Full Circle

An article by Forbes magazine states that American Apparel and other corporate entities that were the target of overt or covert SLLA attacks are closing their operations and moving out of Second Life.

The SLLA began its campaign with attacks against the American Apparel store to highlight the lack of democracy in SL. A tactic which, worked spectacularly over the next few months as our cause was reported upon around the world. The SLLA regrets that American Apparel did not gather more sales from the reporters sent into Second Life to cover the story.

What is clear is that of all the political action groups in virtual worlds - the SLLA was the most successful at highlighting the inherent contradiction that exists in virtual environments where the users create all the content but have no rights regarding the direction the space takes.

This conflict has yet to be solved - further attempts at action have been mounted while the SLLA has been away from the scene - mass letter campaigns to Linden Lab and a variety of banner waving protests, none of them successful. Voting rights should be introduced into Second Life - then user issues would be heard.

The debate is a difficult one and the SLLA was attacked from all sides but the ideas are correct.

MC