Virtually Blind Commentary

In what has to encourage the right-shoulder side of the “Linden: good or evil?” debate, Linden executive Ginsu Yoon (his title is now “Vice President, International” but he’s also serving as General Counsel while they search for a full time GC) posted a comment for the guy who did “Get a First Life.”

We do not believe that reasonable people would argue as to whether the website located at http://www.getafirstlife.com/ constitutes parody — it clearly is. Linden Lab is well known among its customers and in the general business community as a company with enlightened and well-informed views regarding intellectual property rights, including the fair use doctrine, open source licensing, and other principles that support creativity and self-expression. We know parody when we see it.

That’s the right call. Right or not, though, it isn’t every day you see an executive posting an approving comment on a page parodying his company, and cracking wise while doing it. But apparently a sense of humor is a job requirement at Linden Lab:

Linden Lab objects to any implication that it would employ lawyers incapable of distinguishing such obvious parody. Indeed, any competent attorney is well aware that the outcome of sending a cease-and-desist letter regarding a parody is only to draw more attention to such parody, and to invite public scorn and ridicule of the humor-impaired legal counsel. Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception.

That’s right. Lawyers with a sense of humor. Whatever criticisms might be leveled against the platform (there are many, but I generally chalk them up to growing pains) Linden Lab, the company, continues to impress.

Harvard Law School’s three-week “Evidence 2007″ course (which was conducted partly in Second Life) just wrapped up. The course provided the students and other Second Life citizens the opportunity to participate in an in-world mock trial of the pending real-world Bragg v. Linden lawsuit.

The Bragg case is a dispute about Linden Lab’s decision to disable the account of a virtual land speculator (Marc Bragg, an attorney) who, Linden Lab alleges, used an exploit to purchase some of his land at reduced prices before that land became publicly available.

The nine-member mock jury held 8-1 that Bragg was the owner of the virtual property he purchased. It also found 7-2 that Bragg’s exploit was improper, justifying Linden Lab’s decision to take the property that he acquired using the exploit. However, on the question that is arguably at the heart of this dispute, the mock jury found 6-3 that Linden Lab was not justified in taking property that Bragg had acquired without using the exploit.

Here is a direct link to the transcript of the mock jury’s deliberations.

A wealth of other data from the course and the mock trial, including transcripts, audio and video files, and the Evidence 2007 reading list can also now be accessed at the Evidence 2007 Course Wiki.

Virtually Blind periodically features “Three Things” — quick lists of places, people, or issues important to virtual law. This time, VB features three places to visit in Second Life to learn about virtual law.

• First, check out Nova Southeastern University’s virtual law library. A Nova librarian was logged in as avatar ‘Anne Idler’ when I visited. NSU plans to use the location to make available “legal research guides, links to legal resources online, and information about [Nova's] beautiful, high tech campus.” For what it’s worth, I can attest that Nova does have a gorgeous real-life campus (it’s in Fort Lauderdale), as I went to law school there for a year before transferring to UC Berkeley. As for “high tech,” the fact that they have what seems to be the very first law library in a virtual world speaks for itself. SLURL: NSU Law Library

• Second, visit one of the cities of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (“CDS”) — either the city of Neufreistadt (pictured, featuring Medieval Germanic architecture) or Colonia Nova (Classical Roman). The CDS has taken on the ambitious project of trying to create a private government from scratch, complete with a judicial system. If you like what they’re doing, you can become a land-owning citizen, vote, and even run for office. SLURLs: Neufreistadt / Colonia Nova

• Third, stop by the Second Life Bar Association’s offices and meet my avatar, ‘Benjamin Noble’ (I founded the organization). The SLBA is an informal professional organization that promotes the development of civil law in Second Life and assists attorney and scholar members navigate the Second Life legal landscape. SLURL: SLBA Offices

Virtually Blind Commentary

My wife (who somehow gets along just fine without an avatar) would tell you that it was bound to happen. Somebody put together a dead-on parody of the Second Life home page advertising your “First Life.” (You know, the one where you eat stuff and can’t fly).

The Supreme Court has said that parody “is the use of some elements of a prior author’s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author’s works.”

Since the author is “commenting,” the theory goes, there is a policy justification for the use of the older work. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.

As the page is a parody, it would likely be considered “fair use” if Linden Lab tried to make an issue of it. So the author’s suggestion that the link to his blog be used for “comments and cease and desist letters” is best taken with a grain of salt.

Credit where credit is due, the parody is pretty nice work by Darren Barefoot, who also brought us “The Con of Mac.”