Fan-Made Battlestar Galactica Content Removed From Second Life After Universal Reportedly Files Complaint

The Harrisburg Examiner reports that Universal Studios has filed an intellectual property complaint against Battlestar Galatica fan communities in Second Life that have created in-world content based on the show:

For example, they have complained about names such as “Battlestar Galactica,” “Battlestar,” “BSG,” “Colonial Warriors,” and “The Twelve Colonies,” and about content such as “recreations of Battlestar Galactica ships like the Vipers, Raiders, and Raptors.”

I double-checked the SL sim once called BSG47, home to a Galactica-themed flight combat simulator I wrote about a couple years ago, and as the screen capture above indicates, it's gone. (Whether from this announcement or other reasons are unclear at the moment.) Whatever the reason, that sim had an impressive, physics-enabled flight combat system, making possible the kind of dogfights captured in the video after the break:

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Well, so much for shooting your own foot. Fan communities are the best thing to happen for any franchise. It's like free advertising on overdrive.

[Rin Tae]

I might be biased by liking BSG a lot actually, but on a general note, such moves are never beneficial for anyone. Especially since the show has finished and if they want to continue making money out of it, they would have to make sure to keep the memory of it present in the minds of the fans.

And those who bould and kept those sims running, created the items and textures for it, have contributet more to the ongoing popularity and advertisment for the show then any paied for campaign would have.

But I guess those people responsible for such moves are blind on anything that goes on beyond the tip of their noses and might not understand that one of the resons things like Star Trek or Star Wars kept to be as popular as they are is the fan community that continues to live, reinterpret and recreate it over and over again.

But well .. as someone on the SL forum pointed out as a commment to this move:

'this has happened before and it will happen again'

[Arcadia Codesmith]

There are technical legal reasons for aggressively enforcing trademarks. And keep in mind that most infringing merchandise is not being given away -- it's being sold, which is a different category of offense than just slapping something together for your own amusement. That said, it's more productive to work with fan communities to properly license material before moving in to shut them down. Properly approached, most fans are thrilled to work within an official, sanctioned franchise framework.

[cube inada]

The issue isnt "fan based" work for "entertainment"..its never been. Its only when fans start "selling" and in fact "competing" with the licensed product, that the Owners get involved and shut them dowm. The "free to copy" and sell ethos of SL has been getting away with allowing this for way too long, and its not surprising that with a licensed BSG MMO in developemnt that Universal, the ownersof the IP, are being asked by the licensee(bigpoint) to close down the commercial endevours in SL that compete against their investment.

original mediaverse scif content exists in SL

Starbase C3 --- with a license and vendor system that does allow a legal way to pay for you RPG sims.

c3

[Heidi Stiglitz]

The BSG47 sim is still in SL, but has been temporarily renamed "Lostpup Seattle" (after the sim owner the group rents from.) There were a few other "suggestions" made for some name changes, but the damage is not extensive and the sim will apparently continue.

[DMC Zsigmond]

This is perhaps a clear endorsement ("and/or future case study example") by one of the big media companies that Second Life (tm) is in fact taken seriously commercially and that it is recognized for having sufficient online communications reach that protecting their IP brands is actually necessary.

[Veda Paine]

Might have something to do with the BSG MMO that is about to be releaced..

Or they are just protecting their copyrights from the greedy fans that are making millions off their franchise.

So much fun for everyone.

[Lili]

They can have my raptor, when they pry my cold dead body from its cockpit. In the mean time, I'm painting it bright pink and putting the name, Boomer Baby, on it.