Using Second Life and the Concept of Virtual Property in a First Year Property Law Course

Exploring the Past and Present of Property in Our Current Future...

A Project by Elizabeth Townsend Gard and Rachel Goda

I (Elizabeth) am delighted to be guest blogging at Terra Nova for the month of April. I want to discuss a current project that I am working on, and in the process I hope to gain suggestions on the direction it should take in the future. Beginning in January 2007, I decided to take 100 first year property students into Second Life as part of their graded work. (I am currently a visiting professor of law at Seattle University School of Law, teaching property, intellectual property, and copyright). The idea of taking 100 students into Second Life was a gamble indeed…for so many reasons. I was not alone in my endeavor, however. I have had the most amazing 2L research assistant, Rachel Goda, who early in the fall, agreed to be part of this crazy adventure, and lend her enormous gaming expertise, both to the design and execution of the project. Our posts will be about our journey—from my perspective, from hers, and even from the students. 

What I would like to share in this first post is my original idea for the project, the reasons behind the structure that was finally chosen, and our initial experiences. In the second post, I will let Rachel take the lead and describe her experiences with the project. The third official post will be a blend of discussing with the students what they have gotten out of the project, and then the fourth official post will be a wrap-up of what we have learned so far, and where I am thinking of taking the project next.

To begin, I should explain how I came to this project. This year I am a visiting assistant professor at Seattle University School of Law, teaching intellectual property and property. What this translates to is that my field is copyright, and as part of my teaching package, I was also assigned to teach a year-long first year property course for the first time. A bit daunting with the traditional concepts of first in time, adverse possessions, estates and future interests, landlord-tenant, communal property, easements, nuisance, eminent domain, to name a few. I knew I wanted to include some intellectual property concepts into the mix—our casebook already did in a small way. And I had been encouraged by some to rely on my European history background (a Ph.D. from UCLA) to focus on the historical links and connections that formed the common law traditions upon which property still rests. But, for me, I found the roots of history often made students feel even more disconnected from a subject—it made a difficult subject seem even less immediate. Then, while at the IP Scholars conference at Berkeley, I found the theme that would eventually take us on a journey involving an avatar named Fizzy Soderberg.

At one of the sessions, Tyler Ochoa from Santa Clara University’s School of Law was presenting on his recent work on avatars. A Berkeley student from the back asked a question about what laws govern property within the Second Life? Did property concepts translate into the new virtual environment? How did property and contract laws relate? It was a question I had been thinking throughout the presentation as well. I had been reading about Second Life and virtual property—in various news stories here and there. But I didn’t know much. What I did know, however, started to intrigue me—especially for my property course…

Here was the paradigm. We study modern property three days a week for a full school year. We are deeply entrenched in problems of contemporary property law. But our casebook—our traditions—make us always aware that we are a product of our feudal past—our British feudal past. That is the paradigm that many over years and years have taught Property law. Second Life presented a new opportunity. Now, teach property as three phases: a feudal British past, a contemporary traditional property context, and the future as embodied in worlds like Second Life and the concept of “virtual” property. What can our past teach our present and our present teaches our future? What elements of property are being translated into Locke’s new “America”? (Our case book begins with Locke’s “Thus in the beginning all the world was America” ) Will places like Second Life feel the burden to continue traditions from feudalism or is it a new slate, because of technology, because it is a world based on contract, because it a world situated on intellectual property (for the most part) rather than real property? And by placing the class into the paradigm, I hope to give the students an opportunity to evaluate, apply, and analyze the concepts they were learning in their property class (especially concepts from the Fall semester during the Spring semester) in a new environment. What new challenges does Second Life face that traditional property does not? What role does technology play in regulating conduct and concerns? These were a few of the initial basic questions.

The imagined project took many forms over the Fall semester—I thought of having each student create an avatar. I thought of groups that would work with an avatar over the semester and interact with each other. I came, however, to choose a very different model. We have one avatar – Fizzy Soderberg (named by the first group) and fourteen groups of seven to nine students. We would have a pet hamster, so to speak. We would follow Fizzy’s journey through the semester. Each group would be given ONE week to explore Second Life with Fizzy, gather the latest news, and most importantly, research a key concept in property law. At the end of the week, the students record a screencasting in my office. The PowerPoint is prepared by the self-appointed group leader. Each student creates their own portion of the script. Then, the 15-20 minute presentation is presented to the class, as well as being posted at Fizzy’s Second Life (www.fizzysecondlife.blogspot.com) and iTunes.

So far, we have had six groups record their screencasts, and they have far exceeded my expectations in terms of their enthusiasm, time, and investigation. I made an editorial decision that the scripts would be all their work, and that only when something was significantly “wrong” would I intervene. I wanted it to be their experiences. 

The remaining portion of this post is how the exercise is structured in more detail, along with the weekly property categories in the project. This project could not be possible without Rachel Goda, whose enthusiasm, patience, smartness, and experience has really made this project possible. She will be writing the majority of the second post. 

And finally, I want to make a disclaimer. This is in many ways an intentionally naïve project. The students were given a few law review articles on virtual worlds, and we had discussions about the kinds of questions, the kinds of news stories that were being discussed particularly with regard to Second Life. We also had Daniel Huebner (Director of Community Affairs at Linden Lab come to our class virtually on the first day of our class in January as a kick-off to the project (thanks to Rachel). But other than that, I wanted them to take their limited knowledge of property and pair it with their limited knowledge of Second Life. The screencasts are their journeys of making connections between their law school course and a new environment, trying to apply basic concepts to a new situation. How does one measures success in this situation? They all seem to be working very hard. That is enough for me, at least for now.

The Exercise (as presented to the class)

We are about to set out on a journey, an experiment, an adventure. We, as part of our class this spring 2007 semester will enter Second Life, the virtual world that is currently the rage. We are part explorers, part journalists. The goal is to take the concepts we are learning in our property course, and see how the traditional, modern conventions of property are manifesting themselves in a virtual world. 

This will be part of a larger project, and is an attempt to blend research and teaching. We will be producing screencasts and written reports on what we find that will be posted to a website for both our class as well as a larger audience. We will have virtual guests to our class, and Rachel Goda (my research assistant) and I will be reporting our findings in a number of venues this spring. 

Overall exercise: Working in groups, we are going to explore Second Life in general, and more specifically, look at how much modern concepts of property are being imported into a virtual property environment. We will do this be concentrating on four activities with each group: 1) a property question; 2) avatar maintenance; 3) Experiencing Second Life through tourism and event attendance, and 3) keeping up on news about Second Life. 

Time Commitment: to make sure that this project does not overwhelm our course, we will have a strict time commitment, both inside and outside of class. All of the work takes place in a one week time period. You will be required to meet four times with supervision/guidance during the assigned week. You will also record a 5-10 minute group screencast presentation. You will also have a one-page writing component. To compensate for the extra time, I will cancel 3 classes during the semester (the first two classes, and a third). 

Money: You will be given set amount of $US for the week to spend as group. Each week, the amount varies, and is part of our experiment. What is your experience like with $1 versus $20? 

Groups: We will have new groups. You may sign up groups on TWEN. Each week will have a different theme, activity, etc. The groups will be made up of 6-8 students.

Work: The group will prepare about a 10 minute PowerPoint screencast presentation on the questions and findings of the week (including also any relevant news about Second Life that week). [Note: in reality, the screencasts have generally been 20 minutes] This will be filmed outside of class in my office on. The presentation will be screencasted and made available for viewing. Make sure to include a “Credits” page in your PowerPoint presentation. You will record the screencast in my office (a week after you begin your work). This will give us the option of either viewing the screencast in class or assigning it as part of homework in order to give us more time for discussion. It will also allow others outside the class to view our progress throughout the semester.

Each student will be required to do a one-page written report on their experiences and their contribution to the project. These will be posted as part of the project.

Grading:

Each member must work on a disparate part of the week’s work, as well as with the group. The group must turn in a report on each person’s activities and how the group worked as a whole. You will be graded both on your individual contribution as well as you willingness to work and play well with others. 

Group Required Activities:

• Property Question
• Avatar Maintenance
• Exploration of SL
• SL News

Individually Assigned Tasks:

You may divide up the workload in anyway the group sees fit. Here is a list of tasks. Make sure to have a “Credits” slide at the end of the PowerPoint Presentation so that I know who did what. 

• Tour guide (3-4 places in SL)
• Avatar Maintenance
• News reporter (both gathering and reporting for the week)
• Property Question Research (before SL); Framing the Question
• Property Question Research in SL
• Events Coordinator and explorer

Additional tasks that may be divided or worked on together:

PowerPoint presentation design and Narrator [this has been combined as part of the group leader’s tasks, as well as coordinating in general]

Weekly Schedule

Monday: Basics with Rachel (1 hour)

Wednesday: Property Project with Rachel (1 hour)

Friday: Time with Elizabeth to report progress (1 hour) 

Monday: Record screencast in Elizabeth’s office

Second Life Schedule

Recommended Text: Second Life: Official Guide (suggested readings below)

Group One: The Rules of the Game (what laws control and how)

 Design the Avatar

 MONEY: $10

Group Two: Gifts and Finders

 MONEY: $5

Group Three: First in Time (Rule of Capture, Rule of Discovery, Rule of Conquest, etc.)

 MONEY: $0

Group Four: Adverse Possession

 MONEY: $10

Group Five: Ways of Transferring Property and Marriage, Divorce, Kids (in a property law context)

 MONEY: $10

Group Six: Real Estate versus Chattel in SL

 MONEY: $30

Group Seven: Landlord-Tenant

 MONEY: $10

Group Eight: IP Issues: Trademarks, Patents, Right of Publicity, and Copyrights in SL

 MONEY: $20

Group Nine: Public Spaces, Zoning and Nuisances

 MONEY: $5

Group Ten: Nightlife and Gambling

 MONEY: $20

Group Eleven: SL Economy and the Nature of Work

 MONEY: $1

Group Twelve: Prostitution and the Sex Industry in Second Life

 MONEY: $10

Group Thirteen: Linden Lab as Post-Feudalism? (Also look at Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings)

 MONEY: $5

Group Fourteen: Representatives from Each Group – final evaluation, discussion of the experience

Comments

[Jen Dornan]

1.

Wow, this sounds like a truly amazing project! I haven’t had a chance to look at the blog yet but I’m definitely curious to hear both the results of their legal explorations as well as your thoughts about this kind of experiment as a teaching tool.

[Amarilla]

2.

Nice try :=).As far as i know, one does not needs to play a game in order to understand its mechanics and dynamics.It's about the legal relationships between LL and its customers.Yes i am awared of what the Law means.We already have the EULA, the TOS and the Bragg's case. A lot of exhaustive workfield.Is it solved yet ?

[IPAttny]

3.

You could have conducted this exercise more relevantly, and for free in MySpace or YouTube. The legal issues are the same. There is no property here except intellectual property. The game company claims all IP save a narrow exemption. No legal parallel to real estate at all. Real property rights flow directly from the US Constitution as any first year student knows.

Sorry but this sounds like an excuse to play a game. The challenge would be to instead debate the validity of game companies' license terms.

[greglas]

4.

@"IPAtty":

A few thoughts:

1) Intellectual property law and license concepts are generally included in the topics studied in first-year Property these days.

2) Regarding the notion that virtual worlds are all IP and "the same" as YouTube (but somehow YouTube is more relevant?): you're entitled to that point of view, but you should concede it isn't universal. Virtual worlds are primarily covered by IP laws, but you might take a look at some of the papers at right with regard to how chattel property concepts are appropriately applied to them. For instance, see Josh Fairfield's paper at right:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=807966

3) Personally, this doesn't sound at all to me like an excuse to play a game. It sounds more like an interesting and inventive way to encourage students to try to think about traditional property issues in an online context that attempts to blur the line between real property and intellectual property.

[greglas]

5.

Blog comments from a student at Michigan.

[Margaret Corbit]

6.

I think this is one of the smartest approaches I have seen in terms of using virtual worlds in a course. I am curious why you have avatar maintenance and the social activities as part of the "work"?

[Elizabeth Townsend Gard]

7.

Thanks so much for the comments!

About the legal relationship between Linden Lab and its customers -- yes, we take that into consideration, but we are really trying to get a sense of the culture within SEcond Life-- how avatars interact, but also how people view their virtual property. It isn't the acutal contract law that we are looking at, but the cultural assumptions. Do we see modern concepts of property being brought into this new space? If so, how, and if not, why not? We have found that some do (like gifts), but others don't (like adverse possession). When they don't it is usually because the technology has taken care of the issue or problem, like in the case of finders, where one does not need a set of rules of when someting is lost or found or who owns it, b/c an item left behind is merely put back into one's inventory. The technology takes care of the problem.

A second comment to the comments, I chose Second LIfe because there had been so much in the news about the business/economic aspects--that big corporations were going in, that people were making their livings in SEcond Life, that people were taking serious their time and money investment. We wanted to see if this brought with it a traditional sense of "that's mine" that we see in property.

Avatar maintenance and social activities -- are part of the weekly, because I wanted hte students to put in the time and take seriously their tasks. And they have!

[Amarilla]

8.

Well. Sure you have a good point doing that.Nothing wrong to have a lil fun while studying,exploring and so on.The interacting avatars are constricted/restricted real players interacting.There also is a paralellism between SL and Jails, in the matter of many aspects of the relationships.But it's a nice worthy initiative, indeed.

[Prokofy Neva]

9.

I think you should wave away people who rant about how the relationship of landowners and LL is only based on a EULA and is only about intellectual property, and wave away those who tell you to

I think you also need to have a serious look at the pride and prejudice you're putting into this concept of "British feudal past". You write about this as if it is some sort of evil, exploitative, dark horror. But it isn't. Getting property rights is progress against the all-powerful king and tyrant. Respect of property by the state is the basis for a civil society and a liberal democratic body politic. Private property is vital to civilization, and pouring some lukewarm Marxist treacle over these concepts and trying to "deconstruct" them obliterates just how important private property is to keeping freedom for the individual and the group.

I saw "wave away," because Second Life offers you an emulation of property relations between a state and citizens and simulation of land and a land market that is *good enough* for your experiment. You need not go too far astray, however. Things like "avatar maintenance" or "sex and gambling" just stray way too far off into other topics.

There's some basic concepts that need examination in SL that you could use both to study property law in real life and speculate about how it will develop in virtual life:

o auctions and the devaulation of labour, and the devaluation of land by the constant printing of land and Linden dollars by Linden Lab

o private island versus mainland

o signs -- extortionist, nuisance, griefing, etc. signs and how they might be regulated and how residents have responded to the problem they pose (the Bush Guy signs; the Coldwell Banker managers' signs; the destruction of sims with signs by extortionists, etc.)

o zoning -- clubs stealing resourcse from sims and preventing even other property owners from returning

o the telehub buyback, eminent domain, takings, compensation, etc.

o open sourcing and the devaluation of land value through enabling anyone to roll out land

o land bots that automatically buy low-priced land

o pricing of rentals

o covenants and how they develop and how different communities establish a mix of different values -- for some, building freely is at stake; for others, conformity and slavish rules about what and how to build is at stake

Anyway, those are the issues I see as real, and as playing out in an accelerated and interesting fashion in SL. And I wouldn't bog down in having students necessarily try to go and buy or rent land and struggle with it in the market. It might make more sense to ask to become an intern to a rentals or land baron office and just follow what they do.

[Prokofy Neva]

10.

*who tell you to go to Myspace.

[greglas]

11.

Javier Muñoz comments: ¿Quién dijo que el Derecho es aburrido?

[Mark Baldwin]

12.

I'm troubled by the reduction I see between Virtual Worlds like Second Life, and Web 2.0 networking sites like MySpace. Either I am missing something critical or others are because I see major differences between the two types of virtual communities.

While I see a number of major differences, within the context of this discussion, the big difference is the existence of an economy.

In Second Life, items of 'value' can be created, brought into the world, and taken out of the world (i.e. buying and selling Lindens for real world money). In addition, they can be exchanged under a concrete (although limited, there is no private contract law) 'legal' system within the world.

Unless you stretch things into incomprehension, an economy does not seem exist in sites like MySpace.

So while it makes sense to study how the rules of exchange (i.e. law) work where there is an economy, I don't see how you can study it where there is none.

-------

One question you might consider asking of your students. What is the nature of work and value in Second Life when compared to virtual worlds like World of Warcraft. Is there a difference, and why does that difference exist (what I'm thinking here is that in WOW, manual labor generates value, but in SL creativity generates value).

Mark Baldwin
University of Advancing Technology

[Bragg v, Linden]

13.

Property rights dispute. Pleadings and numerous articles on various property issues. Link to Harvard's mock trial in second life as well.

[Harold]

14.

Interesting project. Curious about the outcome.

@"IPAtty": studying is all about playing and going out there. Better experience and reflect on your experiences with fellow students then read a book.....

[Harold]

15.

Interesting project. Curious about the outcome.

@"IPAtty": studying is all about playing and going out there. Better experience and reflect on your experiences with fellow students then read a book.....