Taser International Sues Second Life
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
I have the IP on text in any form by the way. You can expect my lawyers shortly.Sewblon said:
I honestly haven't heard much about it in the news, though I'm not suprised to hear that previous hijinks have occurred.Indigo_Dingo said:
What: you don't like Taser porn? Oh well, too bad for you then. As for how weird it is, I have a high tolerance for weirdness. How high on a 1-10 scale would you rate this (10 being tentacles EVERYWHERE)?Danzorz said:
In my own fantasy version of the world a completely lawful rebuttal to a lawsuit would be "yeah, fuck off mate"
"Hey boss! Did you see that people are selling virtual items in second life and making money doing it?"
"Nah, that'll never catch on..."
"But someone is already doing it with virtual items from our company!"
"Son of a.... WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT! Get our lawyers on the phone!"
"Nah, that'll never catch on..."
"But someone is already doing it with virtual items from our company!"
"Son of a.... WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT! Get our lawyers on the phone!"
Really? I wonder just how firm their trademark hold actually can be, given the history of the name:
The source novel is long since in the public domain, having been published in 1911. I'm sure there's already a fair amount of case law related to the validity of trade marks/names based on third party sources, but any further exploration of that track would require someone with actual legal knowledge in the specialty.
scotth266 said:
Okay. As a long-time member of both The Escapist and Second Life, I'm going to have to take up the voice of wisdom here.xmetatr0nx said:
1. Second Life
Second Life is a virtual world where the users can create all content: land, buildings, objects, avatars, avatar attachments, clothing and costume, interactive objects, interactive attachments (ranging from purely visual to world-altering) and more. The appeal is that of an online 3d chatroom combined with a collaborative development environment, 3d visualisation tool, video game, and general escape from reality. Yes, it's flooded with crap, just like the internet, and it current attracts more lunacy than stable people, but it has its functions, same as the World Wide Web. The key difference between SL and the WWW is that it only has one service provider: Linden Labs.
2. Linden Labs and XStreet SL
Linden Labs are a technology company that develops Second Life, hosts its servers and rents out servers for use as "islands" within the Second Life Grid. They recently acquired XStreet SL; a website, formerly owned by Residents of SL, that hosts product listings for inworld products, able to exchange inworld currency (L$) for inworld products. The site is more diverse than Amazon, selling virtual equivalents of clothing, housing, avatars, skins, textures, objects, furniture, just about anything that can make up a virtual world asset or collection of assets. With a single purchase you could redefine your look, land, property, and abilities.
3. Linden Dollar and Currency
The Linden Dollar (L$) is the inworld currency of Second Life. It has a fluctuating exchange rate of around L$270 to the US Dollar. It can be purchased with almost any prime currency, and can be converted back into prime currencies. Real people make real money selling virtual-world assets, land, and services, including skill-based gambling and virtual toys and weapons like this taser.
4. "What were tasers doing in a sex shop?!"
XStreet SL is all-inclusive; adult content is common. This includes pornography, realistic skins with genitalia, virtual replicas of copyrighted real-world designs, copyrighted content itself (paintings and illustrations), and as this case addresses, guns and weaponry based on their real-world counterparts. Obviously, this is a violation of copyright law.
5. So Linden Labs are to blame then?
Not quite. USERS/Residents are the creators of content, not Linden Labs. XStreet SL merely re-lists products produced by users; any resident may list their own work on Xstreet for any price (including free, as distribution is negligible cost). The correct response to finding your copyrighted work in SL is to file a DMCA request with XStreet SL (which they will comply with, being hosted in the USA) on the product listing; secondly, to file a DMCA request with the author of the given work and Linden Labs. The author may voluntarily delete their own assets (the work in question), or, depending on the specifics, have the item deleted by Linden Labs via the global inventory server.
TL;DR: Amazon also sells Tasers [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Overfiend&x=0&y=0]. That fact is irrelevant to the case. This is entirely a copyright/trademark case, where a user has created a 3d duplication of a Taser product, and sold it for in-world currency, which is exchangeable for real-world money. Linden Labs and their service for selling goods are being blamed for their user's violation.
Take over a country and you can enact that. Just make sure to tell me so I can move there.BlackKraken said:
