Ash,

I finally read this article of yours, and the comparison with soccer/football rules co-existing peacefully within the context of national law is a great example. I usually give a different example, like an association or a club having their own code of conduct inside their club HQ. An example: while national law protects the freedom of expression, a club can forbid members to write on the walls — and both things co-exist, since the freedom of expression is not "removed" arbitrarily just because someone joins a club. But the soccer analogy is far easier to understand :)

Just a slight note: Linden Lab always called private islands, or, more precisely, <i>sets</i> of private islands, "estates". Their idea was that from the Estate menu option you could set/control <i>all</i> your islands as a whole (ie. for banning; or having the same setting for the sun in the whole estate; or even sending messages to all users on all islands inside the estate), as well as some "fine-tuning" on individual islands. LL tends to use both terms interchangeably, since, by default, when someone buys their first private island, both the island and an estate with that island are created. Sometimes LL "forgets" to add further islands to the *same* estate.

I don't read LL's words as implying that the mainland will <i>not</i> have access to the new "governance tools", although that might happen (LL has the strangest ideas sometimes!). In effect, I believe that "Governor Linden", the "enforcer" of the mainland (which is also an "estate"), will very likely want to use those "governance tools" as well (thus allowing LL to place the burden of running the "Mainland Estate" in the hands of an employee without the need of "God mode"). But it's soon to know for sure what LL is planning there...

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This nicely breaks down the impact of the change on local government, and -- I think correctly -- hints at the tools that a group like this might be able to package as a "government" franchise and sell, give away, or whatever. The change in the nature of abuse reporting is significant, and I'm surprised how many people are overlooking it. As is traditional, I take a less academic view of the change <a href="http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/04/25/linden-lab-takes-big-step-toward-private-legal-systems-and-governments-in-second-life/">over at Virtually Blind</a>, but if you're reading this you may want to read the post there as well, if for no other reason than to see what I expect will ultimately reflect the widespread response from attorney participants in SL.

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