en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/705006 Comments by Roblem http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=5660#IDComment42825184 Overall a troubling case but it brings up some valid points. First I’ll forgive whatever Linden drone for using obvious form letters. It’s likely a requirement on their end for whatever they were at least initially looking into. Of course the removal of Muppet and Star Wars content, assuming it wasn’t accidental, is just strange. A quick XstreetSl.com search brings up pages of items for both terms. In the case of Star Wars, as others have pointed out, copyright holder Lucasfilm is pretty tolerant/turns a blind eye to most Fan Art/ Fan websites, even when these sites include banner adds, that could be generating SL levels of profit for the owners. On the other hand I searched around and found that Lucas no longer owns the Muppets, they are currently copyright of the “Muppets Holding Company” a Disney owned property. At least in the past Disney is not known for being tolerant of unlicensed use of their properties in any way shape or form. A big problem here is that when a Linden or any 3rd party decides that this or that is a copyright violation without contacting the copyright holder. Some companies have no issue with fan art as it is free Guerrilla marketing for them, and isn’t a threat to their bottom line. With Lucasfilm’s general attitude and assuming they have no intent to sell “official” StarWars items in-world, they may choose to turn a blind eye to all the virtual Star Wars goods out there. Disney with regard to the Muppets I would think less so, but you never know. The biggest problem here is one of inconstancies with how the Lindens seem to handle RL copyrights takedowns. It seems anytime you hear about one item being removed you have no problem finding it somewhere else. A while back a friends shop received an official takedown notice for some Harley Davidson themed items. Fair enough she took the items down. Of course today I have no problem finding Harley Davidson items on the Linden owned Xstreet.com. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:36:53 +0000 http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=5660#IDComment42825184 http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=5601#IDComment42360070 Thank you Tenshi for spreading the word on this. This really is a big deal folks. Modular systems is doing things we all wish the Lindens would do, use perfectly simple and legal means to go after rouge versions of the SL client that enable copying. My understanding is that modular systems has evoked its rights under the GNU GPL to revoke the rights to distribute the derivative NeilLife code and is filing DMCA take downs where it finds the now illegal code available for download. While this will not remove the copies of NeilLife that are "in the wild", it is exactly what we all want to see. Well Done! Sat, 7 Nov 2009 18:41:39 +0000 http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=5601#IDComment42360070