Goverment without Representation

Hi All,

Its time for a bit of musing, and possibly upsetting some folk. Whats below are my thoughts as of today and my thoughts are subject to change without notice.

With all the hoohar over SL5B (if you don't know anything about it check Massively's and Gwyneth Llewelyn's entries), the outlawing of gambling, and the concerns over what else is going to be restricted, is it time for the residents of SL to start to look at independence? It seems we are currently governed by US rules, and yet a very large number of residents have no representation in the law making process. If my knowledge of history is correct, the idea of governance without representation was one of the causes of the War of Independence between the US and Britain. With July 4th coming up, perhaps its time to look at how SL is governed.

Is it possible for SL to be independent of the US? I'd like to suggest that its is possible. The fact the servers are located in the US is the stated reason US law is applied, but there already locations in the US in which US law has no sway, the embassy's for other countries. Why not apply the same for the servers and make them the embassy for SL?

LL dose not want to get involved in the governance of SL (despite there being a 'Governor Linden'), but if they, instead, acted as agents to an in-world government, their liabilities would be reduced. It would be up to a legislative body of residents to determine the laws that apply globally to SL, this body could be a properly elected group (which should give us some interesting political parties).

I admit that there are a lot of details that would need to be sorted, would a customs gate be required? There will also be a lot of resistance from those currently in power in the US, those who fear the new and unknown. Maybe there is something I don't know that makes the idea complete nonsense, but if I can make you stop and think, then I have done what I set out to do :)

Afon