Brooders

When I read “Brave new world or virtual pedophile paradise?” I couldn’t help thinking this was some bizarre excerpt from the Cyberpunk novel “Dervish is Digital“. The Sydney Morning Herald article opens with

WHEN is child pornography not child pornography? Can an “avatar” commit a crime? What is real, and what is not?

This is freaky, fiction come reality headline. In “Dervish is Digital” anything goes in Artificial Reality (AR), except copyright infringements and skipping your ISP bills.

Also from the article:

In Germany, “virtual” child pornography is illegal and punishable by up to five years in jail. In the US it is not a crime. In Australia it is somewhere between the two and is largely untested.

It is interesting to see discrepancies between the countries. I wonder what new laws (rightly or wrongly) that will be set up to enforce laws in virtual worlds.

Warren Ellis (Cyberpunk Comic Author) has often written about Second Life, in his article Second Life Sketches: Please stop doing that to the cat he concludes:

I have nothing against BDSM or RP in general, believe me. I’m just saying: anyone who says that sexual activity is a tiny part of the SL experience is either stupid or knowingly lying. Further: anyone who thinks it’s not going to lead to trouble down the line is just an idiot.

While there seems to be a lot of things going on in Second Life, not all adult related, it seems that there is a fair whack of adult related stuff as well. In another of his articles Things People Buy he talks about people buying routines/skins to look like robots, move like a pole dancer, turn you into a dog and whatever else some is making and selling for Linden dollars.

To be honest – who knows what to make of this. This seems like it could be similar to the violent video games argument, that playing shooting games wont make you kill someone? So does acting out or playing weird fantasies mean that people will do it in real life? I damn well hope not !

I must admit, like in the book I would have expected to hear more about copyright infringement but perhaps people aren’t making enough money for them to get sued?

I guess as more of these virtual worlds (PS3 Home, Outback Online – if it launches, heaps of quake and half-life worlds) we’ll get more laws and rules and monitoring.

This could be the catalyst to create bizarre new jobs like “The Second Life Sex Police” or “Copyright Cops” where cheap labour in other countries ( in a Chinese Gold Digger from World Of Warcraft way) are paid to police and record evidence that contravenes international law.

It’s just freaky and weird.

Lemonquest have created a cyberpunk mobile phone game. Apparently, my mobile phone is supported, but I’m not too sure how to actually get it !

Check out the video of the gameplay. It’s quite reminscent of flashback or Prince of Persia.

The website says it’s a mobile game by R. Talsorian Games who make the Cyberpunk Roleplaying game. Once I figure out how to download/buy it I’ll post a review.