LINDEN LAB!
Stroker’s pulling out the big guns ladies and gentlemen! Pixeleen broke the story at the Herald just now. Muchflower Zaius also spearheaded this particular lawsuit.
When the Herald contacted Stroker Serpentine for comment, Mr. Serpentine (Kevin Aldermann in real life) said, “This is not about financial gain. Seldom do class actions result in substantial class settlements. This is about a pattern of ambivelence over six years. We want fundamental change in the regard to the very content and creators that made SL what it is today.”
The complaint begins:
“Plaintiffs Eros, LLC (“Erosâ€) and Shannon Grei, d/b/a Nomine (“Greiâ€) (collectively, “Plaintiffsâ€), bring this class action complaint against Defendants Linden Research, Inc. and Linden Research International, Inc. (collectively, “Linden Lab†or “Defendantâ€), headquartered in San Francisco, California, for its practice of violating the real-world intellectual property rights of proprietors of virtual content within the Second Life virtual world (“Second Lifeâ€), which Linden Lab owns and operates.”The illegal conduct alleged includes
“directly and secondarily violated the intellectual property rights of Plaintiffs and other Second Life proprietors. Linden Lab directly and secondarily infringes the trademark of Plaintiff Eros by using Eros’s mark to sell infringing virtual goods within Second Life and by providing the tools to other infringing Second Life users. Linden Lab directly and secondarily violates the copyrights of Plaintiff
Grei by reproducing and displaying her copyrighted works within Second Life, and by materially contributing to and supervising the infringing conduct of others within Second Life.”
Click over to the Herald to read the rest and see a copy of the lawsuit document!
**Update** The ENTIRE 31-page document is up here at the Herald. Note, this is a CLASS ACTION lawsuit.
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ABOUT TIME. GO STROKER. Everyone's been waiting for this.
Great. Something needs to be done, even if its getting rid of the ability to create unlimitless free accounts (When the ability to create endless accounts for free without any sort of RL verification was implimented the flood gates flew wide open and thievery skyrocketed)
The 2nd or so comment over at the herald by "judge jocker" really bothered me. Thats exactly the attitude that has damaged things and held people back. While it has hints of truth to it, its an extremely defeatest attitude, "Oh well, it can be stolen easily, cant do anything about it". Ok. But LL has sat back and counted their $$, failing to even really life a finger to protect content creators. While LL do indeed honor DMCA notices speedily, they do not do much as the offending content has already been passed around full perm and can easily be reuploaded by the offender, either on the same (unbanned) account, or by creating a new account.
Something needs to change.
unlimited * lol
"Stroker! Stroker! He's our man! If he can't do it no one can!"
Quick! Clear Cache and close a forum! Maybe the lawyer bugs will go missing!
it certainly beats reading about those class action lawsuits with internet 'lawyers' calling your bluff, at least this one is for real.
This is most definitely one to watch.
I doubt that dwindling sales have much to do with copy theft, more like to do with people spending less during an economic downtown. Unlike two years ago, when it was normal for any skilled SL creator to make several thousand USD a week from very little work, creators nowadays have to work several times as hard to make even a quarter of that amount.
It's "Munchflower."
Oh, and it's not a class action suit YET. The filing requests that it be given class action status.
This is a horrible idea on so many levels.
I bet L$ to USD conversions will soon become one-way transactions.
okay if he wins and he bankrupts LL, then what?
Exactly my thoughts too. Be careful what you wish for!
It’s not going to bankrupt LL, it’s not even determind that LL are liable for trademark infringement. If they are, and stroker wins, LL is not going to be bankrupt. So many drama queens, only in America!
of course they can go bankrupt!
@ Whatever
..that crossed my mind as welll.
Ok, please correct me if I have this wrong, but am I correct in thinking that the base of the action against LL is for basically 'enabling' content theives? Isn't that a bit like getting hit by a drunk person in a bar and then taking the owners of the bar to court for selling alcohol? We are ALL adults in Second Life, we ALL have personal responsibility for our actions, the only people to blame for content theft…. are the content theives! What Stroker and Ms Grei need to try and consider that this, if it gets anywhere near a courtroom, isn't going to just be about IP theft. It will have HUGE ramifications for the level of involvement LL has generally in what we do in SL. I fear it will erase any personal freedom we have in SL at all, for LL's fear of being sued. The entire way SL works will change, in essence, it will become There. Which would mean, um, sorry but no sex beds, no sex furniture, no nothing that could cause even the most sensitive person offence. I support any content creator's right to protect their work but I do not support this lawsuit. As someone who enjoys having responsible personal freedom in SL, for example I have a SL family that includes child avatars, the consequences of the actions by these two individuals scares me.
Your analogy is flawed. Linden Lab is not a place to enable these content thieves as a bar to an alcoholic. Linden Lab needs content creators to create content to make Second Life look good. Linden Lab relies on its content creators to drive traffic – both residents and private developers. Linden Lab should really have a better system… as we found out on SCD a few weeks ago, the whole counterfiling thing really kills a DMCA from Linden Lab's end. A creator is left with no choice but to file suit against whomever stole.
actually, I don't know if you can in all states but at least in my home state you CAN sue a bar if you get drunk and then leave it and get into a wreck. By law you are not allowed to serve alcohol to someone who is already drunk. Liquer laws are insane.
I think one way transaction is a good thing, it will resolve this issue overnight. Sure, big time content creators will be out of the game, they’re only there for the profit. I’m not entirely sure what the consequences of that would be actually. Will SL become a ghost town, doubt it. It will become what it was indented to be, a virtual playground. Some people may have to actually leave their houses and get a real job……OH NO!
But, I doubt Stroker will win, I doubt it very much. If he does, there will be some big changes in the way LL run things and life on the grid will continue as per normal. You will all still be there regardless of the changes, just like you were there after the open sim debacle.
A one way transaction is not a good thing – many content creators will just leave the grid, and Linden Lab surely doesn't want that. Look at how many content creator's merchandise they put in their promotional images… sans credit.
I agree, he won't win. What is disturbing is the knee-jerk reaction which screams unintended consequences. If LL pulled up the rug on exporting L$ to USD (which they still might do even if they prevail) it would cost him and several other creators their livelihoods…and that's a lot more money than they'd lost chasing the foreigners around for copying their genital prims. To say nothing of the possibility that they might just shut off the conversions one day and whoever's holding big Linden balances would just be out of luck. And worst of all, establishing legal precedent for doing all this in California where companies like this live of all places.
This is not a knee jerk reaction from Stroker – this has been brewing for over a year from what I can tell on his end.
I disagree, Linden Lab categorically are NOT dealing with the DMCA process where relating to copyright infringement in some cases correctly. Trademark a different issue.
In addition, conversions are unlikely to be shut off because the commercial value of the creators who have sufficient turnover and revenue to input into tier are the corner stone of the SL economy.
Creators retain users, Creators pay a lot of tier and continue to buy overpriced server space to host their wares. Creators make those large estates fantastic places to live and shop at (as well as the estate developers/owners).
This corrodes, and the rest, in my humble opinion, starts to corrode too. The sponsored spaces, the ability for creators to give their work way free and have *server* space to create in. The social spaces.
Perhaps I am jaded as a creator, but that's my honest view of it and Linden have not invested into the creators as we have into them.
Very best of luck to Kevin and all with this. Charlotte
(1/2) What Tenshi said, this has been in the works for quite awhile now.____Also, LL make so much money from $L to USD I have a hard time really believing they would quit. I think they would fight to keep that going for as long as they could. Not "Oh, someone filed a class action lawsuit againsnt us, no more L$ to USD transactions".____I read alot of the 31 paged write up and it doesnt seem to me stroker is trying to get money at all. He is trying to get LL to do something more than theyre doing now. In a few comments down,
I think he's made his livelihood hasn't he, you can bet he wouldn't be doing this if he hadn't.
Anyone who thinks SL is going to be their livelihood indefinantly is fool anyway IMO. There are very very few people who make a living from it and some who lie and say they do. It's a fools game if you ask me.
i'm guessing that you tried and failed
Nope, I have a real job
Linden Labs makes money out of L$-U$ conversion and not just a bit. Ever calculated how much money they do from their land tiers? I did .. and it isnt 10% of their yearly income ..SO where does they money come from? The money that creators loose is converted by copybots. For Linden´s mind its the same as long the bucks are on their bank accounts. But they forget that their world is run by creators not copybots. If noone creates its really just an empty serverfarm as they always say what they do. LL and SL will survive this law suit easily but they will change their registration policy as they did on the adult grid. Too bad it has to go that far.
But its the american way of business. Youre only successful when you have 135 million users although only 10% percent are using your platform. Look at youtube. 1.2 billion for a soon empty webspace covered with notes like "content removed for infringement issues". They loose 500 million a year but HEY we have THAT many users … lol bs!
I dont know one platform on the web that deals with money without a proper RL registration. Why not SL? Is it the Guantánamo of virtual worlds? No rights no laws? Get a grip .. The real users of SL will not have any problem doing a proper registration only the cheaters wont. Cheaters dont pay land fees, dont pay membership fees, they bring nothing except the money LL does with em. I hope Stroker wins that.
apparently the majority of LL money comes from texture uploads. go figure.
nice store full of stolen content you got there
eh? I don't get it.
(2/2) "SL Veteran" makes a good point – Any place i can think of that deals with the transferring of m oney from one person to another requires RL registration, So, first of all, there needs to be some sort of business accounts. I understand alot of transactions inworld are just $L and stay in world, and I understand people can, and sho uld, have the ability to upload textures and build things without having to register… But why is LL not banning people who they have confirmed to be stealing and passing said content around. That and free accounts are a BIG BIG part of this problem. So what happens? A DMCA is filed, LL confirms it was ripped, removes the content they find in the inventory (Keep in mind, said content has already been given to countless other avatars and passed around by them too). Then, the thief returns on yet another free account, reupload stolen textures, and begin the thievery again. Why isnt LL banning these people? Theyre not offering anything to the grid, only taking from it.
I believe you may have to be verified to sell L, and if not maybe that's what they have to do.
I myself have sold L though through my husband's account because I couldn't be bothered to verify, create a paypal, pay extra per month to have two upgrade accounts in our home when we share everything anyways.. and etc… And although I honestly exploit living with a verified person, I'm sure there are dishonest people who do the same…
So I guess that there is another problem is tracking the verified account that sells. So if they find the theif seller- they can go into the transaction history to see who they may have paid large amounts of money to, then inspect that account and so on until they find the person who cashed out… -unless they're using stolen/false bank details, then that kinda ends SL's ability to be involved really.
They say it's not about making a profit but if they really cared about copyrights why would they commit the crime themselves:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/munchflower/34739990...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/munchflower/34739999...
The lawsuit is the wrong way to go about this, it's completely about getting money, don't be fooled. They're not defending true artists so stop seeing them as heros.
Sorry Stroker but seeing your Av and your RL picture really cracks me up! Its a quite fitting name though, if I looked like you I would be stroking it a lot myself cause no one else will touch that. Someone should sue you for misrepresentation because your av is a far cry from yourself. Good ole SL uh. Your just a perv who spends 40k usd on a stupid ass suit to make sex animations for virtual sex. do us all a favor and hire prostitutes..get laid, and get a life
Hahaha, of course he be doing it for the money, he wants to screw Linden labs for as much as he can, besides if he wins, LL will also be paying his legal fees too.
Stroker I have information for you re this lawsuit and more amo for you please email me at PaulaHeart67@aol.com. Its a little important I speak with you:)
Most of these comments above here do not make sense to me . Linden lab CHOOSe to let people OWN their own copyrights if they created stuff for/in second life. This was their way of martkeitng their product. IF you choose too use this, you will have to play by the laws that copyrights bring with them. Meaning: You will make a good effort to try to remove the content that is infrining, or else you (the provider of the service) will become co-responsible for the copyright infringement. It’s quite clear that linden lab has not made enough effort to actually remove stolen content from their servers. They only removed “LINKS” to their textures, but let the infringingly uploaded texture in their database, and made it possible for others to have acces to those ingringing textures (in the case textures are stolen). This is exactly where Lindan lab has failed to stick by the rules that copyrights bring. It was THEIR choice to let people own their own copyrights, so it’s THEIR duty to stick by the laws that are related to copyrights.
Stroker just wants them to act like they should be acting by law, which means putting enough effort in removing stolen content from the servers. It’s not like this is technically a challenging thing to do for them. Just replace a texture by another that they *suddenly* seem to be implementing on their blogs (still beta though). I’m quite sure they have done this because of strokers action, and I highly respect this man for doing this. He’s helping out every content creator that has been ripped off and seen his item spread full perm around the grid. Any human with common sense understands that you can’t DMCA 1000′s of people that sell or give away your product. In the time you’ve done so, already 10 times the amount of people own an illegal copy. So as long as they do not remove the stolen content from the database and let those illegal copies spread around the grid, it is a pretty pointless try to do something about it. You just can’t win. Only if you notice the first person selling it full perm and you’re the first to see it and DMCA it. By the time your DMCA is handled, the item has been sold to 100 of residents full perm. If they actually implement this database replacement of stolen copies, it will mean that about half of the freebies will dissapear and that at least 25% of the residents will end up without a skin. Is that a bad thing? I do not think so. It will help the economy of SL to flourish because it will finally make sense to buy something, because you can’t get a free copy anymore. If you can, chances are you will end up with an item that is deleted a week later. Finally people will have to buy legit stuff.