Originally published on my Patreon
The description and rules to Linden Lab's official Flickr group for Second Life images were recently updated to emphasize that user-made images and video uploaded there may be used in future ad campaigns for Second Life:
By submitting your photos or videos (the “Submissions”) to the Second Life Official Flickr feed of Linden Research, Inc. (the “Company”), you acknowledge and agree to the following terms:
You agree to participate in the Company’s marketing campaigns program (the “Program”). As a participant of the Program, you hereby grant to the Company a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, and cost-free right and license to use, distribute, or sublicense (through multiple levels), and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your Submissions, for the purposes of marketing, promotion, and/or outreach for and about the Second Life virtual world.
After top SL creator Bars Simpson noticed this change, I confirmed with Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager that the purpose is indeed to leverage SL user-made images for future marketing.
"It is correct that we only want to use Second Life content for future ads," Oberwager just messaged me. "And anyone who wants to submit ads, we will review and test." (Emphasis mine, as it bear emphasizing!)
This Flickr rules update, by the way, was led by SL social media doyenne Strawberry Linden.
This comes after a recent dust-up due to Linden Lab using AI/stock images and videos to A/B various messaging, in preparation for an official campaign, and community members subsequently outraged by the artificial depiction of the virtual world -- especially when there's so much user-created content out there that's far superior.
"After talking to you about how people feel," Brad explains to me, "I had all our terms reviewed to make sure we did not violate anything if we used Second Life 'stock footage'."
That final point is important:
There's already a long-existing promotional clause in Second Life's Terms of Service, granting the company the right to use any user-made content "to advertise, market, and promote [SL]." However, my impression is Linden Lab still didn't want to use people's content for an ad without their explicit permission. This is made even more challenging, if (for example), a Flickr image turns out to be one that someone else posted to the platform.
So the new language is meant to clarify that Flickr group images/video can, may very well, and are explicitly intended for use in Linden Lab marketing. While this update is belated, it's definitely a welcome re-set.
As for what kind of images make for great marketing of Second Life (i.e leads to user growth), I have many strong opinions on that. They're actually not the kind we usually see. But more on that later!
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