3pointD.com

We’ve blogged before about the possibility that Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life, might start letting users buy the rights to their own last names,effectively reserving a name for themselves and their friends. Now CNet’s Daniel Terdiman is reporting that there’s a plan in place to charge users $100 to set up their own last name, and a $50 annual maintenance fee. Corporate names will cost $1,000 to set up, with a $500 annual fee. While it seems that corporate customers can have unlimited accounts on the same last name, the story doesn’t make clear whether the $100 fee for personal last names covers only one instance of the name, or whether it covers exclusive use for any number of avatars. It seems to me this should get ugly fast, since it requires LL to make a great number of arbitrary decisions about what last names they will and won’t sell off. Who gets to own “Smith” and “Miller,” for instance? It’s also another case that could create a tiered service that works against metaverse neutrality. I’m not convinced that making naming conventions uniform across all users wouldn’t be a better way to go — but I’m open to argument.