Artwork Copyright Question

OK, this may be sort of ignorant on my part, but being new to SL, I figured I'd ask. I am an artist in RL, and thought it might be neat to sell digital versions of my work in-world. My question is: what rules are there in place regarding copyright? Do the digital versions of these works fall under the same rules as in RL, or does any uploaded original art become the domain of Linden Labs, since it essentially becomes part of the content of the game world?

My first instinct is that the artist retains copyright, but I was curious. C.Y.A. and all that.

Thanks, kids.

You retain all rights to your work, and are even provided with a permissions system that offers protection from reproduction of your work without your consent.

- Ace

Others may have different insight on this but I feel that since the creations we make in second life are our intellectual property I would say that the same rules apply to any art we upload. I'm interested in hearing what others have to say since I'm an artist as well and I plan on uploading and selling my artwork as well.

This maybe overkill Kirby, but I'd but the copyright mark on/in all of your RL artworks you upload to SL.

You might want to contact Boueg Bergman inWorld to see how he handles his RL photography sales inWorld.

In addition to what Merwan suggested, I also have a friend in-world who is a real-life artist. In his case, he adds a no-modify notecard to each of his works of art. In addition, each art object has a notecard giver script that dispenses a notecard with the copyright provisions. Look up Troy Vogel's profile, and then go to his picks for a TP to his gallery.

Great! Thanks for the insight, folks!

Everything you upload is protected by copyright, but like everywhere else on the net, few people actually respect an artist's copyright. Exect your images to be "borrowed" and re-used elsewhere.

Very true. If embedding the textures into the prim object, make sure you set the no-copy, no-mod permissions on the texture, itself. That will at least prevent them from moving the texture from the prim into inventory, and then copying it for re-distribution.

Edit: To clarify, I believe the end user would still be able to move the texture to inventory, but once there, the texture permissions would prevent duplication. That wouldn't stop them, though, from using the texture on one of their own prim creations.

Oh, okay... I think I got ya.

I suppose that part wouldn't bother me overmuch. As long as I can make a few Lindens and still own legal copyright to the things!

I figured that some "borrowing" might indeed be inevitable.

No no, wait...

Apply the texture to the side of a prim. This will NOT put the texture inside the object, as far as I know.

Then, place a dual set of scripts inside the object, each programmed to destroy the object should the Creator ever become non-you, and should the inventory of the object ever change.

Then, make sure you set it to no-mod, and have a Copywright Your Name on the image somewhere.

Voila. Perfect protection.