Model Releases/Licenses for Snapshots

First things first. Hello everybody, I’ve been on SL for little less than a month just having fun exploring and meeting lots of funny, interesting people. But now, my creative side is starting to take a hold of me and have been thinking about several projects that would involve the use of SL snapshots. The final product would be a combination of SL content, RL photos, illustrations created outside SL and some heavy use of Photoshop.

I understand the legalities and requirements of model and property releases in RL photography (which is basically boils down to “always get one before the shoot and be sure it covers everything”), but I’m having trouble figuring out to what extend it would apply to SL. My guess, and safest bet, is that to use the content outside of SL I would have to get a real license from the creators of all the content used, but what about the content that is created by the LL servers such as the background? What if I only use it inside SL? Obviously in this case the time and expense to get a real, legally valid license cannot be justified. In this case, can it be argued that we are just playing pretend and a notecard or email by the avis involved would be enough?

Hello Bombi! A warm welcome to Second Life and the SL Forums.

What you ask is a very fine question and I'm going to show it to Ginsu Linden, who is a legal expert, and will be able to explain further.

Well, I am in fact a lawyer, although I'm not sure that's always the same thing as a "legal expert" . . . In any case, I can tell you that Linden Lab in general respects the law of fair use, and so with respect to content owned by Linden Lab, you will have some latitude in using Linden-owned backgrounds, etc., in your projects, even without a license. Here is an excellent website describing fair use and many other copyright matters: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/. As with most business owners, we will be notably more protective of the trademarks and other marks we own, as we do not want confusion as to whether a project is owned or authorized by Linden Lab. If you believe your project will require a license, you are welcome to contact [email]proposal@lindenlab.com[/email].

Regarding content owned by others, I cannot advise you what will suffice for them, as I am neither their lawyer nor yours. However, I can tell you that "playing pretend" is probably not how many residents view the content they create in Second Life.