the popular virtual world Habbo Hotel. For those unfamiliar with the story, Channel 4 News got a female producer to pose as an 11-year old girl for 2 months, who complains that she was subjected to extreme Read more…
(Via Greg Lastowka) The Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has delivered a ground-breaking ruling which declares that virtual goods from the popular online player game Runescape are to be considered goods in accordance to Dutch law, and therefore are subject of theft and criminal enforcement (Google Read more…
I am currently reading REAMDE, Neal Stephenson’s latest novel, and although I am still going through the initial pages (I am savouring it as I do most of Stephenson’s work), and it already has me thinking about new trends in literature. Cyberpunk is a well-defined post-modern sub-genre within science fiction, Read more…