blatant copyright infrightment list

Hey my giant pack of rizzlas! This thread makes me want to get stoned. ( You think 'shape' is copyrighted, talk about starved for hate...)

On the point of LL's exposure on the trademark issue, the Star Wars store has been up for months and has been in the sponsored places for a while as well. The Linden's have to put up those listings, so were very much aware of the content. I believe this takes them a step beyong "We just host it."

While we can't expect LL to do a full inspection and Trademark search on every listing, when it is that obvious, I think they lost their innocence on the issue.

Again, the lawyers will one day have a feast on us.

So what exactly is 'infrightment' because if it's about getting rid of nightmares...I'm all for it.

By feast you mean, send a letter asking offending parties to remove content.

/me applies for a patent on posts about copyright infringement in SL.



-Flip

This has nothing to do with copyright infringement at all, actually.

I think that for some, that will be all. And it will destroy a lot of active business in SL.

But for those who have made a business out of it, especially with the articles about the $US made from SL, damages could likely be demanded. That could wipe out several players.

Before you say the $L is worthless, even LL acknowledges it's conversion by putting up login messages mentioning IGE and GOM. Philip openly discusses the $US earnings of the residents.

Couple that with Linden acknowledgement of some of the infriging content and I think you will see some happy lawyers and unhappy Lindens and SL residents.

I agree with this for most of the products depicted here.
If we are going to have a list, it should be for the worst offenders.
A lot of this stuff falls under "tribute art" or viral marketing as Chip says.

There are many items that are blatant copyright and trademark violations together
like the "Muppet brand" of slippers and the "Snoopy" security stuff and "charlie brown" transporters.

Besides giving an unfair advantage to sellers who use these stolen brands, these both belong to the great evil Disney corporation who sue at the drop of a hat.

Yea I've been through it before. LL (or the owners of the web shops) get a letter asking them to remove the images and they remove 'em. Putting images of 'feasting' lawyers into players heads... For shame. Morons.

Really..unless you bring this kind of content into the real world, most large corporations will ignore it. It's not worth their time or money to pursue it. At worst, a letter will be sent requesting the offending item/trademarks removal.

There are trademark parodies and infringements all over the internet that are much easier for the corporations to find, and they very rarely do anything about them, unless it's a fairly good sized business or money making opportunity that is infringing.

While SL may indeed reach the point where corporate entities are sending in watchdogs, and lawyers are setting up virtual offices in-world, that won't be happening anytime soon..

Random thought. (I love going off on copyright infringement in SL. )

Say that a company decided not to go after this in the "It's on a web site. Take it down." sense (such as a web site), but in the "You're giving away/selling free copies of things I own. You owe me money for each copy of the item you gave away/sold" (such as most of the P2P sites).

Do you think this would be a viable claim? Discuss.

<tinfoilhat>

Another thought is I've noticed lawyers and businesses work very slowly most of the time on legal issues unless there is an immediate threat. It also helps the case against said infringers if they can be documented as doing it for an extended period of time. The fact that this discusion has popped up in one form or another over the years can show proof that people know they're doing wrong, they just think the likelihood of them getting caught/punished is so small, it's worth the risk. They may be just "gathering evidence" all this time to make a more compelling case.

</tinfoilhat>

And personally, I know the lawyers are coming. They just haven't found the place yet. Kinda like the old FTP mp3 sites and p2p sites before they got big. Kinda why I like SL still being relatively small. If SL ever got WoW big, this would definitely crop up a lot sooner.

Well the answer is that this is illegal stuff.

Chip and others are right about it being not a big deal for some of it.
But the law says it's illegal so thinking that the company in question might be okay with it is a just a guess really.

If they want to they can *force* you to stop doing it and make you *pay* them the money that you made from using their stuff.

Its not that likely to happen that way for simply using a coke logo on a shirt, but using a brand you don't own in a line of clothing for instance is pretty much black and white case of infringement.

So you are leaving yourself open to a lawsuit if you do it.

As a rule of thumb, I would suggest:

1) coke logo on shirt (or similar) ... dont sweat it
2) "coke" brand clothing (or similar)... you are a thief and should expect to be dealt with
3) avoid problems by not charging money ... a gift of "muppet slippers" can be construed as "art" and not commerce.

i.e. - if you are making a line of illegally branded stuff and giving it away *free* it is still technically a violation but will look a thousand times better when the lawyers start circling.

Does the BushCo regime pay you to spread this kind of fear?

They can do exactly what the public ALLOWS them to do and that's send a letter asking LL to remove the content.

Morons.

When I signed up recently for the free year of Anarchy Online game, I noticed that at least two reallife companys were marketing on bill boards within the game.
So I know that real companys are catching onto the potential vertual game market.
I don't think its that far fetched that they would eventually notice what goes on here in Second Life. Whether or not they care ......time will tell.

I like the comments of several people who said: more original content, less copy-outs of RL branding and familiar objects.

75% of problem solved.

I would like some muppet slippers please, preferably Fozzie

Jack,

You have now called two of us morons for saying there is a legitimate, though remote, chance of lawyers coming. This is uncalled for. Personal attacks are not the way to put forward your point.

Ironically, the unauthorized use of corporate logos in this thread may also constitute infringement.

I'm pretty sure we can claim fair use under education or reporting.

Hum

I wonder if I smell a.............Troll?????

I'm sorry, but exactly how is copying a name brand being 'creative'? Seems like quite an oxymoron to me.

Just a Fact, Jack

It ws indeed tempting to buy the illegal slippers before complaining, but I didn't.
Fozzie on anything is always good tho.

if you're suggesting you're unable to follow the discussion, i'm sorry to hear that.

affects me directly (hope it doesn't go thru), but thought this might also be interesting for some of you since it's relevant to this topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050621/bs_nm/manufacturing_maytag_dc

"It's the intangible assets they're buying."