That's the last time I bother trying to help a creator with identifying stolen conten

So, I buy a suspect (full permissions) Ferrari off Xstreet fully suspecting it to be stolen. I inspect it and am pretty confident that it is.

What do I do? I go to the trouble of sending a notecard to the creator who can't be bothered to redirect his offline IM's to email. (I loathe creating notecards).

I hear nothing until just now.

Dear Sassy Romano:

Linden Lab has received notification from a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that you have infringed one or more copyrighted works in the Second Life environment. The notification identified the following allegedly infringing work(s):

Description of Work(s):
Ferrari Enyo
Ferrari Enyo F40

NICE!!!!! I guess that's a backward kind of thank you?

So to all content creators, I shall no longer bother identifying and reporting to you anything I see stolen. I'm sure most (normal) people will join with me in considering that a very LOW way to behave when someone has gone out of their way in time and finance to report something suspected to be stolen.

The best bit? Can you say TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT on his part? Or shall we assume he has been granted licence to use the names of all these car marques that he sells? LOL.

I for one will NEVER shop not recommend the place in SL that claims to make the "best cars".

I'm a little confused. You sent a notecard to the person you believe pirated the original? Or to the "original" creator?

Sounds like what happened when I provided a stream of spam mail to the spamhaus project (at their request). They misread the headers and put ME in their block list.

/me cues RobbieRacoon. He, I think, had something similar happen recently. They eventually let him back into SL but last I heard, they had shut off his ability to use Lindex or PayPal.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I sent the notecard to the owner of the original. He makes the "best cars" in SL so it would imply.

Shooting the messenger case? Oh boy!

As bad as I feel for the OP, the really sad thing is that this isn't the first time we've heard that LL has done this. Not even the first time in the last week. And that's just from people that come to these forums.

/me looks nervously over her shoulder.

thanks for the heads up on this I will be aware of it.

i always give the slurl of where i had seen the stolen content or if it was on xstreet i give them that..

then say something like..you may want to have a look there to see if those are your items being sold..they look very similar..

Maybe he got confused because he only speaks Italian.

Are they automating this process? Are bots involved? Surely the name of the item has to ring alarm bells for someone at the lab!

Legally, if LL receives a valid DMCA notification, they have to remove all infringing content identified from the the notification - including the copy you bought. There's no provision for letting the whistle blower keep an illegal copy, let alone allowing all the other, often unwitting victims, keep their copies.

But the LL note quoted in the base note doesn't make sense. If the copyright owner screwed up and accused you, then LL should tell you the process for responding to it (out of courtesy, if not formally required). If LL is simply deleting all infringing copies, then they should explain it, instead of implying that you're the responsible for the infringement. Unless the base note is omitting significant parts of LL's message, it would seem they're doing a poor job of processing it, independent of what the copyright owner may or may not have done.

For that reason, I wouldn't be so quick to blame the copyright owner.

A little over a year ago, my sister busted an entire sim where stolen content was being openly sold and advertised via group IM's (she hangs out in Brazilian sims, lol). One of the items was the entire line of a very well known skin creator, boxed and ready for resale. She IM's that creator and lays a lm on her. The creator showed up with a posse in tow, and soon Lindens were swarming the place. They shut the sim down.

For her efforts, she recieved a thank you im from the creator. This from one of the wealthiest merchants in the skin, hair and clothing business. I am thinking that at least a free skin would have been a nice gesture for a reward.

At least they didn't punish her for doing a good deed.

Or even an aknowledging thankyou in public open chat would have been an improvement.


If I find stuff, I send notecards to the original creator with photos and landmarks. They've been grateful to know, but I never heard what happened in each case. One of the thieves is still at large in the designer groups I notice though.

Kudos to you for trying to do the right thing. I'm sorry it was so badly mishandled that it ended up punishing you for your good deed. But please don't in turn punish all content creators for this by refusing to act in the future. It was one big screw up that involved one creator. I hope anyone else you tried to assist will commend and reward you for your effort. I think you are absolutely right: it was a very low way to behave, and hopefully you won't encounter such rottenness in the future.

This is terrible!!

And then LL informed you that your purchased pirate copy was in violation? That would mean a RL Ferrari dmca I would think... not only is the pirate in violation, but also the original trademark-infringing creator that got pirated. Sorry that played out like that Sassy. It's pretty much bullshit that the lab can't tactfully say something like they found out the trademarks on the product you bought were being defended by their legal holder, instead of sending out the rubber-stamp "we know what you did" message that every true infringer gets also. Just Lame...

Filing a DMCA claim requires the claimant to file a sworn statement of facts supporting the claim. Willfully swearing to falsehoods is perjury.

Does Linden Lab ever go back and examine those statements sworn under oath, or provide them to those who are complained against?

They do, and they even let you know about the part where your RL information gets disclosed. The remainder of LL's standard DMCA form letter:



They give you the names and locations of the content from the DMCA notice targeting you. I don't think it would be appropriate for LL to volunteer what other notices were filed by the same person.

Yes that was my point back to him and the lab that they had better go and remove all HIS content since he is clearly breaching trademarks left right and centre.

As I said, I expected it to be stolen from the creator, I bought it with the intention of inspecting it. I expected to lose money.

What I didn't expect was no contact from the creator and an accusation that i'm the one that stole it!

He can take the trademark infringed Aston Martin that I bought ages ago and stuff it up his ass in the place where they make the best cars. (PG forum, an Ass is a similar thing to a Donkey and i'm in no way suggesting that a RL animal be abused. Stuffing here refers to the filling of a fabric look-a-like animal. There, that should keep the PG police happy).

I agree, but it was the wording quoted in the base note that's the problem: "Linden Lab has received notification ... that you have infringed one or more copyrighted works". What they should say is that these specific items are in violation of copyright, without accusing the recipient of being responsible for it.

You don't have to be "responsible" for the creation of a counterfeit work to have infringed on it, that's just the shop talk that goes with the territory. A take down notice will include a statement that you infringed, LL is passing the message along.

No, I agree with Kidd, there's a right way and a wrong way of phrasing it. There's no call for such wording when it could be worded more appropriately.

There is absolutely no reason to say "YOU have infringed copyright" when it could be done unknowingly.

"Your inventory contains items in violation of" is perfectly acceptable.

Yup! I'd say that this was just LL being totally inept.
I don't think that they remove content except on foot of a DMVA filing. If a DMCA had been filed against the OP, then they would gave followed the procedures, giving the OP an opportunity to counter-file.

I'd guess that they were deleting all the illicit copies, and informing the owners of the copies using a bit of text written by a very pale-skinned employee that they found in the basement.

This is the same employee who came up with the "EJECTED!" when someone is removed from a group for even totally innocent reasons.

The OP's anger should be directed at the management of LL, who allow communication to users by employees without any glimmer of social awareness.

Oh I just posted the start of the letter, the rest gave me the opportunity to counterfile!

Dear Sassy Romano:

Linden Lab has received notification from a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that you have infringed one or more copyrighted works in the Second Life environment. The notification identified the following allegedly infringing work(s):

Description of Work(s):
Ferrari Enyo
Ferrari Enyo F40

Linden Lab respects the rights of both Second Life residents and copyright owners. In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), 17 U.S.C. § 512, we ask that you remove or disable access to the above-identified work(s) from all locations including your inventory. If you do not do so within two business days, please be aware that Linden Lab intends to expeditiously remove, or disable access to, the allegedly infringing work(s).

If you believe that you did not infringe another’s copyright, or that removal of the above-identified work(s) was by mistake or misidentification, you may have the work(s) reinstated by submitting a sworn counter-notification. To be effective, a counter-notification must be in writing and contain the information identified in our DMCA Policy under the heading “To File A Counter-Notification,” located at http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php.

Please be aware that if you submit a counter-notification containing the required information, Linden Lab will forward your counter-notification, including your name, address, telephone number, and any other contact information that you provide, to the copyright claimant. We will also advise the claimant that we will reinstate the removed work(s) in ten (10) business days unless we receive notice that the claimant has filed a court action seeking an order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity related to the work(s).

Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Linden Lab

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