[MUD-Dev] Second Life's customers own the IP of their creations

[Mike Shaver]

The Creative Commons element is interesting too, but the key issue is
clearly that they're leaving (giving?) the players' IP with them.

http://lindenlab.com/press_story_12.php

  NEW YORK CITY (November 14, 2003): Linden Lab, creator of online world
  Second Life , today announced a significant breakthrough in digital
  property rights for its customers and for users of online worlds.
  Changes to Second Life's Terms of Service now recognize the ownership
  of in-world content by the subscribers who make it. The revised TOS
  allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for
  the digital content they create, including characters, clothing,
  scripts, textures, objects and designs.

  In addition, Second Life has committed to exploring technologies to
  make it easy for creators to license their content under Creative
  Commons licenses.

  Speaking to an audience of digital rights specialists and virtual
  world enthusiasts at the NYLS "State of Play" conference, Founder and
  CEO Philip Rosedale described the new policy as a major breakthrough
  for users of online worlds.

  "Until now, any content created by users for persistent state worlds,
  such as EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies, has essentially become
  the property of the company developing and hosting the world," said
  Rosedale. "We believe our new policy recognizes the fact that
  persistent world users are making significant contributions to
  building these worlds and should be able to both own the content they
  create and share in the value that is created. The preservation of
  users' property rights is a necessary step toward the emergence of
  genuinely real online worlds."

  Unlike traditional online game environments where anything created
  in-world is owned by the service provider, Second Life has responded
  to its residents' desire to own their work just as they would any
  other original creations. Under these terms they can create, and sell
  derivative works based on content they've made, or license the work to
  others.

  Second Life residents began creating their world in October, 2002 as
  beta testers, and continued through commercial launch of the service
  in June 2003. In just over a year, more than 10,000 users have created
  a richly diverse world, filled with more than 200,000 objects, complex
  characters, a range of living situations from whimsical hobbit-style
  homes to urban apartments, to sprawling mansions, and special
  recreational areas including a 40-ride amusement park and an island
  retreat. Everything in the world, from the antique carousel to the hot
  race cars to the resident-abducting alien spaceship was designed and
  built by the residents.

  The economy supporting this activity includes over 12,000 objects for
  sale. Each month, nearly 100,000 user-to-user transactions for goods
  and services take place, with more than Linden$19million in in-world
  currency changing hands.

  "Linden Lab has taken an important step toward recognizing the rights
  of content generators in Second Life," said Lawrence Lessig, Stanford
  University Professor of Law, and Founder of the Stanford Center for
  Internet and Society. "As history has continually proven, when people
  share in the value they create, greater value is derived for all.
  Linden Lab is poised for significant growth as a result of this
  decision." 

Mike

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