SL's policies on copyrighted content

[Constance Finchy]

I read the terms of SL and the content creation guidelines, but still have questions about creating content in SL that might play off of already-copyrighted content. Like, I've seen people selling things that are hello kitty, the simpsons, etc. but those are obviously copyrighted material. Did they get permission from those companies to sell furniture or clothes based off hello kitty, for example, or do they just get away with it? Is this legal?

[elleevelyn]

when wanting to use others' intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks etc, is always best to contact the rights holder. In the Hello Kitty case it is Sanrio

if after contacting the rights holder and you never get a response then take the silence as a No. Basically only proceed to use others rights when they specifically grant you the use

[JUSTUS Palianta]

Linden takes down a lot of copyright stuff off the marketplace, they are pretty tough on it, if you see people selling it did they name it something else or does it look slightly different?  Sometimes copyrighted things can be sold inworld for a long time without anyone noticing but if you put things on the marketplace you are putting yourself out there. I know this is just a virtual world but it takes time and energy to create so your best to make something random and with your own made up brand (that no one is using) then no one can take down your work.

[Stephanie Misfit]

8 hours ago, Constance Finchy said:

I read the terms of SL and the content creation guidelines, but still have questions about creating content in SL that might play off of already-copyrighted content. Like, I've seen people selling things that are hello kitty, the simpsons, etc. but those are obviously copyrighted material. Did they get permission from those companies to sell furniture or clothes based off hello kitty, for example, or do they just get away with it? Is this legal?

Most don't have permission. In the specific case of Hello Kitty though, the store Astralia has a license from Sanrio to use that in SL.

[Flea Yatsenko]

If you use copyright content, the rights holder can have it deleted from the grid at any moment. Do you really want to sell stuff to people when it can be deleted from their inventory at any time? Do you want to deal with customers wondering why their stuff they paid you for was deleted from their inventory? Are you going to refund them? Can you replace it with something that's not the same?

It's not worth it, you might make a lot of money quickly but you always run the risk of stuff being deleted unless you can acquire proper permission to use it.

[Extrude Ragu]

Basically SL behaves more like a platform rather than a publisher.

What I mean by that is that there is no upfront enforcement, they aren't reviewing everything you upload to check it's copyright free.

But of course if the copyright holder complains in the form of a DMCA Takedown request and LL deems it genuine your content will get taken down and if its bad enough possibly account suspension too. In general best to stay away from copyrighted material.

[Polenth Yue]

There's also the issue of fan work. The rights holder can get it taken down anytime, regardless of whether it's free or not. This happened with a notable science fiction franchise. However, fan pressure meant they backed off from the free content and agreed this was fair use. There's always a risk, but this highlights why free fan content is usually left alone by rights holders. They don't want to be seen as stomping on fans or fair use. The moment you charge for it though, you're in dangerous waters.

Personally, I would avoid making free stuff too, because it could be seen as me making free stuff to direct people to my paid stuff. It's safer not to go there.