Genus Project Wins DMCA Suit, Reopens Today

Things haven't been the best for the Genus Project store this year. Twice this year, someone hit them with DMCA takedown notices, the second just hours after the store reopened. Finally, after two months, the case has been resolved and the store is set to reopen today. So how was the suit pulled off and why did it take time to resolve? The owner of Genus would explain.

Read more in Extra.

Second Life Store Hit With Two DMCA Shutdowns, Second Hours After Reopening

While the Second Life Birthday and the buyout of Linden Lab have been in the headlines, there have been other news stories that might have gotten more attention otherwise. Among the companies making use of Bento mesh is Genus, which has gotten attention for it's Bento heads. But a few months ago, they were hit with a DMCA takedown order, which shut them down for a while. Earlier this month, they reopened, only to be hit with a second takedown order in just a few hours.

Read the story in Extra.

Linden Lab Updates Terms of Service, DMCA Process Stricter

Linden Lab recently announced that there will be an update to the Second Life Terms of Service, which will take effect on July 31. One noteworthy change is that concerning DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notices, in Section Twelve, Part Two, at the bottom of the ToS page, or their "Intellectual Property Infringement Notification Policy."

To begin with, the Lab will not respond to any DMCA requests made inworld. Anyone interested has to either fax them, at, (415) 520-9660, or send a "snail mail" letter.

Linden Research, Inc.
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, California 94111
Attention: Intellectual Property Team

Then there was the following:

Please be aware that under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees incurred by us or our users, if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing.

Looking up this law, it basically states, "anyone filing a claim they either know is false or unsure whether it's true or not may be taken to court." Or as Hamlet Au not so delicately put it, "If you waste our time with frivolous claims, we may just sue your a**."

Hamlet Au got several responses to his article, all positive. One responded, "This is a good thing. I know two recently who have had DCMA filed against them out of jealousy of (a) better product. " Another commented, "This change has been a long time in coming - many genuine SL merchants do NOT have the finances required to mount a defence on every claim no matter how frivolous, which has been one of the weaknesses of the DMCA with regards to SL. The threat of actual blowback in the event of malicious claims should also cut out some of the adventurism in this regard. It's one thing to write a policy and another to enforce it, though. Let's see how it affects things when it finally goes into effect."

So it seems Linden Lab made a move that, for a change, is getting approval from the residents. As one stated, it remains to be seen how it changes things.

Hat tip: Hamlet Au

Bixyl Shuftan

Scammer Alert: Unauthorized Full Perm Item Resales Reported on Marketplace

By Bixyl Shuftan

Strawberry Singh recently wrote about an apparent problem on the Second Life Marketplace after being contacted by the maker of full permissions, or Full Perm, items which he sold on Second Life's Marketplace. Unscrupulous individuals are taking such items, and placing copies up for resale on Marketplace, not bothering to get permissions or give any kind of compensation to the content creators. Unless the offending party agrees to take down the items themselves after being contacted, the only recourse for the creators is to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request with Linden Lab "over and over until they are taken down, but then they must also DMCA items that are being sold by people who have bought these illegal full perm items and are selling them in their stores thinking they have a legal copy of the item."

Unfortunately, while sometimes this is the end of the ripoff, sometimes it continues, "A DMCA take down usually takes a week to be taken down, but the next day, that account puts it right back on that same Marketplace as a new listing."

Strawberry offered the following suggestions of "some of the things that you should look for and be aware of before making a purchase."


Before purchasing look at the seller’s other listings. If there is a hodgepodge of brand names and the vendors all look different, they are most likely an illegal seller.

Purchase the items from the inworld store of the full perm creator instead of the marketplace, to ensure that you are not purchasing from an illegal seller.

Most of the illegal sellers have blank profiles. Real full perm sellers usually have a full profile filled with links to their websites, mainstores and marketplace stores.

Most Full Perm sellers have started using water marks on the vendor ads which say the name of the avatar that is supposed to be selling it. The illegal sellers are still using those ads, even with the watermark. So it is important to look at the name of the creator on the watermark, and if it isn’t that person selling it, don’t buy it.

Try to find a way to report these items, either to Linden Lab by flagging the listing or to the original creator of the items.


That among her suggestions is not using Marketplace to purchase these items, Hamlet Au, who also wrote about the issue, called this, "Ironic, because a key point of the Marketplace existing at all is it makes online shopping for virtual content much more convenient than having to go rooting around for items in the full 3D client." Hamlet would go on to say Strawberry felt Linden Lab's options for dealing with this problem were limited.

"I honestly don't think they can because for them it would be hard to tell who is a valid seller without someone informing them at first and that's why the DMCA needs to happen." She was quoted as telling Hamlet, "If they went around closing accounts of people they suspect might be doing this without someone claiming it first, then they could potentially close some innocent accounts."

One possible solution, Strawberry suggested, was closing the accounts of those DMCAs had been filed against. But the Lab would need to be careful about unfairly shutting down creators whom are the target of false reports. Doing to would take time and resources (and money)by the Lab. But as Hamlet put it, "doing that would cut into Second Life's steadily shrinking profit margin. Then again, alienating content creators by not giving them a secure market also is also a profit-limiting move."

Among those leaving comments after Hamlet's article, one resident compared the problem to selling real life goods if they were easily duplicated in a fast-operating and extremely cheap to operate 3D printer. The person felt if someone was selling something completely Full Perm, rather than copyable but not transferable or transferable but not copyable, the seller was taking a chance, except perhaps if such items were useful only as parts to make a more detailed good.

Sources: Strawberry Singh, New World Notes, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Grid-Wide Corporate Logo Hunt

Preface

Since Linden Research, Inc. decided in November, 2013, that it holds License to anything created in SecondLife; this Contest will be held to find examples of Real Life Copyrighted and Trademarked material used illegally in SecondLife.    Since we as users cannot bring an action against Linden Research, Inc. for any matter at all (according to the Terms of Service), it is our intention to let the Corporations that hold the rights to license their Intellectual Property, bring Action against Linden Research, Inc.   It is our contention that since Linden Research, Inc. changed the Terms of Service to:

" Except as otherwise described in any Additional Terms (such as a contest’s official rules) which will govern the submission of your User Content, you hereby grant to Linden Lab, and you agree to grant to Linden Lab, the non-exclusive, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, and cost-free right and license to use, copy, record, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, re-sell, sublicense (through multiple levels), modify, display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats, on or through any media, software, formula, or medium now known or hereafter developed, and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed, and to advertise, market, and promote the same. You agree that the license includes the right to copy, analyze and use any of your Content as Linden Lab may deem necessary or desirable for purposes of debugging, testing, or providing support or development services in connection with the Service and future improvements to the Service. The license granted in this Section 2.3 is referred to as the "Service Content License." "

That Linden Research, Inc. made itself a party to any Intellectual Property infringement instead of simply a "Service Provider", and therefore liable under the DMCA and Copyright and Trademark Law, for the abuse of protected Intellectual Property.

This contest provides YOU the user with a voice.   Regardless of how you see yourself, if you wish to make trouble; then you could become the Ultimate Griefer, with the potential to bring the Lab to its knees with the right picture.  If you wish to help the Lab and the Grid in general; you could be the Ultimate Benefactor, if you take the picture that causes the Lab to change the Terms of Service back to requiring permission to take license to anyone's creations.

Contest

Entries open March 1, 2014 at 00:01 SL time, and will be closed on April 5, 2014 at Midnight SL Time.

This contest will be based on in world pictures made by users and placed on a Notecard.

That Notecard must be sent to IPJudge1 Resident prior to the close of the contest.

Each picture on the Notecard will be considered one Entry, any Resident may submit as many Entries as they wish.

All pictures shall be of examples of the use of Real Life Copywritten or Trademarked Intellectual Property used on items that are FOR SALE inside web properties owned by Linden Research, Inc.  

All Entries must be standard pictures with the User's name and the Location taken.   Any alteration of the default data on a picture will disqualify it.  The Picture Description must contain a clear location for the subject of the picture Any Photoshop editing will disqualify the picture.  

All Entries will be verified by the contest judges, so they must exist at the time of judging and be easily found from the data on the picture alone.    Any Entries that cannot be verified will be disqualified.

There will be 2 catagories of entry:

Catagory 1:  Pictures taken inside Secondlife of infringed Real Life Intellectual Property covered by Real Life Copyrights or Trademarks.

Category 2:  Pictures of infringed Real Life Intellectual Property taken inside SecondLife and inside any other Linden Research Web Property of THE SAME ITEM covered by Real Life Copyrights or Trademarks.

Judging

A panel of Judges has been selected, each has been tasked with putting digits on a notecard that are normally included in a UUID.  Those Judges are assigned a number, and are not told who the other numbers belong to.   An additional Judge will be tasked with determining the order of those notecards, that Judge will not know who the numbered judges are.   IPJudge Resident will then verify the entries closest to the UUID numbers selected, and announce the winners.

Prizes

Category 1: 50% of the prize pool will be awarded as follows:
Grand Prize: 30% of the total prize pool
First Runner Up: 10% of the total prize pool
Second Runner Up 10% of the total prize pool

Category 2: 50% of the prize pool will be awarded as follows:
Grand Prize: 40% of the total prize pool
Runner Up: 10% of the total prize pool

All Entries will become the property of the Contest Sponsors.

The Contest Sponsors reserve the right to remove these pictures from SecondLife to make them available to any interested parties at the Sponsor's sole descretion.

Should Linden Research, Inc., or any third party tamper with the contest, tamper with the Judges, or tamper with the entries, the contest will be restarted and the event will be announced through the same channels that carry this announcement.

The following example pictures are ineligible for this contest, they have been altered so they may only serve as content hints.

Knight Macalroy
Knight and Knight Investigators

Content Creators’ Conflict Leads to Fundraiser

Grey Lupindo reports on the "One Voice" fundraiser. The event was organized to raise funds for a content creator's legal fees in a copyright dispute, in addition to raising awareness about what DMCA rules can do to a Second Life business. The final day of the event is today.

Read Grey's article in Design.