Comments on: Second Life Ballet Leaders Reject New TOS

By: Pyper Dollinger

Pyper Dollinger — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:41:32 +0000

It amazes me to see how people can turn a serious matter into such stupidity. I am a dancer for the Second Life Ballet and it really angers me to see the above comments and such immaturity. We work very very hard at what we do to create the effortless movements of a beautiful tale in ballet form. We work 4-5 hours a week and perform twice a week. It angers me also that you will open your mouth and put something down that you haven’t even seen. Please keep your comments to yourself if you are trying to put down something that means alot to many. If offers an outlet for some of the dancers that are either ill or unable to dance in RL.
Inarra and ESP we are behind you. We love you and miss you greatly!

By: eric

eric — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:58:27 +0000

@Prokofy Neva: “Linden Lab gave you a solution, in fact. They said, change your name to “SL” if it used to say “Second Life”. They said “SL, we can deal with.” They allow that to be registered, as long as it is two proper nouns. So it would have to be SL Ballet Troupe or something.”

The problem is, that is not a solution LL has any right to insist upon under U.S. trademark law. Their guidelines are vastly over-reaching and would not stand up in a TM infringement action. They’re trying assert broader rights for themselves by incorporating the TM guidelines into the TOS. It’s far from clear they can enforce that as a matter of contract law. At least in some cases, the law does not permit contractual waivers of statutory rights. Given the important, indeed constitutionally-rooted, policy concerns underlying the limits to TM protection, it is at least conceivable that a court would balk at allowing a company to use a contract of adhesion to impose sweeping restrictions on the use of the company’s name that go far beyond what TM law permits.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This is not legal advice, etc. etc.)

By: Alyx Stoklitsky

Alyx Stoklitsky — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:49:12 +0000

@Prokofy:

Oh how I love your needless hostility <3

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:50:05 +0000

The phrase is translated as follows: “A bad dancer says his balls get in the way”. яйца means “balls” in the vernacular. No, танцеру is spelled with the stressed “e” not the “o”. And it’s in the dative case, so obviously it has nothing to do with stirring eggs, nimwit.

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:48:01 +0000

Um, Alyx is just plain stupid, and does not know Russian lol.

By: Alyx Stoklitsky

Alyx Stoklitsky — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:51:27 +0000

@Razrcut Brooks

“Bad dancers shouldn’t stir eggs” (approximately)

By: Alyx Stoklitsky

Alyx Stoklitsky — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:49:22 +0000

@Prokofy: “плохому танцеру яйца мешают”

Don’t you mean “плохому танцору яйца мешают”?

By: Tammy Nowotny

Tammy Nowotny — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:12:20 +0000

There are a couple of ways out of this for the Second Life Ballet. They might be able to argue that they already have a established right to use their name…. since they’ve been around for a relatively long time, without Linden Lab objecting to the name (and with the knowledge of Linden executives.) They could also cut a deal with LL to continue using the name… since obviously LL isn’t going to shut down all organizations which use the name. (For example, the Second Life Mnetor group would presumably keep going.)

By: meh

meh — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:13:35 +0000

That sounds like a rather Leninist statement coming from Prok.

By: Alazarin

Alazarin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:29:45 +0000

Damn, I know Inarra and Espresso well; I wrote the music for the first SL Ballet production, Olmannen, and recently attended a performance of it. This is really unfortunate news to hear and I hope that it is resolved positively very soon.

The SL Ballet Company is not some fly-by-night cowboy outfit. It’s been going for well over a year and has a permanent theatre on one of the IBM sims. Inarra and Espresso have built up a large group of dancers and artists who are currently in the middle of rehearsing their 4th production.