Linden Lab: IP infringement?

Posted on by Inara Pey

IP rights, DMCA, copyright, trademarks, content theft – they are all the subject of heated debate within and around Second Life.

Linden Lab themselves have been known to react very heavy-handedly regarding what they view as their own intellectual rights including laying claim to the word “Life” in all matters relating to Second Life, thus forcing Marine Kelley to rename the “Restrained Life Viewer” to “Restrained Love Viewer” – something of a petty stance in the circumstances – while also roundly slapping those it purports to support in the education sector.

And now Linden Lab seem to be wading deeper into the water – by snagging Miso Susanowa’s work, and the credit thereto. As Miso explains, she was approached regarding the creation of a logo for SL8B – and the outcome appears to have been somewhat less than positive.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this works out; right now the story is not winning Linden Lab much in the way of support – or doing SL8B any favours. Indeed, in reading it, one is reminded of the old adage about politicians: if one isn’t kissing your baby, you can be sure he’s stealing its lollypop.

Addendum

18:00 BST:As suggested in my reply to Gwyn, Rod “Rodvik” Humble was straight on to the case via Twitter:

rodvik rodvik humble  
Thanks for the notes all. Will look into the mystery of the magic hat! 🙂

Further updates will (hopefully) follow, if warranted.

21:30 BST: Pete Linden, posting on behalf of Amanda Linden on Miso’s blog, had this to say (also linked to above):

Hi Miso, Amanda Linden tried posting the comment below on your original post, but it wasn’t published. Here it is again:

Despite how this unfortunate situation clearly feels, it’s really just a misunderstanding and a case of two designers independently choosing a similar image to represent the theme.

The Lindens and community organizers who saw your original submission liked the idea, but it needed to not make use of the eye-in-hand SL logo. They asked that you re-submit the design without the eye-in-hand logo, but when they’d not heard back after several follow-ups, they asked a Linden designer to create a few options so that we would be sure to have a logo in time for the event. 

The Linden designer presented a few concepts based on the theme of ‘the magic of SL,’ and, without having seen your concept or having been told about it, she also created a logo using a magician’s hat image to represent the ‘magic’ theme.

At this point, the Lindens picking the logo had an opportunity to notice the similarities and should have addressed this with you directly; we didn’t, and for that we apologize sincerely. While the Linden designer arrived at similar imagery independently, we will update the attribution of the logo design to reflect that your earlier submission first presented this concept. [posted by Pete Linden]

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

8 thoughts on “Linden Lab: IP infringement?”

  1. … or both 😉
    Tut tut Linden Lab. Cought with your hands in the cookie jar. What a dissapointment.
    Wanna bet they pull the “You signed the TOS that states that everything you import into SL belongs to us” ?

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    1. Rights within SL are awkward given the ToS – but the logo is a wholly different matter, and one in which LL appear to have crossed the line over.

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      1. I agree they crossed the line but my point is they are going to try and wiggle out of it and the TOS is one excuse they can use cos Miso also made a mockup .. made within the SL platform while she was logged in and to be logged in you have to agree to the TOS.
        Not that that makes it right 🙂

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  2. I would be surprised if this would be the first SLCC free of any LL-sponsored drama…

    My full support goes to Miso. No matter how LL will sneak their way out of it (like they usually do), Miso is just another one in the long list of residents who have been cheated out of their IP without getting any credit due. I was hoping that Rod would put a stop to this practice, but, alas, it seems to permeate the whole of the ‘Lab and will take a long time to get eradicated.

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    1. I’m not going to write off Rod’s intervention off just yet: it’s been the weekend, and even he deserves a break from the office and Twitter. The day has yet to start in California, and I’m sure that if approached / on reading about this, he’ll step into the breach.

      Which doesn’t negate the really back smell this situation gives rise to, admittedly.

      As a side note… you do mean SLB, not SLCC, don’t you? :). Not that the latter is ever drama-free, either!

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  3. Sadly, why is this even a matter of discussion?
    In my previous life I have met some very devious members of society…
    when one tries to wrestle with a pig, everyone gets muddy.
    Logging in to SL can be akin to walking around the edges of the mud.

    Miso is a personal friend of mine, and while what happened wasn’t ethical from my point of view. Everything going forward is wasted ink.

    As per @Gwyneth Llewelyn:
    “My full support goes to Miso. No matter how LL will sneak their way out of it (like they usually do), Miso is just another one in the long list of residents who have been cheated out of their IP without getting any credit due. I was hoping that Rod would put a stop to this practice, but, alas, it seems to permeate the whole of the ‘Lab and will take a long time to get eradicated.”

    @ladysakai says it all.

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    1. Pete, I’ve quoted your reply in full in my own Addendum to the piece. Thanks for coming back to me.

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