Socially|Mundane

Avatar Trademarks Copybotted all over the SL grid! Yes! Really! No shit!

It seems that every time Linden Lab burps, sneezes or farts, the hysterical uninformed, misguided, gullible empty-headed hysterically paranoid freaks come out of the woodwork. Okay, granted, the ones I have explicitly described above are only one in three of the overloud shrill knee-jerkers, but you get my point.

Copyright laws are not really all that complicated on the overall face of it. One easily understandable aspect of the law is that it squarely places the onus onto the copyright holder and owner to practice due diligence in defending that copyright and trademark (which are both actually different entities).

So, this creates a bit of a conundrum for the copyright owner: you are required by law to defend your registered copyrights, or risk losing them to the public domain.

And, to that end, if a copyright owner goes to an ISP or other entity displaying such copyrighted material must, by law, remove all access to it if requested by the copyright owner, and the copyright owner is technically and legally required to make that request whether they want to or not.

Some trademarks and copyrights are so prevalent that the holders, though they obviously retain all legal rights, have allowed these "fan" versions to proliferate. Anything Star Wars comes to mind. Disney. Playboy. Frank Herbert estate (Dune).

This also is why Linden Lab has made the public statement that obvious and blatant use of recognized trademarks will not be tolerated unless you are the owner, holder or authorize agent of the legal owner or holder.

But this statement is a simple legal maneuver by Linden lab to protect themselves. yet the shrill provocateurs will lambast Linden Lab for it. All without stopping to think.

Quaintly's quaint post brings this whole idea back to mind. The Na'Vi image may not be a trademarked image. or is it? What about the word, name, title, whatever you want to call it: "Na'Vi"?

Yet here is Quaintly brandishing a stunning replica of what is most certainly someone else's copyrighted design. And no, I am not referring to the shape creator, the skin creator or even the person selling this avatar in-world. In fact, I have a very strong suspicion the "creator" of Quaintly's Na'Vi avatar has zero written or any other form of permission to recreate that look. I also doubt she has any permission to use that word "Na'Vi".

In fact, one could go so far as to proclaim that and all the other "replicas" of that design across the grid as "bootlegged, pirated designs that were outright stolen by theft from the original copyright owners and holders" - that being 20th Century Fox and James Cameron's production company and James Cameron himself.

But you don't see a line of goose-stepping surname Lindens marching across the grid burning vendors and banning creators, do you? Hell, even Linden Lab (along with IMVU and possible some other virtual world systems) are capitalizing on the movie success and the imagery from the same.

Because the image of the "Na'Vi alien is used on the movie poster to market the movie proper, I suspect that image and design is not only copyrighted, but trademarked as well. The same with the word Na'Vi.

But, Second Life being second life, copyright infringement is running rampant. Where the hell are all those hysterical copybot vigilantes proclaiming that copying someone else's work is wrong and outright theft?

Perhaps I should go to each and every one of these and file an abuse report for "copybotting" copyrighted and trademarked works? After all, it's easily provable.

Okay now... allow me to be fair! I am not picking on Oblivion Creations! This is just a good example. The link immediately above lists all the items that infringe on this movie's trademarks listed at XStreet SL under the keyword Na"vi. Which also is not doubt an infringement as it is a trademarked synthetic word being used to located replicas of trademarked designs and using the trademarked term in conjunction with these creations. Any legal egle will say it creates a clear misconception that the items in question are officially licensed or otherwise endorsed by the producers.

But we all really know better, don't wee? {nod, nod, wink, wink.}

The point being a lot of what Linden Lab says on their blogs, policy statements, office hours, prtess releases, Terms of Service, Community standards and all the rest is not only to communicate with you, dear resident, it's also to cover their own asses legally, which explains a lot of the vagueness in it all.

So, when Linden Lab coughs, sneezes, farts and even barfs... cut them a little slack, will ya?