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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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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Confederation of Democratic Simulatiors

The oldest Democracy in Second Life



by Draxtor Despres

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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

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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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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 ;)

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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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