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Virtual world Second Life has hosted a few tech luminaries before, including sci-fi author Cory Doctorow and progressive IP lawyer Larry Lessig. MAKE Magazine blogger Phil Torrone and vlogger Amanda Congdon have tooled around in it too.

And now BusinessWeek tells us that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has an avatar in the online playground. The multi-millionaire just chipped into an $11 million funding round for Second Life, and apparently he's been casing the joint. I asked around to verify. But an e-mail to Second Life got a "sorry, no comment" response — damn those pesky user privacy issues.

Calling all virtual-reality paparazzi: Valleywag wants pics of Jeff Bezos playing Second Life. Keep an eye out for an avatar dressed as a rocketman.

A Virtual World's Real Dollars [BusinessWeek]