The in-house magazine of online community Second Life reveals on Thursday that the sale of a ‘virtual’ Amsterdam, constructed and offered for sale to ‘real’ real estate agents Nedstede Groep has fallen through due to differences over intellectual property rights.

At $50,000, the deal – arranged via eBay in March – would have been a record sale for an SL property. Nedstede apparently did not fully understand the intellectual property rights situation with the established tenants.
Within a week of the simulated Amsterdam opening in 2006, stores were filling up with hopeful sellers, the streets and skies thronged with visiting avatars. Visitors and vendors reinvented themselves again and again, making Amsterdam one of the busiest places in Second Life.
Virtual Amsterdam became well known for its attention-to-detail, with landmarks from central Station and Dam to the alleyways of the Wallen loving recreated, but also ‘signage, advertising, imperfections and litter.’
‘The buyer’s attorneys thought they could get full exploit rights to all the content on the sim … animations, textures and scripts … we said no … every Merchant/Builder/Scriptor will retain their own rights,’ the site’s owner, told Second Life Insider.
Ironically, Nedstede’s website is currently ‘under construction’.