When I mentioned that metaverse platform CEOs should prepare to testify under oath before Congress soon, that was not an exaggeration: In fact, that very thing already happened in 2008, with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale. (Wearing a suit for the first time that I'm aware of since meeting him in 2003!)
Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), who chairs the subcommittee, seems to have a surprisingly solid understanding of virtual worlds. He described virtual worlds as a “glimpse into future [and] a window into current reality for millions of people.” He noted that “at their best, virtual worlds are vehicles for understanding across boarders and in communities.” The concerns he listed were also on point: consumer protection, intellectual property protection, online banking, gambling, and child protection.
Most of those concerns are still concerning, and yet to be adequately addressed!
Read the whole 2008 summary/analysis from lawyer and virtual law blogger Benjamin Duranske. (Who interestingly enough, later went on to become Chief Compliance Officer at metaverse-developer Facebook.)
Philip's appearance was a friendly fact-finding one, but that was when metaverse platforms like Second Life only had hundreds of thousands of active users. Now they're used by nearly half a billion people, the plurality of whom are minors in the United States. (And in the US, minors enjoy a special legally protected status.) So the next time subpoenas start flying, CEOs should expect the questions they get from Congress to be much more pointed.
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