Rosedale discloses FBI griefing probe to Congress
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, April 1 (Reuters) - Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale testified before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday that he has asked the FBI to investigate denial of service attacks in Second Life, but reassured lawmakers that the online community is able to police itself.
“We actively and proactively have involved the FBI in looking into cyber-crimes where people have tried to deny service,” Rosedale said.
Last April, Reuters reported Linden Lab asked the FBI to investigate gambling in the virtual world. Rosedale’s statement to Congress reveals the cooperation between Linden Lab and U.S. law enforcement to be deeper than previously known.
“Griefing” is an antisocial phenomena endemic to Second Life, in which avatars take enjoyment from deliberately spoiling other users’ experiences. Denial of service attacks, where malicious hackers overload a Second Life sim’s capacity to shut it down, or defacement of virtual property or events with racist or pornographic images, are common tactics.
Rosedale’s statement came in scheduled testimony before the U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. While the informational hearing was billed as an examination of virtual worlds in general, the discussion focused almost exclusively on Second Life.
The outgoing Linden Lab CEO fielded gentle questioning about Second Life from the Congress, telling lawmakers that Linden Lab closely scrutinizes all transactions worth more than US$10.
“When people extract money from the virtual world, we run it through several complex systems,” Rosedale said, in response to lawmakers’ queries about protections against fraud in Second Life. “It’s likely the law is more enforceable in virtual worlds than the Internet in general.”
Lawmakers also probed Linden’s CEO about Second Life’s child protection measures. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) expressed alarm over the possible exploitation of Second Life by Islamist extremists.
“I am not advocating censorship. But I am asking what we can to to make certain that these glorious tools are not … changed into tools that facilitate the use of terror attacks on innocent civilians around the world,” said Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, of California.
Harman cited a British newspaper report last year saying that Islamic extremists were suspected of using Second Life to recruit and mimic real-life terrorism.
“We have never seen any evidence that there is any such activity going on,” Rosedale responded.
In addition to Rosedale, Susan Tenby (Second Life: Glitteractica Cookie) of TechSoup spoke about non-profit groups operating in Second Life, Larry Johnson (Second Life: Larry Pixel) of the New Media Consortium spoke about Second Life’s educational uses, and Colin Parris of IBM talked about his company’s experience in virtual worlds.
Asked if IBM had found its experiment in Second Life profitable, Parris seemed to have trouble coming to an answer. “There are some cost savings that occur in training,” he said. “If you look at simulation-based training, people retain more information.”
Parris said IBM’s involvement with Second Life was part of an ongoing experiment, believing virtual worlds are one component of what will eventually make up the “3D Internet.”
(Additional reporting by Peter Kaplan)
