Virtual Copyright: A Palpable Hit

This is rather amusing:

Anshe Chung Studios, Second Life’s biggest property developer, is pressing media outlets to take down photos and video of a griefing attack against its eponymous founder, claiming that reproducing the images violates copyright.

The point is that taking a picture of someone in the real world for journalistic purposes would generally be fine - you don't have a copyright in your appearance, since you didn't do much to create it.

But in Second Life, things are rather different. People spend plenty of time creating themselves, and copyright for that digital creation is explicitly vested by Linden Labs in those creators. So Anshe Chung seems quite within her rights to demand the takedown.

Of course, being within her rights, and being right are two quite different things....