Many Second Life T-Shirts Use Unauthorized Copies of Real Life Art, Says Leading Fashionista

The cool T-shirt above, "Rabbit without a cause", was created by indie artist Niklas Coskan, and if you're in the market to buy a shirt for yourself or a friend, you should go here to consider getting this one.

There's a virtual version of the same shirt currently being sold to Second Life avatars, and it's being sold by someone else in the SL Marketplace. However, you should not buy that one, because it's not being sold by Niklas Coskan, nor did the seller (who I will not name or link to) seek Coskan's permission to use his art, nor is Coskan getting a cut of the revenue of the L$ sales. I confirmed all this with Niklas Coskan a couple weeks ago, and he expressed surprise that an unauthorized copy of his shirt was being sold like this in Second Life, and told me he wanted to have it removed from the SL Marketplace. At the moment, however, it's still available in the Marketplace. (Screencap below.)

According to OMGWTF Barbecue -- which is the wacky name of a well-known avatar in the SL fashionista community -- this state of things is fairly typical in the Second Life-based fashion industry:

Unauthorized copy of Nikloas Coskan's T-shirt design on the SL Marketplace

"99% of the time," Ms. Barbecue said in a recent Plurk thread (and many SLers following the conversation chimed in to more or less agree), "if you see a cool graphic tee in SL, the artwork is [unauthorized]. I can only think of a handful of people who draw their own." (She used another word than "unauthorized", but I'd rather use that word, than deal with the legalities of the one she did employ.)

"Some extremely successful/popular stores have [unauthorized] art and no one has ever questioned them," she went on. "Even when exposed, people don't seem to care." I've seen many instances of this myself. And while there's a fair use argument for non-commercial cosplay and other unauthorized reproductions of copyrighted material from large media companies, what we're talking about here is blatantly commercial appropriation of unauthorized works that wree originally made by indie artists who don't have a legal team to aggressively protect their intellectual property.

"I guess maybe a lot of people don't see a big deal in grabbing images from Google and slapping them on a T-shirt," Ms. Barbecue mused. "I've spent years of my life illustrating, so I can easily tell when something looks fishy, like if one store/creator is selling graphic T-shirts and all of the work is in varying styles." Then it's probably unauthorized." Which sounds like a good rule of thumb to me: If you see an SL store carrying a lot of different types of art designs, before buying, ask the owner if they got all the artists' permission to use them.

And while I'm at it, here's some advice for SL T-shirt sellers -- rather than just randomly copying and using someone's designs on the assumption that it's just a game, so what's the big deal, take the time to ask the designer for their permission, and offer them a revenue sharing deal. Chances are many will go for the opportunity to promote and sell their works in another medium, and can even help you with cross-promotion, so you can sell more. You're likely to make more money, while keeping your karma clean.

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Comments

[Metacam Oh]

There's also places in-world that sell illegal version of movies not released, and has been going on and unnoticed for years.

[Cake]

This is one of the things in SL that really gets me--because it's such a rip of the original artist's hard work. SL designers could at least be courteous enough to email the original artist and ask them permission to sell their work in-game.

[Iggy]

I think Iggy Pop is on his way to my house now to lay a beating on me with a golf club, all because of that shirt I wear.

[Rusalka Writer]

And LL will do nothing about it unless the rights holder complains, so nothing gets done. A single Linden could clean up massive amounts of infringing material in SL, everyone knows it, and nothing gets done. Epic.

[Dividni Shostakovich]

Of course LL won't do anything. Have you noticed that the T-shirt Philip Linden wore uses a graphic from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"? I'll bet they didn't get rights or permission.

[Eve Kazan]

"And LL will do nothing about it unless the rights holder complains"

I'm agree with that, and it's the same with all internet :) the problem is that LL and others website like youtube for example are not editor, they just host content ... so they can clean without complains.

And tshirt example makes me smile, because it's the same thing with the 99% of gesture in SL ...

[Dave Bell]

Isn't there something in the DMCA which could catch out LL? Something about how they should not be earning anything from infringing content?

But L$ are not money, according to the contract, even if they can be converted to money...

[froggie]

Another actual creative - ripped off by the meta-crooks. Business as usual for LL and their ilk from the Silicon Valley.

[Roger]

to read this i closed my PS crack-version, closed my "inspiration" web-site and put on some "downloaded" music and will comment now: "I never used any photo-sourced stuff for my creations in SL,and i hate anyone who does so."

[foneco zuzu]

This is how all should be in Virtual Worlds:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

[foneco zuzu]

Hoo and yes, i despise alll that forget without internet expusure, their works would never be noticed by nobody!

[Seymore Steamweaver]

As a real life photographer and content creator in SL, if through some strange means my work was being half-assedly copy and pasted and slapped on a t-shirt or even more lazily slapped on a prim as a wall poster I would be beating down Linden Labs door.

I'm all for being as creative as possible in Second Life, but ripping someone off isn't being artistically creative, it's being criminally creative.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

If LL got a takedown notice and they're not acting on it in a timely fashion, hell ya, break out the pitchforks and torches.

If they didn't get a takedown notice from the rights holder (NOT a third party), then any proactive action on their part exposes them to liability if it turns out that the creator did have the legal right to use the content.

If you don't own the copyright, a complaint to LL will probably result in no action. All you can do in that situation is find out who owns the rights, notify that party, and let them decide whether they want to file a formal takedown.

Some holders are hardcore about enforcing their rights, some have a legal obligation to enforce their rights or risk losing them altogether (I think trademarks work like that), and some could care less.

The point is, it's up to the rights holder to enforce their rights, not Linden Labs.

[shockwave yareach]

My personal view of using stuff on the internet is: If it's for your personal use, have fun. But if it's for sale, you'd better have all your rights secured first. Just like I am in no way infringing when I hit PRINT on a photo on the internet, I don't see that I'm infringing if I make my own SL Tshirt from something out of the internet either.

The rub comes when you are trying to SELL stuff. Going back to the print again, just because I am allowed to print a pic that's out in public for my own use, I'm not allowed to print a whole bunch and then sell the books. The former is fair use; the latter is commercial use. And that really is how I think the lines need to be drawn in the whole IP issue, internet and SL and everywhere. (I'll bet money that these people making mashup songs aren't getting licenses either.)

If you make your own shirt for yourself, have fun. If you are selling stuff, be legal or be shut down. And if enough people love your $Item and want to buy it, that's a pretty good gauge of when to get in touch with the original content owner and ask for a limited license to use said image in SL alone.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

This sort of thing has been going on for as long as I can remember in SL, in all sorts of forms - clothing, pictures to put on walls, anything involving textures really.

[Aliasi Stonebender]

Yeah, I do think there is a line here. If you're selling it, you're in trouble. If you're using it just for yourself, that's quite different. I have several t-shirts I've uploaded that's a t-shirt I actually own; I upload a picture of the graphic because - shock - I want to wear the same tee I do in real life in SL, and I'm not about to pay a license to *wear a shirt*.

So, yeah, the above mentioned seller: bad. Trying to use Philip Linden's shirt to prove some kind of point: dumb.

[foneco zuzu]

And of course i despise even more those who use others content to gain profits!
That's why i made several reports to LL and 1st to the original creators, of stuff i saw being sold on martketstreet that i knew for sure they where just copy boot itens!
The problem is that even when the original content creator fill a claim, LL will not act most of tiems, at least for a long period!

[Rikaar]

The blame for selling products with images or logos of real life (eg nike, adidas, etc) within Second Life without paying copyright is of Linden Lab's fault that does nothing about it.

In Second Life I have seen countless shops selling paintings with images copied (for example, in a store I saw the Mona Lisa, Las Meninas and more famous paintings), and probably the person selling these "paintings" have not paid to the families of these painters.

In other stores I've seen brand cars sold (eg, Ferrari, Mercedes, Audi, etc).

I think Linden Lab should do something about it and prevent copyrighted brands are sold in Second Life

Greetings

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Again, if Linden Lab is not responding to formal DMCA notices in a timely fashion, you've got every right to go after them.

If it's not a formal DMCA takedown notice, don't expect them to play vigilante. This is a real-world legal question, which makes intervention akin to mediating a war between the sharks and the crocodiles.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

I'd be surprised if da Vinci's work weren't in the public domain by now (though of course if {MP,RI}AA have their way...). Aside from that, what Ordinal said. I've seen shops selling movie posters that I seriously doubt they got the rights for, and recall one store selling clothing under a well-known brand; the SL store owner, when I asked about the issue, seemed offended that I'd even asked, and said the RL brand owner should be grateful for the SL exposure.

[Vanish]

*cough* can't copyright fashion *cough*

see: http://blog.ted.com/2010/05/25/lessons_from_fa/

[Hampry]

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