Good article, but something worth noting is that this was first published in the Village Voice over ten years ago... I think that part of the shock that this caused was due to the fact that the internet was a relatively new medium back then and nobody had thought of this before. Nowadays, whenever it happens in a MUD or MOO or anything, it's just seen as the equivalent of someone shouting out obsenities or insults; someone being an a-hole, but not really hurting anything.
Apropos, there's a MMORPG coming out soon where rape is a feature of the game just like stealing and killing are parts of most RPGs. It's currently in beta, in case anyone's curious, and the site is here (nsfw)
http://www.sociolotron.com