LostInaFog.com

I never really got into the Second Life thing. I went there, I tried on a body, walked into a few trees. But the time it takes to learn how to have sex was evidently beyond my attention span so I didn’t go back (And that’s different than my First Life how?). ANYWAY, the virtual world has been getting a bunch of attention lately, including cover status on the current issue of Inc. Magazine. With folks like IBM saying they plan to drop $10 million into establishing a presence there and other companies setting up shop it seems to have reached the tipping point corporate-wise. And perhaps for its personal users too, as their number reportedly doubled in just the last few months.

But a software promoter named Darren Barefoot recently got a little press of his own by putting up a First Life parody site at GetAFirstLife.com. It’s nicely done, copying the look and feel of the second life site. It even parodies the little eyeball and hand logo of second life. Exactly which finger is that? In small print at the bottom of the page Darren invited comments or cease and desist letters over at his blog. Well that’s not exactly what he got. You can read the whole thing on darrenbarefoot.com, but below I’ve stolen, er, I mean presented as fair use, the official comment from Second Life’s lawyer “Ginsu Yoon”–

# Ginsu Yoon Says:
January 21st, 2007 at 2:57 pm

This notice is provided on behalf of Linden Research, Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the owner of trademark, copyright and other intellectual property rights in and to the “Second Life” product and service offering, including the “eye-in-hand” logo for Second Life and the website maintained at http://secondlife.com/.

It has come to our attention that the website located at http://www.getafirstlife.com/ purports to appropriate certain trade dress and marks associated with Second Life and owned by Linden Lab. That website currently includes a link in the bottom right-hand corner for “Comments or cease and desist letters.”

As you must be aware, the Copyright Act (Title 17, U.S. Code) contains provisions regarding the doctrine of “fair use” of copyrighted materials (Section 107 of the Act). Although lesser known and lesser recognized by trademark owners, the Lanham Act (Title 15, Chapter 22, U.S. Code) protecting trademarks is also limited by a judicial doctrine of fair use of trademarks. Determining whether or not a particular use constitutes fair use typically involves a multi-factor analysis that is often highly complex and frustratingly indeterminate; however a use constituting parody can be a somewhat simpler analysis, even where such parody involves a fairly extensive use of the original work.

We do not believe that reasonable people would argue as to whether the website located at http://www.getafirstlife.com/ constitutes parody – it clearly is. Linden Lab is well known among its customers and in the general business community as a company with enlightened and well-informed views regarding intellectual property rights, including the fair use doctrine, open source licensing, and other principles that support creativity and self-expression. We know parody when we see it.

Moreover, Linden Lab objects to any implication that it would employ lawyers incapable of distinguishing such obvious parody. Indeed, any competent attorney is well aware that the outcome of sending a cease-and-desist letter regarding a parody is only to draw more attention to such parody, and to invite public scorn and ridicule of the humor-impaired legal counsel. Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception.

In conclusion, your invitation to submit a cease-and-desist letter is hereby rejected.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is possible that your use of the modified eye-in-hand logo for Second Life, even as parody, requires license from Linden Lab, especially with respect to your sale of goods with the parody mark at http://www.cafepress.com/getafirstlife/. Linden Lab hereby grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, nonsublicenseable, revocable, limited license to use the modified eye-in-hand logo (as displayed on http://www.getafirstlife.com/ as of January 21, 2007) to identify only your goods and/or services that are sold at http://www.cafepress.com/getafirstlife/. This license may be modified, addended, or revoked at any time by Linden Lab in its sole discretion.

Best regards,

Linden Lab

You think we could get these guys to go to work for the RIAA instead? Someplace where a sense of humor is desperately needed!? Linden Labs is my new favorite company. I may even try to figure out that whole avatar sex thing again….