Some Analysis

Following up with my interviews this week, my experience in Second Life and what I’ve learned talking to different avatars, all of them related to media and reporting in some way, here is a reflection on all the issues I’ve covered and also an invitation for you to participate: I can’t wait to hear readers’ comments on what I’m covering, both through the different posts and on the discussion board.

First of all, the same way I cannot verify if the female avatars I’ve been talking to are women in real life, I have way of verifying that what they said is actually based solely on their own experience. I have checked what they publish, where they write, and posted some of their stories, but apart from that, I couldn’t do more. Therefore, my analysis and conclusions are limited by these factors, and I want you to take it into account.

This limits affect SL reporters too, and that is the first thing I want to emphasize on my conclusions. Reporters are covering, writing, broadcasting stories that happen in the virtual world. When they interview avatars, they “have to” make sure the facts they are getting are correct and true. some editors will ask them to do so, others will just ask for “common sense.”

When you enter a news organization in real life, and way before that, when you become a journalism student, one of the first things you learn is that all stories must be balanced, accurate, fair and objective. And you must verify all the facts, names and data on them.

When you enter SL, nobody -and this makes sense- asks you if you want to be a reporter. When you join any of the journalism-related groups, and here it would make more sense, nobody asks you if you are interested in reporting. Furthermore, when you start learning about citizen journalism opportunities, and this is based on my interviews, there’s no advice on how it should be done. As we have learned, CNN holds meetings every week so reporters can debate, analyze and comment on such issues.

Second Life’s official Web site provides readers with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Did any of you read it before you started reporting?

Some of the avatars I’ve contacted knew about it because they either have been victims of copyright infringements or because they are mentors and are trying to spread the word about avatars and reporters’ rights and duties in SL.

However, copyright issues not only affect reporters in SL. There are avatars who spend hours and hours creating designs and textures. For fun or with selling purposes. These designs can be stolen without the creator’s knowledge. And most importantly, without Linden Lab’s knowledge. The thieves can even make profit of something that doesn’t belong to them and time can pass before the theft is found.

This is clearly a hole in SL regulations that should be covered soon.

There are lawyers, attorneys and even the American Bar Association in SL. There’s a Justice Center. But it’s still difficult to know what your rights and obligations are as an avatar and then as a creator or as a reporter.

In the case of citizen journalists, Web sites such as the Center for Social Media or the Journalism Labs offer guidance regarding copyright and plagiarism issues. Avatars can apply those in SL too, but the only regulation over them is the DMCA. And even so, unless there’s a court claim outside of SL, the further Linden Labs can go against an avatar who has violated the DMCA is to delete all the creations and force them outside of SL.

But of course the avatar can go back inside with a different identity. The only thing that would stop them would be an IP address identification, but that requires further steps.

The avatars I’ve interviewed agree that this issues should be regulated. That SL should find a way to stop new avatars from copying scripts, textures and designs from other avatars.

Another issue is that of content that is produced within SL, based on in-world events, but hosted by publications online avoiding SL regulations.

These facts have taken many avatars, like I did before starting this blog, to wonder if SL will one day regulate media content reported by avatars. Regulations would come years after mainstream and SL media entered Linden territory, but they would end the days when the theft of other avatars’ intellectual property wasn’t punished beyond deletion of the content online. Also, it would give avatars and SL media audiences a broader protection in cases of plagiarism and intellectual property theft.