Making Pictures Legalities

Hi

Here is my question. I would appreciate factual answer from somebody who knows that stuff maybe a lawyer or even better a Linden:

Is it legal ro make pictures/screenshots of scenes in second life without the consent of the people behind the avatars in that specific picture? Do I need the consent of the SIM owner (private estate in this case a gorean one) to make pictures and /or use them.

Is it legal to use those pictures on a blog or a forum?

I would assume they are my work, hence my property? The avatars are somebody elses art work but taking a picture of them in a sim is violating their intelectual property rights?

No , yes??

Wolfgang

I know there ARE folks out there who can answer this with greater legal knowledge....but......being a photographer in SL, I've absolutely never run into any kind of problem. There's tons of blogs all over the web with screenshots that folks have taken.......not to mention sites like flickr and koinup...

I guess the question back to you, is what exactly would you be using the images for? If you're going to be making some kind of direct profit....then the question you're asking is important. But if you're just wanting to take pictures....I would say the same rules apply that apply IRL. I have traveled and taken pictures quite a bit.....Italy, Austria, Spain...many parts of the US.....nobody ever gave me any grief.

while as a general rule you can phtograph anything you like within SL you cannot claim copyright of others visual works, nor can you use their works in such a way as to misrepresent either them, their support of you, or their views. you also may not profit directly from others works in this manner.

when in doubt, ask the content creator for their permission.

In most cases, the screenshots would be yours and you would have the copyright.

However, there my be circumstances, depending on specific facts of a particular screenshot and how you use it, that might cause sticking problems.

I would recommend looking at the faq, or other resources, on the U.S. Copyright office page, to see if you can get answers to specific concerns you have:

http://www.copyright.gov/

Even if what you want to do is protected under the law, generally you want to avoid disputes with people, even though you may be ultimately right under the law. Void's advice of getting permission when it doubt is good advice.

They would not be for commercial use. Just a scene I liked, and maybe on a themed blog (non commercial). The sim owner saw me making them and ejected me immediatly

Wolfgang

I guess they can eject you if they want for any reason they want. If they're throwing out people for taking snapshots, it's probably their loss.

I'm not sure there's any legal precedent, at least none that I can think of, to prevent you from taking pictures of anything you want in SL. There are hundreds of thousands of SL snapshots on Flickr and SLUniverse. A few of the people whose avatars I've taken photos of have IMd me when they saw them, but no one has complained.

Under the "Advanced" menu in SL there's an option to take snapshots silently.

that's sad.

you should be just fine as long as you don't attempt to defame anyone, and using it in journalistic context you actually have a bit more protection.

The legal issues people have stated above.

However, sad as it may be, the sim owner has every right to do what he did. He can ban people wearing the "wrong clothes" or because your hair might be blonde or any other silly reason, he's paid for that right.

This is why I turn off the snapshot animation. (^_^)y

It looks dopey, too.

Ditto......even IRL I'm realy sort of stealthy about taking pictures LOL