Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Important comment/update to last week's post, when I cautioned against creating NFT from Second Life images. When the EFF lawyer I quoted referred to the "dark interesting mysteries" around IP ownership of user-created content in SL, Linden Lab had not addressed derivative works in its Terms of Service. Since then (in 2017, it looks like), the company has:

2.5 You also grant Linden Lab and other users of the Service a license to use your Content in snapshots and machinima that is displayed in publicly accessible areas of the Service.

You agree that by uploading, publishing, or submitting any Content to or through the Servers for display in any publicly accessible area of the Service, you hereby grant other users a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to photograph, capture an image of, film, and record a video of the Content, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the resulting photograph, image, film, or video in any current or future media as provided in and subject to the restrictions and requirements of an applicable Product Policy or other policy.  

Reader irihapeti noted this clause, which effectively requires content creators to opt out from people using their content in an SL screenshot for commercial or other purposes:

We have to opt out of this auto-opt in: "… subject to the restrictions and requirements of an applicable Product Policy or other policy."

We can opt out by publishing an applicable policy notice on our products, our profile or in the covenant of our parcel. The Snapshot and Machinima Policy addresses the parcel covenant notice specifically:

"(a) 1: For Snapshots, check whether the covenant for the land prohibits snapshots. If it does, then you need special permission from the land owner to take the snapshot. If it allows snapshots or doesn’t address them, then you do not need special permission from the land owner as long as you comply with any terms that may be in the covenant."

So on paper, this looks like wording that would, say, cover creating screenshot images, minting them as NFTs, and selling those NFTs — without first having to get permissions from every single content creator whose 3D work is featured in a given screenshot.

That said, many SL content creators do explicitly prohibit snapshots on their land/in their store.

More key, I don't know how well this clause in the TOS would stand up in court. And if you created a profitable NFT which featured the works of wealthy SL creators who can afford a good lawyer, would you really want to find out there?