heads up to LL on the Mad Men trademark issue

[Kampu Oyen]

The "MadMen5" link is still there, guys.

https://d1ij7zv8zivhs3.cloudfront.net/assets/5424408/original/MadMen5.jpg?1334696563

So just go ahead and delete that too, I guess.

You're welcome for the heads up on that.

As for getting everyone to pretend they never saw it or didn't understand what it signifies, I don't see how I can help with that, sorry.

 

[Kampu Oyen]

Still no action?

You guys might want to consider picking up the pace a little bit (not that I think it will ultimately help, but... you know).

For one thing, it's probably just a matter of a few hours before the Google spiders start to bite on this:

http://tribes.tribe.net/secondlifemarketplaceproductsearch/thread/f66b9216-9db9-436e-ba7a-b7f8809b2cbe?newpostingid=cbd0fd3d-e556-422c-b1ff-dd98863384e9#cbd0fd3d-e556-422c-b1ff-dd98863384e9

[WADE1 Jya]

Its nice they have some residents who care (instead of jumping at things in a predatory way), watching out for loose ends & helping them out.

Corporate legal departments can be slow on the draw, these things can take time since many lawyers still do most things very oldschool way.

It can tend to be a bit dinosaurian. Perhaps LL has one of this kind, not very agile.

I've made them aware of the legalities of this bit a few days ago:

 

Inworld Employment   <<'employment' has precise legal definition, open liability. the way this is presented becomes misleading.

Get an inworld job or hire a Resident.  <<'hire' also has precise legal definition, open liability. 'job' with this phrasing & context is perhaps even a little risky also.

still no action there yet either :matte-motes-stress: but its good to know they are aware & hopefully busy working on these things.

[Kampu Oyen]

Well, they deleted the image from the link, but the link, itself, is still there, and it still says "MadMen5".

I wonder what kind of explanation they're preparing for Lion's Gate Entertainment in terms of:

A) why a such-named link even exists if not to be connected in some way to the "Madstyle" promotion

B) what other than the same image currently being used to promote "Madstyle" would have been in the now blank link

C) why so many people believe they saw the same image on the same link, and not anything different from that image

D) how I would have been able to pull up the link in the first place, if not by clicking on the Madstyle promotional image on the Marketplace front page

Nonetheless, I suppose they are at least beginning to follow my damage control instructions, so I might as well make with a more complete checklist, in case they want to get a jump on the rest of the process...

1) get the MadMen5 link off of the Marketplace front page

DONE

2) get the image shown on the Marketplace front page out of the MadMen5 link

DONE

3) shut down the whole Madstyle promotion and replace it with - well- practically any other word that is not as legally dangerous. The word "and" comes to mind, although "shoes" or even "pants" might actually work better. If they want a word for which they can blame me in case something goes wrong, though, I can only offer "museum" (you're welcome).

4) terminate with prejudice the person ultimately responsible for creating this problem in the first place

5) issue an official public apology to Lion's Gate Entertainment, to fans of the TV show Mad Men, to Second Life users as a group, and to Second Life Marketplace merchants, more specifically

 

 

[Ann Otoole]

I think some folks must be bored and would do a lot better at improving sales by making better stuff and better ads. *roll eyes*

[Kampu Oyen]

That's definitely happening, too. Just not with this particular account.

Of course, we'll all lose some sales tomorrow when the market gets shut down for some kind of unspecified "deploy".

It seems like it shouldn't take them a whole hour just to scrub all evidence of the MadMen5 link off of their system, but I guess they might like to be extra-sure about it or something.

[WADE1 Jya]

Bored? Sure... :catvery-happy: Guess its the trainwreck syndrome... can't look away :catsurprised:

On my breaks lately from non-SL design projects, I'll pop over here... firstly to help my SL customers having trouble with SL Marketplace delivery issues, or other Linden-originating problems & then once they're all happy & made good... I'll pop over here to check out the forum mood also (excellent market indicator) & catch up on the latest unfolding disaster.

My sales going okay, only way they'll improve probably is if Lindens stop the current trainwreck... I'm in a mode of waiting to see the crash (or hopefully recovery) of this world. Launching products into this current environment would just be bad timing for multiple reasons.

As you may have noticed, there is much more of a wave to catch launching in calmer weather, when the current is going in the right direction.

For now at least, I feel the majority of my time is much better invested elsewhere.

[Kampu Oyen]

My frustration has almost nothing at all to do with my own sales as such. My sales (not on this account) are acceptable on the whole.

My frustration has to do with the fact that I see what is probably just one person being allowed to gradually cripple SL's growth potential by variously botching every visible aspect of what that person is doing.

I don't criticize because I think Linden Labs owes me a pile of money. They don't.

I criticize because Second Life used to be real awesome cutting-edge stuff and attracted some people with real creative and etrepreneurial skills who were driven to make stuff as much for the sake of making it as for making it profitable, and yet, somehow, other platforms that seem to be designed for teens to pretend to be cooler than they believe they are in RL are starting to surpass Second Life in terms of the comparatively consistent value they provide to people of other ages as well.

It's like someone at LL just doesn't want SL to succeed, and they've either decided to gradually break everything, or they've decided to employ someone who does that, and won't fire that person, no matter what.

It's maddening sometimes, sure.

But, mostly, it's just plain SAD.

[JoJo Aurelia]

There are many copyright infringements in SL MP. Whoever titled that photo needs to wake up... anyways? LOL. Dumb.

[Kampu Oyen]

It's more of a trademark issue than a copyright issue.

And, yes, there is an abundance of dubious IP practice in SL, as in many other parts of the internet. Nothing special about that, per se.

LL shouldn't be setting this kind of example, though, much less continuing to set it by allowing the promotion to continue after the cat's out of the bag.

[WADE1 Jya]

Well...its not the first time. Their first public showing of mesh was ripped off Marvel IP  i.e. The Incredible Hulk

Linden Lab should really set a better example. At a certain point it brings the company character & direction of what exactly they are aiming for here into question.

For their own sake, its just very embarrassing & not good strategy. Not only does it show lack of innovation & a creativity void at the lab, they lose interest of serious developers who don't want to associate with this kind of environment. It just makes for a bad rep. Maybe they don't understand how much this kind of behavior is a huge turn off

& potentially it could actually lead to demise of the platform. As IP laws tighten, they should not want to look complacent, or worse yet like accessory to theft. SL Marketplace, combined with unsupervised mesh uploads is developing into an incredibly risky venture, where Linden Lab actually takes a USD cut, directly profiting off transactions involving stolen IP.

The wild west era of our 'information space' is fast drawing to a close. Linden Lab better wake up & get with the program.

[WADE1 Jya]

---

Kampu Oyen wrote:

....mostly, it's just plain SAD

---

^^ this

yes i feel exactly the same way, its sad to see. this is just not the direction i expected SL to unfold, when I signed up back in 2006.

[Kampu Oyen]

Well, I understand that they comply quickly with take-down notices, so they're not completely irresponsible.

I suppse if they don't ever get one about Hulk or Mad Men, then, in a sense, there's "no problem", even if what thet do with Hulk etc encourages users to try to get away with such things as well.

Not to condone the use of Mad Men by LL from an IP standpoint, but the reason I've made a stink about it has more to do with the way merchants have been treated over the last few months than about some kind of morbidly positive sentiment  someone like me might have for Lion's Gate Entertainment.

If nothing else had gone wrong so far, I'd have probably just sent messages to LL pointing out the legal exposure and hoping they'll fix it and move on.

But the promotion was administered in a way that it either provided an unstated competitive advantage to a select group of merchants, or at least would have if so many merchants hadn't decided to game the promotion (as I encouraged them to do).

And this promotion is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what has not neither been done correctly over the last year, nor been properly remedied.

A proper remedy to the total pattern of events would have included to fire someone a long time ago.

Better late than never, though, I suppose.

I understand that firing the person who chose the 13 September and 14 February deploy dates, instead, just for the Mad Men promotion ("if it should happen to be the same person") might be a bit like prosecuting Al Capone for not paying his taxes.

Whatever.

There's just no sweeping this thing under the rug, so something's got to give, I should think.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Google-still-has-indexed-MadMen5-image-on-thumbnail/td-p/1528625

[WADE1 Jya]

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Kampu Oyen wrote:

Well, I understand that they comply quickly with take-down notices, so they're not completely irresponsible.

---

They are forced to comply with takedown notices. It's the law & the reason they comply is self preservation. Otherwise the liability exposure is just too tremendous.

If they failed to comply, they would be shortly ripped apart in a feeding frenzy of lawyers, in concert with a company-crushing stompdown by the US government itself.

The fact that they have created a business model which profiteers off a current loophole in IP enforcement law is irresponsible in my books... and frighteningly shortsighted as the landscape is being rapidly reconfigured as we speak.

There are many other ways they could structure distribution, this way is just the way that is most easy to monetize.

It is the way that requires the least effort or thought.

[Kampu Oyen]

I think the tightening IP laws go too far in terms of telling people they don't own what enters their own eyes and ears when they're forced to see and hear it in public space.

But in terms of existing laws and loopholes, if LL at least wants to seem to be discouraging people from inviting take-down notices, they shouldn't be inviting them, either, by their own actions.

Following an existing law only as strictly as it is written may or may not be irresponsible. But not bothering to follow it at all, and being seen not to follow it, is certainly irresponsible.

[WADE1 Jya]

I agree some of these laws are going too far now. Much too far! CISPA (which both facebook & google support), is a good example of internet policing going way too far... it's kind of unbelievable actually. However regardless of what we think of these laws, this is our future how the internet will operate.

Considering this dynamically shifting legal environment, if I was Linden Lab, I would not place my business model on the very razor's edge of legality.