Outrage Over Disputed SL Logo Illustrates Linden Lab's Inevitably Drama-Rife Relationship With Its Own Customers

This logo on your left is for Second Life's upcoming 8th anniversary celebration this year. In a blog post that's provoked much heated anger and outrage in the Second Life community today, well-known and acclaimed metaverse artist Miso Susanowa alleged that the design was actually hers, but used by Linden Lab without her permission or credit. (She had submitted an earlier mock-up for the celebration.) Since she did not include a picture of her original design on her post, for a side-by-side comparison, I've tried to contact Ms. Susanowa several times over the last few hours, but haven't been successful. But after community protest reached Linden Lab's CEO, Rod Humble, who promised to investigate, company spokesman Peter Linden posted a long comment on Miso's blog:

The Lindens and community organizers who saw your original submission liked the idea, but it needed to not make use of the eye-in-hand SL logo. They asked that you re-submit the design without the eye-in-hand logo, but when they’d not heard back after several follow-ups, they asked a Linden designer to create a few options so that we would be sure to have a logo in time for the event. The Linden designer presented a few concepts based on the theme of ‘the magic of SL,’ and, without having seen your concept or having been told about it, she also created a logo using a magician’s hat image to represent the ‘magic’ theme.

Now I'm not going to judge who is right in this case, though I'm inclined to suspect this was yet another simple misunderstanding without any bad faith on either side. However, what is even more interesting to me is the high level of outrage, including threats to file a lawsuit or a DMCA claim, offered by a number of angry Residents -- none of whom apparently even saw both logos. It's another telling illustration of Linden Lab's inevitably fractious, drama-rife relationship with its own user community, by turns loving and supportive -- by turns seething, immoderate, vengeful. Here's a sample:

• Several Residents suggested filing a DMCA against Linden Lab: "Claim that value back and help teach Linden Lab the proper way AND the pain of being ripped off." Well-respected metaverse analyst Gwyneth Llewelyn agreed: "I'd certainly complain and use the DMCA file claim."
• Other Residents suggested boycotting SL8B entirely: "I am going to boycott SL8B because of this and will encourage others to do the same."
• Others suggesting legal action: "Get a legal clinic that does pro-bono work to write a simple letter to Linden Lab."

And again, this is over two designs that none of these individuals have evidently even seen in a side-by-side comparison. Despite that, bad faith on Linden Lab's part is automatically assumed. I wrote "yet again", because Second Life's anniversary celebrations always seems to inspire such conflict. Last year, for example, it was over allegations of "censorship".

But even more crucially, this Residents-versus-Linden drama-fest illustrates a deeper, more intractable conflict: A company which depends on the user-created content of its own customers to sustain its revenue will regularly attract mistrust and resentment from those customers.

So I don't see this variety of drama going away any time soon. And to be sure, there's even deeper reasons for this kind of drama that poison Resident-to-Resident discourse just as much. But that's for another post.

Comments

[Natty Cioc]

I think its not basically a problem with Linden Labs staff, mostly its the resident volunteers making the decisions (or prepare them) on such events. I had a booth at the actual SL8B, there was a misunderstanding with the volunteers, my builder was pi**ed, deleted the whole booth and left the exhibitors group, as i was trying to discuss -in a friendly way - i received just "[2:31] Doctor Gascoigne: You have been ejected from 'Second Life Birthday Exhibitors' by Doctor Gascoigne."
No wonder that the parcel count and builders quality is significant lower year by year. But as always: LL will ignore these effects.
I think it would be a great advantage to deploy LL staff for all relevant decisions on SL8B and other LL events.

[Osprey]

Unfortunately there has been an environment of conflict fostered in the past few years as customers felt the company did things deliberately that damaged the formerly good relationship.
I think things are much better now, but that LL will need to prove themselves to a quite-rightfully gunshy customer base. Both sides need to pick their battles, remember their sense of humour, and refrain from knee-jerk reactions.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

LL needs to hire out for professional logo/graphics work and customers need to stop doing free work for LL. Have a read: http://www.no-spec.com/

The so-called "California business model" is over.

[Hamlet Au]

Good point, Osprey, though I don't know if it's just the "past few years" -- I remember seeing stuff like this broil over even as far back as 2004.

[Osprey]

I'd very much like to see the other logo. I do agree with Ann, too, that it's not good to do work on spec and for free.
I agree there has always been plenty of drama, but to me there was a distinct change round about... oh, when homestead sims were changed and people felt they'd been betrayed. When was that?

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Heh. Touché! You're right, Hamlet, I also so quickly tend to accuse LL first, and residents next, just because of their awful track record in dealing with PR issues...

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. That's the problem with LL: although "honest misunderstandings" might occur every day, after so many years where LL pretty much always was guilty as charged, over and over again on the same issues of appropriating residents' ideas and/or content, it's hard tos top a bit and say to oneself: "Wait. This time they might be innocent!"

When I ever have that thought, I always go: "Naaah." :)

Nevertheless, it's unfair to put always the blame on LL. I do apologise for not thinking twice about mistrusting the Lab's intentions, even if they have been baby-pure in their intentions this time. I'd certainly be overwhelmingly surprised about a SLB without any Linden-induced drama.

As Ron/Hiro so well put it elsewhere, it's a typical case of requiring a lot of good PR to make sure that if honest misunderstandings occur, they're properly addressed and explained to the public... because the public always raises the eyebrow of suspicion first.

It's terrible to have a reputation!

[Chestnut Rau]

I think much of the mistrust has nothing whatsoever to do with user created content. Rather, our mistrust has to do with things like the open space sim and edu pricing blunders.

We are quite willing to believe LL is screwing one of us because we have seen them screw so many of us, so many times.

[Noirran]

I agree Osprey, things changed with the homestead sims debacle, a lot of faith was lost in the lab and they have yet to earn it back.

[Wizard Gynoid]

i think there is a deep suspicion among the Citizen Builders of SL about the motivations behind the TOS Section 7.2: http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php#tos7
it raised its ugly head again here.

[Vax Sirnah]

In High School, I was a stage manager for a play, and I made a decision that pissed a few people off. I mentioned it to my best friend's father, who looked at me and said, "Welcome to management. In the eyes of the workers, management is always wrong."

My admittedly anecdotal experience has upheld this. I've seen this in pretty much every fan community I've been a part of. The fact is that there is a vocal subset of people who are apt to cry bloody murder whenver any group with authority does anything. I'm pretty certain that if LL started giving out free food to the poor, there would be at least one resident saying "That food isn't organically grown! Why does LL hate poor people so much?!?"

Sure, LL has done some stupid things. But the LL-bashing among residents is more of something people do as a form of cultural identity than anything else. Substitute some names with examples from, say, politics or sports, and they'd be almost identical to what you see on the SL forums. It has little to do with what is actually happening - people are always looking for an excuse to say "Damn the Man."

[Osprey]

I don't think you quite understand, Vax. It isn't mere 'stupid things' that lost them the trust of their customers. I think the rift will take time to heal, even if both sides approach things honestly and are willing to begin anew.

[Franklin Lubitsch]

I have a couple of comments. First, there were *two* posts by Miso on this subject, only one of which you have linked to, Hamlet. Here is the other one:

http://gomiso.blogspot.com/2011/06/addendum-magic-hat.html

In the second post, some things are explained, including the whereabouts of the original design.

The second coomment is regarding the use of the SL "hand" in the original design. LL's legal department, according to Miso, said no to the use of it. The implication seems to be that it would be a violation of copyright. But, isn't SL8B an official Linden function? Why would that be a problem? It's little things like that which tend to infuriate people. and which cumulatively add up to not being able to trust.

[Nickola Martynov]

I know Miso and I don't doubt her word on the way events transpired. She said they were to get back to her and they say she was to get back to them. I've had similar situations in rl and there isn't much you can do. But, we do know that a group of Lindens saw Miso's design and whether or not another person came up with the design independently, Miso showed it to the Lab first. It's her idea and they can't use it.

[Miso Susanowa]

Hamlet:

I have stayed out of SL today; I've been barely able to keep up wit Twitter and Comments; I did try to send messages to you via two people; I'm sorry they didn't get through.
I've tried to make it plain in previous posts that I have no particular axe to grind with LL. They have a monstrous PR problem; it's well-documented. I have said positive things as well about LL and issues.

As I have exhaustively spoken about this "bad faith" issue in both posts and Comments sections, what I object to is the characterization of the interaction between myself and this "committee" or whatever it was. No, LL employees did NOT try to contact me except for the IM via Courtney about Legal. No, they never made any comment about "yeah this is a go" or anything even suggesting interest past that 20 minutes out of a 2 1/2 hour "meeting." No, I did NOT have the Hand in the original design. No, the designs are not "merely" similar; the jpg posted of the purple hat even had a white prim background to show it up, just as the photos of my original design mockup did, as it was in prims.

I don't believe your statement "A company which depends on the user-created content of its own customers to sustain its revenue will regularly attract mistrust and resentment from those customers" need be true at all; certainly there are many large, successful companies who do not seem to have this widespread and general opinion from their customers.

THIS is the communication problem LL has with its consumers and why it often surfaces and what is in need of serious attention, or else it's all "the California business model" as someone mentioned above, and that model is showing the cracks and strains of its unnatural and counterproductive premises. Consumers are not farm animals to be milked and shut up with a gag and told, "take it... and btw, keep feeding us money."

I have been as forthcoming as I can on my blog with the process, what was said and not said and the whole muddy little issue; much more so than Linden Lab has been. The real problem that is surfacing and showing is this cavalier inability of LL to listen at all to its users without appearing imperious, deliberately insensitive ("we can do no wrong")and adamant in their position that they can depend on user-created content for their business model while simultaneously treating their customers like cattle. That's not a customer problem; that's a customer-relations problem, basic PR.

I didn't, never and wouldn't ask for money for doing this, as I didn't for any of the previous logos. But to have someone like Pete/Amanda assert that the Lab was being reasonable, did everything they could to contact me and all the rest of their comments are just bullshit, and I am calling it.

[Rowan Derryth]

When my students ask me if they have to make a citation for an idea of theirs that they then, subsequently, find in a book, I tell them yes, absolutely. Otherwise it is a form of plagiarism, even though their idea was original to them.

It may be the case that the Linden designer never saw Miso's design. But surely someone who APPROVED that logo DID see Miso's design. And although there is 'nothing new under the sun', SOMEONE bore some responsibility to speak up and say 'Hey, that looks a LOT like Miso's! Maybe we should run that by her?'

Don't cha think?

[Hamlet Au]

Miso, can you please send me a copy of your original design so I can post it in an update to this post? My email address is hamlet at secondlife dot com.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

You guys have no real idea. You should have witnessed what happened with the first new slate of avatars a few years back. Designers in tears because LL decided to "mix-n-match and screw designers' hard work up. It took a public spectacle to get the then new slate of avatars restored to what they were supposed to be. Linden Lab "Lindens" everything. People need to stop doing anything for free for LL. LL has the money. They can pay or close.

[Galatea Gynoid]

People rush to judgement before they even know the facts. Par for the course. I used to rail against it in my own blog. Then I just stopped blogging. The SL blogosphere remains, for the most part, the kind of thing that makes you substantially less well informed if you read it than if you don't. It can be entertaining from time to time but it gets old...

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

RUSH to judgement? Galatea, Miso has some ethos among those who read her blog and see her artwork. She's a talented creator and hers is no drama-fest.

I work for a private firm that happens to be a university. We have nearly 1,400 employees and, if you count living alumni, an active user-base that exceeds Linden Lab's.

All of us do our jobs, some better than others and sometimes we work at cross-purposes. Communication can lag and mistakes get made, but rarely, in my 20 years there, has the institution fallen on its sword in the ways I have seen Linden Lab do, repeatedly, during my scant 4.5 years in-world.

Without much of an effort, I could rattle off six major self-impalings since January 2007.

Maybe that should be the new LL logo! No, Romans hurled on swords suggests imperial nobility, so let me suggest another new LL logo:

Foot with big hole shot in it.

[Hamlet Au]

But Iggy, why did you get so angry and say Miso had a legal case on her hands without at least first checking to see a copy of her original design, on the possibility that it may have been a good faith misunderstanding or a more ambiguous dispute, or another possibility?

[Ann Otoole InSL]

wtf is a "good faith misunderstanding"? Give me a break. There is no such thing Hamlet. LL tried to sweep it under the rug on the wiki already and thus damned themselves.

Let the lawyers sort it out.

[Hamlet Au]

... and this attitude is a very major reason why many Linden Lab staffers quit the company. They just get exhausted dealing with Resident drama and outrage.

[Alberik Rotaru]

Miraculous that one Linden managed to produce a logo that was almost identical with Miso's. That is known as the telepathy defence among intellectual property practitioners.

[Sansarya Caligari]

Huh, when I saw the logo I thought of RacerX Gullwing. Go figure. :)

[Alberik Rotaru]

Perhaps then, Hamlet, the Lindens should adopt a new and radical approach to Residents – cause less outrage.