I decided to organize the article as follows-
- Introduction to Second Life and the health of its economy
- Creation in Second Life-
- no copy, no transfer rights within the world
- users retain full intellectual property rights
- The Architecture of Second Life-
- similar to an MMORPG
- client program and host/server program
- how actions inputted into client program are processed by the host/server program
- Second Life Copyright problems and Lawsuits-
- Copybot
- the use of rollbacks
- Thomas Simon/Rase Kenzo lawsuit by six copyright holders that resulted in a
- the Alderman vs. Volkov Catteneo/Robert Leatherwood lawsuit
- Linden Labs' usage of contract law to resolve copyright disputes-
- discussion of clauses 4.2, 4.1 and requirements to comply with the DMCA
- Copyright Analysis of Second Life-
- two-tiered nature of these items- graphic representation and the underlying software code
- fixation requirement-
- MAI v Peak
- conceptual separability-
- splitting function of SexGen bed from its appearance?
- substantial similarity-
- abstraction filtration comparison test of Computer Associates International v Altai
- derivative works analysis-
- Microstar v Formgen
1 comment:
I like your careful division of in-world and out-of-world enforcement. It seems likely that any orderly approach to copyright in MMORPGs has to have elements of both. Real-world courts, I think, wouldn't struggle too much to find the authority to rule in the virtual world context, but a good in-world dispute resolution system can definitely help legitimize the virtual goods market (and reduce real-world caseload).
Your Second Life article indicates it's in final form now, so this next bit is mostly just for possible future reference. I just published an article about Second Life that focused a great deal on CopyBot and its implications for the virtual property debate. I only have an abstract online, but I'd be happy to send you a full copy if you're interested in having it on hand. You are, no doubt, not done writing about Second Life.
Coincidentally, I also just published a note on YouTube (focusing on fair use from the user perspective). That one is online: Copyright and YouTube: Pirate's Playground or Fair Use Forum?
Seeing as how you seem to be my research doppelganger (or I'm yours), I'm looking forward to reading more from you.
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