Linden Lab: Cut Off!
Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by Tenshi Vielle in Linden Lab News, News
Last week, Linden Lab seized a few accounts of some more known SL folk – both content creators – to remove infringing comment such as Star Wars items (that were not being resold but were personal use) and Muppets (that WERE being resold, or were at one time).
Emails were sent via “partyon.lindenlab.com”… fun little URL there.
Dear __________,
Greetings from Second Life. Occasionally, Linden Lab needs to determine
the cause of bugs, simulator slowdowns, and various other occurrences
that you may have experienced while in Second Life.While fixing a bug, we were able to trace it to something that your
avatar may have been doing, or something they may have seen. For this
reason, we have disabled your ability to log in to Second Life while we
examine your logs and try to determine the cause.Your account will be returned shortly (usually within a 1/2 hour), and
no changes will be made to your character or account other than those
required to resolve the problem.Your account will be restored as soon as we resolve the specific issue,
and we will notify you via email when that happens. We apologize
for the inconvenience. Please feel free to contact us if you have
further questions.Best Wishes,
Linden LabLinden Research, Inc.
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
www.secondlife.com
And a few hours later…
Dear _________,
Thank you for your patience while we worked on your Second Life account.
It has been re-enabled.
We hope that this did not impact your Second Life too severely, and
apologize for any inconvenience that it may have caused. As always, if
you have any questions, feel free to contact us by visiting www.secondlife.com/community/support.phpBest Wishes, have fun,
Linden LabLinden Research, Inc.
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
www.secondlife.com
The only problem came in when Linden Lab reset the account’s password to block user access while they worked on things, and didn’t send the updated password – nor did they reset it again. The password recovery feature was also down.
A very important question also comes up – would a Non-Disclosure Agreement, signed by an avatar operator, still be valid if the account has been seized by Linden Lab?
The next question is, XStreet and Second Life are still flooded with issues. It seems like these two accounts were seized to make an example – a simple search on XStreet still turns out so much content that violates copyrights, which could probably be disabled on XStreet with the click of a button and a form email sent much like this one.
I wonder if the Lab will adopt this as their modus operandi?
Annyka
Nov 11th, 2009
i can only scratch my head at this whole situation. Why the misinformation in the emails? If they were grabbing the accounts to look for IP violations, why lie about it and say its about bugfixing? Why does it seem like no actual humans were involved in this?
I think that we can all accept that they need to take down IP violations where they find them, but why be so random and mysterious about it? If they were really trying to set examples, you'd think it would make more sense to explain exactly what theyre doing and why theyre doing it to these people.
Its just so odd that the Lab can be so open about certain types of things, but in the things that matter the most they're as facelessly beurocratic as the DMV.
You were asking the other day about things to ask M Linden. I think you should show him these emails and ask him why they handle these things so poorly.
kesseret
Nov 11th, 2009
My question is- did LucasArts and Jim Henson's Group (You get what I mean- the copyright owner conglomerates) request the stuff get removed or was it of their own volition?
Once again are they following the DMCA process or are they just willy nilly doing whatever they feel like?
And it's pretty darn ridiculous to not reset the password and send it to the user post whatever with the account. I know they can do that- because they recently took over my account for a problem. It's just rude and sloppy procedure at this point.
As for the NDA- if a company requires that for inworld work they probably realize that LL has full authority over all inworld and can, at any time, see any data/object/whatever on the grid. That's a given so I assume any non disclosure agreement will take that into account- if they don't the company who requires it needs to make their own opensim grid to keep it secret. Just my thoughts.
I wish LL would clarify this: Are they removing items at the request of the copyright holder or at the request of something/someone else.
Autumn Heyse
Nov 11th, 2009
I highly doubt Lucas Arts went after someone for something that was for personal use. They have notoriously allowed fanfic and related items on peoples personal websites so long as they don't make money and they aren't distributing anything.
Man_In_A_Skirt
Nov 11th, 2009
More like they employed too many monkeys at the lab, and when there was nothing for them to do, they give them pointless tasks such as this one.
Linden Lab: Cut Off! | Shopping Cart Disco | Portal site of Second Life and metaverse"MetaLog-meta log"
Nov 11th, 2009
[...] The next question is, XStreet and Second Life are still flooded with issues. It seems like these two… [...]
Lizzie Lexington
Nov 11th, 2009
TOS of the Lab allows them access to your account pretty much at any time so any entity who signs a NDA with user of second life needs to be aware of this fact and take that into account. And because this project has to do with second life logic would dictate the TOS overrides the NDA in many situations. I am not lawyer by any means but I have signed NDA's in the past.
Roblem
Nov 11th, 2009
Overall a troubling case but it brings up some valid points. First I’ll forgive whatever Linden drone for using obvious form letters. It’s likely a requirement on their end for whatever they were at least initially looking into. Of course the removal of Muppet and Star Wars content, assuming it wasn’t accidental, is just strange. A quick XstreetSl.com search brings up pages of items for both terms.
In the case of Star Wars, as others have pointed out, copyright holder Lucasfilm is pretty tolerant/turns a blind eye to most Fan Art/ Fan websites, even when these sites include banner adds, that could be generating SL levels of profit for the owners. On the other hand I searched around and found that Lucas no longer owns the Muppets, they are currently copyright of the “Muppets Holding Company” a Disney owned property. At least in the past Disney is not known for being tolerant of unlicensed use of their properties in any way shape or form.
A big problem here is that when a Linden or any 3rd party decides that this or that is a copyright violation without contacting the copyright holder. Some companies have no issue with fan art as it is free Guerrilla marketing for them, and isn’t a threat to their bottom line. With Lucasfilm’s general attitude and assuming they have no intent to sell “official” StarWars items in-world, they may choose to turn a blind eye to all the virtual Star Wars goods out there. Disney with regard to the Muppets I would think less so, but you never know.
The biggest problem here is one of inconstancies with how the Lindens seem to handle RL copyrights takedowns. It seems anytime you hear about one item being removed you have no problem finding it somewhere else. A while back a friends shop received an official takedown notice for some Harley Davidson themed items. Fair enough she took the items down. Of course today I have no problem finding Harley Davidson items on the Linden owned Xstreet.com.
Tweets that mention Linden Lab: Cut Off! | Shopping Cart Disco -- Topsy.com
Nov 11th, 2009
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by rivenhomewood and danielvoyager, Skate Foss. Skate Foss said: RT @danielvoyager: shares Linden Lab Cut Off! http://tinyurl.com/ydtrxsz -we are all but guests in this world, it's Linden Lab's playground [...]
AfraidOfLLSpies
Nov 12th, 2009
Doesn't sound right. LL just removes infringing or TOS violating content and sends an email. To send the email they usually suspend for an hour. I think it is part of the send an email tool.
What you described is something they do when they see metrics that indicate there is some issue going on. Sometimes scripts go nuts and they can be in attachments. In these cases they may need to take control of the account.
Linden Lab in no way has to log into your account to see what you have.
But none of that explains the password thing. LL doesn't even have to change the password to take control of the account temporarily. Something is wrong somewhere. Did anyone check the validity of those emails? Is it possible the accounts were hijacked? Did the affected parties call Linden Lab?
uberVU - social comments
Nov 11th, 2009
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Kat Alderson
Nov 14th, 2009
I only wish LL would do more of this. I am so tired of seeing first life copyright violations all over the grid and all over XStreet.
Uakino
Nov 25th, 2009
где-то я уже такое видел…