Second Life Recognizes IP Of User-Created Objects

Thanks to TerraNova for pointing to a Yahoo press release revealing that "online world" Second Life now recognizes the ownership of in-world content made by subscribers. According to the press release, "The revised TOS allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs." As well as this, "Second Life has committed to exploring technologies to make it easy for creators to license their content under Creative Commons licenses", but, while these CC licenses are still being discussed, questions about the just-implemented IP issues are addressed at an official FAQ page on the Second Life site.

Comments

Isn't this obvious?

[Rude Turnip]

That's like saying that when I create a document within the virtual world of MS Word, that I get to keep the copyright on the document...and then act surprised by it.

Well...

[DrEldarion]

At least this will take care of the "You can't sell that on ebay, we OWN it!" restriction that MMORPG companies seem to have.

"Nope, it's MY IP now!"

Legality of subject matter

[Che Guevarra]

What a lot of "programers" don't realize is that there is a very rich and textured world of legality that exists in the corporate world. What is actually taking place is the legal precedent of rights. There is nothing like this in precedent, so there is an ongoing establishment of "rights" taking place. Its important in the legal/courts environment, but not necessarily in the court of public opinion. However, these issues need to be addressed to determine business practices.

Re:so you mean...

[aborchers]

Have these people lost their fucking minds? It's a game for jebuz sake.

I haven't read the article, and know zip about this particular game, so I can't speak to this implementation, but only the concept.

Perhaps you are looking at it too narrowly. I for one thought this to be quite a progressive step and one that is consistent and equitable with respect to honoring the rights of all to create and participate in the process, rather than just signing everything away to the corporate monolith as has traditionally been the norm.

As we conduct more and more of our activities in on-line worlds, and our creative works manifest more in the same, then is it not reasonable and natural that those manifestations to serve the same purposes as the goods and services we produce in the wetworld? Think about it: wouldn't it be cool for your "day job" to be blacksmith in an on-line RPG? For now, it may only produce on-line currency that subsidizes your game time, but in the not too distant future, you, and the other users, might become co-creators with the game publisher and actually make a living from it.

It just seems a natural progression of the economy to extend into virtual worlds this way. I'd much rather see this than a bunch of hamburger-flipping losers by day paying corporate giants to play their RPGs in the evening.

Perhaps not as eloquent as Gibson or Stephenson would express it, but do you get what I'm pushing out here?