Lend me a hand

They bought into the fact that trading music for free was hurting music sales. All Disney has to do is posit that people being able to play as Mickey Mouse has hurt ToonTown or VMK and they could hurt Second Life. Linden Lab shut down a Hello Kitty avatar maker for similar reasons. They're leaning on Trademarked car makers now. "Play money" or real, something has the Lindens worried.

I don't see how the (C), (R) or (TM) could really be achieved on the use of a graphic itself. Perhaps an addition field to "name" and "description" is needed for clearances to be annotated on each object. For example:

Name:
Shell Oil Sign
Description:
An in world representation of a Shell Gas Station sign.
Notes:
Permission has been received from Shell in Houston, TX to use for demonstations, but not for sale of any kind. Please contact [email]xxx@yyy.com[/email] to verify.

Just an idea.

-Flip

For those interested in trying to address the trademark infringement issue in a positive way, I have made the following post to announce a project that I am going to begin immediately. I would love to get your feedback and comments.

/120/a4/57228/1.html

Thank you,

Persephone Milk

What about on the vendor? The vendors I saw looking at had plenty of room to put (C), (R), or (TM) on their graphics. Or, maybe, a Notecard dispenser that has all the legalese.

Wow, so every time you see a crime being committed you turn the other way? Are you one of those people that "doesn't want to be involved" so you never call the police when a crime is being committed? Wow, you are a model citizen; do you speak at schools to the kiddies?



People are glossing over a real and serious topic with bullshit straw man responses. People are stealing, all over the place, and quite possibly damaging brands and everyone is ignoring it. I'm not for flying around SL looking for people to report, but I do think that corporations should be made aware of how their brands are being butchered in SL for fun and profit by the unimaginative. Without members of the community standing up and policing themselves, LL may take more drastic measures or a corporation may take drastic measures. It is better to police yourself than let the heavy hand of authority take over. I guess it is going to take George Lucas or Nike trying to sue the hell out of LL or a member of SL for people to wake up. Yay, lawsuits!

ok if we as a community are going to be serious about this then I will make the first step towards reporting copyright/trademark violators in a large scale. I will contact a company and alert them to thier products being reproduced and sold here. The SL damage would be as follows if the company strictly enforces it.:

7-9 Private Sims affected.
- 1 for direct reproduction of ALL the copyrighted works.
- The rest for reproducing and selling of materials based on the copyrighted works. (these locations will most likly be completly removed)

2-3 sims worth of Main Sim land will be affected.
-Clubs supporting such activities based on the copyrighted works.
-Shops selling more items based of the copyrighted works.
-Other gathering places that allow examples of copyrighted work to be done there.

Roughly ten large groups will be affected and removed.

Roughly 200 players will be affected directly. (Not sure of actual numbers but I feel this is conservative.)

This also assumes that this company does not enforce any other rights for any other products they own other then the one or alert other companies they ahve deals with. If this occurs Additonal chucks of sims may be affected.


What we need to do now is have someone contact the owners of Stra Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, and Final Fantasy. This will be just a test but this cause a good 25-50% of the game population to lose interest in SL. Next we will review the current games offered in SL to make sure they are not using copyright words.

Who Will join me in this crusade!


DISCLAIMER: I don't want to do this but the information is sound Expecialy the sim information about the group I would contact. If the Company did go full blown that many sims would be affected and I tried to use reasonable or conseravtive numbers for most of the posting.

.

And you are calling Katykiwi's arguments a straw man?

I have never claimed to be a saint. Just an antagonist that posts in forums for amusement.

Wow nice guy! may want to read up on what is actually trademark infringement, and just to do our parts to lessen the load of abuse reports for the poor Lindens, you'll likely start finding yourself banned from a lot of places Happy Travels!

I just ARed your post, and sent an email to Muppets Holding Company©, LLC.

Your blatant theft of their copyrighted lyrics won't fly in these parts my friend!

It's gotta start somewhere!

Agreed Mistress.

Did anyone consider, in all this talk of enforcing trademarks, that maybe, just maybe people might actually get a license or other permission to use the TM holder's IP in SL. Does the randome abuse report consider this fact?

Oh I forgot about that. All the illegal violations of music streams in SL. That'll kill 90% of the land owners.

A AR does not mean that something will be taken down. Its just a message that LL can act upon or not.

LL often says that when you have a license or if a company wants to sell their products in sl, that they should contact LL about it. I assume they keep some sort of record about it. When they get AR'ed, LL would know within minutes if there is a cause for action or not.

OR



I am picking on Eboni just a bit. Sorry. But I think her statements bring forth a very interesting point.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, has anyone considered anything beyond lawsuits and/or corporate interests? Consider, for a moment, all of the humanitarian good Nike is doing in Indonesia. Your favorite sweatshirt sporting your alma mater's logo was pieced by a sweatshop worker making a great deal less than a living wage. I can't even talk about Starbucks.

My point? Corporations own trademarks. Those corporations named in this thread and in others are not on the verge of bankruptcy--in fact, they can and they will do almost anything to maintain cashflow. Those trademarks held by small business and individuals fall, for me, into a different class (Iam being inconsistent, I know)--they are the 'innovators' that we all respect and admire.

I am not trying to justify the breaking of laws, and I am, certainly, not advocating a swarm of godly rightousness. Perhaps this argument would not be so vitriolic if we paused to consider that there is no easily identifiable dichotomy between 'good guys' and 'bad guys.'

Perhaps this will be helpful:

http://www.revbilly.com/campaigns/index.php
I am going to slink away now.

Trademark vigilantes. Interesting concept. I take it some of you are IP lawyers with extensive experience in Trademark enforcement?

Personally I have thought about it. What I am curious about is why both sides just can't come to the middle abit. You want to rip off a company, writer, etc fine then do it. When a Linden comes to you and asks you to stop then stop and ask them how you can keep your current designs but not break the law. If someone else comes to you have them have the owner of the TM or C contact you at your email address or have them submit a request to Linden Labs.

I hear little talk, less action, and alot of wine from both sides.......anyone got some cheese?

Hmm, don't most just stream URLs from internet radio stations?

Jarod, this isn't your battle, it is NOT your place to report other people for this violation, it's theirs. Budweiser has the right to search the whole of SL for their logo and have it removed.. you doing it just makes you whiny. "but Mommm, if I can't infringe on copyright Bobby can't either!!!"

This doesn't seem quite right. There are all kinds of toy cars with that shape, all over the place. (irl)

coco

P.S. I wouldn't call it being a vigilante. Vigilantes take the law into their own hands. I think it would more accurately be called being a snitch.

Please be aware that Nike's record is not frozen in time. You might wish to verify Nike's current overseas activities before insinuating that they are doing something immoral or unethical.

They probably have to license that.