SL's Future in trouble?

Hello, I was walking around today and a friend mentioned to me that he knows a few people who work for Sl, in the tech department. He mentioned Sl was starting to get attacked by companys (not sure which ones, he mentioned Playboy) because of the copyrighted material users have brought into the game. He said SL will be closing in 6 months or less. Since I just bought a lot of land, and a YEAR account... this bothers me. Can the SL staff confirm or deny this? I wanna atleast sell my stuff before the game closes... if it does.

Thanks
-Raiden

Nope, we haven't been attacked by any companies. We are growing faster than ever.

I highly, highly doubt this is true. I haven't heard one single piece of concrete evidence to back up these claims, from anyone.

And there's your answer, Raiden.

OMG EVERYONE SELL YOUR LAND AND SELL YOUR L$ ON GOM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!

Or not. Aside from rumor mill stuff, the issue of people blatently using copyrighted and trademarked logos, names, etc in world is one that does need to be dealt with sooner than later. I think Linden Lab won't be the one to get in real legal trouble if a Playboy, for example, goes after people using the bunny ears logo in world, for the same reason AOL and Earthlink don't get sued when their clients download mp3s. But some company will eventually send their legal team after someone in SL for this.
It would be nice if LL gave a gentle reminder to people not to violate copyright and trademark before it comes to that. But if problems come it will be for the individual violators not the community or Second Life as a whole.

thanks im no longer worried .. just had to be sure because he said he KNEWW people who worked for SL... what a lier

when you get it right from the ceo.... I wouldn't worry we are in good hands!

More fervent than Hugh Hefner, who delights in seeing his bunnies in a variety of places, I can see George Lucas's stormtroopers sending a letter to SL -- directed at Kyron Drago for his Jedistuffs. He he he. I semi-jest about that, but it may be a matter of time.

The flipside of this, obviously, is that any such case would get an increased number of people interested in Second Life. Dedicated fandom communities who promote their passions in SL like the Jedi, furries/anthros, animanga peeps, etc. are bound to interrelate and flourish here. Heck, what's to stop me from starting my Ally McBeal showcase up again? (Well, besides a lack of general interest in 2004 A.D.)

Also thorny can be parody. For example, the recent legal case of Jibjab's "Our Land" and the troubles with Woody Guthrie's estate. In a case like that, what happens if some inworld fashions were too similar to realworld designs, but the similarity is unintentional? Or how about the "Coffee Talk" sign in the Midnight City square?

Honestly even if companies were threatening LL, they wouldn't have much pull except for court orders to get them to pull people's offending content.

Since LL is modelled as a service and content provider, they legally are not responsible for the content their users store on their servers. This model has been tested and stood up in court many, many times.

So LL is safe. I wouldn't say the same for copyright violators though.

Clothing can't be copyrighted, as far as I know. Only the patterns on them (textile designs, logos, prints, etc.) can be. Clothing makers in SL who photosource have little to worry about unless someone came after them for copying a fabric pattern, or they were marketing their wares in SL using someone else's brand name.

Ahhh thanks.

Well, that explains Bangkok.

And the value of a corporate identity (brand name).

Just try really hard to use Public Domain materials when creating things in SL, or Create Them !ourself! Then you have nothing to worry about.

There are lots of resources on the web and inside of SL for materials (textures, sounds, etc) that are generally accepted or deemed to be free of copyright or are freely available for use. I try to make sure that everything available in the University of Second Life Library, is totally free for people to use, and free from copyright infringement.

I'm glad this thread got the proper information out there right away! I remember about a year, ago, all of the "OMG! THERE IS CLOSING!" rumors that went around, and half of the people in the game up-rooted, and just left, well.. There is still up and running. Lets not let silly rumors go rampant, children

Well, word from the boss himself, I believe that's gospel, son

THREAD DESTROYED

Hey Raiden, you wouldn't be trying to shill the land market, would you? 'Cause that would not be cool.

I don't see why anyone would have to sue LL.

As made obviouse by the DMCA link at the bottom of the website, LL fully complies with the DMCA and any complaints about copyright infringing material. All a company has to do is file a DMCA complaint to LL about the material in question and I'm sure LL will comply fully.

The only person to worry are residents themselves if the companies wish to persue the matters further.

An interisting aspect this raises, I wonder what LL's position on giving out personal information about users to companies would be?

Would LL try and protect the information and take it to court ala Verizon?

Or would it be handed over without question?

I wouldn't blame LL for the later, as LL not being a very large company right now, I doubt they could take something like that. Just a question of curiosity.

Philip gets points for cutting off that rumor at the head!

I was walking around with a friend yesterday and his friends sister who has a friend with a brother that knows a guy who's mother babysat this kid who's grandfather talked to a janitor who's girlfriends brother said that SL is just a dirty CIA operation that will be shut down in a month if Bush isn't re-elected. I heard from the same source that Janet Reno thinks Phillip had nothing to do with the Waco incident.

There.com bein dead is a different story...sure feels like it

When the Second Wave of nasty lawyer droids suddenly materializes in-world, the first thing they'll do is contract for a mass-produced scripted version of those little faux-alligator briefcases on wheels that they like to use to pull their 9,000 pages of Xeroxed evidence back and forth between public parking and the courthouse.

I can be in charge of the half-knotted neckties and the ill-fitting suits, since I really suck at texturing, and the ties do need to be (a) cheap and (b) hideous. I don't know if I can manage a subpoena-particle gun; there may be a little piecework for somebody there. And we'll need the Lindens to do an emergency push of a client with a scratch-n-sniff feature, so we can get our fair chance to stand downwind of the drug-store cologne.

Then, beginning in the Northeast, they'll split into teams and systematically visit every juke joint with a dance pole on the Grid, on fact-finding missions. No, wait a minute, that's Congressmen. Never mind.

And when they select their first in-world target, it won't be BoomBoom LaBonza, the pole dancer. it'll be Mickey Mouse or Goofy. Disney has a nasty rep for this.

Meanwhile, the First Wave of attorneys was airlifted in at midnight last night, and they all work for me.

As Chairman and Chief Technology Officer for YoshiCo, it has come to my attention that more than one other avie on the Grid has made prior use of a technique called "rezzing a prim." This technology, which I duplicated from Apple, which they stole fair-and-square from Xerox PARC, is a critical component of several products which are under development at YoshiCo, and I have no choice but to protect my shareholders' interest and company value by enforcing a system of royalty payments from everyone else who has ever used it.

Please line up.

- yoshi

PS Q. What's the fastest way to kill a lawyer?
A. Flip a waxed silver dollar in front of a city bus.

Thats also the fastest way to kill me, Ooooh how I love my shiny!

I finally turned on shiny, and it sure works nice on things like 'dem aeroplanes from Abbott's. Haha... way to celebrate your passion!

I came across a giant coin object in SL that can be flipped. Unfortunately:

1) It doesn't seem to be shiny enough

2) Both heads and tails are the same.

How messed-up is that?!?

I think I have a flipping talking coin that has both a tails and a heads... not sure have to dig in my inventory for it.

And double headed coins are fine! I bet you 20L$ it'll be heads!