Day: November 29, 2010

A rumour is circulating that Universal Studios have issued a DMCA take-down order against Battlestar Galactica-related (BSG) merchandise within Second Life, and Linden Lab have compiled.

Cairan Laval carries more word on the matter – and its possible speculative nature –  and of the potential meaning, if true.

Doubtless, if this is the case, then a lot of swearing is going on within the community; but the fact is, neither Linden Lab nor Universal Studios is the villain here. Whether we like it or not, BSG material is copyrighted. Full stop, end of conversation. Unless those producing BSG merchandise actually have a “little” thing called a “licence” to produce their goods, they are in breach of said copyrights. The same goes for those producing Star Trek, Star Wars, Simpsons, Disney, or any other merchandise directly based upon or utilising copyrighted or trademarked images and items.

I actually find it ironic that there are those in SL who scream blue bloody murder on subjects like copybotting, but who routinely pop out to the web and grab textures for use in their products or who routinely created merchandise for sale regardless of any copyrights on said textures or objects. It matters little to the size of the corporation behind the objects, be it Pepsi, LucasFilm, Viacom or – as in this case – Universal Studios. A copyright is a copyright, period; the “well they can afford it” attitude attitude doesn’t cut the mustard in exactly the same way it doesn’t when an in-world content creator finds they have been ripped.

Nevertheless, as Ciaran points out, DMCAs are perhaps not the best reaction from the corporations themselves. He has a valid point that SL could represent an (admittedly small) audience that is guaranteed to generate income – and more importantly – goodwill. So why not enter into modest licensing arrangements with content creators? Why not grant them the rights to produce goods on all OS-based grids? This would create massive feel-good for all concerned and once and for all lift worries and concerns over copyright breaches for those who’d like the assurance they are operating “within” the law, either as a merchant or a consumer, and be secure in the knowledge goods and products aren’t going to suddenly poof in the night.

 

Apez, the supplier of vendor sales systems, land leasing systems, a web merchants portal (like SLM) and other service has today announced it is suspending all business.

Apez has recently been looking for a potential buyer and has had other issues that have impacted the business, and these factors appear to have combined to adversely affect the business and cause the decision to suspend operations. The following was posted by Cenji earlier today, Monday November 30th:

Unfortunately, recent events including my recent announcement that we were seeking parties to take over Apez has resulted in a ‘run’ on the bank. This has resulted in depletion of the immediate L$ reserves. We had hoped to avoid this situation, but now that it has occurred we’re forced to suspend deposits and withdraws temporarily or perhaps permanently if we’re unsuccessful in attracting interest to keep the system in operation.

Unless new management is obtained, we’ll attempt to effect an orderly closure. Some immediate steps planned:

• Keep the vend and lease systems operational in the short term to enable customers to transition their information
• Proceeds from liquidation of assets will be used for satisfying withdrawal requests as funds are available
• Develop a solution for liberating user data in a useable way.

We’re currently working with CasperVend to develop a migration kit that, when dropped into an iServ, will cause Apez.vend data and purchase history to be automatically transfered over to CasperVend’s system. We’ll provide information about how to obtain the kit once it is available. Note that CasperVend is otherwise unaffiliated with Apez Corp, so please don’t ask them for support with Apez products or services.

We’ll be seeking a similar solution for the lease service also.

Note that while ATM deposits have been disabled, we have no simple way to remotely stop iDeposit, iVend and auto-lease products from making ‘deposits’. Consequently, when we re-enable withdrawals, we’ll attempt to satisfy vend and lease ‘deposits’ from this time forward, first – and we hope to be able to satisfy all outstanding withdrawals eventually.

As I learn more of the unfolding situation I’ll post updates here.

Thank you,
-Cenji.

This is a major blow for many in SL – merchants in particular, where waiting for a promised migration option to keep things running smoothly may not be an option. Those using the leasing systems are in a similar dilemma.

Currently, it appears as those funds are finding their way through the systems from vending boards to Merchants’ accounts, but there is clearly no guarantee as to how long this might continue.

There are some questions here as well: Apez, despite operating a “banking” system, was not in fact a regulated financial service; so throughput should be direct in terms of money deposited and returned.

Ergo, there shouldn’t be a major issue in ensuring people can withdraw amounts deposited – less, of course, applicable commissions for the various iServices provided; so a “run on withdrawals” shouldn’t cause a major liquidity issue, unless said funds were being used to offset other aspects of the business that required funding beyond the means of commissions, etc., to meet. That there now appears to be insufficient funds to honour outstanding withdrawal requests, as the “hope to” and “eventually” in Cenji’s final comment imply, is something that is certain to raise eyebrows.

Nevertheless this is a sad – if not entirely unexpected, in many respects – turn of events. One hopes that is it resolved amicably, professionally and satisfactorily for and by all concerned.