Monday, December 29, 2008

The Rocky Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds

Three short articles with some basic IP information regarding:


1. Trademarks

2. Patents

3. Copyrights


all by Ross Dannenberg the editor-in-chief of the Patent Arcade blog, and an adjunct professor at George Mason Law School in Arlington, Va.

Read more...

Friday, December 12, 2008

What if someone patented the whole metaverse?

It looks like american software patents system threaten virtual worlds too.

General Patent Corporation and World's.com announced yesterday:

We are pleased to have the expertise and IP experience of General Patent and Lerner David to enforce Worlds’ patent portfolio,” stated Thom Kidrin, Worlds’ CEO. “As the number of virtual worlds and MMORG’s continues to grow, Worlds has seen the space we pioneered in 1995 validated in techniques and methodologies we believe are defined in our patents.



The two patents in question are 6,219,045 and 7,181,690. Firts one is titled: "Scalable virtual world client-server chat system" second: "System and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space".


from Virtual Judgment post:

Therefore, it would seem that General Patent Corporation and Worlds.com are taking the position that the above-referenced patents cover the idea of the computer architecture for a three-dimensional graphical multi-user interactive virtual world systems. If so, this announcement is arguably a very thinly veiled notice to the virtual world industry that infringement suits are forthcoming for those companies who do not enter into a licensing deal with General Patent Corporation and Worlds.com.




Undoubtedly determining enforeability of these two patents could have serious impact on the future of virtual worlds.

Read more...

Monday, November 17, 2008

Virtual Worlds Timeline




Isn't interesting?

Read more...

Friday, November 7, 2008

Obama in Second Life



by Draxtor Despres

Read more...

Virtual Property - Business Models And Pitfalls

Another outstanding issue associated with virtual property is ownership. Who actually owns these objects, characters, and land after they are "purchased" from the company? Most EULAs state the game company owns the intellectual property in the objects and the players are merely purchasing a limited license. Still, this is changing with some companies, such as Linden Lab, experimenting with EULA provisions that grant limited ownership rights in user-created virtual property. In fact, the Bragg case was only possible because that particular world, Second Life, acknowledged some limited player rights in virtual land. There are also companies like Metaplace that are developing technology that allow users to build their own virtual worlds, literally creating the world with their own IP.



from The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel

see also Dan Miler's post

Read more...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

China has announced a 20 per cent tax on income from trading virtual goods

Beijing tax officials declined to explain how they would implement the vaguely worded ruling, with local media saying detailed regulations could be announced in the coming days. However, Chinese analysts and games players suggested that the authorities’ attempt to tax the virtual currency trade would fare no better than the previous effort to ban it.


from Financial Times

Read more...

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Constitution of the Polish Republic

After few months of very intensive work the final text of the Constitusion has been established. It looks like Polska Republika will be the next interesting self-govermental experiment in virtual worlds. The document will be also available on the forum secondlife.pl and Polska Republika's website.





My, Założyciele Polskiej Republiki w Second Life,
nie hołdujący żadnym wartościom poza ToS i Big Six,
nawiązując do najlepszych tradycji Second Life, gdzie każdy wolnym i równym jest, i sam o sobie stanowi,
złączeni więzami przyjaźni z każdym z awatarów
ustanawiamy Konstytucję Polskiej Republiki jako prawo podstawowe
i oddajemy Wam ziemię byście nią zarządzali.
Wszystkie awatary, które dla dobra Republiki będą Konstytucję stosowały
wzywamy, by czyniły to ku dobru wspólnemu i wspólnej zabawie




Rozdział I
Wolności, Prawa i Obowiązki Obywatela oraz Rezydenta


§ 1.
Władza w Polskiej Republice należy do Obywateli. Obywatele sprawują władzę poprzez swoich przedstawicieli.
§ 2.
Nabycie Obywatelstwa Polskiej Republiki następuje poprzez przystąpienie do grupy Polska Republika. Przystąpienie do grupy jest darmowe i otwarte dla każdego awatara.
§ 3.
Obywatel może dobrowolnie zrzec się obywatelstwa poprzez wystąpienie z grupy Polska Republika. Zrzeczenie się obywatelstwa jest równoznaczne z utratą wszelkich funkcji w Polskiej Republice.
§ 4.
Obowiązkiem obywatela jest wspieranie Polskiej Republiki swoją wiedzą, doświadczeniem i umiejętnościami.
§ 5.
Obywatel jest równy wobec prawa oraz uprawniony do równego traktowania przez organy władzy.
§ 6.
Obywatel ma prawo do wyrażania i rozpowszechniania informacji, opinii oraz wierzeń w mowie, piśmie i obrazie, o ile nie stoją one w sprzeczności z systemem prawnym Republiki.
§ 7.
Obywatel otrzymuje czynne oraz bierne prawo wyborcze.
§ 8.
Żaden organ władzy Polskiej Republiki nie może pozbawić jakiejkolwiek osoby praw i wolności w tej Konstytucji wyszczególnionych ani praw i wolności wynikających z innych aktów prawnych, poza sytuacjami gdy został wydany wyrok sądowy lub gdy pozbawienie to jest niezbędne, by Królowa mogła wykonywać swoje zadania ujęte w niniejszej Konstytucji.
§ 9.
Pozbawienie przez Królową lub Sąd dostępu do Polskiej Republiki jest równoznaczne z pozbawieniem wszelkich praw z wyłączeniem prawa najmu działki, niezależnie od przynależności do grupy Polska Republika.
§ 10.
Obywatel ma prawo do zgromadzeń i wnoszenia petycji w dowolnej sprawie przy zachowaniu postępowania pokojowego i bez użycia przemocy.
§ 11.
Rezydentem jest, niezależnie od obywatelstwa, osoba posiadająca prawo najmu działki na terenie Polskiej Republiki.


Rozdział II
Królowa Polskiej Republiki


§ 12.
Królowa jest najwyższym przedstawicielem Polskiej Republiki oraz gwarantem ciągłości władzy. Do Królowej należą sprawy nie zastrzeżone dla innych organów władzy.
§ 13.
Królowa czuwa nad przestrzeganiem Konstytucji oraz innych aktów prawnych, stoi na straży suwerenności i bezpieczeństwa Polskiej Republiki.
§ 14.
Na Królowej spoczywa odpowiedzialność wobec Linden Lab oraz historii.
§ 15.
Królowa jest jedynym reprezentantem Polskiej Republiki w stosunkach z podmiotami zewnętrznymi.
§ 16.
W razie konieczności, Królowa może udzielić obywatelowi pełnomocnictwa do wykonywania poszczególnych czynności w jej imieniu.
§ 17.
Królowa wydaje dekrety po przeprowadzeniu konsultacji społecznych.


Rozdział III
Rząd Polskiej Republiki


§ 18.
Rząd prowadzi bieżące sprawy Polskiej Republiki.
§ 19.
Rząd składa się z Ministrów wyłanianych w wyborach powszechnych, równych, bezpośrednich w głosowaniu tajnym.
§ 20.
Wybory ogłasza oraz przeprowadza Królowa na podstawie dekretu.
§ 21.
Objęcie funkcji Ministra następuje z chwilą ogłoszenia wyników wyborów przez Królową oraz złożenia ślubowania.
§ 22.
Ministrem zostać może tylko obywatel Polskiej Republiki.
§ 23.
W skład Rządu wchodzi pięciu Ministrów:
- 1 wybrany przez rezydentów
- 3 wybranych przez obywateli
- 1 nominowany przez Królową
§ 24.
Zgłaszający swą kandydaturę w wyborach do Rządu może kandydować tylko na jedną funkcję ministerialną.
§ 25.
Królowa może przeprowadzić referendum w sprawie odwołania Ministra na podstawie wniosku zgłoszonego przez co najmniej 20 obywateli, którzy w sposób bezsporny potwierdzą ważność swojego podpisu. Minister zostaje odwołany jeśli wniosek o jego usunięcie poprze ponad połowa biorących udział w referendum.
§ 26.
Królowa może ogłosić Referendum w sprawie odwołania Ministra, jeśli Rząd przekaże jej wniosek z głosowania. Zebranie podpisów członków grupy nie jest w tym wypadku wymagane.
§ 27.
Odwołanie całego składu Rządu może nastąpić stosownie do § 25.
§ 28.
Minister nominowany przez Królową może być odwołany tylko przez nią i tylko przed nią odpowiada.
§ 29.
Kadencja Rządu wynosi 1 miesiąc.


Rozdział IV
Praca Rządu


§ 30.
Rząd wybiera na swoim pierwszym posiedzeniu Premiera, który jest jego oficjalnym reprezentantem.
§ 31.
Rząd otrzymuje środki finansowe na podstawie ustawy.
§ 32.
Rząd wyraża swoją wolę w formie ustaw publikowanych na forum oraz w grupie Polska Republika. Osobą uprawnioną do ogłaszania ustaw jest Premier, następnie Minister powołany przez Królową i potem kolejno pozostali Ministrowi w kolejności alfabetycznej.
§ 33.
Zanim ustawa nabierze mocy prawnej winna być przedstawiona Królowej lub osobie przez nią wyznaczoną. O ile Królowa nie zgłosi zastrzeżeń w terminie 2 dni, ustawę uważa się za przyjętą.
§ 34.
Wszelkie inne wypowiedzi Ministrów, niż za pomocą ustaw, wyrażają jedynie ich prywatne stanowisko.
§ 35.
Ministrowie mogą się komunikować w dowolny sposób, jednak za wniosek oficjalnie poddany pod głosowanie uważa się wniosek zgłoszony na niejawnym podforum. Do niejawnego podforum mają dostęp tylko Ministrowie, Królowa oraz administracja forum.
§ 36.
Po zgłoszeniu wniosku i odbyciu dyskusji, zgłaszający poddaje wniosek pod głosowanie słowami: "Kończę dyskusję". Głosowanie odbywa się poprzez napisanie postu o treści:
(a) "jestem za" wyrażającego poparcie ustawy albo;
(b) "jestem przeciw" wyrażającego odrzucenie ustawy albo;
(c) "wstrzymuję się" wyrażającego wstrzymanie się od głosu.
Wniosek uważa się za przyjęty po uzyskaniu większości głosów.
§ 37.
Niewyrażenie przez Ministra stanowiska wobec wniosku w terminie 24 godzin od momentu poddania go pod głosowanie równoznaczne jest z oddaniem głosu wstrzymującego.
§ 38.
Rząd jest zobowiązany do przeprowadzenia debaty nad wnioskiem ustawodawczym zgłoszonym przez co najmniej 20 obywateli, którzy w sposób bezsporny potwierdzą ważność swojego podpisu.


Rozdział V
Wymiar Sprawiedliwości


§ 39.
Sąd orzeka w sprawach przestrzegania porządku prawnego Polskiej Republiki.
§ 40.
Sąd wydaje wyrok w imieniu Polskiej Republiki.
§ 41.
Sędziego powołuje Królowa Polskiej Republiki spośród kandydatów przedstawionych przez Rząd lub co najmniej 20 obywateli, którzy w sposób bezsporny potwierdzą ważność swojego podpisu. W przypadku braku kandydatów, Sędziego powołuje Królowa.
§ 42.
Sędzia powoływany jest na czas nieoznaczony.
§ 43.
Sędzia w sprawowaniu swojego urzędu jest niezawisły i nie podlega innym organom Polskiej Republiki.
§ 44.
Sędzia nie może prowadzić działalności nie dającej się pogodzić z zasadami niezależności i niezawisłości.
§ 45.
Sędziego odwołuje Królowa Polskiej Republiki.
§ 46.
Szczegółowe zasady działania organów wymiaru sprawiedliwości reguluje dekret.


Rozdział VI
Finanse Polskiej Republik
i

§ 47.
Opłaty związane z wynajmem działek oraz sposobem ich licytacji reguluje dekret.
§ 48.
Budżet stanowią wpływy z opłat za ziemię (Tier) oraz wynajmu sklepów oddanych Rządowi a także inne dochody wygospodarowane przez Rząd.
§ 49.
Królowa oddaje Rządowi do dyspozycji wyznaczone sklepy. Rząd gospodaruje nimi w dowolny sposób z zachowaniem porządku prawnego Polskiej Republiki. Opłaty wnoszone przez wynajmujących przedmiotowe sklepy przekazywane są Królowej, która dołącza je do budżetu.
§ 50.
W przypadku powierzchni reklamowej stosuje się odpowiednio § 49.
§ 51.
Dysponentem budżetu jest Królowa, która wypłaca Rządowi środki na określone cele lub bezpośrednio Ministrom na podstawie przegłosowanych ustaw.
§ 52.
Tygodniowa suma wypłat nie może przekroczyć ¼ całego budżetu.
§ 53.
Środki nie pobrane z budżetu są automatycznie przenoszone na kolejny okres rozliczeniowy i mogą zostać przekazane kolejnemu Rządowi.


Rozdział VII
Przepisy przejściowe i końcowe


§ 54.
Konstytucja wchodzi w życie z chwilą ogłoszenia.
§ 55.
Zmiany Konstytucji może dokonać jedynie Królowa po przeprowadzeniu konsultacji społecznych.
§ 56.
Źródłami powszechnie obowiązującego prawa w Polskiej Republice, obok odpowiednich przepisów prawa polskiego, są ustanowione przez przez Linden Lab "Terms of Service" oraz "Big Six" jak również Konstytucja, dekrety, ustawy, wyroki oraz inne akty prawne wydane przez organy Polskiej Republiki.
§ 57.
Jedyną osobą uprawniona do dokonywania wiążącej interpretacji Konstytucji jest Królowa.
§ 58.
Każdy przebywający na terenie Polskiej Republiki zobowiązuje się do przestrzegania porządku prawnego.
§ 59.
Językiem urzędowym Polskiej Republiki jest język polski.
§ 60.
Z chwilą wejścia w życie Konstytucji, Mała Konstytucja traci moc prawną.

Read more...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Four Years of Virtual Democracy

Four years on the CDS is in a fairly healthy state but, as ever in a democracy, there is stuff still to do. There are unravelled threads, incomplete projects and outstanding issues. It is messy, ragged and never complete - just like in RL.



from: Patroklus Murakami's blog

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Digital constitutionalism

The main problem with the governance of virtual communities is that our legal system operates in such a way as to vest overwhelming power in the hands of those who create and maintain the platforms. These people, whom we call 'proprietors', for they own the code that defines the platform and servers upon which the code runs, exercise almost complete discretion as to who may access and who may continue to access 'their' community. The law, by giving primacy to these property rights, marginalises the interests of participants in these communities. Further, by casting any disputes or tensions which arise as belonging wholly in the 'private' sphere, we deligitimise any to the current allocation of entitlements.


from Nic Suzor's blog

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Transactions of Virtual Items in Virtual Worlds

An interesting article by Michael Passman.

More on Virtually Blind.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

A practical example of DMCA notifications in Linden Lab

How Linden Lab handle with DMCA notices on user generated content in their virtual environment?

Very informative post by Tateru Nino from Massively.

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Polish Republic



About one month ago Polska Republika (The Polish Republic) was born in Second Life. It looks like it is the first Polish self-governance attempt in the metaverse.
There is preamble and Small Constitusion so far. Final Constitusion still under construction. The owner of the island is a Queen (yes Republic with a Queen :)) but the plan is to establish government elected democratically by the community.




Some informations available on two great blogs run by: Ayumi Cassini and Gwyneth Llwelyn.

The Queen, Uzi Boa has her own blog too.


More details here or in-world.

Read more...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

2008 Meteverse tour




Great overview of 42 (current open or in beta) virtual worlds in 7 minutes.

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Parallel virtual iSummit in the Metaverse




The fourth global iSummit will be held in Sapporo, Japan from 29 July to 1 August, 2008.

iCommons in association with Digital Garage, Creative Commons Japan and the City of Sapporo will bring together pioneers of the free Internet from over 60 countries around the world.

The iSummit '08 in Second Life is coordinated by David Orban, aka Davidorban Agnon, virtual worlds visionary.

Check out the event schedule

Click on the following link to visit the island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Japan%20Sapporo/128/160/22/

Read more...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dictatorship or democracy in virtual worlds

Why not just create a "democratic" game that has a constitution, full citizenship for players, and all the prerequisites for stable wealth? Such a game would be open source (so that other, interoperable "nations" could be established for you to emigrate to if you don't like the will of the majority in one game-world), and run by elected representatives who would instruct the administrators and programmers as to how to run the virtual world. In the real world, the TSA sets the rules for aviation -- in a virtual world, the equivalent agency would determine the physics of flight.



an article by Cory Doctorow from Informationweek

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Lively by Google

It's not a secret anymore.





The Terms of Service are not very surprising and generally look similar to Secondlife TOS.


Two the most important differences:

1. Lively doesn't have currency.
2. The content in Lively is mostly generated by vendors working for Google and a small number of trusted testers.


So it looks more like clone of IMVU (combination of "chat with friends" in cartoonish 3D) than Secondlife or the Metaverse.

Read more...

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Secondlife of Lawyers

There was a time when the most influenced lawyers like Lawrence Lessing and Richard Posner appeared in-world. What is more important they gave very interesting speeches regarding legal aspects of the Metaverse:



THE SECOND LIFE OF JUDGE RICHARD A. POSNER



THE SECOND LIFE OF LAWRENCE LESSIG




both likns from the New World Notes blog.

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Monday, June 16, 2008

The Metaverse Republic Party!



If you still don't know what exactly The Metaverse Republic is and what wants to achieve that means you need to be there!

* here is the in-world landmark.

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Legal aspects of machimina

The big issue in Second Life is copyright. The creators of Second Life, Linden Lab, assign intellectual property rights in the avatars (characters) and the objects that individuals create to the Second Life users who create them. This means that you would need to get permission from the creators of any avatars or scenes that you film in Second Life, in order to avoid breaching copyright.


Generally Linden Lab does not give permission for anyone to film in Second Life because they do not own the content (the copyright in the avatars and scenes) but they do however liken filming in Second Life to filming in New York, where generic street scenes and landscapes can be considered “fair use”.




from: Machinima the legal way - a post by Mixin Pixel.

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Monday, June 2, 2008

Podcast on Law in Virtual Worlds

An interview with Dr Melissa de Zwart from australian Monash University’s Law Faculty.


Here you can listen or download the podcast. Worth your thirty minutes, in my opinion.



You can also read an article by Dr Melissa de Zwart, where she explains why our legal system can't ignore the rapidly growing interest in virtual worlds.

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Monday, May 19, 2008

Confederation of Democratic Simulatiors

The oldest Democracy in Second Life



by Draxtor Despres

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Friday, May 16, 2008

Employment law issues

Virtual world enthusiasts from businesses to individuals love virtual worlds for their immersive quality. In virtual worlds, you tend to feel like you’re ‘with’ others in a ‘place’ rather than communicating over a network with a tool. That’s what’s magical about them and why they will, over time, largely eliminate the challenges of physical distance. That said, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that real life laws do not apply to virtual worlds. We would never question whether working over the telephone counts as work. The same applies to virtual worlds technology.



The U.S. Internal Revenue Service issued a ruling that the Electric Sheep Company’s Second Life greeters for its CSI:NY promotion are “employees” rather than independent contractors.


Full interview regarding the ruling with an employment lawyer Dave Elchoness on Virtually Blind

Read more...

Enforceability of EULAs

"In Europe, terms of service can't always be changed when they need to because you have to tell the users up front in what situations you may change the the terms of service," said Lober. "It's hard to function in practicality -- how can you know all the situations that might come up in the future? You'd need a crystal ball!"

"In the US the kind of notice you have to give changes by state, and there are gambling laws to take into account sometimes. So you try to balance something that works in most of the states, and sometimes you can balance it based on where you know you'll be getting your customers from," said Augustino. "If you know most of your customers will be coming from California, you know you have to comply with California law. "



full text available here

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kölner Dom case



Kölner Dom in Second Life was made by two people and one of them claimed copyright in jointly designed textures ...


According to Video Game Law Blog...

The applicant claimed copyright in certain textures of the virtual "Kölner Dom", which was partly designed by her, and partly designed by the defendant. While the textures were designed to make the virtual building look like the real one, and photos were taken to achieve this aim, the applicant claimed that her work was protected under copyright law, as she had to adapt colors, brightness, and perspective.


and what is more interesting...

After a rather long elaboration of the various types of "work" which can be protected under copyright law, the court found that the textures were not suffiently original for copyright protection


Sounds little strange too me... but I'm not German lawyer and don't know all the details of this case.


More on Video Game Law Blog and GameLawBlog.de


IRL it looks like this...



ISL... (sorry... I couldn't found something better)



Some pictures of "Virtueller Kölner Dom" are also available here
But my advice is to check it in-world by yourself ;)

Read more...

One hour audio from Virtual Law Conference

Steve Mortinger, IBM's lawyer gave interesting lecture titled: "The Top Ten Things a Brand Should Know about Virtual Worlds"



Here you can download the record from the Conference.

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Alternative Dispute Resolution

This is quite nice ADR summary. Made by one of the most experienced SL resident, Gwyneth Llewelyn. There are two more slides available here.

Read more...

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Economy in the Metaverse

John Zdanowski, also known as Zee Linden is CFO of Linden Lab.



Read more...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Two Transcripts of Intellectual Property Discusions




Both presentations with great participation of Juris Amat. She is an Intellectual Property Atorney in Real Life and Virtual Intellectual Property Organization (VIPO) founder in Second Life.



Second Arts: Intellectual property rights and content creation


SL'ang Life: Content Theft Conference





P.S. I would like to thank my friends from Slang Life. Better late than never ;)

Read more...

Friday, April 11, 2008

Virtual Worlds Symposium Videos

From Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal :


We are pleased to announce that all video from the 2008 Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal Symposium is now available for download.

The 2008 Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal Symposium took place at the heart of Silicon Valley, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The 2008 Symposium tackled some of the most dynamic legal issues facing practitioners, academics, and jurists alike: Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0, and the GPL 3.0. As we finish editing video to incorporate better quality audio, it will be posted here.




Panel show list:



Rachel Goda download or stream

Greg Lastowka download or stream

M. Scott Boone download or stream

David Post download or stream

Question and Answer Session download or stream


Not enough? Visit Elizabeth Townsend Gard blip.tv webside (made by students but informative)

Read more...

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Congressional Hearing on Virtual Worlds

HEARING
Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium

Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 9:30 a.m.
2123 Rayburn House Office Building



Some resources:

The House of Committee on Energy and Commerce webside

witness list

audio

video: webcast or download

the most comprehensive summary

the best commentary

Read more...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Regulatory issues around virtual worlds by Cory Ondrejka

From his blog:

Read more...

Monday, March 24, 2008

The Second Life® Brand Center

From Linden Lab blog:


Today we invite you to check out the new Second Life Brand Center. The Brand Center explains how Residents can promote their own brands, products and activities in the Second Life world and use appropriate logos to enhance their message.

With the Brand Center, we’re also launching the inSL Logo Program, which provides a new community logo for Second Life Residents. Display the inSL logo to show you and your brands are a part of the Second Life community. This logo may be used on your website, business card, promotional materials, product packaging, and in many other places where you may wish to promote your contributions to the Second Life world. When using the logo, be sure to follow the Guidelines for Using the inSL Logo.



So we have:


The Second Life® Brand Center



The inSL Logo Program



Guidelines for Using Linden Lab's Trademarks



Hm... better late then never. More about trademarks in-world infringements on Virtually Blind.

The inSL Logo Program looks really interesting. I'm curious how would it works.


Here you can watch some of the branded builds in Second Life

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

My Second Life




as far as I know this is one of the famoust SL machimina.

Read more...

The Dump Man


The Dumb Man from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

as you see I do like SL machiminas and this above is one of the best I've ever seen. Enjoy ;)

Read more...

International Justice Center Launch

International Justice Center opened. Video available on SLCN web.


The International Justice Center is a social network -- on the web and in the virtual world of Second Life -– that will enable people from all over the world to learn about the court, engage with ICC officials and advocates, and take action in support of human rights and international justice.



What has intellectual property got to do with justice?

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Copybot still alive

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Ziggy Quirk's thoughts on content theft in SL

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Mask

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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Stroker Serpentine / Volkov Catteneo Settlement

More information on Virtually Blind

by the way… Stroker Serpentine Interview:



and one more video

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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Three interesting pieces on content theft in Second Life

From:



PlagiarismToday


Hippoi Athanatoi


CodeBastardRedgrave.Com

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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Terrorism in Virtual Worlds



and here is one article about it

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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Second Life Designers strip for IP Awareness Campaign




Chez Nabob
initiated SL content creator protest.



The hope is that enough awareness and education can take place as a result of the ads that a dialogue can be opened with LL and third-party ventures that will lead to a stronger, more robust system for dealing with the problem of theft.



For more information check commentary by Kit Merederith, who in RL is an attorney specializing in intellectual property.






"All ads reprinted by permission of Chez Nabob".

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Why not qualify the taking away of virtual objects as theft?

Interesting discussion on Terra Nova started by Arno R. Lodder


From the post:

I see no reason for distinguishing between virtual and physical theft. The original owners of the stolen Habbo furniture obtained the items after they bought credits with real money, and do attach value to those items. As long as the original owner looses something of value (such as virtual items) due to the act of another individual who gains possession over the item, it should in my opinion be qualified as theft, no matter whether the locus delicti is in the physical or the virtual world.

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Monday, February 18, 2008

IBM virtual strike

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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Philip Rosedale like Adolf Hitler



why is this video not available in some countries?

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The Second Life Story by Cory Ondrejka



and...
a very old (from 2004!) interview with Cory... not Linden any more on IP issues of Second Life

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Intellectual Property Rights in Second Life

There is a transcript from the in-world event with an intellectual property law attorney available at Slog. Frank Taney represents many Second Life companies and content creators, for example The Electric Sheep Company, Eros (Stroker Serpentine), Nephilaine, Munchflower, Crucial Creations and many more. Four categories of IP that are likely to be at issue in SL were covered: copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. The sim was packed to capacity so new events of specific topics are planned!


Another transcript from IP event this time with Benjamin Duranske aka Benjamin Noble is available at Business Communicators of Second Life® blog

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Sunday, February 10, 2008

An Avatar's Day in Court

Great article from UCLA’s Journal of Law and Technology by Farnaz Alemi:

An Avatar's Day in Court: A Proposal for Obtaining Relief and Resolving Disputes in Virtual World Games



two related commentary from:

Thomas Malaby

and

Benjamin Duranske

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Saturday, February 9, 2008

Interview with Desmond Shang

The laws that govern residents re: gambling and other such things are largely in place via our societies, not cooked up by our virtual world service provider. Our social interactions on the grid are already largely formed by us, and these are the basis for our rulesets. We can generally tell what is intended to be someone’s virtual bedroom as opposed to the street. We can generally ascertain meaning from how people chat, interact, move, and conduct business. From these social cues, we form distinct online cultures with their own values. Should governments of nations take action? For money laundering, identity theft or other major crimes, yes. But if someone leaves a virtual flaming bag of poo on your virtual porch, no, the government should not be involved.



An interview with Desmond Shang, the owner of The Independent State of Caledon. It is very interesting article about legal issues of Second Life from practical point of view. You can find it on The Seventh Sun's webside.

Two other interesting articles:

A virtual property dispute

Court rules against Linden

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Thursday, February 7, 2008

Virtual Law Conference

Virtual worlds are rapidly being adopted by a mainstream audience, with millions of users worldwide participating on a daily basis. Media, entertainment, and advertising companies are leveraging virtual worlds to generate new revenue streams and further engage audiences.

The growth of virtual worlds and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games has raised legal issues with no clear precedent. Virtual Law Conference provides a detailed examination of the legal issues raised by virtual worlds and offers key insight into where the industry is headed and what the associated legal implications are.



In April 3-4, 2008 in NYC The Section of Science and Technology Law of The American Bar Association organize an event for legal professionals whose companies or clients are currently or may in the near future be influenced by the adoption and use of virtual worlds. For more information visit this webside.

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

When Pretend Money Has Real Value

The Illinois Business Law Journal is a production of the University of Illinois College of Law's Business Law Society. This project is inspired by an innovative trend in legal publication, in which weblog technology is utilized to allow students, faculty, and professionals to interact online through legal writing and scholarship; providing a unique complement to traditional law reviews. The purpose of this Journal is to provide our readers with information on recent developments affecting business law. Articles are written by law students, but we invite professors, students, and practitioners to submit articles or user comments for publication on the website. Please visit the website on a regular basis, as new articles are published frequently.

and what can we find there...

A Study of Virtual Property in Online Gaming



just one more link about Property in Second Life


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A lot of questions...


Very interesting interview with David Naylor (SL- Solomon Cortes).

Find out how complicated can be legal implications of doing business in virtual worlds.



podcast


Show notes :

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
01:10 - Start of interview
01:25 - Why did FFW establish a presence in Second Life?
03:03 - Intellectual Property issues - who owns what?
04:28 - Unauthorised replicas of real world goods & brands
06:49 - Anonymity issues
10:22 - “Goods” versus “services”
11:41 - Which laws actually apply?
12:56 - How much regulation should there be in virtual worlds?
15:33 - Employment law
17:48 - Contracts, consumer protection, e-commerce law
20:24 - FFW’s activities in Second Life
22:29 - Where to find out more
23:26 - End of interview
23:47 - Lister feedback from Dale Johnstone
24:29 - Preview of next show, featuring Nick Wilson
25:07 - Wrap-up



By the way, Salomon Cortes takes over as President of the Second Life Bar Association recently :)


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Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Media Revolution

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Sunday, January 6, 2008

Real life, real lawsuit




fascinating stuff :)

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