If Someone Reports You

If someone reports you for any of the following:

- Selling copies of music illegally in SL
- Selling Trademarked items or texture without the appropriate permission

You can stop guessing who did it. It was me.

I am on a mission.

Here is some free advice. If you sell music illegally in Second Life, try not to draw attention to yourself by having a stolen music sale event.

I am deaf - try the other 215,756 ones...

/Tina

Don't care.

Do you own the rights to the material you are reporting, and are you reporting it to those who do?

You might as well report it to Santa Clause if you don't, otherwise you are on a fool's mission!

tip of the day: look up LEGAL STANDING

Wow, nice to know the president of the RIAA spends so much time in Second Life.

Thanks mommy!

Did someone say pie?!

oh noes!

Its the Lybians! I dont know how they found me, but they found me!

Run for it Marty!

(prepares for lawsuit for using a copyrighted portion of a movie script on the forums)

t"Legal standing" is only relevant in a legal court, son -- in SL, what he's doing is reporting copyright infringement, and that is a violation of the TOS -- and ANYONE IN SL HAS A PERFECT RIGHT TO REPORT A VIOLATION OF THE TOS. Got it?

Please read the COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL clause of the POLICIES guide, posted in a forum just above.

Allow me to quote it.

Linden Lab follows the procedures described in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) regarding copyrighted materials. This generally means that Lindens will not remove copyrighted material unless the owner of the copyrighted material notifies Linden Lab in accordance with the DMCA process noted on our website, at http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php.

Allow me to point out a specific clause:

...Lindens will not remove copyrighted material unless the owner of the copyrighted material notifies Linden Lab...(blah blah)

So if you don't own it, just shut the hell up and take your mission to the Salvation Army.

While I applaud your sense of civic duty, don't you think there might be more important issues to spend your energies on? Like maybe:

Global warming
The war in Iraq
Illegal immigration
Gay marriage
Government spying on it's citizens
Education reform
Capital punishment
many, many more.

*Notice I am not saying which side you should take.*

I am just saying that whatever your opinion is on these and other issues, they seem a bit more important than a few people selling Adidas shirts or objects that play mp3s rather poorly. Especially since they are literally selling these items for pennies.

Be involved in the things that actually make a difference in your own life.

What? Speak up! - I dident hear you!

/Tina

Go after the trademarked stuff if you want to see people get upset about the removal of their stuff. LL rips it right down.

Not entirely true, actually; there is such a thing as "fair use." For example, take rap samples. If I were to take ten second snippets from various songs and put them together with a script to create a *new and distinct work*, that's considered fair use, even if I were to charge for it (much like a rap song using samples from other songs).

Unchanged samples can be used for up to 30 seconds without creating a new work, as long as they are not charged for (however, they can be used to promote a sale - for example, sound clips on Amazon.com). This was decided in 1999 as a compromise between online music retailers and the music industry as a fair interpretation of "fair use." Most punk bands who have songs all 30 seconds or less didn't seem to care, either! (I worked for CDnow at the time this all happened.)

Also, a lot of the reaction you're seeing here isn't because people are infringing on IP rights - that sucks - its because someone is declaring their intention to play mommy and tattle-tale. While I'm all for IP rights (as a copyright holder myself), I think in many cases it would be better to report the violation to the copyright / trademark / patent holder instead of LL.

With trademark especially, it is up to the holder to weight the benefits of how much they want their trademark to become diluted. Disney and MTV, for example, are very agressive about protecting their trademarks. Many others are less agressive, as they enjoy a lot of free promotion by allowing their trademark to become diluted: think about Star Trek conventions and the maniacal fan base there.

I love when Dr. Dre got all up in arms about people downloading his music from Napster; a bit of irony there, no? "FUCK THE POLICE... but make sure they get Napster!"

Regards,

-Flip

I have no issue whatsoever if someone wants to make life miserable for any f*cktard who copies someone else for profit. Go for it, who cares what the detractors say.

Oh, I would recommend contacting the creator first and abide by their wishes even though it may be that they don't want you to pursue any action. Your claims will have weight if the creators back you and are willing to sign whatever complaint you file. Without their support, I wouldn't recommend doing anything. The final decision should be the creators, not yours. I applaud you for taking interest though. I am quite sure there are many creators who would welcome someone else doing all the work in filing a formal complaint.

Good point, but... <sings> one of these things is not like the others!

Only Karl Rove could turn an election that should have been been about national security, the environment, fragrantly ignoring the consitution, and a silly war into a referendum on boys kissing (I'm pretty sure Republicans are opposed to cute lesbians; let's just say it, they're talking about man ass when they say, "family values". And only the Democrats would be wimpy enough to fall for it!

My two cents, as a socially liberal, fiscally conservative east coaster.

Regards,

-Flip

Is that as in "stinkin' like a steaming pile"?

-Ghoti

I always found this curious.

A while back, when someone copied (textures, prims and all) our avatars and started selling them, nobody (including LL) really gave much of a rip about it.

A week later, however, we got reported for having an Escaflowne poster on a tree.

Someone steals your stuff? No big. You essentially engage in what could be argued to be fair use of a texture? (No, the poster was not being sold. It was, in fact, look-at-able, though.) Holy hellfire rains down.

I would imagine that if a 'rights holder' DMCAed some silly 5-second looping clip from one of their songs, the 'offending' account holder would blown out of the database before you could scratch your ass.

So I guess when it comes to "IP rights", it seems to really only matter how much money you've got in the pot.

So, Turbo, I gotta ask. If you see someone ripping off our avatars and selling them, can I expect this same "missionary" behavior from you?

Or are you only after protecting 10-second repeating loops of the Pussycat Dolls?

Sounds to me you're just trying to make waves.

It may be a joke...

/Tina - EXAKT in her bed in 11 minutes.

I am not looking to initiate a lawsuit, therefore legal standing is not applicable.

I would not initiate a lawsuit against someone stealing from my neighbor, however I would still report it to the proper authorities.

Turbo, I ask again, are you only concerned with corporate IP, or are you ready to go police inter-resident IP as well?

1. I am not talking about 10 second loops. I am talking about entire songs and albums. Perhaps I could give you a tour of Second Life. As I said, I had to look no farther than the events calendar to find these items.

2. I will report theft wherever I see it.

ya that'd be pretty good i'm kinda new here.



So you've got records of all of the streaming stations, and DJs, and whether or not they have ASCAP licenses, right?

Or do you just assume that they don't.

I try not to limit myself.

I do not feel that in order to appropriately address issues such as gay marriage and global warming that I must turn a blind eye to blatant theft.

People who steal and and profit by illegal means pass that cost onto the rest of us.

Injustice manifests itself in many ways. While I cannot guarantee that I address all issues or that I address them in the appropriate order of importance, I do what I can when I can.

Just give me a shout in game. I would be happy to show you the vendors selling full length songs and albums of music in Second Life.

I would also be happy to teach you how to use the "Find" feature.