The creators of Anshe Chung, the "land baroness" who claimed to be the first avatar to make a million dollars in Second Life, enjoyed the uncritical media attention when the virtual world was on the way up. Now that the backlash against Linden Lab's online game is underway, the Graefs should work on their stoicism. At one of Anshe Chung's recent appearances, an interview with a CNET avatar in which she was to boast about her virtual fortune, a line of giant penises came floating into the frame. Instead of laughing off the incident, the Graefs have had a video of the abortive interview taken down from Youtube; and they've demanded blog Boing Boing and an Australian newspaper remove screenshots. The grounds: the flying penises represented a personal attack; media outlets not using authorized images of Anshe Chung are violating copyright; and the images show "graphical rape scenes." Which goes to show only, that moguls are thin-skinned, whichever world they're in: no matter how much money they make on the back of unjustified hype, they think it's terribly unfair when the media goes off the PR message. The clip, while it lasts, after the jump.

Contact information for this author is not available.