And now, Forbes magazine agrees with me. I'm warning you - the tax man is coming and it won't be long. The greedy politicians are salivating over the money that is exchanging hands in Second Life and other virtual world and MMORPGs. They are no doubt frantically trying to find aa way to stick their hands into your back pocket.

The hearing that occurred on April 1st this year was supposed to be some kind of exploratory thing. But in truth, and you really know this, whether your believe it or not, it was really kjust the first step into taxing anything and everything you own, whether it is real or not.

Read this Forbes article. Man-o-man do I feel so vindicated.

Indeed, the minority staff of Congress' Joint Economic Committee has a study underway, and academics are already churning out papers on the proper tax treatment of pretend online worlds with their own economies and commerce. You can buy weapons to use in battle in "World of Warcraft," or sexy outfits to go out dancing in "Second Life," or furniture to decorate your igloo in "Club Penguin."

Taxing Virtual Worlds - Forbes.com

Okay, so we all know Second Life is absolutely rife with "drama", right? Especially the love triangles and other interpersonal spaghetti tangles of web that would bring Peyton Place, Romeo & Juliet, NAY! Even the most popular soap operas to shame!

Much of it simply rates 'socially mundane'. But sometimes, the juicy stupid ones come along that rate a socially hilarious! Okay, that rating doesn't exist. so we'll settle for Socially Laughable.

How can a bunch of Obama supporters infesting a usually deserted Clinton sim inside Second Life be anything else other than drama supreme? I swear... some people really do need to get a life.

Now of course, a 'socially laughable' rating is just our way of saying 'get a freakin' life - any life but second life. And grow up just a little while you're at it.' Personally, I'm not very excited about any of the three candidates this go 'round. At least soon it will only be two of them. Then I can simply pick the lesser evil.

A quote from the site [a Hilary supporter]:

"I had one of those brief Yay, we can win! moments, but then I saw they were all clutching Obama banners and flags, and my heart sank," Lestat types, her waif-like avatar starring off into the tropical distance. "Holding an Obama demonstration on Hillary Island ... have they no shame?"

Yes, it's a satire web site. Though I don't think this particular story is made-up. So, even real events become satire. And the sad thing is, the people involved take it seriously. It becomes the impression of satire, therefore, it is.

Obama Supporters Attack Hillary In Second Life

Absolutely hilarious! The first "joke" above isn't a joke. It's a real posting... somewhere. And the funny thing is how vindicated I feel about it. I've been slamming all these so-called 'business' people in SL who scream shrill cries bashing Linden Lab for not 'keeping it's promises' of a stable grid and everything working all fine and hunky-dory - and the SL "economy" becoming stable with land prices and all that garbage.

All so their little SL business will feed and clothe and shelter them in first life.

So many people like the guy above will start what they feel is a successful business in SL and actually quit their real life day job to focus on it. Stupid move unless you have wads of cash sitting in the bank to back you up. Because most, like the guy above, will end-up on the real life employment line all over again. And I've been saying this all along the last couple years.

So I ran across this web site that looks at the hilarity and irony of Second Life and actually makes fun of it. But not via anything Linden Lab says, but rather from the horses mouth: the residents own postings on various blogs, bulletin boards and so on throughout first life's Internet.

I have to say - I'm bookmarking this site and I'll have to visit it every day. Just to get the lighter perspective of things. As for making real money in SL - that's okay. But it should be discretionary cash - something that allows you to buy that new first life toy gadget you want or even maybe to help make ends meet in tough times. But to quit your day job and go whole-hog in SL is immature and reckless.

For your own good.

Second Life Exchange

A very hot debate about content theft (technically plagiarizing) is flying around the SL blog again. We'll simply have to agree to disagree. Part of the replies to my post are also misunderstanding the spirit of my posts.

I've had my say and my say is this:

First - most content created in SL is pretty good. Not too bad at all, nothing that will cause a double-take, but on the whole, not too bad. Then there are those items which are absolute must-haves. The top-of-the-line stuff.

Now as for the whole content theft business goes, my basic presumption is this: if your stuff is really good, well designed, it will get stolen. If not stolen, then coveted and copied (facsimile) at least.

This won't sound pleasant, but you should be honored. It's a sign of the quality and popularity of your product. Now, don't think I don't care - I do. I sympathize with you and it is wrong. But the fact of the matter is if someone wants to steal your work, they will find a way to do it.

Why bother locking your car? If they want your stereo, they'll just smash the window.

Now, the first problem has to do with how are these people 'ripping' or otherwise able to create full permission copies of your stuff. Three ways I am personally aware of: a prim duplicator, a texture ripper and copybot.

Prim duplicators are very useful tools. I use one almost regularly. If you want to know how or why, IM me in world and I'll actually show you, beyond just explaining it. Suffice it to say I build stuff I give to my better half to sell, and i would prefer she be known as the creator, among other uses.

The only way a prim duplicator can work is that the prims being copied must have modify permissions. Without that - it won't work. Additionally, scripts cannot and will not be copied. So the copy is just an empty shell.

Yes, many will use prim hair as a classic example of content ripe for being stolen this way. Two answers to that: make it no-mod and insert a 'resize' script, allowing the customer to resize it without having mod permission - a headache to be sure (no pun intended.)

Or, accept the risk - more on that later.

Texture rippers - I honestly don't know much about them. I know it is easy to script a prim to take any texture that you know the UUID (Universal Unique IDentifier) and display it on that prims faces. As for the next step - I really don't know.

However, textures in SL always have been the least secure to prevent copying. And the majority of textures in world are all illegal anyway! They are downloaded from the web or stolen from out-world content CDs without proper license to upload them into SL. Now, I agree, the skin creators do not usually fall into this category. Unfortunately, there just isn't much you can do about it.

The third method, which works for prims and textures, et alii, is the greatly feared "copybot". I've read about it and based on what i know about how SL, databases and computers work - there just isn't anything that can be done about it.

I see posts demanding Linden Lab put a stop to its use. That's an impossibility. The copybot works on your local computer. It grabs the data from the internet stream as it goes through your computer to the graphics processor. So, unless you want to allow Linden Lab full access to your personal computer and to render the display inoperative - there's nothing that can be done.

Now, it already is known that anyone caught using copybot will get an instant ban from the service. However, there are too many easy ways to make alts and start over. So, with copybot, there really is no defense. Fortunately it is near impossible to actually meet someone who has actually met someone who has actually used one, it is that rare.

The real issue is that people purchasing a product from a vending machine or sales box will have no indication as to the authenticity of that product. How will they know they are buying a stolen copy? They don't. So, you really can't blame them - and yes, I know that ignorance of the law is no excuse. But it is what it is. Even if you know the law, you also have to know when it is being broken.

So - do you simply lock everything down tighter than a drum, or simply take the risk?

SL is a very big place. If your items are stolen, it is highly unlikely you (or anyone else for that matter) will ever know it. Unless a friend or someone familiar with your designs happens across it.

The only other way to know is if you search classifieds for your keywords and find your stuff that way. In which case, you have a stronger case to fight it with. The fact is, if your stuff is worth stealing, it will get stolen.

Do you sweat it out, or just be aware and try not to worry about it until it actually happens. When it actually happens, then, and only then, evaluate the situation, determine the damage it will do for you and then take the appropriate action and move forward from there.

In the case of the stolen commercial skins. If it were me - I make the stolen skins freebies, and be sure that most popular freebie places have them: New Citizens, Inc., Sara Nerds place and all the others. Make sure it's in a box with information about the skin, who created it and where to find more (landmark).

I know there are many who would disagree with this approach. But, it's the approach I feel would work for me. The best preventive action we can take is to educate the resident public at large. The problem is there is no CNN or other "Nightly News" that everyone turns to for information. There is no central news authority where people learn about what's happening.

Even the SL blog is visited by a tiny fraction of active residents.

So... how to let people know when they are buying a stolen copy? Easy, find a way to let them know they are buying a genuine authentic. How do we do this? It will take a lot of work and effort and help from Linden Lab.

Charlotte Bartlett (Post #139) says it best:

"Why can’t we simply all join together sim owners, content designers and creators and become one group. We can work together to create our OWN validation tool and council and work with Linden Labs to take this platform forward. Hey I know groups tend to crash - but I am personally sick of the 10 plus groups I try to stay membership of all dealing with content theft and each with their own champions."

Hey, I'm game.
I already put an "Authentic" logo on all my products and in my boxes and I do everything I can to make sure that part of my design is locked down as tight as SL will allow. But it's really not enough.

So, Charlotte, shout at me when you get this idea of yours initiated. Count me in.

Read the full Linden Lab post here:
Protecting Your Copyrighted Content « Official Second Life Blog

Oh, and a footnote: yes, I have had stuff stolen and sold out from under me. I went the "freebie" route I explained above. it worked... the stolen versions dried out and eventually, I removed the freebie version and retired the design. So, yes - I have been there and yes, I can relate to those offended by plagiaris...er... theft.

You may have already heard about the congressional hearings concerning Second Life that were going on last week, but nothing’s really big news until The Daily Show pokes fun at it.

As usual, Jon Stewart brought the funny while reporting on the hearings, which were also broadcast in Second Life at the same time. The clip from the show really is an insightful portrait of the legal proceedings. Plus there’s a dolphin with boobs.

It ain't happening.

So, deal with the Linden Lab mantra and the SL woes of crashing, asset server issues, database wonkyness and whatever other problems creep-in, because they refuse to boil the code. it already is public knowledge that the server and viewer code is such a spaghetti mess that to 'fix' it, they'd have to start over practically from scratch - and that won't happen.

So, among all the frustrations with memory leaks, crashing viewers and sloppy, laggy sims, we have all kept our eyes pointed to the horizon... waiting for that alternate virtual world that will be rich enough in features, powerful enough in design and open enough to allow as much freedom... a replacement.

You can stop holding your breath and scanning the horizon. The writing is on the wall [emphasis is mine]:

In speaking to companies with virtual worlds in the works, no one is looking to replicate the Second Life model.“A year ago, when a lot of big companies came into Second Life, it didn’t work out for them,” said Jerry Paffendorf, the former “resident futurist” of the Electric Sheep Company, now of Wello Horld. “The reaction is to try to get away from that to these tightly controlled, kid-friendly environments.”

At VW08, kids are the focus

Lillie Yifu over at 2nd Sex (yes, cool, but... er... interesting name) has a good little post about how the corporations are all about themselves. My first question is: what this ever a question?

What srikes me most is the very first paragraph:

"One thing I think that frustrates more of the smart people I know than anything else is how many of them are not making very much money, while much less smart people are safely in well paying jobs. I meet many of these people in blogging and in Second Life. The news, I think, is that things aren't going to get any better..."

This brings me to something I've been seeing and thinking about with regard to 'business' in Second Life - and tends to explain the shrill, frantic thrash-backs from residents in the Second Life blog:

Are you in SL to try to make real money?
That is to say, you develop, create, provide a service - whatever it is, you use it to earn Linden Dollars (L$) - but then actually cash some of that out and use it in real life, or (shockingly) rely on some of that?

I make good L$ in SL. But, I'm not crazy enough to even think about cashing any of it out and then rely on any part of it. I have a 'regular day job' and it feeds me, clothes me and keeps a roof over my head. I also have a freelance business that I use (read: not rely on) for some extra cash.

At first, it was my freelance videography and photography business that provided me the discretionary funding for my SL experience. However, I now use SL business to pay for... SL.

In other words, I take all the money I make in SL and I will convert it back to good old United States legal tender. But that's it. It sits there in the pot. Then, whenever the Lindenonians decide to reach into my pocket, they take whatever it is they want from the pot.

You see, that pot is the cash they owe me. So, they must pay me what they owe me before they can actually take any money from me. They simply deduct what I owe them from the credit they owe me. If I keep that credit floating higher than what i might ever owe Linden Lab - Second Life pays for itself.

As for those who earn enough to actually cash-out, (that is, to call Linden Lab on their credit and have a check sent,) well - that's all well and good. I hope it's also a 'freelance' business. What you can file with the Internal Revenue Service (in the United States, anyway) as a "Professional Hobby."

However, if you actually rely on some or (Heaven forbid) all of that money, you're better-off dumping SL and doing something in real life. You see, the dynamic is really very simple, and it shows why this 'business model' can be far more volatile than even the stock markets:

As an employee of someone, you earn a regular wage. you can budget your living and other costs off the security. Even if it's 100% commission - you have complete control in all aspects of it. The same is true if you are running a business in real life.

No middle men to muck things up for you.

Now, if your business model relies on Linden Lab, you'd better be setting some cold hard cash aside for when that falls through. You are relying on an unknown entity. You are relying on Linden Lab for your livlihood and Linden lab doesn't care about you. And neither should they.

You are simply a customer subscribing to a service. Their only requirement in this relationship is to provide you access. Stop. Done.

Hence, if permissions go awry, if someone finds a way to rip (steal) your creations and sell them, if the service goes bad (asset servers and database issues) - if anything happens that kills sales or otherwise loses you money (L$) - it doesn't matter.

LL's sole responsibility is to provide you with access.

I may be wrong, but I am totally unaware of any statement in writing or orally where LL has promised to ensure you are able to make any money at all. And, I have yet to see any promise to ever convert L$ into legal tender of any kind. The only thing they owe you is that credit. Other that, whatever means you use to earn that credit is totally volatile because there is no promise whatsoever that those means will continue the way they work now, or even at all.

So, I'm curious... if you make real money in SL - do you rely on it for anything? Or is it simple discretionary spending cash?

Even more curious: do you feel entitled to earning real cash from within Second Life?
Frankly, if you do, then I must admit I think you need to reevaluate your first life fast and hard.

SLEX DCMA’s: Violation of Linden Lab TOS « Shopping Cart Disco

There's something to be said for everyone getting booted off the grid for twelve-plus hours while LL fights with its internet service provider.

Tenshi Vielle of Shopping Cart Disco fame brought to my attention today a stunning blunder worthy of the fumble of the year award.

In the article she quotes an original piece explaining how SLX's butterfingers handling-style has caused one SL organization to suddenly understand the meaning of the phrase "personal space". I'll let you read the articles for yourself, but the point of this post is -- we need to send a message to SLX and tell them that it is, in general, not a good idea to fork over our personal information to people who were already causing us harm without concern for our emotional or financial well-being. It sounds like what could only be a major oversight -- at least, I hope. No major business I've ever worked with has directly sent a DMCA to an offender because they knew what kind of information was on it.

Let's do something about this before more respectable developers have to give up their peace of mind. And let's ask that they be compensated for this pain in the ass, while we're at it.

I really hate when journalists and blogger who think they are greater-than-thou profess to know what everyone else wants or believes and then think they are so influential they espouse vitriol that looks and smells like raw sewage.

It's why I choose my my sources of news very carefully and I don't rely on a single source like NBC or ABC and the rest (wow, what a joke they have all turned into, huh?).

So it's totally refreshing when someone does this on purpose and simply goes completely overboard with it. It's a very short blog post, but so humorous I wish it were longer. the read totally made my day.

this is from the "Wonkette" - a blog I think I'm definately going to have to add to my RSS feeds.

To commemorate this special event, Congressman Markey even crafted his own personal avatar: a virtual Congressman Markey who is cross-eyed with gayness.

Virtual Losers: Dorkwad Congressman Holds Hearing In Second Life

IBM now has a secured private area of Second Life behind their own firewall. it was only a matter of time and I see this is becoming Linden Lab's primary focus eventually. it's what they really want to do. At least, it makes a lot of sense.

The cool thing is it's still Second Life. IBM employees will be able to travel to and from the "mainland" [meaning the 'public' areas of SL] and the IBM secured area without relogging. Okay, I think this is pretty cool and kudos to Linden lab and IBM for making it happen.

Basically, it's just like a private estate, like all other private estates. Unless you're in the 'group' - you simply can't teleport into there. The difference is that these estates are locked-down tight behind IBM's own firewall. I find it a fascinating proposition.

Corporate gated communities in virtual worlds, according to Mr. Yoon, will be the equivalent of corporate intranets on the Web. An employee’s avatar can travel easily in the outside realm, but only the ones with company I.D.’s can get inside the firewall.

Second Life: Tamed for Corporate Consumption

UPDATE: Per Reuters - IBM will host the regions on their own servers -
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/04/02/ibm-to-host-private-second-life-regions/

All I can do is chuckle...

[Crossed from my other blog at SL Review - this one is just too important to me]
Ah yes... typical sarcastic blog entry about the clarification post on the Second Life® blog. But, in truth, I've never had a problem with any of it. Except for one simple rule they try to make. My only issue is how can you trademark a pair of initials? My beef is with the trademark claim on the initials "SL". Now, you can trademark them if they are in a particular context, but that requires more words.

So - does "Sign Language" no longer have a right to be truncated to "SL"? What about all the other terms that are truncated this way?

Well, I'm going to go ahead and continue using "SL Review" as the title of [my other] blog. Now according to Linden Lab™ I am breaking the rules. Not so much because I am not using the little "TM" next to it, but rather because I have only one proper noun after those initials and they say I must have two.

The same with my other blog "SL Attitude".

Well - even though this blog focuses on musings from within and about Second Life, my "SL" is simply a truncation of the full title: "Silly Little Review".

Oh, and SL Attitude is really "Seriously Laughable Attitude" - but there's not enough room in the banner to make it look good. So I'll stick with what I have.

So there.
Take that, Linden Lab. :)

...Can I use SL with my product, domain or organization name?
Yes, under our special license to use “SL.” You can use “SL” with your own trademark.

More on the Trademark Policy « Official Second Life Blog

The problem is that it is unlikely you will even notice it, but the friends list on the web has been hosed for a long time. Some say since January. I think it's really more since mid-February, for this SNAFU, anyway.

If you rely on the "Friends Online" page of the Second Life web site, you should go to the public Jira and cast your vote (link at the bottom of this article.) Here is the issue:

The friends list web pages are stuck. They are frozen in ice... time... whatever you want to call it. The reason you might not notice is that the list appears to be actively working and here's why:

For most of Second Life's web pages, you'll notice the URL address changes. Yes, obviously enough. But what I am referring to is the sub domain: the server that page is being served from. For example, with regard to the friends page it can come from:

The sub domain is that part before "secondlife.com" - the part that says "secure-web5." This means this page is being served from web server number 5. The server the page is served from each time you click the "Friends" link is chosen pretty much at random. (Not really, there are forces that determine exactly which server is selected, but that is beyond the scope of this post.)

So, clicking this link each time will get you a different server - and, likely a different resulting friends list:


Now, once you are on that page (and server) hitting your browser refresh button will get you the same list every time. You are simply refreshing that page from that server.

So do try this: manually change the address. Simply change the number to another number between 0 and 25 - press enter and you will likely get a different list or a notice that there are no friends online.

Something happened to cause these pages to 'freeze' - obviously at different times, which is why each server seems to have a different list - they were broken in a different state. But needless to say, the servers are not connected to the live grid, or at least are not parsing the information it finds there.

However, because each time you click the "friends online" link within the web site and get a different listing - many people may not even realize the listing is broken. Until they notice two awkward things: The first being that a friend who allows mapping cannot be teleported to as the SLURL is wonky:

Additionally, one might cock their head sideways to see a name on the list who has not been in your actual friends list for a very long time.

It has been given the level of "Show Stopper" in the Jira. I agree.

Please go to the public Jira and vote:
[#WEB-511] "Friends' Page incorrectly reporting avatars online - Second Life Issues

More new Second Life tutorials from Torley and the detractors are out in force again. It's funny, as they say "sometimes the best way to show a fool for a fool is to let him have his way." Do these people realize how trivial and childish they sound?

Today focused on voice features of Second Life. Take the example quote from the talkback page of the voice tutorials released today:

"If it was so wanted to hear mouth breathers and teenaged griefers how come there were so few votes to have this “feature bling” added over stability and a little decent governance."

Well...
In order to hear "mouth breathers" and "teenaged griefers", you have to have voice turned ON!

If you had voice turned OFF (as you must certainly have, since you are so terribly against it) - then what does it matter to you whether there are any of these about? And, of course, there also are to truly useful, beneficial and enlightening feedback posts such as this:

Yes, these people already look foolish enough in their original posts. So I won't mention their names here. They already must be embarrassed enough for such drivel. And if they are not... well, that just speaks volumes about their frame of mind and ability to whine and complain that others are 'forcing their ideas' down their throats while they themselves, implore us to accept theirs.

It's laughable, isn't it?

Can you hear me now? 7 VOICE CHAT Video Tutorials! « Official Second Life Blog

I didn't know Eon Ayres, but that doesn't really matter. This resident is a mystery to me. The reason I'm posting this is because there's a certain helpless emptiness that comes when I hear about a recently-deceased resident of SL. We've all experienced it... First there's the doubt -- not simply because people like to fake their own deaths online, but because the first, innate human response to grief is denial.

What I'm getting at is that, as someone who doesn't know a lot of people, with a small family, someone who has only cried over a lost loved one a couple of times in her twenty-five years, I find myself more speechless and more helpless than others might because I simply cannot fathom the kind of words I could say that would help or lessen any burden of pain. And because it would be awful to simply walk away, I am always left gape-mouthed and terrified, filled with guilt, because some subconscious part of me feels like there ought to be a response coming out of me. It's robotic, in a way.

Still, the point of my posting is this: If you live both an online life and a real one, whether you're a resident of SL or just do a lot of instant messaging, consider writing up a quick document that contains your passwords and people you would like to notify in case something terrible happens to you. As a person who suffers from a constant fear of the pain she would leave behind in others if she passed on, I can say matter-of-fact-ly that knowing such a document exists will help assuage the kind of fear that could keep you from living your life normally.

On the flip side, I also advise you to always treat every meeting and encounter as if it will be your last -- to an extent. I do this, but it tends to sadden me... still, I fight with the idea that were I not to do this, that I would spend years hating myself if something were to happen to someone the day I chose not to look at them as they passed down the stairs out of sight.

I don't know... perhaps it's more healthy in the long-run to be more frivolous. Perhaps it's easier to get over knowing you didn't say everything you could have said than it is to live the (more likely) day-to-day, lucky life around someone you care about constantly terrified that they'll get into a car accident or have a desperate asthma attack when you aren't around... regardless, don't take anything for granted this year if you can help it. And by that, I mean, be safe, smart, and care about others just as much as you care about yourself.

Corporate R&D, educational classrooms, commercial showrooms, fantasy Gorean swordplay and now... war room. For real life.

Forbes magazine has an interesting article on how the Feds are coming into virtual worlds to... help catch terrorists and other bad guys.

Always fun and fascinating news:

Leave it to the U.S. government to suck the fun out of innovative technology. As the inhabitants of virtual worlds like "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft" fulfill fantasies of flying between islands and fighting armies of blood elves, the feds are looking into using the virtual realm for far more mundane--if more practical--activities: sitting around a conference table, watching PowerPoint presentations and attempting to track down terrorists.

Building The Feds' Virtual War Room - Forbes.com

Go ahead, call me 'heartless'.

The whole Gitmo routine is really getting boring. But what cracks me up is how the ACLU (sometimes a great organization, sometimes hell incarnate) demands rights for terrorists.

Like the quote from this story:

Gone Gitmo is a Second Life experience of rendition and Camp X-Ray, the now-defunct arrival center at Gitmo, developed as a virtual world companion piece to the documentary Unconstitutional. Gone Gitmo allows SL avatars to experience being hooded, handcuffed, verbally abused and detained.

<Sighs, rolling eyes>

First of all, what the hell does the Unites States Constitution have to do with it?
First, they aren't citizens of the United States, so our constitution does not apply to them. Second, they are enemy combatants, so since when does our court system apply to them? Since when do they have any rights under United States law?

But the American Civil Liberties Union wants to give each a tax-paid lawyer and demand a court trial for each. Pffft. Hello? Those people want to kill you and openly admit that.

Now, I'm not saying they shouldn't have any rights or be treated humanely - Geneva convention and all that. But these are people that want us all dead, now.

And, as far as that goes, being handcuffed and detained is pretty standard fair - for any number of reasons - including simply being drunk in public. Being hooded is supposed to be inhumane treatment or 'torture'? And as for verbal abuse... oh, that's right - there's even a big to-do about 8-year-old kids teasing each other, too.

Fekking bleeding-heart liberals need to wake-up and smell the coffee. These people in Gitmo are terrorists. They want all western peoples either dead or kneeling 50-times a day toward Mecca.

As for the 'experience' in Second Life... I think I'll go take a look. I was in the military... so I wonder how accurate their representation is. The truth is, those prisoners at Gitmo eat better than you, and are likely treated better than you are treated by your own boss on a bad day.

And since they are terrorists, any treatment short of castration or poking eyes out is fine by me and plenty humane as far as I'm concerned.

And they would kill you the very instant they had the chance.

Gone Gitmo: The ACLU In Second Life

The content theft in Second Life is starting to gain attention out in the real world - places and bloggers that don't usually report on Second Life.

Though in my opinion, the content theft in Second Life is not actually "theft" by definition of the word (the creators are not actually deprived of the creation,) rather it is plagiarism, I also can understand why the term is used. It packs a heavier punch, even though the real reason the term is used has more to do with our laziness and lack of true understanding of our own language. And many can be rather niggardly about it.

This is a good read.

Not so much that it's about the complaints, (and even shrill, in some cases, whining,) about the current lead of comment, but because it applies to all plagiarism in SL - including those who 'borrow' from real life, such as popular names and logos.

"What these programs do is allow users to copy models and designs from others of the Second Life universe. However, typically these creations are sold in virtual shops and are not designed to be copied. In fact, Second Life has a permissions system that, theoretically, is supposed to prevent such unauthorized copying."

PlagiarismToday - » Content Theft and Second Life

If you've been following all the SL Blogs, you know there is a lot of hoopla about Intellectual Property (IP) rights and content theft. There even is an awareness campaign being run by many of Second Life's better-known creators.

Many, including myself consider the campaign to almost be a waste of breath. Almost. But, as it turns out, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg and Second Life residents are the Titanic. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

The issue is the untested waters of Second Life and virtual IP as it pertains to the law. real world law. It has already been proven, at least to a small degree that real life law can and does apply to virtual IP as found in the Eros vs. John Doe case of 2007.

If you are a creator in SL - creating your own stuff, marketing yourself, or even if you 'borrow' real life logos and marketing approaches, and especially is your are a content plagiarizer, you'd do very well to read the linked article.

For anyone involved in any way with Intellectual Property in SL, builders, designers, scripters, SELLERS... fasten your seatbelt. It's going to be a rough ride if you aren't careful.

Quote:

"For example, it's not clear whether someone who commercializes a virtual copy of a patented real world object commits patent infringment [sic] and if so, in which jurisdiction. It's also unclear whether someone who develops a trademark used only to identify virtual goods and services generates enforceable trademark rights in the real world. And it's not known whether making virtual use of a trademark, which can be confused with a real-world trademark, amounts to trademark infringment [sic].

"But rights holders can't really stand around waiting for the courts to decide the law."Failure to enforce is particularly damaging to plaintiffs in trademark infringment cases," [sic] says Kristina Rosette of Covington & Burling, which has offices in the U.S. and Europe.

"Mr. Bennett argues that abusers can do as much damage online as they can do in the real world."

Virtual worlds ripe for real-world lawsuits

"...I had heard of colossal time wasting games like “World of Warcraft,” and “Everquest” as well as the virtual worlds “Second Life” and “Sims” where people can create a character in a utopian fantasy world and spend countless hours posted in front of their computers armed with a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, a Hot Pocket and a waistline growing as fast as their logged hours played. But hey, to each their own and as several people in “Second Skin” say, we all have our little time wasting addictions and online gaming is theirs."

This is the quote from a movie review, about "Second Skin". Apparently a documentary about people who spend much of their time in MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds. It reminds me of the recent BBC special, where they followed two separate couples (couples in SL) who met in real life.

I thought the BBC did a pretty balanced job of it, showing one couple blissfully happy and the other... well, it was balanced. As for "Second Skin", I really don't know much about it. As for the review of Second Skin, well - it's a review... by a critic.

I have no interest in seeing it. If it shows up on YouTube or something, sure I'll peek. But other than that, I'm really not too interested. So, as for the quote above... agree or disagree?

Full article here:
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat