Illegally Recorded

[LissaJames]

At a recent open mic, someone, without my written and/or verbal permission, recorded my voice into a gesture.  What recourse do I have? 

[Lindal Kidd]

You can file a DMCA notice.  See: https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/intellectual-property-infringement-notification-policy

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

You can file a DMCA notice.  See: https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/intellectual-property-infringement-notification-policy

Absolutely this. Do it now. You can fax it with freebie faxing services (I've done that before) and I think they also have now added an email address, too. You *must* states the specific item (and one DMCA notice per item) and include the URL to the market place and a separate per-item DMCA with the in-world SLURL (if sold in world). If your claim is legitimate and you do it properly, it will be taken down within 24 hours.

7 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

You could also file an abuse report.

Then do this, immediately after sending-in the DMCA notice.

[Alyona Su]

48 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I'm pretty sure speaking in public isn't protected by DMCA.

There might be a case that could be considered as harassment, but that can be hard to prove if the gesture is something benign.

As long as the claim is properly filled out, the items will be removed. Whether or not the claim is legitimate doesn't matter because LL wants to protect its safe-harbor status. After the original claim is filed, the person it's filed against has an opportunity to counter-claim.

Correct that speaking in public is not protected by DMCA. Recording your voice and then selling it, arguably is protected. I experienced a similar thing, very much like this scenario. One of the products I sell are Gestures. These gestures play recordings of my nine year-old niece stating many SL-specific and family-related statements. After selling them as copy/modify for years and years, I discovered someone selling three of those five sets. Apparently they were "ripped" and being sold as full-permissions. They changed the advert picture, but not even the title of the product or gestures. So I purchased them to verify what I suspected.

I immediately filed DMCA takedowns and in that takedown I specified that the offense is not the Gestures themselves, but that they play a voice recording that I own the right to.

So, yes. The OP indeed does have a legal right to file a DMCA take down of any recording of their voice that is being distributed without their authorization.

Furthermore, even if the seller/distributor of those gestures owns the copyright to that recording (if they, themselves, made the recording) - then it becomes an abuse of SL and LL TOS in the privacy section and the repeating of discussions without consent. Hence: Abuse Report also is warranted.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Probably nothing. Contact LL support and ask them. 

[Chic Aeon]

5 hours ago, LissaJames said:

At a recent open mic, someone, without my written and/or verbal permission, recorded my voice into a gesture.  What recourse do I have? 

You could also file an abuse report. Since recording machinima without consent is against the TOS (Machinima and Photography Policies) it seems likely that recording (and USING WITHOUT PERMISSION) would be against the policy also. For photography you do NOT need permission (honestly never understood why one thing is one way and the other the other).  You could also contact the person that did this and let them know you are not happy and that they should remove their (product?).  A DMCA is likely way too messy for something this small --- even though I know it can be pretty upsetting.  Time, money, privacy etc all come into play with that road. 

 

 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

You can file a DMCA notice. 

I'm pretty sure speaking in public isn't protected by DMCA.

There might be a case that could be considered as harassment, but that can be hard to prove if the gesture is something benign.

19 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

If your claim is legitimate and you do it properly, it will be taken down within 24 hours.

As long as the claim is properly filled out, the items will be removed. Whether or not the claim is legitimate doesn't matter because LL wants to protect its safe-harbor status. After the original claim is filed, the person it's filed against has an opportunity to counter-claim.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

9 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

Correct that speaking in public is not protected by DMCA. Recording your voice and then selling it, arguably is protected. I experienced a similar thing, very much like this scenario. One of the products I sell are Gestures. These gestures play recordings of my nine year-old niece stating many SL-specific and family-related statements. After selling them as copy/modify for years and years, I discovered one of three of those five sets were "ripped" and being sold as full-permissions. They changed the advert picture, but not even the title of the product or gestures. So I purchased them to verify what I suspected.

I immediately filed DMCA takedowns and in that takedown I specified that the offense is not the Gestures themselves, but that they play a voice recording that I own the right to.

So, yes. The OP indeed does have a legal right to file a DMCA take down of any recording of their voice that is being distributed without their authorization.

Two things that are different from this scenario:

1. Nobody said the gestures are being sold. We don't know if that's the case.
2. In your case, it's not your voice. It's someone else's voice that you recorded, and own the right to, supposedly.
   So, if a stranger records someone else (LissaJames), that stranger owns the right to that recording, and is free to even sell it according to your example.

I don't necessarily agree with point 2 (and by extension your original point), but that was your example. Did the 9yo consent and understand that you were going to use their voice for profit? Do you pay them anything? Either you're correct which means that LissaJames has no recourse, or you shouldn't even be making money by selling something someone else created and you just recorded.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Lindal Kidd]

3 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

1. ..if a stranger records someone else (LissaJames), that stranger owns the right to that recording, and is free to even sell it according to your example.

Uh, no.  Not unless the person recorded signs a release.

See this link.  It's about photos, but the same arguably applies to an audio recording.  https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/question-unauthorized-use-of-photo-28285.html

[Wulfie Reanimator]

21 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Uh, no.  Not unless the person recorded signs a release.

See this link.  It's about photos, but the same arguably applies to an audio recording.  https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/question-unauthorized-use-of-photo-28285.html

Can you make make a 9yo sign a release or did Alyona ask a parent? 🤔 (This is tongue-in-cheek and really not important.)

That article doesn't specifically mention voice (I don't think voice is enough to cover an entire "persona/likeness") links to this page, which has a section on "identifiable voices," which seems to just regard imitating voices of celebrities, which nobody on SL probably is. I found this page though, which specifically explains that "the California statute covers only name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness" but the link to a law source doesn't work. I tried going through that section myself but "voice" wasn't mentioned anywhere in §51 as far as I could tell.

So maybe you're right, it would probably make the most sense at least.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Alyona Su]

53 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

So, if a stranger records someone else (LissaJames), that stranger owns the right to that recording, and is free to even sell it according to your example.

Not without a model release. If there is no release, then the owner of the voice can dispute its being made available (the recording of said voice). This is the general law in most states in the United States and often falls under eaves-dropping category of laws. For exampe, in Washington state, where I live, it is outright against the law to record anyones voice via any method, at any time without their knowledge (punishable by jail time) - a.k.a. "Two-Party Sate" (meaning both or all parties of a conversation must know in advanced that they are being recorded, unless there is a wire-tapping warrant in affect.)

Sure, these are extreme cases and RL scenarios and we do not know the full extent of the scenario the OP is describing. They asked a question based on ambiguous details. So I (and others) replied accordingly.

Based on the information provided, my scenario stands. ~shrugs~

[billiemee]

On 11/20/2019 at 4:48 AM, LissaJames said:

At a recent open mic, someone, without my written and/or verbal permission, recorded my voice into a gesture.  What recourse do I have? 

Get your money back periot sis. Just see if you can split the income that the gesture is getting.