Lindens Updates XStreet Guidelines and Bans Unauthorized Sale of Real World Replicas
Starting on September 14, 2009 virtual items that are in violation of real world copyrights or that infringe on brand owners’ intellectual property will no longer be for sale on Second Life’s ecommerce site, XStreet SL.
In line with their other recent changes, Linden Lab employee Pink Linden announced the new XStreet SL listing guidelines prohibiting the sale of unauthorized virtual replicas of real world products and brands including unauthorized clothing, furniture, jewelry, car designs, use of trademarks or logos, avatars based on copyrighted characters or celebrities, and more.
This move comes after Linden was recently sued by Taser International Inc. for trademark-infringement due to products with ‘Taser’ in their description/names being sold on XStreet SL and in an SL roleplay area.
While the new guidelines are not unexpected, and they will most likely will apply to in-world sales as well, they still leave some unanswered questions and bring some interesting debate. Wagner James Au (aka Hamlet) over at New World Notes points out that “In the real world, you can still buy an unauthorized Barack Obama mask for Halloween. Not so in Second Life very soon.”
In my opinion, brands should be taking advantage of these opportunities especially within the roleplay communities such as Dune, which was recently asked to shut down. There is obviously interest and market within these communities where they could be setting up official representations. Brands are missing a huge chance to engage and tell their stories, where the economy is thriving despite the recession. Now is the time to fill the void that these new guidelines create.
The real question is how are they going to have enough staff to enforce these polices? They certainly could never do it in world.
I really kinda think this is a dumb idea… I mean think of how many SL companies are going to go down the tubes? For one example is Breach, whose sales are sure to plummett.
Then you must think of the car manufactuers, or the other weapons producers who arn’t going to fare well with this.
I really think that other companies could use this as a sort of propaganda or advertisement for the real thing. I mean if someone enjoys a Dodge Charger in-world, they’ll most likely want to obtain one in real life. I mean if they bought one one in-world they certainly have an appeal to that user in the first place.
I just think this is a bit drastic for a response to this…but we’ll see what becomes of it I suppose.
These rules have always existed, Linden Lab is just now saying that they are going to enforce them. I’m not convinced yet, that they have the manpower to actually do it though anyway. Time will tell if it was announced more to protect themselves, and they will follow up on “reported” violations or if they actually plan on actively seeking out these type of violations.
I agree that it is going to be rough on a lot of companies out there, but if they are reproducing and selling copyrighted work, then don’t really have a leg to stand on.
I also agree as I mentioned in my post, that real world brands need to take advantage of the market that already exists inside of Second Life. Some brands like Coke have already authorized residents to use their brand and were quite pleased to see so many Coke cans in SL. It’s free advertising. Some brands may also eventually want to license their brands in some way as well. Others may want to come in-world and have official representations of their brands. As long as they do this with the community in mind, I think this would GREATLY benefit them. However you look at, not having a presence at all, is a losing situation.