Rabbits starve en masse in Second Life

Rabbits in the virtual environment of Second Life have been starving en masse since last weekend, because a third party had to take a database offline after a cease-and-desist summation. The rabbits had to connect to the database to eat.

The rabbits are so-called breedables of the brand Ozimals. Users can raise and mate virtual animals in Second Life to acquire new beasts, Vice describes. The animals have to ‘eat’ in order to survive; a measure that the makers of the animals have devised to continue to generate income.

Ozimals’ rabbits were particularly popular, but last week the brand reported receiving a letter in a now-deleted posting asking it to stop using Ozimals’ intellectual property. The letter came from Akimeta, which appears to be involved with the original Ozimal rabbits.

The service behind Ozimals did not have the resources to challenge the summons and has therefore discontinued its products. This means that the databases behind the rabbits, and a species of bird called Pufflings, have been offline since last Wednesday. The animals must connect to the databases to continue functioning. If they don’t, they will starve within 72 hours.

According to the makers, they do not really die, rather there would be a hibernation, although the chance seems small that the databases will come back online. In addition, some of the rabbits can still be used if their owner has enabled the paid Everlasting function. With this ‘eternal life’ option, they don’t need to connect.