Research for my Law degree... Could use some help

[taltula]

Wow. This is exhausting. I just needed some help. This is not a conspiracy. I didn't use my university email because, the same way u don't know who I am, I don't know who u are and I don't want my mail box filled with junk. 

And my paper is about copyright protection for fictional characters. And since there is a theory that says you should get protection on a property u've worked on (Lock) and another that says u should get protection for property that represent u and your personality (Hagel and then Radin) I wanted to find the connection between who the person really is and the avatar he created to show that an avatar should get copyright protection.
Happy?!

Please delete this thread. U r all a bit paranoid in my book….

(if i have any spelling mistakes its probably because english is my second language!!!! how many of you can post a post in hebrew???????) 

[Perrie Juran]

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taltula wrote:

First of all Thank you in advance... 

My name is Tal Caspi, and I am a fourth year Law student at IDC (Interdisciplinary Center, Hertzelia, Israel) I am writing my research project on the Intellectual property laws with regard to avatars and In-World creations. 

I would greatly appreciate as many Email address of active residents so that I can email you a short, simple, 10 questions questionnaire about your experience with SL. 

Thank you again for your cooperation, this means a lot for my degree. I need as many as I can get. 

(I promise not to use the email address for any other purpose than to email you the questionnaire.)

thank you again for those who help me. 

Tal Caspi. 

secondlife.reserch@gmail.com



(Taltula Inworld.)

 

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Do you think that we are so  daft that we would believe someone who is in 4th year law is daft enough to ask us for our E mail addresses??????????????

 

[RudolphUkka]

*

reserch?

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FAIL!

*** Rudi

***

 

[taltula]

How daft do you have to be, if that's the first thing you think about.. Honestly trying to get this seminar paper done, need some questionnaires answered, if you wish to reply then send me your email address, if you don't wish to help then don't. 

[taltula]

To those who dont wish to hand over their email adress:

 

Gender____, Age______, Country of gaming________, how long have you been playing second life_________.

1.      On average, how many hours do you spend on second life per day?

a.      1 hour or less

b.      1 – 3 hours

c.      3 – 5 hours

d.      5 – 8 hours

e.      8 hours or more

2.      How many dollars (American) do you spend per month, on average, in second life?

a.      $10 or less

b.      $10 - $50

c.      $50 - $100

d.      $100 -$500

e.      $500 or more

(in the next two questions please highlight the correct answer)

3.      Do you have a partner in real life?  Yes \ No

4.      Do you have a partner in second life? Yes \ No

5.      Do you feel as if the friends that you can open up to the most are found on second life or in real life? Please rate your answer from 1 – 5. 1 being mostly in real life and 5 being mostly in second life.

 

1          2          3             4            5

 

6.      Does your avatar represent you or an image of something you want to be? Please rate your answer on a scale of 1 – 5. 1 being representing who you really are, and 5 being representing who you'd want to be.

1          2          3             4            5

 

 

 

7.      How many times have you changed the appearance of your avatar or upgraded it since your first time on Second Life?

a.      Never

b.      Between one to ten times

c.      Between ten to twenty times

d.      Between twenty to fifty times

e.      I change it almost every day.

8.      Out of your overall monthly expenses in Second Life, how many Linden Dollars do you spend on your avatar alone (meaning only on his/her/its appearance and skills)?

a.      I never spend money on my actual avatar

b.      Between L$10 to L$50

c.      Between L$50 to L$150

d.      Between L$150 to L$500

e.      L$500 or more

9.      Have you replaced your avatar completely, including rename and erasing all memory of a previous avatar since your first time in Second Life?

a.      Never

b.      1-3 times

c.      3 or more

10.   Will copying or imitating your avatar by another resident or newbie, offend you? Please rate your answer on a scale from 1 – 5. 1 being "will offend me greatly" and 5 being "wouldn’t mind it at all".

 

1          2          3             4            5

 

[valerie Inshan]

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taltula wrote:

How daft do you have to be, if that's the first thing you think about.. Honestly trying to get this seminar paper done, need some questionnaires answered, if you wish to reply then send me your email address, if you don't wish to help then don't. 

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"Send me your email address"??? Are you kidding? You are violating the guidelines here.Find another way to conduct your survey.

Edited: Now that's better. Thank you for editing your post.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Aa you will have noticed, we're somewhat annoyed about students who know nothing about SL constantly asking us to complete questionnaires.

Now - a questionnaire for you from someone you knows nothing about Israeli law:

"Phising" is defined by Dictionary.com as "to try to obtain financial or other confidential information from Internet users, typically by sending an e-mail that looks as if it is from a legitimate organization".

 

1. In what way do any of your questions relate to "the Intellectual property laws with regard to avatars and In-World creations"?
2. Why did you not use a known survey-site for your questionnaire, as most researchers do?
3. How come your email address is a free, disposable, effectively-untraceable one rather than from your university?
4. In light of the above wouldn't you expect net-savvy people to be cautious?
5. How many attempts at internet scams, spam and 'questionnaires' do you think we see every week?

 

 

[Void Singer]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

1. In what way do any of your questions relate to "the Intellectual property laws with regard to avatars and In-World creations"?

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I think here is the biggest problem for anyone reading.... you have exactly two questions relating directly to potential IP considerations, and a few weak corollaries, and several that seem to have no being whatsoever on the focus, and barely a passing relation to any of the corollaries.

I get, time and monetary investments, as week corrollaries, I get strength of self representation and offense at duplication as being directly related... but partnerships? closeness of friendships? how on earth do these have bearing on the legal question?

[PeterCanessa Oh]

NB: OP edited from original

"Please delete this thread. U r all a bit paranoid in my book….

(if i have any spelling mistakes its probably because english is my second language!!!! how many of you can post a post in hebrew???????) "

You're right, I for one wouldn't be able to write a single thing in Hebrew.  Then again, if I was struggling to work in a second language I wouldn't use awful constructions like "U r", especially if I was trying to appear like a serious, professional academic.

@ Void - I think you were being far too generous

[Void Singer]

probably... but at one time I wrote guidelines for survey creation.... including probative ones (results only used to give a direction for further inquiry)....

odd that formalism would come up twice on the boards in succession, but it's the number one mistake of survey creators.... (followed closely by lack of focus)

[Tiffy Vella]

Funny how all these "academic studies" all ask the same brainless questions as regards time spent/money spent (never earned)/how we feel we compare to our avatar. What on earth does how much I tweak my avatar (or not) have to do with any copyright law! These questions are more suggestive than anything, and have little to do with the subject the "student" claims to be researching.

I've seen these same copypasted questions in gazillions of half-baked surveys about SL. They keep turning up under different guises.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Oh yes - I was particularly impressed with "how many Linden Dollars do you spend on your avatar alone (meaning only on his/her/its appearance and skills)?".  Skills?  Skills?  Avatars don't HAVE skills in SL!

[Tiffy Vella]

Skills = meeroo patting points. And Tiny Empires gold.

[Void Singer]

actually the amount of time spent tweaking can be alternately read as time spent in development, or conversely it could show that the creation is not static or recognizable enough to legally protect. if the time is low then it's not likely to be a factor, if it's generally high it would be important to determine why.

money earned is an important oversight though, especially as it relates to brand recognition, and how avatar image plays into that.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

I stand corrected Tiffy, that is a good point.  Although there are no skills in SL per se there are many ways of 'keeping score' in games, roleplays and others  contained within SL.

[Tiffy Vella]

I hadn't considered that, Void...'avatar tweaking time' is really 'product development time' to a shape/avatar creator. But I don't get the feeling that the OP's question was considering this either.

[Tiffy Vella]

Wasn't really trying to correct you, but I guess 'skills' can mean levels for keeping score. Many of us don't need them, and many of us do play a few games within SL and find the scorekeeping adds to the fun-ness of competition.