Participation in virtual communities is said to be governed by the contractual documents written by the proprietors and 'agreed' to by the participants. In a system where governance is controlled by contract, then the limits of contract are essentially constitutional principles. Where, then, can we find the limits that we will impose on contractual governance?
Two interesting articles was published recently:
1. Trust Revisited: Content Creation Theft and Open Source Grids:
Very detailed story of legal issues related to transfering work form Second Life grid to Openlife grid.
2. IMVU Avatars “stole” my eyes (textures):
Vint Falken's story of Creative Commons licensed pictures published on Flickr and used in IMVU.
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.
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.
An interesting article by Michael Passman.
More on Virtually Blind.
How Linden Lab handle with DMCA notices on user generated content in their virtual environment?
Very informative post by Tateru Nino from Massively.
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/
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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
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 ;)
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.
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.
More information on Virtually Blind
by the way… Stroker Serpentine Interview:
and one more video
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.
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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