Fair Use Gets a Fair Shake in Second Life - (EFF.org)

Fair Use Gets a Fair Shake in Second Life

Commentary by Eva Galperin of EFF.org
 

Kudos to Linden Lab, which has just release an update to the Terms of Service for their virtual world, Second Life, that includes language that will protect fair use of screenshots and machinima. The new Snapshot and Machinima Content License grants Linden Lab and other users of Second Life a license to use “in snapshots and machinima your Content that is displayed in-World in publicly accessible areas of the Service.”

Machinima, which refers works that use real-time 3-D graphics engines to generate computer animation, could have presented a special problem for Second Life, where every individual object in view is potentially a different person’s intellectual property. Getting permission from so many owners of IP in order to create a machinima is potentially nightmarish. Instead of running from the new kinds of fair use enabled by new technologies, Linden Lab has embraced them. The new license allows Second Life users to reserve the rights to their creations by placing them in areas that are not publicly accessible. Second Life makes tools available to users that allow them to restrict access to their Virtual Land and its contents. The rules are simple and intuitive: if you don’t want people taking pictures of your floating city/dancing bear/epic space opera, don’t leave your floating city/dancing bear/epic space opera in a public place.

Linden Lab’s behavior should be an object lesson to movie studios and major record labels, who have alienated their own fans by trying to thwart new fair uses as they come along, whether through DRM or DMCA takedowns. Linden Lab has shown that there are innovative new ways to give the green-light to fair uses while still giving users the freedom to protect their creations. We hope that movie studios and major record labels are taking notes, because Linden Lab is showing them how it’s done.

Officially the Strangest Second Life Login Picture To Date

(click the pic to enlarge). This is the welcome picture at the log-in screen for Second Life on December 12th, 2009. This is officially the strangest, most odd, Second Life welcome / log-in image I have seen to date.

What is Linden Lab thinking? What is Linden Lab trying to say with this?  an egg over three strips of bacon, an egg over toast, a cup of coffee, a hot dog, and a cola drink... on a table.

Please, post your thoughts, perceptions, disambiguations in comments. We need to figure out what they are trying to say by this image. We have to get to the bottom of this.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Breaking the 4th Wall

The fourth wall refers to the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The term also applies to the boundary between any fictional setting and its audience. When this boundary is "broken" (for example by an actor speaking to the audience directly through the camera in a television sitcom), it is called "breaking the fourth wall."

Origin and meaning:

The term was made explicit by Denis Diderot[1] and spread in nineteenth century theatre with the advent of theatrical realism. Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible screen that forever separates the audience from the stage."[2] Another among early practitioners of this method (now referred to as the "Fourth Wall") is Thornton Wilder & his 1937 play "Our Town". The term "fourth wall" stems from the absence of a fourth wall on a three-walled set where the audience is viewing the production. The audience is supposed to assume there is a "fourth wall" present, even though it physically is not there. This is widely noticeable on various television programs, such as sitcoms, but the term originated in theatre, where conventional three-walled stage sets provide a more obvious "fourth wall". The term "fourth wall" has been adapted to refer to the boundary between the fiction and the audience. "Fourth wall" is part of the suspension of disbelief between a fictional work and an audience. The audience will accept the presence of the fourth wall without giving it any direct thought, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events.The presence of a fourth wall is one of the best established conventions of fiction and as such has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comedic effect. This is known as "breaking the fourth wall". For instance, in Puckoon, Spike talks to the author multiple times. Spike also at one stage in the book, looks to see what page the reader is on. Besides theatre and cinema, the term has been adopted by other media, such as television, comics, and more recently, video games. Though some table-top roleplaying games do allow for breaking the fourth wall, these are usually beer and pretzel type games.

by LookatmyBack 

 

by Faerie_Hax

 

by Faerie_Hax 

 

 

Below are works by: MIZUKI

 

White Taji

 

 

 

Under the Sea

 

 

with 3D

 

 

Happy Birthday

 

 

My Dear Friend

The Face of Koinup Contest - Two Days Left to Submit an Entry

The Face of Koinup contest is wielding the most beautiful, unique pieces from all over the multi-metaverses.  September 30th is the deadline for submissions, so get your entries into the group ASAP.



Koinup is looking for new images to display on the front page.
5 winning entries will be displayed in the Koinup homepage

Koinup is more and more perceived as a guide/portal for virtual worlds. So we're looking for images (taken in virtual worlds) that showcase the most interesting/awesome things people can view, do or experience in a virtual world  Read all the rules, here

by DoubledownTandino

by PeaceOfArt

by BadCompany

by CristianRexie

by PANTELEIMON-AEON

by CarlottaCeawlin

by Sisar

by Sisar

by PeaceOfArt

by Ann

by mika_chan

by Marty86

by Trixibelle
---

Check out all the current events, news, and contests from Koinup on their Facebook page:

Koinup on Facebook