With the settlement of the ‘Rase Kenzo’ case in Second Life, we now have a precedent for calling virtual goods “merchandise.”
Although the claims largely centered on intellectual property, if the judge — the Honorable Sandra Townes, in the Eastern District of New York — enters the consent judgment as written, including its reference to copying of “merchandise,” the judgment will stand as the first formal, if tentative, recognition of virtual property by a U.S. court. Though the judgment will not have as significant a precedential value as a contested decision on the merits would have had, it will be cited for the foreseeable future.
The legal documents are quite short and very clear — the key bit is that throughout, the copied digital items are referred to as “merchandise.”
This is not the same case as the Eros case I referenced just a few days ago, but Eros is one of the plaintiffs. This case centered on copyright and trademark — Rase Kenzo was accused of infringing upon the creators’ rights by duplicating and selling copies of the items that they create and sell within SL.
