My opinion is that this is a very serious issue. Linden has continued to alter the TOS of the service to include protections for themselves over the years. Some changes in which I personally cannot see standing up in a court of law. Expressly their desire to warrant all content based on their servers as property of Linden Lab. While I am in favor of corporate protections that ensure the well being and health of the institution, I favor the law that states that a man is worthy of his hire (labor) and that the “works” of the hand by such individual gift is the property of those given the talent to create it.

It’s not only a natural law, but a spiritual law as given of the creator himself that created us. The content is labor of the intellect and I do believe that the forethought and intellectual property as such should be the property of the person that created such content. Not the property of the company in which stores for use the content. This would be like saying your don’t own your property you place in any real life storage because the storage manager wants to protect themselves from theft liability. I also believe that if this area of law were challenged, that the company storing the information claiming ownership would utterly lose the battle on a grand scale.

I do believe that Linden has many times over reached their true authority with the Terms of Service and the expectations they continually “redesign” in terms of self preservation while not considering the words they actually use.

With this case, and with everything I have read on this site including all .pdf documents up to this point, I myself if put in judgment would award the case to the plaintiff. My belief from what I understand, wouldn’t have any claim at the time
the matter occurred. It just appears to me that they came in “after” the fact as they have in past to try to sweep up the mess. And now find themselves in the hot seat for not taking care of the issues and asserting their business needs when it should have been.

This might seem like a silly case. SLART itself seems silly to me to fight over, however after reading thoroughly the arguments I find myself that this person has a very serious and important relationship with the business he has started in SL. Not only with the legally registered paperwork, but with his every day life matters. Who are we to say something is silly when a person with skill applies himself to the fullest to achieve, then be told that the personal intellectual property he had created was of no value due to a name?

Linden will continue to destroy their reputation regardless of this case. It’s been proven, and that is what they tend to do with their decisions. They prop up the Terms of Service only when it is in their best interest. At least, this has been my experience with the company. If Linden wins this case, I would take serious thought to what intellectual property is actually and truly protected in any virtual metaverse.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong…. Well, maybe not entirely.

but on the other hand I did agree with the TOS
Even though I had issues with it.
But I also understand how out in the open LL is to aggressive litigation.

SO I can see how they would want to cover themselves.

This avatar seems like a nutjob. I even refer to “Second Life” as SL and my friends and family are aware of this reference.

I just am in a position where I would not want to be put in the limelight like this. business wise I am quite invested in the virtual world. But if need be (like almost everyone) I can pack up and forget it all.

not that I would want to lol but it’s obvious minsky didn’t even read the TOS

I like LL I have no complaints even though i have crashed like 10 times today hehe oh well what can you do.

But I can see how the perplexities of the virtual world could eventually eat away at you until you just explode and go out in a blaze of glory.

This dude sounds like the “cash and dash” type
nobody wants to stick it out for the long haul.
(hardly anybody, pardon me)
they just want to make a million and run and not look back.

the new CEO has been here for like 6 months man give him a break !!!!

–dats my rant ! :)

-RaVaH ZeNo

Truth be known, I am a fan of IP rights, trademarks, and copyrights…. I am not exactly a fan of how Linden Lab decides to respond to situations like this. … so whatever misky’s doing, he’s doing…and whatever people in SL with the term ‘slart’…, they’re doing… whatever the courts decide they will decide….

but this reminds me of Bragg vs Linden Lab…. he went from contributing resident to RL combatant of LL to nothing… and spitting on SL on the way out…

…. so … my question to Minsky is does he want to spend the next year in SL as the one fighting for SLART… and then the following years as the guy that won the court case to own ‘slart’?? Probably, yes, if he feels slart is his. But do the ends justify the means?

Am I the only one who thinks that was a particularly hateful way to characterize the situation? Jeeze ease up on your fellow humans! Nobody is biting the hand that feeds it, rather Minsky is an important contributor to Second Life and an extremely talented, and well know fine artist in the gravity based world.

Richard Minsky has done quite a bit of good work in Second Life, and has been responsible for more good publicity for Second Life than most, despite with the vocal minority of people who are probably just misinformed about his project.

Could it be that RM is helping to define the borders of the IP jungle that exists in this new and uncharted territory? Could it be that it is easy to name call and run a good man down when you have never met him or heard his voice?

Could it be that people lose their civility and malign people who have the courage to stand up for what they believe in?

What did RM ever do to you for this personal attack?

I would respectfully suggest that you might be wrong about Richard Minsky and even like him if you knew him.

Take care!

DC Spensley

Once you bite the hand that feeds you, you get put outside, and are stuck in the doghouse.. that’s that…

I’ve never heard of a dog owner asking their local congressman for permission to put their dog out on the stoop.