Looking for copyright-related news

My next interviewee, Kitty Tandino, is a member of the SL Press Club. This group was created “to identify and communicate great resident stories from inside and outside of  Second Life,” as defined in SL. Tandino contacted the group in search of good stories and sources in cases of important in-world events.

I asked her about events involving SL law or regulations.

In 2006, there was a “ban rush:” money was being taken from SL members for different reasons, some related to children avatars. Tandino contacted the SL Press Club in that case. “I helped make a ban list and turned it over to the then Chadric Linden and many were removed then,” she said.

After the ban, children avatars are no longer allowed in SL nor it is to interact with any of them, known within the in-world as age-play.

SL has plenty of places tagged as containing mature content, as Tandino recalls, being harrased when entering the in-world is more than common. To help new avatars avoid these situations and learn how to report them, Tandino became a mentor.

“I deal with helping teach new members how to use the tools given to them like Report abuse, so I have seen many [cases],” Tandino said.

The problem comes when avatars don’t use mentors’ help when entering SL.

Tandino has had her scripts and textures stolen “a few times.” As I mentioned in the previous post, an avatar took pictures that she had taken in SL and published them online in real life.

As eyeing Daigdig, Tandino knows there are options to get lawyers both in SL and in the real world. In her case, she decided not to do so because the other avatar wasn’t making a profit with her photos. But he was still doing something illegal under the DMCA, which proves that, unless the affected avatar reports it to SL -once he or she knows the theft has taken place- there’s no other way to follow or find these infringements.

Still to come: Interview with MBC CEO Robustus Hax.

~ by onewayoranother on July 27, 2008.