Second Life's first IP fight
OUT-LAW Radio, 12/07/2007
We talk to the lawyer taking on the first copyright spat to hit
virtual world Second Life, and we hear why your boss might own your
Facebook profile.
A text transcription follows.
This transcript is for anyone with a hearing impairment or who
for any other reason cannot listen to the MP3 audio file.
The following is the text spoken by OUT-LAW journalist Matthew
Magee.
Hello and welcome to OUT-LAW Radio, the weekly podcast that
keeps you up to date on all the twists and turns in the world of
technology law.
Every week we bring you the latest news and in depth features
that help you to make sense of the ever-changing laws that govern
technology today.
My name is Matthew Magee, and this week we talk to the lawyer
fighting Second Life's first virtual copyright case, and we reveal
that your boss could own your Facebook profile.
But first, the news:
- Privacy chief slams company data breaches; and
- three jailed over internet terror calls
The Government and some of Britain's largest companies are
guilty of "careless and inexcusable" data security lapses leading
to serious breaches of privacy, the Information Commissioner has
said.
In an impassioned attack on the failure of large organisations
to take data protection seriously enough, the Commissioner, Richard
Thomas, said that big business and government departments were not
living up to their responsibilities.
Thomas said that over the past year he has seen far too many
"careless and inexcusable" breaches of people’s personal
information. He said that the roll call of banks, retailers,
government departments, public bodies and other organisations which
have admitted serious security lapses is frankly horrifying.
Thomas said that chief executives must take data protection and
the privacy of customers and employees more seriously.
Three men have been jailed for their use of the internet to
incite terrorism. The three were convicted after entering a late
change of plea to 'guilty' early last week.
Younes Tsouli, Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour were convicted
at Woolwich Crown Court and have been sentenced to a combined 24
years in prison in a trial which began in April. The three men
initially pleaded 'not guilty' but changed that plea two months
into their court case.
It is illegal to operate websites inciting terrorism under the
Terrorism Act. That law extends to websites hosted abroad.
That was this week's OUT-LAW news
What do you do if someone steals your bed? Well, call the police
of course. But what do you do if someone steals 50 of your beds?
What if you actually know the thief's name, but nothing else about
him? What if the beds are nothing more than pieces of software?
These are just some of the questions facing Kevin Alderman, an
entrepreneur in virtual universe and all round media phenomenon,
Second Life.
Alderman gave up his job as a plumber to chase a dream of making
his fortune in the alternative economy of Second Life.
This is an online virtual world created by a company called
Linden Labs which recently caught the imagination of the
mainstream. It has its own money which you can buy with US dollars,
but that currency can be changed back into dollars at a fixed
exchange rate.
With his company Eros LLC, Alderman set about building virtual
sex products such as his Sexgen bed, which allows Second Life users
to have sex with each other in the game. It costs 12,000 Linden
dollars, about US$46.
Accessories such as this are usually copy protected and sold for
money, but Alderman soon found that someone else was selling
similar beds for far less than he was charging, and a lawsuit
followed. Alderman's lawyer is Francis Taney of Buchanan, Ingersoll
and Rooney in the US. His has the job of conducting what is
probably the first copyright lawsuit based entirely on actions in a
virtual world.
Taney: He discovered that someone had found some kind of
technical exploit that enabled this person to make copies of
Kevin's objects and that this person was making the copies and
passing them off as copies made by Kevin's company using Kevin's
mark, the SexGen mark, and was selling them at a bargain basement
price undercutting Kevin and taking his sales. As you might imagine
this could be a real threat to his sales and his business so that
is why we brought we suit.
Taney has filed a copyright and trade mark violation law suit
against the person whom he says has copied the beds, a Second Life
character called Volkov Catteneo. Needless to say, that is probably
not his real name. Taney has to chase Linden Labs, the company
behind Second Life, and Paypal, the payment company, for more
information about Catteneo.
Taney: Simultaneously with the filing of the complaint we
filed a motion with the court asking for leave to issue subpoenas.
We asked the court for leave to do that, we explained that it was
necessary to make the law suit go forward. Last Thursday the judge
granted that motion. We have serve subpoenas on Linden Research
Incorporated in San Francisco and Paypal Incorporated in San Jose.
We have asked them all the personal identifying information that
they have with respect to this person and in Linden's case also the
complete records of his online activity because that will get right
to the heart of what was done here.
Linden Labs told us, "We support the rights of copyright holders
to protect their copyrighted works in Second Life. We have received
the subpoena for information relevant to the case and are reviewing
it."
This is almost certainly the first time that an intellectual
property case like this has been fought in regard to a virtual
world. Taney says that Catteneo broke both the law of the US and
the terms and conditions set out by Linden Labs. He says that the
case is not fundamentally changed by the fact that the beds are
made of computer code, not wood and springs.
Taney: It is a little bit more exotic. At the bottom of it,
it is an internet hosted computer simulation so I don't see it as a
monumental stretch or much of a stretch at all.
The legal basis of the case may not change just because the
incidents took place in Second Life, but the practicalities of it
certainly do. Catteneo has boasted to reporters that he is
untraceable, that he will not be found. Is Taney confident that he
can track his man down?
Taney: I'm not necessarily sure I want to believe anything
this person says at this point. I am optimistic. Time will tell and
pretty soon that we understand he's used bank accounts and with
some sleuthing I think we'll be able to find him.
This is not a multi-million dollar suit that claims massive
losses. Alderman is seeking three times Catteneo's damages or his
own losses, whichever is greater, which could be as little as
$2,000. It is not just about the money, though, says Taney.
Taney: That's not the point. We are also seeking injunctive
relief. We want a court order stopping him, not just his avatar
because you can have alternative accounts and all that stuff, the
real person from ever this again and so that's an important part of
the relief we're seeking. I don't think he's trying to win the
lottery here.
The case throws a bright light on the sudden, exploding world of
Second Life commerce. Alderman employs 12 people and, says Taney,
just wants to be able to make his living in the shiny new Second
Life world.
Taney: This guy, he was a plumbing contractor and he gave
up that business because he was excited about this thing. He has
some ability in this area. He's making his living doing it and it's
just not right.
Social networking has hit fever pitch amongst the, well, the
more seasoned internet surfer. As Facebook attracts professionals
in their 20s and 30s in much the same way as Myspace and Bebo cut a
dash through teenagers' lives last year, it raises some slightly
different questions.
There are fewer worries about libelling your teacher, for
example, and more about what impact it could have on working life.
Because the professions rely on networking and many of the contacts
people make on sites will be work associates, it turns out that
employers could stake a claim to ownership of your social
networking profile.
Here's intellectual property law expert Catrin Turner, from
Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW, with the shocking
news.
Turner: If a social networking site is used as a place to
hold any information which relates to employment, if that
information was prepared in the course of your employment you are
dealing with company property. If they can argue that you've
created something and it's in the course of your employment, it's
irrelevant where it's stored, because the law doesn't look at where
it's stored, the law looks at the circumstances in which it was
created. So if you created a contact list or created any sort of
document, for example, during working hours using your work PC it
relates that in some ways to your job or it would be valley to your
employer. They would have a very strong argument that belongs to
them.
The news is likely to surprise many social networking users who
will assume that the sites exist entirely in the personal sphere.
But for anyone whose work and personal lives intertwine or for the
growing number of people who use such sites to make and keep work
contacts, there are serious implications to consider. Turner said
that the issue is becoming more pertinent as the use of the sites
changes.
Turner: At the moment I don't think there's anything of
sufficient business quality on these sites that a employer's going
to get terribly excited about ownership, that's not to say that
won't develop, and if these networking sites become more
sophisticated I'm sure it will become much more of a business
usage, but at the moment I think the employers are sitting pretty
because they can say if you created it in the course employment it
belongs to us anyway. So I think at the moment everyone is seeing
these sites as something which is extracurricular albeit that a lot
of people visit these sites during working hours, I think there is
a lack of appreciation by people using these sites and what they
put on these sites could affect their relationship with their
employer.
What is equally surprising is that this is likely to be the case
whether or not it is mentioned in an employer's email and internet
usage policy. Turner says users do not need forewarning that their
Facebook, Myspace and Bebo identities could belong to the boss.
Turner: The basic law is that if you create copyright
material and that's in the course of your employment then the
assumption is that belongs to your employer. So that doesn't have
to be written down by the employer. That is the position that will
apply unless something else is agreed.
That's all we have time for this week, thanks for listening.
Why not get in touch with OUT-LAW radio? Do you know of a
technology law story? We'd love to hear from you on radio@out-law.com.
Make sure you tune in next week; for now, goodbye
OUT-LAW Radio was produced and presented by Matthew
Magee for international law firm Pinsent Masons
