[Opensim-users] Animations

[Patricia F Anderson]

Sorry - posted from the wrong address.

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Patricia F Anderson
<patriciafanderson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Perhaps it is just me, but I get nervous hearing "teachers and libraries"
> followed shortly by "Worse yet".
> If you go back into the history of copyright & intellectual property law,
> the origins stemmed from a desire to foster a positive relationship between
> the creative individual and those who value their creative contributions to
> society. The idea was that society at large benefits from individual
> creativity, but when the work of the creative individual is stolen and
> resold they often feel unappreciated and like "Why should I even try?" The
> original intellectual property laws sought to prevent that problem from
> occurring. It is quite enlightening tracking how incremental shifts in the
> law over the years have resulted in a 180 degree shift, which is what we are
> dealing with now.
>
> There are excellent reasons for the exemptions, with the ultimate goal being
> the benefit of society, rather than the benefit to the creator. The latter
> was specifically to protect the former! The exceptions & exemptions were
> supposed to reflext those circumstances when protecting a creator's personal
> interests would not be in the best interests of society. The issue of the US
> Government as a publisher also has to do with the work-for-hire issue. What
> can I say? These aren't simple issues.
> The whole issue of Linden Labs and their constantly changing contracts is
> different. Part of the question is when contract law trumps personal
> intellectual property rights, and if this can be done via a click-through
> license. That is a matter of some debate, and I have discussed this issue
> (specifically with respect to Second Life & Linden Labs) with our University
> Counsel.
> I am not a lawyer of any sort (so listen to Karen before me!), but copyright
> law is an old hobby of mine, and I have co-taught workshops on related
> issues with copyright law specialists. For more insight into contemporary
> trends in these issues, I recommend reading or watching Lawrence Lessig.
> <http://remix.lessig.org/>
> <http://www.ted.com/talks/lessig_nyed.html>
>  - Patricia / Perplexity
> On Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Karen Palen <karenpalensl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If you look up 17 USC 101 (US copyright statutes) then you find about 20
>> line defining what is "protected work" then the next 5000 line define
>> limitations and exceptions that is what is NOT copyright-able!
>>
>> The largest publisher of books n the world (US Govt) cannot copyright
>> anything for example. Teachers and libraries get some blanket exemptions
>> as well.
>>
>> Worse yet, as a content creator myself the "ownership" of content even
>> content that YOU have created is far from clear. Linden Labs lays some
>> claim to YOUR work! The exact nature of this is undefined at present,
>> but at various times they have simply forbidden ALL export of ANY
>> content, even content that I created.
>>
>> At that point I moved all of my stores etc. out of Second Life, and
>> rarely even visit any more.
>>
>> MY solution has been to create stuff on my own private "Diva" grid then
>> IMPORT it wherever I want to use it. Even that gets a hassle from
>> paranoid grid owners sometimes.
>>
>> While I do not condone the piracy that is happening, I do understand the
>> frustration that causes it.



-- 
Patricia Anderson / SL: Perplexity Peccable
pfa at umich.edu OR patriciafanderson at gmail.com
Emerging Technologies Librarian, Health Sciences Libraries
University of Michigan
1135 East Catherine
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
"Google can give you 1,000 answers to your question. A librarian will
give you the right one."