The solution to the grid merger is taking shape, Linden Lab just need to hire Deathwing, he can cause chaos, shatter the world and one of the continents can become the teen continent, and then we can take it from there, problem solved, they can get Kim Linden on the case after the USA holiday weekend.
However today, let’s take a look at the Battlestar Galactica rumpus, reported by Hamlet over at New World Notes, here, and referring to an article in the Harrisburg Second Life Examiner, here. The story reports of a rumour that Universal City Studios Inc. have complained to Linden Lab about Battlestar Galactica content being sold and used within Second Life, and that Linden Lab have removed the offending content, Hamlet points out that a sim is missing but it’s not clear if the sim has been missing for a while or is caught up in this. The Harrisburg Second Life examiner reports that the following message was sent to Battlestar Galactica related sim owners or officers:
“Linden Lab has received an intellectual property complaint from Universal City Studios, Inc., complaining about use by Second Life Residents of names and content that it believes are associated with Battlestar Galactica. For example, they have complained about names such as “Battlestar Galactica,” “Battlestar,” “BSG,” “Colonial Warriors,” and “The Twelve Colonies,” and about content such as “recreations of Battlestar Galactica ships like the Vipers, Raiders, and Raptors.”
Linden Lab respects the rights of both Second Life residents and intellectual property owners. Accordingly, we ask that you discontinue any use of Battlestar Galactica intellectual property in Second Life. You must not use the intellectual property of others unless you have their permission to use it.
To address Universal’s concerns, Linden Lab has disabled certain Second Life content, including the content listed at the end of this email.
**PLEASE REVIEW ALL OF YOUR NAMES, CONTENT, AND BUILDS AND CHANGE OR DELETE ANY THAT MAY BE RELATED TO BATTLESTAR GALACTICA**
Linden Lab may remove or disable any other content that may infringe intellectual property rights. In addition, further reports of your unauthorized use of another’s intellectual property in Second Life may result in your suspension or termination from Second Life.
If you have a region or group whose name was disabled as the result of Universal’s complaint, please respond to this email with a new non-infringing name for the region or group, and Linden Lab will change the name to your new non-infringing name. As a default, while we await your new non-infringing name, the region or group has a placeholder name based on your avatar name.
For any questions about the intellectual property complaint of Universal, please contact Universal’s counsel:
We appreciate your cooperation and your creation of original content in the Second Life virtual world.
Sincerely,
Linden Lab”
Is this true? I have absolutely no idea, however it raises some interesting points, if this is true, let’s not be too quick to paint Universal City Studios inc. as the bad guys, they have every right to protect their intellectual property, as do Second Life Residents, as did Linden Lab when they introduced their trademarking policies. However, it does seem that they are missing a trick here by taking such a heavy hand, fan created sites are free promotion of brands, even here where one can get critical of Linden Lab, we also offer free promotion. Ideally Universal City Studios Inc. and other big brands would take a more proactive view of how to market their brand, rather than creating bad feeling amongst fans, they should see opportunity knocking.
The sticky wicket of course comes largely with people making money off these said big brands, that’s problematic, that’s what brings the eyes of corps to places and they have to act to protect their intellectual property rights.
However, why won’t these brands offer some form of licensing deals? Affordables ones I mean, which refelct the economy of Second Life in a realistic fashion, not only would the corps create goodwill, they’d also be extending their reach, keeping a door open in case things really boom economically, if it really takes off at some point they could even create a store and employ people to sell and create their wares, or license said store, they’d still be keeping control of their intellectual property, but they’d be examining other avenues.
Official merchandise from Lucas, Universal, yadda yadda yadda would sell well in Second Life terms, it may not boost the bottom lines of the corps that much, not yet anyway, but further down the line it may well do so inside Second Life and other virtual world and Second Life could be a prototype of how to setup licensing virtual goods sales of big brands like this.
The problem the corps have faced in the past is that they arrive, then step back and wait for people to come, that doesn’t work. However with ardent fans at the heart of the enterprise, the model has far more chance of working, why the corps won’t even give this a chance remains a mystery to me.
However, as I said earlier, people should protect their intellectual property, whether the person is big or small, so let’s keep that in mind before being too critical of these alleged developments.