Busted!
I had a strangely comforting email last week from the Intellectual property team. In it they informed me I had content that was perhaps copybotted or in some way illegal. I think that is what they are saying anyway. Seems a strange thing to be encouraged about, but somehow knowing that they had a way to seek out and remove what I guess is stolen content suggests to me that Linden Labs is indeed taking IP rights seriously.
For those of you unfamiliar with Second Life, each avatar has an inventory where we build up ridiculous amounts of garbage. Inventories are like that Doctor Who spaceship which looks like a police phone box but is massive on the inside. My inventory has something like 24 000 objects in it and I am not a shopper. So these dances at some point came to my inventory, I don't generally buy dances so my guess is someone gave me a folder of them at some point. Possibly years ago I just don't know. The point is that they were able to search the entire SL population and remove the content. While it's a bit creepy to know someones been looking through your underwear drawer, it's also very important for content creators to know that there is a recourse should your work be stolen and distributed.
In other news I just found out that in a short time we will have the option to use "nicknames" for our avatars. For a long time SL users have wanted to assign their own first life names to their avatars for business reasons. So it sounds like we will each have our embedded sl name such as Bryn Oh but we will have the opportunity to change our name to something like Bitey McPinchpunch or Phillip Linden. I am curious as to whether the nickname will be attributed to content created or if it will revert to the original name. Also would someone be able to have the nickname of Bryn Oh and make content under that name? If I change my name to Phillip Linden and go on a griefer spree will people be able to quickly determine I was not in fact Phillip? How often can you change your name and will it affect the entire database of objects in Second Life when you do so? I am thinking I might want to create a symbol for my name like ¥ and be the artist formerly known as Bryn Oh. If I do so will all the artwork I have created in the past now reflect the creator as ¥?
Anyway, below is my letter from the IP team.
Hi Bryn Oh,
We are writing to let you know that we removed some content you had in Second Life under our Intellectual Property Policy. For a list of the specific content we removed, please see the "IP Complaint Details" below at the bottom of this email.
When we receive an intellectual property complaint, we investigate it and look for copies of the content identified in the complaint. Our investigation found that you had some of this content. We replaced the content with generic placeholder item(s), as described in our FAQs on our Intellectual Property Complaint Process.
If you weren't aware of an intellectual property issue, don't panic or take it personally! Just take steps to avoid content that may have intellectual property issues. Here are some tips to protect yourself and keep your inworld shopping safe and fun.
Many thanks for your interest in Second Life.
-- The IP Team at Linden Lab
IP COMPLAINT DETAILS
Content Removed:
For those of you unfamiliar with Second Life, each avatar has an inventory where we build up ridiculous amounts of garbage. Inventories are like that Doctor Who spaceship which looks like a police phone box but is massive on the inside. My inventory has something like 24 000 objects in it and I am not a shopper. So these dances at some point came to my inventory, I don't generally buy dances so my guess is someone gave me a folder of them at some point. Possibly years ago I just don't know. The point is that they were able to search the entire SL population and remove the content. While it's a bit creepy to know someones been looking through your underwear drawer, it's also very important for content creators to know that there is a recourse should your work be stolen and distributed.
In other news I just found out that in a short time we will have the option to use "nicknames" for our avatars. For a long time SL users have wanted to assign their own first life names to their avatars for business reasons. So it sounds like we will each have our embedded sl name such as Bryn Oh but we will have the opportunity to change our name to something like Bitey McPinchpunch or Phillip Linden. I am curious as to whether the nickname will be attributed to content created or if it will revert to the original name. Also would someone be able to have the nickname of Bryn Oh and make content under that name? If I change my name to Phillip Linden and go on a griefer spree will people be able to quickly determine I was not in fact Phillip? How often can you change your name and will it affect the entire database of objects in Second Life when you do so? I am thinking I might want to create a symbol for my name like ¥ and be the artist formerly known as Bryn Oh. If I do so will all the artwork I have created in the past now reflect the creator as ¥?
Anyway, below is my letter from the IP team.
Hi Bryn Oh,
We are writing to let you know that we removed some content you had in Second Life under our Intellectual Property Policy. For a list of the specific content we removed, please see the "IP Complaint Details" below at the bottom of this email.
When we receive an intellectual property complaint, we investigate it and look for copies of the content identified in the complaint. Our investigation found that you had some of this content. We replaced the content with generic placeholder item(s), as described in our FAQs on our Intellectual Property Complaint Process.
If you weren't aware of an intellectual property issue, don't panic or take it personally! Just take steps to avoid content that may have intellectual property issues. Here are some tips to protect yourself and keep your inworld shopping safe and fun.
Many thanks for your interest in Second Life.
-- The IP Team at Linden Lab
IP COMPLAINT DETAILS
Content Removed:
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 14" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 10" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 7" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 11" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 17" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 16" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 5" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 12" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 1" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 6" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 8" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 3" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 18" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 9" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 13" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 2" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 4" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "AK Dance 15" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
- Item: Animation named "Touch Me - Abranimations" Location: Inventory of Bryn Oh
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