Linden Research Denies Eros/Nominee Trademark/Copyright Complaint
by Alphaville Herald on 02/11/09 at 9:28 pm
Lindens admits Copybot is bad – denies 155 other claims
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Linden Research has filed a denial-filled response to Eros, LLC and Shannon Grie's intellectual property rights complaint against the maker of the Second Life. The complaint alleges the Lindens have violated thecontent creators' trademarks and copyrights, materially contributing to and supervising the infringingconduct of others within Second Life – but the Lab's lawyers disagree, and throw down 16 affirmative defenses of their own.
For readers unwilling to wade through the complete response [included after the jump], some highlights:
Linden admits that Second Life includes a Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) system, and upon information and belief, that persons have used third-party programs to circumvent that DRM in the past. On information and belief, Linden admits that CopyBot is a third-party program that allows users to circumvent the Second Life DRM system and copy digital content that is used with Second Life without regard to the copyright or trademark status of that content. Linden admits that such use is prohibited by the Second Life Terms of Service, and denies the remaining allegations of this Paragraph.
Linden admits that on or about June 17, 2008 LR inadvertently disabled some content within Second Life, and that promptly thereafter LR stopped that disabling. Linden lacks sufficient information to admit or deny the remaining allegations of this Paragraph, and on that basis denies them.
Linden admits that LR controls some of the technology and systems that comprise the Second Life platform, that some information related to Residents’ activities is stored on LR servers, that Residents may acquire virtual land within Second Life subject to the Second Life Terms of Service, and that LR charges service fees. Linden lacks sufficient information to admit or deny the remaining allegations of this Paragraph, and on that basis denies them.
Lili
Nov 2nd, 2009
I will laugh so hard if LL wins and stroker has to pay their court costs! Ha Ha Ha!
FlipperPA Peregrine
Nov 2nd, 2009
Denied, as expected. Pretty weak reply, but expected.
I’d like to know what LL really thinks, not their legal counsel. Deny everything is clearly a lawyer response. Additionally, I have a hunch a lot of those who used to inhabit the hallways of 333 Linden Avenue and 1100 Sansome, who have moved on to “other career opportunities”, are following this case closely. I remember a day in 2004 – we’d uncovered the first permissions bug in SL that I know of – Philip himself came by to help debug, and helped solve the problem, after an IM.
Those days are long gone, but it is interesting to see the shift in the past four years between partnership and now, attorneys… night and day. I’m glad this is finally spurring discussion, however – the roads through the legalities of I.P. rights in new technologies are always bumpy. That’s hardly exclusive to the SL platform!
Regards,
-Flip
At0m0 Beerbaum
Nov 3rd, 2009
In short:
You own nothing in SL.
Next on action news: grass is green.
bend over and say AHHHH
Nov 3rd, 2009
Yeah, you can almost see this coming now. Somebody is going to be made an example of here big time. People will learn not to mess with the big L. $500,000 due in court costs sounds about right. I wonder how many cartoon sex beds he will have to sell to make that up?
Professor C
Nov 3rd, 2009
So far out of the three replies no one has noticed or pointed out the ‘why’ on the defense as to what they plan on proving. This is more than just a denial.
Between the Blind Trademarking and the accusation of Nominative use, The Lab is actually looking to destroy the SexGen trademark entirely.
Most importantly … The ninth Defense … UNCLEAN HANDS. The Lab is planning to prove that Stroker Serpentine is a content thief himself. I for one am planning on going down to the courthouse for this one to see what is going to happen here. I am very interested in seeing this one first hand.
Neo Citizen
Nov 3rd, 2009
This looks like a pass-the-buck tapdance. Stroker may lose this because of a lack of clarity as to who’s responsible for any violations of his claim and sleight-of-hand more than any actual test of the claim itself.
Anon
Nov 3rd, 2009
Oops. Maybe Linden Lab isn’t totally incompetent after all. (duh)
So what’s next? This goes to arbitration and Linden Lab offers to edit the ToS a bit?
Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia
Nov 3rd, 2009
@Professor C: The clean hands doctrine seems appropriate in this case, I believe, because from what I hear Stroker stole his company and trademark from his business partner. I hear he can not code and he’s just the PR guy, the face of the company. I hear that his business partner made everything and since he cut her out of the profits he can’t compete anymore and that is why his company is failing. His business partner made the beds and he cut her out of the profits and the company, but she’s in Belgium and doesn’t have the resources for an international lawsuit against him. He essentially stole his company, from what I understand. Eros employees are also known copybotters of Redgrave skins, from what I hear.
My source for this information is the most recent issue of Slut magazine. See pg 68 for an article about how Stroker stole his company from Braggi Bard, and pg 24 to see the details on the Eros people copybotting Redgrave skins: http://www.slutmaginc.com/index.php
In case anybody needs to brush up on their legal jargon, here’s the wiki page on the clean hands doctrine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unclean_hands
I wish I could join you at the court house. I’d give you 9 to 10 odds that LL flys Stroker’s old partner Braggi Bard in from Belgium to testify against Stroker and fly whoever runs Redgrave in to testify against Eros.
This is gonna get ugly.
Darien Caldwell
Nov 3rd, 2009
Well, this shows how far LL is willing to go in order to preserve their ability to ignore copyright infringement and theft. They are without shame and past the point of redemption.
On a *completely* unrelated note, BioWare just released Dragon Age: Origins today. It has a fantastic Toolset for creating your own content within the game. 5 years in the making, it’s poised to be a blockbuster release. Greener pastures indeed.
Jumpman Lane
Nov 3rd, 2009
“Those seeking equity must do equity.”
“Equity must come with clean hands”.
-Wikipedia
Hehehehehe maybe “The Face of Fraud: Inside the Corporate Culture of Eros LLC” was just Jumpy being prescient. I been telling ya’ll their hands are dirty.
@professor c maybe the upcoming Death of a Brand: The History of SexGen(R) in Second Life(R) and The Lion in Winter: The Rise and Fall of Stroker Serpentine MIGHT JUST TELL THE FUTURE too.
for the record, I am not Blondin Linden. He just dresses like meh!
anyone
Nov 3rd, 2009
Visit the inworld vendors now Assigned vendor slots by Mia Linden.
Looks like alot of non payed/ non licensed real world IP being sold with obvious Linden approval, since they gave the spaces out by open lottery and have ignored the “new” Linden IP rules that last flooded this blog.
Clean hands…
Sinden Lucks
Nov 5th, 2009
“Most importantly … The ninth Defense … UNCLEAN HANDS. The Lab is planning to prove that Stroker Serpentine is a content thief himself. I for one am planning on going down to the courthouse for this one to see what is going to happen here. I am very interested in seeing this one first hand.”
Yes, and guess what. Stroker the clown is on “their” turf claiming he has rights and a company. You have no rights or a company within someone elses domain and control.
Linden controls everything about their service. Stroker can whine all he wants to about content theft in SL, but a mere copyright at the patent office and a business cert on the wall means little unless you have complete control of business operations. Stroker made his little sexGen(tm) business using the technology provided by Linden. And no matter what he thinks, that is no real business. In real business, you do have complete control over the company and decisions made. Stroker believes, and I do believe this, that he is doing this in the best interest of “His Company”. Well, excuse me, and get a life. You have no real company. I don’t care what the hell he made in Second Life, that is not a real company. Stroker has no control over anything in SL. None. None at all. And anyone claiming to have a real and legitimate business using the resources of others with no control whatsoever over anything or over any such part of the service is friggen moron. He does no more than anyone else playing business in Second Life. Nothing. And his LLC doesn’t mean dog shit without any control of the service. He was a moron to even start an LLC based off of anything provided by another company.
And to make the moronic value stand out even further, he sues the hand that let him play business (and again I could care less what he made in SL), and Linden has the logs and the data to mop up his sorry ass all over the floor. You don’t sue just because you hold copyrights. I’ve had more than a few U.S. copyrights. So what. Just because you hold a copyright doesn’t mean horse garbage when the company you host your data on has the logs and records. They are going to make him the biggest fool on the planet. Watch and see. I don’t know if he is just dumb, or if he has no clue how things work. Linden will most surely prove he is a thief and remove him from the servers before this is over. So would I. And after such Linden should throw a party and celebrate a win for the protection of their business over the fools whom want to protect their precious prims.
Stroker, nomine, and whomever… get a life. You want a real business? Quit trying to make a buck off of technology provided by others and create something yourself. Go host your own virtual content and create a real business. You won’t make a million most likely hosting your bullshit on the web, but at least you will be able to call yourself a real business if you so choose.
Xanthos
Nov 5th, 2009
Same I will laugh at stroker, because of what all 3 of those guys have caused. Stroker, RebelHope, and Rh Engel. They made it impossible to find out the real thieves, and they all tried to sue linden labs for no reason. That is why Ill laugh. For all you other content creators who have done nothing wrong, I feel bad for you.
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