About a month ago, I did an article on the influence of real world politics in Secondlife (http://15timez.blogspot.com/2007/04/vive-la-politque.html). This got me thinking, as many things do. If you take a look at the virtual world we all spend a good deal of our time living in, where is the the government making sure that everything is run smoothly, and seeing that our online community runs smoothly justly and fairly. When laws are broken, and the peace is disturbed, who does the regular citizen of Secondlife contact, to assist them and make sure their online experience is enjoyable and safe. Well, the answer is obvious... The Lindens, the representative of Linden Labs. However, again treating this virtual world as real, this means we have unelected officials, answerable to no-one, personally enforcing what laws they decide upon, if you can find one. The nearest similar setup to the law infrastructure in SL, would be the comic book world of Megacity 1, as seen in the Judge Dredd books, a dystopian land set in the future, where a group of state appointed officials roam the city, acting as judge, jury and executioner. If we aren't careful, the lack of democratic government in Secondlife is going to have a certain US President pushing to drive tanks into the virtual world, to overthrow our tyrannical rulers.But on a more serious note, it seems that I am not alone in my concern about the lack of a proper legal and political system in Secondlife, and I met up with two such people, Ashcroft Burnham and Mondrian Lykin, two of the main protagonists behind a project tentatively titled "The Justice List", aimed at setting up a more structured and democratic for of governance for the citizens of Secondlife.Voodoo: So could you give a brief description on what the "Justice List" is, for our readers?Ashcroft Burnham: In very simple terms, it's a legal system for SecondLife, but one that has real powers of enforcement, and one that doesn't need any help from Linden Lab to make work. There are lots of disputes and potential disputes in SecondLife that could do with formal resolution: disputes about broken agreements, land use, alleged griefing, extortion, etc.. Until now, there's been no way of resolving those in a formal way, and that can create problems. The justice list (and I emphasise that that's just a provisional title: we've yet to finalise a proper name for it) hopes to solve all of that. The enforcement is taken care of by a system of automated distributed banishment. It's a bit like BanLink, but based on a court system, rather than a network of individual decisions. People put an object on their land. It ejects anybody who's on the list (hence Justice *list*). Putting people on the list is the ultimate form of punishment.Voodoo: So, the current system, as enforced by the Lindens, was not adequate?Ashcroft Burnham: Well, Linden Lab don't *have* any sort of system for resolving sophisticated disputes. They deal with (or, at least, try to deal with) incidents of serious disruption, and violation of the terms of service and community standards, but that simply doesn't cover a great range of the possible disputes that need to be dealt with. Breaking a business agreement, for example, or installing so many camping chairs on a piece of land that nobody else in the sim can get to use their land isn't covered by the terms of service or community standards at all. Sophisticated business can't easily emerge in SecondLife without a sophisticated in-world legal system.Mondrian Lykin: They do have some kind of abuse reporting system, but that just deals with the ToS (Term of Service) issues.Voodoo: So, how do you decide who should legitimately be on the list, and who has been unfairly nominated for inclusion?Ashcroft Burnham: We establish an entire legal system :-)Voodoo: with courts, judges, juries?Ashcroft Burnham: Yes :-)Mondrian Lykin: and a Parliament, and an executiveAshcroft Burnham: There are a surprisingly large number of real-life lawyers interested in being involved in the project.Voodoo: A cynical person would suggest they are looking at more of a way of getting money... even virtual moneyAshcroft Burnham: Well, actually, the opportunities for earning money are not very great in this system. There isn't a guarantee that we'll be able to make enough to cover our costs. We eventually hope to have salaried judges, for example, but I don't foresee them getting more than a few thousand Linden every month. Most people who are interested in being involved are interested in being involved because it's an inherently interesting thing to do.Voodoo: Indeed. Now, you mentioned a Parliament? Setting up a government of SL too?Ashcroft Burnham: Well, after a fashion, yes :-) After all, somebody has to decide, ultimately, what the laws are that the courts enforce. There needs to be democratic legitimacy.Voodoo: Democratic? So we would all get a say in their appointment?Mondrian Lykin: The Parliament will be formed by members elected by those who adhere to the system. Each of them will have one vote, and the Parliament will pass the laws that will be applied in the territories where the system is applied.Ashcroft Burnham: The subscribers, those who put the objects on their land that eject the people put on the list by the courts, they'd be the people who'd get to vote. Subscribing would be free. So, those who help the system to function get a say in how it works.Mondrian Lykin: I think it is important to say that banishment will not be the only verdict issued by the courts; they will have other instruments, like fines, injunctions and such.Ashcroft Burnham: Banishment will be used, however, against people who do very serious wrong, or breach the lesser court orders (i.e. fail to pay fines, etc.)Voodoo: It all sounds like a pretty huge project... have you come up against any obstacles so far?Ashcroft Burnham: Well, we're fairly early on. It's hard to tell whether, for example, we'll be able to raise enough finance to acquire the land needed for the court and parliament buildings, and to pay for the server. But, so far, things seem to be going fairly well. Recruitment has gone quite well. We now have a strong management team putting together all the logistics, and the constitutional team is about to start meeting and working out the details of the constitution, too.Mondrian Lykin: Resources seem to be the biggest issue, and of course, the recruitment. We have to follow at lest 3 main aspects: management, technical and constitutional. We formed 3 teams that are going to work on each, respectively, and we are about to start recruiting.Ashcroft Burnham: If any of your readers would like to join us, they should IM me or Mondrain in-world.Voodoo: What would you say to those who might say that this would be a pointless endeavour, since LL can overrule and disband this if the felt they wanted too?Ashcroft Burnham: Why would they want to do that? We're not doing anything against the Terms of Service or Community Standards. LL have, in theory, the power to disband any in-world group or project, but that doesn't make every group or project worthless.Mondrian Lykin: This system is user-generated, as far as it is good for the users that subscribe to it, there should be no reason for them to intervene in any such, if any at all, wayAshcroft Burnham: They haven't intervened in BanLink, after all.Mondrian Lykin: There exist already some communities who have their own laws, I am thinking to the RPG communities, or the Gorean communities, and such othersAshcroft Burnham: But none of them yet have a sophisticated legal system capable of handling serious business and related disputes, and they tend to be narrow in scope. They have designed (of course, in other ways) their own system, and they obey to itVoodoo: So, as long as your laws don't contradict the ultimate “constitution” of SL, the LL ToS, everything should be ok?Ashcroft Burnham: Well, indeed. And there'd be no reason for us to do that :-)Mondrian Lykin: I think nobody would be happy to hear that LL intervenes in something that doesn't break the ToS. Business people on SL would be quite upset to hear thatAshcroft Burnham: I think that this is a very exciting project, and could bring great benefit to SecondLife as a whole. The encouragement of sophisticated commerce through a refined and professional legal system could have a marked impact on the SecondLife economy.Imagine how much better that things like financial services would work if there was a sophisticated legal system to go with them.Voodoo: Well, thank you for your time, and I'd like to personally wish you the best of luck with this.Mondrian Lykin: thank youAshcroft Burnham: Thank you very much :-)
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