Top YouTubers Promoting Second Life Hit With Intellectual Property Complaints Sent to YouTube by Second Life Owner Linden Lab - UPDATE: Company Apologizes to Top SL Vlogger, Announces Plans to "Revisit" Trademark Policies

UPDATE, 2:10PM: See Linden Lab's response to my media request and my comments on them at the bottom of this post.

With over 10,000 subscribers to her Second Life-themed YouTube channel and a Second Life-themed blog with 100,000-150,000 monthly pageviews, the SL user known as Strawberry Singh is among the most prominent social media personalities in the virtual world, and is often featured in major media coverage for her activity around Second Life, such as this Vice story on the Avatars Against Trump media campaign she helped found.

At least one viewer isn't fully happy with all her YouTube videos promoting Second Life, however -- Second Life corporate owner Linden Lab. As she explains on her blog:

Last year I did a tutorial called “Introduction to Second Life” in which I shared two new video tutorials... Since I used the Second Life website and was in the welcome area, Linden Lab’s eye-in-hand logo is displayed prominently throughout the video. I didn’t think that would be an issue as it says on their Trademark Guidelines page that journalists and media outlets have special permission to use it in blog entries etc… I guess I misunderstood and assumed that it would be okay for me to use in a tutorial on my blog, especially since I was linking to their website and everything.

I’ve been informed by Tia Linden through YouTube that I do not have permission to use the logo and she filed an official complaint with YouTube about it. YouTube has given me 48 hours to resolve this issue directly with Tia before they hit my YouTube account with this complaint. 

In a follow-up communication, Linden Lab staff expanded the complaint even further:

"Our only request is that the images of our registration, avatar building and home pages be removed. This is prohibited and we never give permission. The video can be edited to not include the content in question and they are welcome to insert a hyperlink to our home page for users to play."

This isn't exactly an easy request to address, since after all, it's directed at tutorial videos for registering and starting Second Life. And it isn't as trivial as simply deleting the videos in question  -- for one thing, Strawberry makes a significant income from her media activity around Second Life: by her estimate, earning her "around $10,000USD a year (and sometimes much more than that)". 

"So basically," she tells me, "they don't really care if I was promoting SL, they just don't want me to have the registration page and the avatar building page, etc. in the video... I guess I just won't do that kind of video in the future."

Other SL YouTubers have reportedly received similar notices; another, Cassie Middles, has yet to receive one, but is already pulling videos preemptively -- as "a safety precaution," she tells me, "unlisting my tutorial videos. They were all 'how to' for how to join Second Life, create accounts and move and interact in Second Life."

Linden Lab's actions seem contrary in spirit if not in letter to its stated policies around media use of its trademarks, unless the company's assumption is that bloggers like Strawberry are not "real" media. (Even though her blog gets more pageviews than many traditional news sites.) What's stranger is that Linden Lab is not only focused on protecting its trademark, but "images of our registration, avatar building and home pages". And those are very much the subject of legitimate journalistic and academic interest:

According to recent Linden Lab complaints showing a screengrab of this Second Life avatar creation page in a YouTube video is prohibited

I just wrote an analysis piece on Second Life's avatar creation process, which some criticize for offering non-binary avatar options, and featured a screencapture to illustrate the problem:

Surprisingly (as screencapped above), some of the latest starter avatars force a gender choice ("a female avatar cannot use the brown horse attachment that the male warrior uses"), and even more boggling, forces the female avatar to stereotypically ride "like a lady". This has literally been a recurring problem with the platform for at least 13 years.

I've contacted Linden Lab for a comment on all this and will update this post with a reply whenever I receive it. It's quite possible this is just a ham-handed misunderstanding from new staff, or maybe there's deeper elements are at play. In any case, the company so far isn't being very clear or open with its user community in this instance. Somewhat ironically, Linden Lab was just earlier this week calling on the US government to exercise more transparency and better communication over its own Internet policies.

Update, 2:10pm: Linden Lab spokesman Peter Gray referred me to this announcement, An Apology to Strawberry Singh & A Call to YouTubers: “Un-Cease & Desist”:

Recently, the Linden Lab IP team sent a takedown request regarding a YouTube video created by the great Strawberry Singh. She and many others have pointed out that this seems like a mistake, and we agree. We have reversed that takedown request and have reached out directly to Strawberry, but would also like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to her... Like most businesses, we have policies in place around permissible use of Linden Lab trademarks. These are intended to legally protect our trademarks and brand, and to avoid confusion that can arise about what’s actually from an official source vs. a third party (to help with this, we have the “inSL” program). This policy has prohibited showing portions of the SL join flow, and that’s what triggered the recent takedown request. We’re revisiting that portion of our policy now.

Mention of the "SL join flow" would explain why Linden Lab requested that YouTubers remove "images of our registration, avatar building and home pages", since those are part of the new user experience. What's left unexplained, however, is why the original takedown requests happened at all. As I suggested earlier, this seems to be a matter of inexperienced, overzealous staff members not being briefed on Strawberry and other SL vloggers. But that just raises another question: Why would a company that's utterly dependent on user-generated content show so little awareness or consideration of its most important user-generated content creators?

Comments

[Clara Seller]

Smacking Strawberry Singh is great PR. They have some pretty sharp tacks there at LL.

They should make an example of her. Drone attacks or maybe some directed energy weapons to her compound.

Corporate property is sacred. She must be stopped.

[Nalates Urriah]

Unfortunately, this will likely be one of those things that do not show up in the Linden accounting stats. So, the Lab will have no idea how much damage this stance has/will cause.

Tweet @ebbealtberg w/ #berryCopyright and ask what's up? Maybe include a question about whether he has any idea how much free publicity LL is going to lose.

[Willow Dion]

This may be the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I have been watching LL’s stupidity for twelve years and they go from one disaster to another. Never missing a chance to make a stupid move to denigrate the people who keep them financially alive.

Currently for personal reasons I am on “vacation” from SL and only logging in about once a month. Now I’m thinking I should make that “vacation” permanent!

[NorthernKiara]

I think this is all because Strawberry makes income from the videos maybe.

[VirtuallySheree]

I'm just glad that of all the destinations I write about, that not once did I even bother try to encourage others to join Second Life with some easy to understand information on how to get started. It's not as if traffic has been falling in Second Life. Oh wait.

[Alicia Chenaux]

I was lucky enough not to get hit with a trademark complaint. However, as a precaution, I also removed 2 tutorial videos. One was on how to sell your $Lindens, and one was on how to sell on the marketplace. The marketplace one was my highest viewed video, and also the one with the most comments because I explained everything in an easy manner.

The learning curve in Second Life is incredibly steep. Tutorials are not easy to find. You're more likely to find videos of trolls screaming and making SL look like a cesspool rather than the wonderful world it can be. When vloggers make good, decent, easy to understand tutorials, that helps people to come to this world and STAY in this world. I have a feeling Linden Lab does not understand how many new residents have joined because they saw videos on YouTube that were more than trolling.

I also cannot understand why Linden Lab would not want work with someone like Strawberry, who has an incredible amount of viewers, to allow her to use the logo and show the website so that people learn how to make an avatar. Isn't she giving them free publicity? Or do they intend on making their own video on how to become a Second Life resident, and they don't want the competition?

[UnMonetize]

Do_not_monetize the videos that feature the offending SL content for which Strawberry got hit with. THAT is why they are filing the complaints. You cannot make money on someone's trademark. If you leave them unmonetized they won't do anything.

[Lusus]

Linden Labs are clearly being over protective of their eye in hand logo, particularly as other online platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc don't actively prevent people using their logos on their websites etc. In fact its good business practise when these logos are used to link back to their content.

In fact many designers have created their own versions of these logos to fit in with the look of various websites. It would hurt no one if Linden Labs loosened up a bit and allowed people more scope.

[Dazza Vlogs]

Unfortunately, I was one of the few to be hit with this Trademark complaint. I felt like I was doing something good by helping new people get involved with Second Life. The tutorials would have been nearly impossible to create without showing off the website a little. Seeing as I am only 18, it is quite scary to receive any kind of legal complaint.

This has generally put me off the whole Second Life platform. I am considering not posting anymore YouTube content about Second Life what so ever because I want to feel free to post my own original content without worrying about any legal obligations.

I do not want to post YouTube content anymore because I feel worried that this will happen again and again. This may generally be the end of my love for Second Life. These videos started off as a hobby to entertain people and give information about in-world items and I never dreamt of there being something "legal" behind it.

This is very sad and generally shocking. I never thought that Linden Labs would do this when all we are doing is advertising for them free of charge.

[joanie34]

LL's Trademark Guidelines:

'License for Press Use of the Second Life Eye-in-Hand Logo. We’ve given journalists and media outlets special permission to use the Second Life Eye-in-Hand Logo in published articles, blog entries, and news programs specifically about the Second Life virtual world, subject to our Guidelines and Terms and Conditions'

Tia Linden's email to Strawberry:

'More specifically, we do not allow images of our avatar building page, home pages or Second Life Eye In Hand Logo to be used in any capacity. Please do not use images of any Second Life web pages or logos ( with the exception of our inSL logo noted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/brand/insl/#) in your video or any other work. You may provide a link to our website or registration page in your video if you wish.'

Don't these two statements directly contradict each other??

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Wait, Second Life is still around? Heheh.

[moses]

haw haw

[Drew956]

Linden Labs can sod off. (I'm using "sod off" because it doesn't feel like a cussword to me, since I'm American. Hopefully this is okay)
Trashiest producers of anything ever, zero appreciation for the potential Second Life has as a platform or for their users.
They are the WORST possible owners/producers of something like Second Life.
Corporate Greed and lack of caring about or fostering the community makes me detest LL.
If I ever, EVER, create something like SL Linden Labs will be the prime example of how to NOT manage it. Period.
I am severely disappointed in them. What a sucky company.

[Brooke Barmy]

It seems Linden Lab chooses to focus on their own IP rights instead of creator rights. Regarding Strawberry Singh specifically, the amount of positive and free publicity that she gives Second Life when their marketing avenues are laughable is truly astonishing.

[Han Held]

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the monetization argument holds water (it doesn't, but let's pretend it does).

Over the years, Strawberry has given them material for their website, created and contributed windlight settings, promoted the use of mesh body parts (and made them more accessible), and helped new (and in my case, old) users make sense of Secondlife.

If she's made pennies from this, Linden Lab has made dollars from the people who have used her content and then bought the items she's promoted and and then made dollars again as those people rented server space ("land") to create places to show off their purchases.

Yeah, maybe it is about money. From where I sit, it's about LL throwing away dollars to grab at a few pennies, and that makes no sense at all.

It's still short-sighted and moronic.

[Ivey Deschanel]

Great work! ffs...they should be collaborating with Berry to make an officially sponsored introductory video to SL. Instead, they do this kind of reactionary and unnecessary BS to people that ENCOURAGE & EDUCATE NEW PLAYERS. Congrats LL you have just discouraged anyone from promoting your product on youtube or on their blogs. GAH

[Oobleck]

If only they were as attentive to content creator's items being infringed upon.

[Han Held]

They turned around (inside of two days!), copped to their mistake, reversed course and apologized. It's still a dumb mistake that should never have happened, but it's a good sign that they both copped to it and took action to fix it.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.

[sirhc deSantis]

Shock horror Lab actually realises they put foot in mouth...and react to it. Well done.
Funny really. Memory not being what it was but a quick check throws up a slew of stories about a certain account being compromised last year with a very similar (as in exactly the same) Linden name.

[irihapeti]

thank goodness it got reversed.

for sure can say Nobody Is Above The Law.

except when add ...the law of a moderator who has no idea about who or what they are moderating, or even why they are

is quite woeful the actual inworld experience and knowledge of the SL community, of some LL moderators

[Bixyl Shuftan]

I waited until Linden Lab responded before making a comment. While it's good that they apologized, why did they hassle Strawberry to begin with? While we of course thank Linden Lab for creating Second Life in the first place, and they've done some good moves since, it seems they have a way of making a blunder just as we're starting to think they have their act together.

[Clara Seller]

I hope this wakes LL up, just a little, that they have customers and a job to do.

This incident could have been a bigger financial blow than that albatross, Sansar.

For years, LL has been all too happy to cut backroom deals and play favorites with their star-maker machinery if they can make a dollar along the way. How this affected the common society and it's future... it's just Capitalism, babe.

They were lucky, this time, it was Strawberry Singh. She's kind.

But it was really nice to watch them squirm.

[Phoenix Desmoulins]

I'm confused. Why is showing how to join at all protected? "SL join flow" is not a secret, it's not revolutionary, and it's certainly not worth alienating your contributors over..