Major Second Life Content Theft Lawsuit Against Linden Settled With Promise of Better Protection, Says Ex-Plaintiff

A major lawsuit against Linden Lab filed by its own users in late 2009 has been settled. That news was recently announced by one of the plaintiffs, virtual adult entertainment impresario Stroker Serpentine, during the taping of Metaverse TV's "Grumpy Old Avatars" show. The lawsuit alleged that the company was allowing and enabling content theft of the plaintiff's material by other Residents. Last week, however, Mr. Serpentine (Kevin Alderman IRL) said the dispute had been resolved out of court:

"We settled the lawsuit with Linden Lab," he told the "Grumpy" hosts, "we settled amicably, and reasonably, and we're anticipating a concerted effort on Linden's behalf going forward towards content protection and the rights of content creators and at least being aware of the fact that there is a lot of content theft going on out there."

That's quite a turn of events: For a year and a half, Mr. Serpentine's lawsuit (filed with fashion designer Munchflower Zaius) was championed and followed by many SL content creators, especially those who felt they'd been cheated by content theft, or complained against what they saw as the company's lax enforcement of creator rights. On the other side, Linden Lab in its defense argued that the plaintiffs' suit was null in part from the doctrine of "unclean hands", where it's argued that the plaintiff is acting unethically or in bad faith. All that, however, is now moot.

You can watch the video after the break - Stroker Serpentine makes his announcement at around 6:50, then proceeds to rant on various topics in a way that only Stroker can. Question for content creators: Now that this lawsuit has been settled, does it change your opinion of how Linden Lab enforces content theft allegations?

Follow-up question: Whatever you think of Stroker Serpentine settling with Linden Lab, what do you think of Stroker settling on a hairstyle other than a mullet?

Thanks to Robustus Hax of Metaverse TV for the tip!

Comments

[Wizard Gynoid]

I think I saw Stroker's pants on an auction on Ebay.

[JoJa Dhara]

Lawsuit? Sorry I missed that I was distracted by his Pants that I had for month in my house before returning to Frans. I am glad that Stroker settled and sounded positive on Grumpy so we can finally send his pants on the road again! We will keep them hostage so Stroke has to collect them in June in Amsterdam.
But serious it's great and good that this can be settled and also hopefully for all parties to learn from. It though me something and will be a topic at MetaMeets because people need to be aware of rights and laws about virtual goods.
That profiders like LindenLab has a certain responsebility to protect them.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I will reserve judgement until I see concrete action.

And as a side note, your own article explained that "unclean hands" as an affirmative defense was legal boilerplate and there was no evidence that the plaintiffs were engaged in unethical conduct.

I think you just like using that phrase in conjunction with Stroker.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Well, that's 10 mins and 16 seconds of my life that I wish I could reclaim . . .

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

That mullet had to go. Rock on, Mr. Serpentine.

[FlipperPA Peregrine]

I'm glad to hear everyone involved, especially Stroker and Munch, can move on. I'm looking for Linden Lab to come up with better policies to protect creators, unfortunately, I think that will be up to someone else in the future. Linden Lab had a chance to enforce (or at least, read and respond to) DMCAs in the past. They had a pretty awful track record of trying to provide any kind of protection to content creators.

It just feels to me like the ship has sailed on most innovative content creation in Second Life, which is a shame. It just goes to show, once again, that VWs never stay in the same place for too long. Here's a little history going back to the '80s for all you youngins' out there:

http://www.peregrinesalon.com/2011/01/25/1262010-the-magic-circle-realistic-expectations-for-virtual-worlds/

It will be interesting to see what kind of protection technologies are developed now that VWs are much more mainstream than in the past. Walled gardens a la Apple iTunes and App Store (or, in the past, There)? That seems like a shame to me.

Regards,

-Flip

[Adeon Writer]

I'm not quite sure how it's LL's fault that content gets stolen... Hopefully people won't get any more ideas like that in the future.

[Ananda]

I'm not sure this answers any questions about how Linden Lab enforces copyright protections. Their DRM (permissions) system still violates fair use standards, I'd still like to see that be ditched in favor of a more responsive and effective DMCA regime, but I don't have any idea what they really are doing anymore about that, so, maybe we could find out more about that and then have an opinion?

[Paypabak Writer]

Not a mullet.

I like what Stroker said about how perceptions of SL have been plasticized from about 2007-08 and no one has acknowledged how its grown beyond those perceptions.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

"we're anticipating a concerted effort on Linden's behalf going forward towards content protection and the rights of content creators and at least being aware of the fact that there is a lot of content theft going on out there"

I read that as "we got a settlement. No seriously, you should see it."

[Cherry]

"We got a settlement" that's also how I read it!

I assume its a cash settlement! So will this be shared with the rest of the class action, isn't that how it works? Or does stroker get to be the hero, until a few months down the track when the next massive content theft breaks and nothing is done about it.

"concerted effort on Linden's behalf going forward" means absolutely nothing, until something is ACTUALLY done

[OldGuy 2.0]

To answer your question, "does it change your opinion of how Linden Lab enforces content theft allegations?" : Nope.avi

marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/68049

I got about two dozen other Marketplace store links like that one, not gonna give them free traffic, though.
Even well-known creators, whose works have obviously been ripped off, are told to talk to the hand by The Lab, via DMCA.
The example above has been running for over two months, despite being identified and filed against almost as soon as it opened.
So no, "Sorry, you'll just have to file a DMCA and wait with your fingers crossed, because we've washed our hands of this" is not, in my opinion, the correct way to deal with content piracy.

[IntLibber]

Oh Noes, Franz, better send those pants back. Hopefully they aren't too abused.

BTW there is other legal news: The Evans suit against LL before Judge Robreno has been moved to the Northern California Federal Court district in a Feb 03 decision by Robreno.

http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/11D0105P.pdf