Survey Suggests New Second Life Trademark Policies Still Provoke Wide Concerns

On April 18th, the Lindens provided a detailed update to the company's new trademark and brand use policies.  In my first survey, 75% of respondents said it still provoked concerns; after the 4/18 follow-up (disregard the 4/8 date typo above), I took another survey. This time, 63% of respondents report lingering questions.  A significant leap in clarity, but a large majority remains unsatisfied by the  Lindens' explanations.  Why?

Comments

[Princess Ivory]

Why? Fear, that is why. We think we understand, but are dreadfully afraid that maybe we don't understand, and the Lindens will suspend our account, remove our store, etc., all because of a small and petty accidental misuse of the logo, or name.

What happened to that "feel good" environment in SL®? The one where we felt like we were all in this together, creating the metaverse? Now it is just one more corporate setting, with the powers of the IRS!

Princess Ivory

[Rheta Shan]

I find this is hardly surprising. Misreadings of the original policy aside, the chief concerns were, one, the fact that old fan sites established in good faith in the previously lenient guidelines are suddenly supposed to shut down or relocate, two, that LL intends to ban residents for things they write on their blog, should that not conform to the trademark guidelines. The clarification only restated that this as indeed how LL meant to proceed. How satisfactory is that supposed to be ?