Linden Lab shuts down the fun in Second Life

On wednesday Linden Lab announced a new policy which bans all forms of gambling within Second Life to comply with the American government's outlawing of online gambling which came into effect last October. A large amount of revenue is generated in Second Life from the many casino owners who buy land from Linden Lab and the fear is that those people will be forced to sell their land and may even leave the virtual world altogether. This will cause a massive drop in land prices but Linden Lab itself may not recover the money lost due to the new policy.

To me this seems to be an example of how laws and policies are unable to cope with an entity such as Second Life which has thousands of non-American "residents" and who shouldn't really be subject to American law. Many of the casino owners weren't American but they are having their businesses shut down because their virtual land is on a server which is physically located in America. It could be said that it'd be good for each country to have a server farm for its residents to connect to Second Life which would allow those who connect access to those activities that the country says are legal, but this is really missing the point of Second Life. It's supposed to be an international community which regulates itself. Linden Lab itself advertises "Your World, Your Imagination", but really it's "American World, Your Imagination (within limits)".

Oh yeah, I ended up in the Linden Village last night and found myself part of a rally against the new anti-gambling policy. There's me in the front holding the small banner !!