tattoo's and copyright?

[leon6er]

so recently I was on sl learning how to make tattoos for my character in the game. as I was thinking about this a thought came to mind. what if I sold tattoos in-game that I liked RL. now I liked this idea but reading over the guidelines of the marketplace im not sure if I am allowed to do this. so the main question here. can tattoos be copyrighted if I got them online and made them for sl? the reason im asking this and not just trying it is that my second life account can be suspended for this indefinitely as I love this game I thought I might as well ask before trying.

[Anna Nova]

One little point that is often missed, if you photograph a real tattoo on a real person that photograph is your copyright.  But if you photocopy a drawing then it is a reproduction, and has the copyright of the original.  In some jurisdictions even tracing (you remember tracing paper?) a picture is a copyright violation - in the UK doing this to a Crown Copyright map from the Ordnance Survey will get you in trouble unless it is for Private Study under the Fair Use clauses.

I enquired of the Ordnance Survey if I could make my own illustration for a guide book I was writing for publication.  Answer: you can look at our map and then draw your own, but if you trace it you are into a royalty fee.

Edited January 27, 2018 by anna2358

[Lindal Kidd]

Linden Lab takes reports of intellectual property theft seriously.  You are quite correct that it's possible to be banned for a violation of this policy.

It IS possible to use Real Life artwork in Second Life legally.  You would have to find the Real Life creator of the work and ask their permission.  Many artists will grant this freely, or will do so for a reasonable fee.  Others will not.  (One example:  Early on, the Coca-Cola Company gave permission for its logo to be used freely in Second Life.  They've gotten a lot of free advertising out of this.)

[leon6er]

34 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Linden Lab takes reports of intellectual property theft seriously.  You are quite correct that it's possible to be banned for a violation of this policy.

It IS possible to use Real Life artwork in Second Life legally.  You would have to find the Real Life creator of the work and ask their permission.  Many artists will grant this freely, or will do so for a reasonable fee.  Others will not.  (One example:  Early on, the Coca-Cola Company gave permission for its logo to be used freely in Second Life.  They've gotten a lot of free advertising out of this.)

ah thank you but there is a small problem. most of the tattoos I found were off of sites like Pinterest where they don't quite list the authors of said works. any idea how to track down the artist. either way, I do thank you for the help ^^

Edited November 10, 2017 by leon6er

[Chic Aeon]

3 minutes ago, leon6er said:

ah thank you but there is a small problem. most of the tattoos I found were off of sites like Pinterest where they don't quite list the authors of said works. what do I do then? either way, I do thank you for the help ^^

You can use them as "inspiration" and draw your own. Honestly it is very easy to tell which tattoo artists "draw" and which "download" so being in the former group is indeed a plus and will keep your count from being deleted :D. AND honestly, tattoos ARE art and with them comes a copyright, so do your own thing and enjoy the journey. 

[leon6er]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

You can use them as "inspiration" and draw your own. Honestly it is very easy to tell which tattoo artists "draw" and which "download" so being in the former group is indeed a plus and will keep your count from being deleted :D. AND honestly, tattoos ARE art and with them comes a copyright, so do your own thing and enjoy the journey. 

k thanks for the tips ^^ hopefully soon you'll see my tattoos on the market, or others i got permission for^^ have a good day night or after noon

[Nalates Urriah]

There is a formal copyright process. However, US Copyright Law states all your original work is copyrighted whether you register it or not. The registration makes life WAY easier if you ever have to go to court to defend your right.

So, technically everything we see is copyrighted by someone.

There is also the legal precedent that things similar enough to a copyrighted thing are a violation of the copyright.

However, there are the laws about private ownership of copyrights passing into the public domain. After a time even registered copyrights fade and the material becomes property of the public. From the US Copyright Office, since 1978, the life of a copyright is for: life [of the creator] plus 70 years or 95 or 120 years, depending on the nature of authorship. Effectively, making it for life of the creator and likely ours for our purposes.

BUT... if the rights are not defended, they pass to the public.

You see the complications of figuring out what is and isn't legally copyrighted today. Did they defend it? Who is going to search court records to find out?

Life is easiest when we create our own stuff. The downside is then we find out about all the people that rip off our good stuff. This is when we learn copyright is hugely abused and violated.

None of this is simple and the entire field of Intellectual Property ownership is unbelievably chaotic. So, some deliberately hide their ID and steal to sell for profit counting on the odds and chaos to protect them thinking they have a small chance of being caught. Unfortunately they are too often right. The sad part of this is this abusive behavior often pushes copyrighted material into the public domain as it was not worth the legal fees and effort to protect it.

Next we have the problem of Copyright Law being tempered by the Fair Use clause adding to the complications.

So, much of what you, at least from a practical viewpoint, do is a matter of your ethics. The Lab is only going to step up if there is a formal legal complaint. They do NOT police ownership, as in going on patrol or in search of violations. So, or you honest or a thief?

And SL has a number of vigilantes. 

You can search for public domain tattoos. There is no guarantee the ones you find are in the public domain. But, if not and you end up being challenged, you will most likely just get a cease and desist letter as you have evidence to suggest you, in good faith, believed it to be in the public domain.