“SLART” trademark-registrant Richard Minsky and Linden Lab have filed a joint stipulation (.pdf) agreeing to extend a Temporary Restraining Order covering claims of use of “SLART” in Second Life through trial. In legalese, the agreement turns the TRO into a “Preliminary Injunction.”
Linden Lab had previously indicated it would contest entry of a Preliminary Injunction, but [...]
Virtually Blind periodically runs “quicklinks” — items that are not long enough for a full story, but are worth a click. Here’s the current batch.
Have to start here, since about fifty readers have emailed this to me: the Associated Press wins the cringe-inducing-virtual-law-headline-of-the-month award for “Woman Jailed after ‘Killing’ Virtual Husband” instead of the more [...]
As Second Life’s ‘Juris Amat,’ attorney Tamiko Franklin founded the non-profit Virtual Intellectual Property Organization, ran for and won a seat on the SL Bar Association’s 2008-2009 Executive Board, and regularly gives presentations in-world on legal issues, but at the moment, she is best known as the lawyer helping Richard Minsky navigate the nuances of [...]
Our friends at MindBlizzard report that a Netherlands court has found criminal liability for the real-world theft of virtual goods from the hybrid free/paid MMO roleplaying game Runescape.
From the post at MindBlizzard:
[T]he court has reached a verdict and has sentenced two boys to conditional detention and civil services because of the virtual theft from the [...]
Linden Lab has filed an Answer and Counterclaims (.zip, with exhibits) responding to SLART trademark-registrant Richard Minsky’s Complaint.
For the full background of this case, see VB’s ongoing coverage of the SLART trademark lawsuit. In brief, Minsky is suing Linden Lab, Second Life user ‘Victor Vezina,’ and past and present Chairmen of Linden Lab’s Board of [...]
A reader sent me a link last week to a pretty incredible article in the Maxwell/Gunter Dispatch reporting that Professor George Stein, the Director of the Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center at the Air Force’s Air War College (”The Intellectual and Leadership Center of the Air Force”) told people attending a seminar on security [...]
Artist and “SLART” trademark-registrant Richard Minsky recently filed a letter brief (.zip, with exhibits) alleging that Linden Lab has failed to comply with a Temporary Restraining Order covering claims of use of “SLART” in Second Life. Linden Lab responded (.zip, with exhibits). The court has not yet ruled.
For the full background of this case, see [...]
Virtual law news is finally trickling out of China following the Olympic media storm. The9 is touting another victory in its ongoing war against plugins. The9, which operates World of Warcraft for our Chinese friends, has won a lawsuit against a gamer found to be using a plugin for its licensed MMORPG World of Warcraft [...]
Second Life creator Linden Lab’s attempt to open a second front in the battle over SLART has been stymied. The USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board suspended (.pdf) the cancellation proceeding that Linden Lab initaited last month regarding artist Richard Minsky’s registration of “SLART” pending the outcome of the lawsuit Minsky filed earlier in Federal [...]
Users with disabilities access virtual worlds on the 3D internet to run businesses, socialize without stigmas, and learn in new ways. There’s even a “Virtual Ability” island in Second Life (originally funded by the National Library of Medicine and maintained through private donations) devoted to accessibility for disabled users. Just like the real world, however, [...]
