Roland asks the question “Will mirror worlds mirror local laws and regulations?” over on the MixedRealities blog.

Other issues are even more important though. It seems crucial for mirror worlds to work together with local companies and authorities, who can use the environment to attract tourists for instance.

Does this mean that also the local laws and regulations will be replicated (including dress codes for men and women?) Singapore certainly is not the most difficult case. Singapore is a parliamentary democracy, but there are laws restricting the freedom of speech that may breed ill will or cause disharmony within Singapore’s multiracial, multi-religious society, as Wikipedia explains.

It will be interesting to see how mirror worlds replicate (or not) local laws and regulations. If those worlds want to be more than innocent Disneylands, but real communities, these issues cannot be avoided.

This is a question that I’ve been asked many times over the time that we’ve been working on Twinity. The concept that I use to explain our positioning on it is “Selective Reflection”. That basically means that we like to take the good and leave the bad. There are limits to this, of course, such as what is required by law based on locations of servers, members, payment processing partners, etc. But in the end, we see that most real-world law doesn’t exactly apply in virtual worlds. For instance, you can be relatively sure that you would never get a parking ticket in Twinity. 😉