On August 4, 2009, Linden Lab, the owner of the popular virtual world Second Life, announced upcoming changes to its approach to intellectual property content management in the Second Life® virtual world. Although Linden Lab did not announce a specific time frame for implementation, these changes will impact both mainstream, real-world companies and virtual world content creators who use the platform to run businesses. The changes include a streamlined Digital Millennium Copyright Act submission process, new features for content licensing, and a content seller program offering official certification of content creators who provide identity and payment information to Linden Lab. In addition, Linden Lab is advocating that creators of content-copying tools voluntarily adopt industry standards to prevent abuse.
For more information about this change see our recent client advisory on Linden Lab's IP Policy Change
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Virtual Worlds & Video Games Team