Similarly, professors Emmanuelle Fauchart and Eric von Hippel write that haute French cuisine (.pdf) is another area with low IP protection, yet high levels of innovation and creativity. And yet fashion is highly innovative, with new styles several times a year, despite low IP protection. ![]() There is some protection for the brand associated with the apparel, but no law prohibits a knock-off Chanel suit, peasant skirt or narrow lapel. As law professors Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiala write in their paper on the subject, neither copyright nor patent law prohibit copying fashion designs. The idea that innovation can flourish in the absence of copyright enforcement is not as heretical as it might seem. These creators have an incentive to protect rights that encourage innovation, because they themselves will be adversely affected if creativity is under-protected. Unlike the community of music fans, where consumers far outnumber creators, in Second Life a higher ratio of people are creators as well as users. The community will probably not opt for too little protection, either. People want to be able to riff on hairstyles, clothing, furniture and vehicles without having to worry about derivative works infringement claims. Much of the creativity in Second Life is derivative. In effect, Second Life's inhabitants will self-police their world, according to rules and social norms they develop themselves.įor example, the virtual world's creators will not necessarily benefit from strong IP protection. The company plans to develop an infrastructure to enable Second Life residents and landowners to enforce IP-related covenants within certain areas, or as a prerequisite for joining certain groups. The next phase of Linden's response is more interesting. Given the cost of these virtual goods, there aren't going to be many infringements worth the expense of suing. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act may give shopkeepers the power to force Linden Labs to delete copied items, but it will not provide financial compensation to the victims of infringement unless they file a federal lawsuit. In practice, the available legal tools may not help the virtual world creators very much. This will allow copyright owners who've been aggrieved to bring infringement claims against offenders personally, at least in theory. Long term, Linden says it will create better information identifying creators and dates of creation for in-world content. In the short run, it believes that use of Copybot violates its terms of service agreement, allowing the company to ban an offender's account. ![]() Instead, Linden Labs will take another approach. As Rosedale succinctly put it, given the ambiguity in copyright enforcement, Linden will inevitably make mistakes, and it doesn't want to make mistakes.
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