Tuesday, August 2, 2016

2016 BIZ: VIDEO: WRITE: Do you know what you are licensed to do with the virtual products you buy? Jane and Dick in court

Do you know what you are licensed to do 
with the virtual products you buy?  
Jane and Dick in court
As virtual worlds extend into business activities, we need to start paying more attention to the licenses that come with the copyrighted products we buy or get as free gifts in virtual worlds.  We think we own these products and can do what we please with them, but that is not necessarily the case.  We don't have standard licenses yet, but need to start thinking about them. 

  

Jane grew up to to be a fashion designer.  She also got into virtual worlds and makes great avatars.  Dick became a writer of children's books.  He also writes ad copy to pay the bills.  Dick is in virtual worlds to boost his sales of children's books.  He has come up with the idea of using pictures he takes in virtual worlds to illustrate his books.
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Follow the story below, as we hear Jane say, "I'm telling you, Dick, we aren't playing any more."
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  • (More after the break)
  • Where is Arcadia?
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Short Poetry Workshop Genre-Specialized vocabulary-Tue 8/2, 7pm SLT

This week the Short Poetry Workshop is a Genre workshop. Arabella Nemeth, as guest host, will challenge us to select words from a specialized vocabulary (medical, woodworking, nautical, needlework, genealogy, architecture, etc.) and weave these words into your poetry. So join us at the Short Poetry Library to learn, write and share your poems.

Metaverse events, current and upcoming

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Dick and Jane in court

Dick had a great children's story that featured a fairy godmother.  He looked through the available avatars in his virtual worlds and found a really great one by Jane.  
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"Could that be my Jane?  Should I send her an IM and see if I was her Dick?" he thought to himself.
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But he did nothing about that idea.  He just bought the fairy godmother avatar and used her picture in various poses, in his book  She looked so good he used her in a lot of pictures for his book, "The Fairy Godmothers Are Back."
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Dick self-published his book and promoted it with web ads featuring the fairy godmother (GIFs and short video clips).   
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Jane knew nothing about this until somebody sent her a link to Dick's ads.   
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"Could that be my Dick?" Jane mused.  "And is it okay for him to be using my avatar in his ads?"  
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But she shrugged it off.   "Not worth my time to be worrying about."
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So it went for quite a while.  Then Fairy Godmothers went viral.  Dick started getting offers from movie studios about an animated film.  Offers from toy makers about a line of fairy godmothers, all looking a lot like Jane's avatar.  (Okay, you knew this was going to be fantasy when I brought in a fairy godmother.)
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Somebody sent Jane a link to a news story about Dick's good fortune and indicating that Dick could become a millionaire if all these offers came to fruition.
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SHAZAM!  Shrug-it-off Jane suddenly changed into fight-for -my-rights Jane.  (The power word millionaire can have the effect.)
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"That is my fairy godmother," she growled.  "I sold him an avatar and the right to do with it what people normally do with avatars.  I did not sell him the right to use my work to illustrate his book.  And I certainly did not sell him the right to license other people to use the likeness of my fairy godmother in derivative work.  He is using my work and not even giving me credit.  My Dick is screwing me"
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That's when she sent him the instant message, "I'm telling you, Dick, we aren't playing any more."
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Then she called her lawyer.  This was not going to be simple.  Jane had not given Dick any license in writing.  It would have been simple if she had given him a license specifying what he was allowed to do with the avatar and what rights she was withholding.  
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It would also have been simple if Dick had contacted her, described what he wanted to do, and asked her permission (in writing) to use her avatar in that way.  She would probably have given him permission, provided he give her credit for the avatar.  Maybe she would have wanted a small fee, but her avatar had no known value in that extended use, so she could not ask for much.  Dick could find other fairy godmothers.
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As an aside, if Jane had made the avatar in Second Life, Linden Lab could step in and point out, "Sorry, Dick and Jane, but neither of you has exclusive rights to that Avatar.  We have the non-exclusive right to license it in any way anyone can think of (just read our terms of service).  So you can't sell exclusive rights to anybody without getting a release from us.  And will be glad to negotiate with you about the amount you will pay us for that release."   
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Of course, Linden Lab would not do this.  Not even for a million dollars.  Or is that more fantasy?
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Of course, the moral of this story is that the creative people in virtual worlds need to begin giving and asking for licenses when they sell or give away their products.  
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News and Notes

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    The Hypergrid WIP Show

    The Hypergrid WIP is a one hour "show & tell" of works in progress or recently completed. All builders from beginner to pro are invited.  Presentations are in voice and text.  For text presentations, best bring the text in a notecard and paste it into chat.  Voice presentations may be captured in video.  Stills and videos from the show may appear in this blog and elsewhere.

    Next WIP show 

    • Next WIP show: Sun. Aug 28, Noon SLT 
    • Cookie II location (fourth Sunday of the month)
    • HG address below: paste into the World Map next to Find. Click Find, TP
    • grid.kitely.com:8002:Cookie II 
    • in Kitely: paste into Nav (top) bar of Firestorm, Enter.
    • hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Cookie II/68/369/22
    • Narasnook  location (second Sunday of the month)
    • Pandora allows presenters to run high threat OSSL functions.
    • world.narasnook.com:8900
    • Put the line above in your World Map next to Find.  Click Find. TP
    • At Narasnook, use World Map to search for Pandora
    • Cookie II location (fourth Sunday of the month)
    • HG address below: paste into the World Map next to Find. Click Find, TP
    • grid.kitely.com:8002:Cookie II 
    • in Kitely: paste into Nav (top) bar of Firestorm, Enter.
    • hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Cookie II/68/369/22

      Previous Articles from the WIP show 

      HG links-- depending on your interests 

      Radio in the virtual world

      Metaverse beginner help

      Schools in virtual worlds

      • I publish 5 or 6 days a week, skipping 1 or 2 days in midweek
        •
      • For more on topics like this, follow Selby Evans in Google+ 
      • What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
      • Google search this blog: Search bar, upper left--or:
      • Put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms 
      • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
      • All original content on this blog is Creative Commons License, attribution only. 
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