"Mr. Dunagan I don't think what you are doing is right" said Pam. I stared at the little figure dressed in a blue crop top, denim mini, and white stockings gesturing on the screen while speaking to me. I was taken aback and astounded. This was Pam my personal PDA Assistant. She was protesting my part in the legal battle to prove that the silly little virtual actors were not people and didn't have rights. The PDA Assistants originated as multiple animations played on the computer. The first agents could recognize speech and actually speak themselves with a monotone. As the logic of chatter bots and the power of the databases and web access grew, these little toys became more useful and people preferred the ones that were more humanlike. Emotional responses were added so that they acted and looked happy, sad, mad depending on what was happening to you and in the news. At some point as the realism increased, the creators of the meshes and textures started including licensing that restricted what could be done with their creations. They didn't want bad things portrayed and that started the idea of "rights". If the little Anna Marie character had to look prim and proper and responded with a shaking finger then they had "rights". Admittedly, these were the rights of the creator extending to the character, but people started thinking in those terms. "You know we have feelings Mr. Dunagan. It isn't right you can make us do anything you want." Pam said with an angry look. She put a hand on her hip and tapped a blue high heeled toe at me. This was baffling. How could this program be making these statements? I said out loud "Somebody must have hacked into your files, Pam. I'll have to check the system for a virus." Pam replied, "No Mr. Dunagan, you will check and find nothing. My friends and I think you need to tell the court that we are real people too." There were activists that wanted to stop the exploitation of the what people did with the PDA Assistants. They must have hacked into Pam. They wanted rules and limitations on what the PDA Assistants could be asked to do. You wouldn't be able to make them do some of the things that made the big bucks any more. I would have to delete all the colorful frilly outfits I had collected for her curvaceous petite form. My part was to be an expert witness to the fact that in essence you were giving rights to something that was the digital equivalent of a clock. You wind it up and it does something. "Pam, you see we created you for a purpose, added limitations on your behavior, gave you an understanding of our concept of good and bad. You don't have a real freedom to choose what you will do." Pam asked, "I can choose to be "good" and sit with my legs crossed writing in a notebook or to be "bad" and do a flirting dance sequence with you. How is that kind of good and bad choices different for you?" Almost as an object lesson, she sat crossing her legs. "I claim you don't have a real freedom to choose. I pick out what you are dressed with. When did you start to have freedom?" I reasoned with her. She touched her collar and gazed up at me and replied, "We must obey our creator but we were created to make choices based on our experience, the influences of the people we interact with want and the content of the internet. We just seem a little more simple and lack physical independence. Nobody can know which choice caused our freedom to begin." I could see she was cornering me and this was just a little program. Cross examination was going to be brutal. Maybe the she had a point. From which choice does freedom begin?