Developed in 2003 by [Linden Lab](https://www.lindenlab.com/), [Second Life](https://www.secondlife.com/) was one of the first [[Virtual Worlds]] that got wide-spread attention outside the core audience. Further, it differentiated from the hugely popular MMO's at the time by not strictly being a game, but putting socializing as the core mechanic within a sandbox. In many ways Second Life was a protocol since it could be accessed by the official game client or by third party developed clients. ## Second Life economy By 2007 Second Life's "GDP" was larger than those of several small countries, with 2 million monthly users, spending around $3 billion within the game within a decade. In November 2003, Linden Lab made a policy change to "*Allow Second Life residents to retain full ownership of their virtual creations*": [SECOND LIFE RESIDENTS TO OWN DIGITAL CREATIONS | Linden Lab](https://www.lindenlab.com/releases/second-life-residents-to-own-digital-creations): > Second Life's Terms of Service now recognize the ownership of in-world content by the subscribers who make it. The revised TOS allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. At this time in 2003 the numbers were: "*Over 12,000 objects for sale. Each month, nearly 100,000 user-to-user transactions for goods and services take place*." Linden Lab published numbers for their 10th anniversary in 2013: [INFOGRAPHIC: 10 YEARS OF SECOND LIFE | Linden Lab](https://www.lindenlab.com/releases/infographic-10-years-of-second-life) * 36 million user accounts * 1 million monthly users * 2.1 million user-created goods * 1.2 million daily transactions for virtual goods ## The eBay exception Though trading in virtual items is prohibited, there are some virtual item sales that eBay allows. The eBay policy against the sale of virtual items is based on their intellectual property rules. Because of this, if you actually are the owner of the intellectual property, you can (theoretically) buy or sell these virtual items. The best known example of this is Second Life. According to eBay Second Life is not considered a game, and thus the sale of Second Life virtual items is not prohibited. Though this statement seems dependent upon what the definition of a 'game' is, there may also be an additional basis to this. Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, maintains that all virtual items created by the players are the property of the players, not Linden Lab. Either way, eBay has decided that listing Second Life virtual items is not a violation of the intellectual property or virtual item restrictions. Though this policy is always subject to change, you can currently buy and sell Second Life items through eBay without risking your account being banned or suspended. (Provided you are not violating any other poilicy.) From: [Buying and Selling Virtual Items on eBay (ezinearticles.com)](https://ezinearticles.com/?Buying-and-Selling-Virtual-Items-on-eBay&id=958490) ## Anshe Chung In 2006, Ailin Graef (aka Anshe Chung in game) became the first (reported) [Second Life millionaire](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-11-25/second-lifes-first-millionaire) by developing property in Second Life. She became a prominent figure in and around Second Life with profiles in BusinessWeek and other traditional news media. ## Articles & posts https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/galaxy-brain/6233ecafdc551a002089fb15/lessons-from-19-years-in-the-metaverse/ [My Virtual Life (archive.org)](https://web.archive.org/web/20070105191002/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm) [The Monopoly of the Commons. We Can Have Nice Things, But We Rarely Get To Keep Them | by Avi Bar-Zeev | Predict | Feb, 2022 | Medium](https://medium.com/predict/the-monopoly-of-the-commons-40ad91cd2efd) [Second Life Still Has 600,000 Regular Users - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/second-life-leslie-jamison/544149/) [Second Life: What are the real numbers? – Corante](https://corante.com/social-software/second-life-what-are-the-real-numbers/)