Terrorists Attack Second Life

Posted by Robert Janelle Feb 25, 2007

Last week, the virtual world of Second Life shaken up by an act of terrorism.

Bombs exploded in the commercial district, cloud the area with white smoke, but otherwise causing no real damage.

But isn't that terrorism in it's purest form? The gain attention by creating fear.

Taking credit for this acting was a group known as the Second Life Liberation Army.

With the name reminiscent of right-wing militias, the group has one simple demand: Linden Lab, owners of Second Life, should go public and allow players to buy shares in the company.

However, the group has stated on their website that their campaign does not seek to interfere with normal operation of the world but "will only attack agents of the state and other strategically important sites within Second Life."

While being able to buy shares of company must be an appealing idea of the growing list of Second Life users, one must wonder. Should the San Francisco-based company violate one of the great American codes and give into to terrorists? The SLLA may very well have harmed their own cause.

Besides, Linden Labs has already released the source code for the Second Life Viewer to the Open Source community, isn't that giving people control?