LAW
SECOND LIFE
has given aworld of opportunity to peoplewho wish to create and havetheir products purchased anddistributed. However, please beaware that the same legal issuesand protected rights that preside inreal life exist in mirror in SecondLife. Using someone elseʼs ideas,or trademarks, or brand names isnot legal, and not even cool, eitherin RL or SL.Even if a work doesnot seem to be copyrighted, itprobably is, and you shouldassume that it is. This line of reasoning should be your default.Today almost all major nationsfollow the Berne copyrightconvention. Almost everythingcreated after April 1, 1989 inthe US is copyrighted whetherit has a notice or not! If it lookscopyrighted, you should assume itis. Even if there is no notice, whichappears like this: “Copyright[dates] by [author/owner]” it ismost likely protected, and donʼtthink that the creator cannotdefend him or herself in court!Also do not fall into the trapof assuming that if you donʼt chargefor an item it isnʼt a violation of thelaw. You can damage a productʼscommercial value by giving it awayand you can be brought to courton this charge. It was not yours togive away. This does not apply to aparody where you are making funof something, i.e. you poke fun atStar Trek and use Mr. Spock.Trademarks are anotherarea of abuse. Trademarks arelogos, pictures, designs, orsometimes simply letters (IBM)that differentiate a product fromits peers. It brings customers tothe door of the business and thecustomers have a right to expectthat the products that they purchasewill be of the quality that they havecome to expect by having knownothers who have purchased theproduct or perhaps through theirown previous use of the product.Abuse of this “mark” is quitesimply any plan of action set outto misguide the buying publicinto believing that the productthus put under that false markis like, or similar to the originalproduct. An excellent case inpoint was the Radio Shack chargethat Auto Shack was having itscustomers construe by the use of the word “shack” that the autosupply was somehow a divisionof the Tandy Corporation affiliate,Radio Shack. The decision of thecourt was that Auto Shack mustbecome Auto Zone.Any time you use someoneelseʼs idea, art, or words withouttheir permission you are taking achance. And this is sad becausethe creative mind should be ableto come up with very originalideas from very basic materials,(i.e. Starbucks.) When buildingyour store in Second Life, donʼtbring this sort of behavior to thepure world we are trying to create.Be all you can be. Be original. Giveto the Avatars of SL somethingthey canʼt get anywhere else:a “Better World!”
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