Abstract

In 1999, Barton Beebe critiqued a “golden age” of space law in the 1950s and 1960s in which obscure legal issues concerning space exploration and aliens were addressed. This article describes a more recent “golden age” in legal scholarship, namely that relating to virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. The author examines the motivations of legal scholars who write about legal issues at this new technological frontier. She concludes that although new technology is often a site of new legal problems, a focus on technological aspects of particular issues cannot always be justified.