At Wednesday's class, we are going to be talking about some of the legal implications of a few "novel" innovations at the intersection of technology and intellectual property, including virtual worlds and social networking. Of course, each of these subject areas provides more than a semester's worth of material on its own, but we'll at least familiarize ourselves with the issues.
I'd like each of you to be prepared to discuss in class your opinions and ideas. These are incredibly rich subject areas that provoke a wide range of reactions among lawyers.
Please visit www.secondlife.com. Ideally, download the application and spend some time visiting different environments in Second Life. Here's how to do it:
Start on the home page off www.secondlife.com.
Click "Explore".
This will take you to a registration page. You have to make up a name for your avatar. Just pick a first name, and then it will give you a limited list of last names to choose from.
When you register, you have the option of "choosing a community" from which to start when you join. I recommend you do this, especially if you are not a native English speaker. You'll likely find a community (which is just an entry portal into Second Life) in your native language or originating from your home country.
Then download the application.
Once you download the application, you will have opportunities to easily navigate around Second Life by following links to different experiences. You can also find these under "community".
We'll try to do this in class Wed. as well if we can maintain a stable Internet connection.
One of the interesting aspects of Second Life is that its creator, Linden Lab, allows individual users to own the intellectual property in any creations they make and upload to Second Life, which is quite unlike most websites or applications to which users contribute content. Given the many issues we've been discussing this semester, the implications of this business and legal strategy are quite significant.
This is the terms of service for Second Life. Paragraph 3.2 contains the intellectual property clause. http://secondlife.com//corporate/tos.php
This is the terms of service for Second Life. Paragraph 3.2 contains the intellectual property clause. http://secondlife.com//corporate/tos.php
And check out this counter-perspective on the intellectual property ownership strategy:
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/04/eff-and-sl.html
The following readings are optional.
Here is an interview of Prof. Larry Lessig that occurred in Second Life regarding his opinions on some topics related to public policy, the Google Books case, intellectual property law, Creative Commons, the scope of copyright, and some other subjects we've discussed in class. In addition, this is an interesting example in and of itself on the kinds of events that can and do occur within Second Life. http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/01/the_second_life.html
We talked a bit about the Google Books case a few weeks ago. This is one particularly lucid piece of commentary analyzing the case and the potential far-reaching implications on the settlement. Of course, it's one perspective, so feel free to post your own or links to others that you find compelling or worth noting.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/legally-speaking-the-dead-soul.html
Let me know if you have questions. Happy teleporting in the meantime, and I'll see you Wednesday.
Kelly Jo MacArthur
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