blatant copyright infrightment list

where in the real world can i get some of that Bunnie Fashions beer?

i agree it's silly. but until the people controlling the intellectual property see it that way, what you or i think doesn't really matter, does it?

Can't argue with you there

saying that you are providing a company/product with free advertising is a weak justification. The owner of the trademarked logo gets to choose how and when its branding is used.

Yes, viral marketing is effective and this kind of thing typically actually benefits the trademark holder, but it is not YOUR right to decide that for the trademark holder. If they want to be very careful about their branding, how it is used, what level of quality it is associated with, etc. then that is their right.

another case in point, the star wars products and logos that appear in SL. Now there is an example where, yes, Lucas Film gets free advertising, but actually Lucas tends to fight fairly vigorously to control the usage of star wars brands and paraphenalia. There is a lot of grey area in my mind as to what you can and cannot safely lift from the star wars movies, but the logo certainly is questionable.

my 2 cents...

Best Image Search, Ever.

IP owners are legally forced to control how their content is used. if they don't, they can lose their rights. i believe TiVo is now fighting the generic-ization (!) of their trade name and has sent out C&D letters.

a quick google yields this: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/meponym.html

I believe it's currently against the rules to advertise a RL product in SL without prior permission from LL (which is the main reason why we haven't seen it; the in-roads are barricaded). While the trademark infringement is a real issue, the copyright infringement isn't so much in some ways. SL is a new and emerging medium, copyright law is still catching up.

Excellent point Forseti.

not quite. from /invalid_link.html

One might consider the damage being done to Burberry by its association with the "chav" derogatory stereotype (the current UK equivilent of US "white trash".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

i agree Strife. I would think most IP lawyers would be fascinated by SL and the complexity it represents.

Our legal system is definitely lagging behind -- no surprise, and in the end it's a good thing that a legal and policy structure cannot turn on a dime. But the lag is frustrating sometimes when you feel like you're working under Dickens-era rules, whether in legal or accounting regulations. The abuse of process/software patents is my favorite "get forseti steaming mad" example... I cannot believe the crap the USPTO does.

It's not all IP, just trademarks for this. Copyright remains whether it's enforced or not, as do Patents (see submarine patents for a good example).

-Adam

Was suculent just bored when they made this thread. SL is about escaping the real world for fun and being with friends but it seems all they did was drag some useless drama to everyones life for what... some attention, a moment of fame?

I'm sorry but seeing a coke bottle, the apple symbol or an ipod like object i think is great! the people who build and make things in SL take alot of pains to make things detailed in hopes of selling something. The effort given and the fact they choose something from the IRL world only makes it that more fun to see.

Suclents little bit of 'copyright' was just thrown links. I mean if I see a house for sale that looks like 'uncle toms cabin' does that make it copyrighted to.. SL is about making fantasy reality and making reality a fantasy.

Sorry if this is a small rambling but really. I joined SL to get away from this type of 2bit 'attention grabs' so it does make me mad.

I mean if its copyright of an ipod if it is an ipod. SL is data made in shapes to look like objects of IRL. o.O Unless someone can make a SL item to act, function and be anything in similar circuitry and parts as an ipod... then its hardly copyright. its a game try playing it and stop turning it into a crusade..

hum -_-
fun topic ^_^

Regardless of the original poster's motivations, the subject at hand is a very important one to watch. Regardless of whatever recreational value you want Second Life to hold, it's still entirely possible for an individual resident to infringe upon the intellectual property of a major corporation using SL tools. It's only a matter of time before one of those corporations decides they don't like their mark or their copyrighted material being portrayed in a light not conceived by their marketing department.

Not if, but when. I think we might as well talk about this as some of the other baloney that's currently taking up forum bandwidth.

like you said SL is about escaping of RL then why peoples are then still importing RL into SL? if they are so creative couldn't they make theyr own parody of these logos? if they spend so much time on these products, then its just lazyness.

please note that as suggested before is focused my search only to brand names logos and symbols. I would prefer seeing creative brand names, even if inspired from RL rather than someone profiting of the fame of a RL brand name (and breaking laws) i believe some of these items take the "real brand name" as a plus argument of sale. would you buy my beer bottle if it was stamped a nice "Succulent's" logo instead of the "Budweiser" logo?

While I agree copyright is an important issue to preserve in Second Life, this particular thread:

(a) Violates naming names policy in the forum by singling out specific people that should be taken care of via Abuse Report.
(b) Is a duplicate thread, because there is another thread devoted to discussion of copyright.

actually this tread was supposed to be a list of items that are using deliberately trademarked logos

Yes, and it's not very difficult to find the creators of items, is it?

A better way to do this would be to simply list the RL items being copied, not to mention the specific in-world items that are doing the ripping off.

Yes. I don't like following the herd and buying obvious brands in RL, so I'm not going to be a customer for them in SL. A creative parody sounds like fun I might buy that. Usually I think there's room for all in SL, but this case is different. Like Forseti says, the owner of the original trademark should make the decision about whether that trademark appears in SL.

Maybe what's going on behind the scenes is competition between SL businesses. I can imagine how a business selling an all-creative product would be at a disadvantage against a competitor selling the same product but with RL trademarks.

Except for that pesky little detail called "intellectual property", a/k/a trademarks and copyrights. Under most Western laws, you cannot use someone else's trademarks without their permission or you are subject to legal action. Yes, even in a 'game'.


It's not a grab for attention from what I've been reading. It's something that should genuinely concern every SLer. The day the IP attorneys start raiding SL is the day it stops being 'fantasy'.


If IP isn't important and it's all a game, how did the music biz force Napster to stop handing out free downloads? I mean, really, it was all in fun anyway and nobody actually stole a CD, right? How could Marvel Comics spend so much money going after Cryptic and NCSoft for City of Heroes? COH is just a fantasy, right?

Why is everyone so hell bent on protecting thieves? We have some people here who really go all out to make real custom content with thier own talent, then we have people who steal other peoples hard work. And there seems to be a large number of people willing to defend the thieves at all costs. Why? Why, not say admit that using RL company logos is lame and bogus and STEALING. I mean people dont even both to change the stuff so its parody or anything, they are just slapping labels on shit. SL gets a lot of press coverage, it is only a matter of time before some RL companies start knocking the the LL door to sell items in world. One day all of this shit is going to hit the fan.

wondering what Hiro was talking about, i did a double-take. which led me to the site hosting the images/items.

wow. i didn't realize the extent of the trademark infringements. makes me wonder what people mean by "creative". scanning a catalog image and plastering it on a cube is hardly creative imo. and then selling it as a branded item sure doesn't take much effort. what's more, i wouldn't bother creating original content for many of these categories - it'd take way too much effort in comparison to what's being done by the violators. and imo most people will buy the branded item over a no-name simply out of ignorance or apathy.

so much for encouraging original content creation in SL. is that what people defending this practice want?

{edit - a positive example. would you rather have a duplicate of a RL light or one of these awesome little things:



in a virtual world where anything's possible, why people settle for the mundane escapes me.}

Yeah, that can't be fun for a brand.

This can not be good for your promotion:



-Flip

i think the thread is valid enough. It's an important issue. The fact is there are a lot of naive people in SL who are either too focused on their own fun to care or ignorant of laws that could get either them or LL into trouble.

From my perspective, even if Linden Lab is legally protected, I still don't see the need to drain their resources and coffers by having to defend against multiple IP lawsuits.

You CAN use images and things from RL. Just be careful where it is clearly a branded image that an RL company or artist cares about (burberry swatch, corporate logos, metallica wav file, etc) -- think about the ramifications and resist using it.

I understand how it's enticing. I mean, people like Ferrari's right, so if you put a Ferrari logo on the car, it will sell more than if you call it a "Gino" and stick a giraffe on the front. But that's the point -- Ferrari spent a lot of time and money building their brand to where it is, and it's not for us to "piggyback" on that trademark for our own gain.

There is a lot of grey area here -- I see things like creating a yellow suit like the Kill Bill outfit as fine, but the use of the Star Wars logo as wrong.