Philip or other Lindens - Question about copyright issues within SL

Excuse me if I say this, but maybe is there a bit of confusion between the terms "creative" and "talented"?

If I make a sculpture, basing it on a Michelangelo's sculpture and it turns out identical to that, I have done nothing original. In this case the subject isn't creative.
If I learn to play a Chopin's piano sonata exactly as Rubinstein would play it, I can deserve a bravo for the technic and the sensibility, but I have done nothing original. In this case the interpretation wasn't creative.

It always depends on "how" you imitate. A work is creative when it's original.
If you're looking at someone's work to make a mere copy of it, as the term "copy" states by itself, you aren't being original. The way you make it can still be very creative tho, but in this case, has always to be an original way. If this copy comes out, for certain aspects, way different from the copied, this mean that you have readed and elaborated the master putting something yours in it. But if you do less then that, you can still be told talented as is commonly used to refer to many good writers or musicians, but it doesn't make you creative, to my eyes at least.

I'm not stating that replicas can't be creative works, I'm saying that an excellent replica could be not.

Making a good replica in a place where you have to use pre-made elements (in this case prims) with a limited degree of customization, requires not only talent, but creativity as well. Creativity helps you find good solutions to achieve an objctive. This is expecially true when you have a limited number of prims to work with (for instance with veichles).

Imo, success in building, for the most, depends on how much used and talented you are at playing the medium. However, I agree, it has happened also to me to have to invent sometimes, but that's not an absolute value. And anyway, when it happens me to find a solution to some big technical problem I'm having, I never think a muse is involved.

OMG everyone I just found an island. No really, Now sense im the only one on this island and nobody before me has clamed it. That mens I am the government, King, etc, of this island right?

So on my island, laws from the US or other places dont apply to me.
Unless they decide to declare war on me, lol thatd be funny, War on one person on his island.

Anyway, So meer thought is property. At least thats what they say.
Ok Ill then agree with that, and guess what as im sure youve already guessed, The island I could be reffering to could be a sim. The meer though/data of it. I own it.
It is not a world governd By the US, it is not a world controled by anyone. But me the owner.
intelectual property rights can only be violated If you actually Physicaly reproduce that property in a country that considers it agenst there law.

Now the fact that people on my island, Trade and do busness with people of other worlds is kinda cool and I like it.

Also ive decided not to be the govenor King or whatever of the island. Every person here shares an equal responsabilaty to keeping morals. And holding each other accountable.

But now for mister monkey wrench........

Disney decides to try to take legal action on one of the resadents because he/she made a micky mouse outfit and sells it on the island to other people.
Well If he/she would hop on a boat and go to the US, (or make a star trek style replacator and create a physical object from this data) And try to sell it to people in the US, Disney could nab em.
But guess what. there not doing that. there selling it In our world.
And in our world there is no disney. Nobody has copywrighted micky mouse yet.
And sense "there" laws do not apply to us be cause SL is not the US, SL is not Canada, is not Afghanistan, Jamaica, South Africa, or any other names I couldnt think of atm.
SL is "Second Life".

Perhaps some earth leaders should take some time to log in and comunacate with us.

LL charges a fee because they own the equpment to connect us all to this world.
They own the boat to get to this island. If there boat sank. someone else would make another boat. And we all would still be here. Perhaps we would give it a different name perhaps not.

The point is, Unless all of the would countries want to take that same boat and transport weapons and soliders into OUR world. There NOT going to tell us what to do in our own world.
"and even if they did, Even our laws of physics are different from theres. and it would be an interesting battle".

AND (just to make my point even clearer), nobody can tell us what to think. Thats what Sl is, the combined thoughts of all of us.

Again I say, If the ParkerBros of physical earth wants to come into Sl and capatalize the board game industry. I would welcome them. But untell then, guess what. there is NO Monopoly copywright in this world yet.
And Im honistly getting sick of waiting so I just may go ahead and make it myself. And then when they do decide to come here and make it, Ide freggen Sue them for copying me. But then Thats not how we SLers work is it? We are evolved beond that.
Sure people complain sometimes that having no government is a bad thing. but then people would complain If we gave them a pain free utopian world to.
When it comes right down to it, from what ive seen in sl. When someone is doing evil things, the majoraty of good-doers outweigh them. So really what is the need for law?

Again I say. Physical earth world leaders should take the time to enter our world and comunacate with us. Prehaps they would learn something.

(edit to add something)
And for those who after reading this would still argue that the "equpmint" is housed physicly in/on physical earth.
Keep in mind the equpmint is not "the world" These computers are mearly our tools to reach it. SL exists in our ideas.

(edit to add something else.)
Btw My sig I stole from my sisters msn name. And she got it off some website, whos creator got it from... who knows.
Who should be sued in this example?

hear hear!

Nothing is "original".

Someone's done something like it before, or had the idea, or something.

But on that note, I'd say... legally...
if someone wanted to make a stink about it, they could get the objects removed. That's about it.

I believe that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and we certainly didn't have supercomputers in 1800 A.D. ... at least in my non-steampunk timeline.

But there are as many similarities out there as there are differences. ^_^

Should have started a poll on this instead.

One thing to remember: No linden dollars are destroyed in services like GOM. The L$ go in, and the L$ come out. You aren't actually CONVERTING our fictional currency, you are paying to move it from one account to another. Creating a 3D virtual image of a real world copyrighted object then scoring points for getting another player to take it is all just gameplay. Only the transaction of transfering points from one player to another in exchange for real world currency is directly aplicible to issues of "profit".

While WE know that the money earned may have from creating a duplicate of Tickle-Me-Elmo and selling it, I'm not sure that the same chain of events would be legaly followable bearing in mind Second Life's Terms of Service.

But bear in mind, some parts of the duplication would be more in breach of copyright than others. For instance, I could probably make a detailed model of the Death Star out of Lego Bricks and sell it legaly... So long as I didn't say "Star Wars" or "Death Star" or any other protected label. The medium of Lego is not much of an infringement, nor would drawing a painting of the Death star and selling that, nor building one out of prims in Second Life. Just don't advertise stuff as a "Death Star" or "Tickle-Me-Elmo".

(Try calling it an "Evil Space Villan's Orbital Space Station Lair that's the Size of a Small Moon" and a "Fuzzy Red Child-Sized Monster Plush Toy that Laughs and Vibrates When You Squeeze It".)

A lot of people confuse "Copyright" with "Trademark" unfortunately.

Copyright: The right to control copies or lack thereof of a concrete representation of something. Whether it be an audio recording, an image, or a model, that specific item is prevented from being copied into a duplicate of itself. This covers specific concrete things, not ideas or suchnot. Characters are "ideas", a picture of a character is a concrete thing. Making an AV of Popeye, Renamon, or anything else does not break copyright. That would be making a new concrete example of a character idea. Taking a picture I draw and slapping it on a picture frame in SL -DOES- break copyright. That is making a duplicate (copy) of a concrete item.

Trademark: The right to protect specific ideas in trade. This DOES cover characters, but only in specific trade classes. Problem: Even if you are not diluting the trademark, they have to try to get you to stop if you MIGHT be infringing on their mark, otherwise they could lose the rights to the mark. Good News: Most characters aren't trademarked. However, certain things commonly associated with them are. The character Renamon is not, the term "Digimon" is (Digimon is a registered trademark). The good news is that they are unlikely to win a court case against you for it related to anything here in SL (Unless you are making thousands of US $$$ regularly by selling their trademarked character). The bad news is they don't have to win, they just need to make you unable to defend yourself, broke, destitute, and miserable, then they win by default.

Effect:
Taking Art, T-Shirt Scans, Etc, breaks copyright. Creating a thing that looks like Renamon out of yellow and white prims does not. Creating a thing out of prims that looks like Mickey Mouse is likely to break Trademark though. If I create a prim plushie bunny named Frank, and you make a prim plushie bunny named Frank who is in a different pose and stuff, as long as you didn't copy my original and then change it (Derivative work), you're fine. If you make a duplicate in any way of my version of a prim plushie bunny named Frank, then you are breaking my copyright to the concrete item that happens to be a prim plushie bunny named Frank.

Keeday? Cool.

It's barely even a question of legality anymore, if you so much as look funny at the 'intellectual property' of certain corporations, you're going to get sued and it's going to cost money to defend yourself. It doesn't really matter if a private citizen breaks copyrights / trademarks or not, though particularly ridiculous charges may just go away if they ignore it.. I wouldn't count on it.

I'd be careful about all this 'intellectual properties' stuff when it comes to replicas, because you never know.. SquareEnix could turn around and say that people making Final Fantasy-themed objects in SL is a threat to their interests vis-a-vis Final Fantasy 11, they might say 'well if it quacks like a duck' and charge that SecondLife is an MMOG featuring Final Fantasy-derived content and is therefore causing them damages, even if this is a ridiculous assumption.

There's been dozens and dozens of threads like this regarding 'intellectual properties' in SL, and though it's interesting food for thought, even if we got a bunch of seasoned lawyers in here they wouldn't be able to tell us -- for certain -- what we may and may not be held liable for, nor can they tell us what LL's response to frivolous IP lawsuits would be, or how strongly protected, despite the user agreement, LL actually is.