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Reader Comments (3)

Posted: Jun 15th 2008 4:49PM (Unverified) said

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Sorry but this is not what the honest creators of Secondlife have been calling for. Seems LL may be "indemified" or think they are but it seems they missed something called Good Faith. But then again this may be the only way to accomplish a takedown under the existiong DMCA.

For those that don't know what Good Faith is:
"The term good faith is used in many areas of the law but has special significance in Commercial Law. A good faith purchaser for value is protected by the Uniform Commercial Code, which every state has adopted. Under sections 1-201(9) and 2-403 of the code, a merchant may keep possession of goods that were bought from a seller who did not have title to the goods, if the merchant can show he or she was a good faith purchaser for value. To meet this test, the person must be a merchant, must have demonstrated honesty in the conduct of the transaction concerned, and must have observed reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing in the trade. A buyer would likely meet these requirements if the purchase proceeded in the ordinary course of business. If, on the other hand, the purchase took place under unusual or suspicious circumstances, a court might conclude that the buyer lacked good faith.

Where a nonmerchant purchases property that the seller lacks legal title to convey, the issue of good faith is known both as the innocent purchaser doctrine and as the bona fide purchaser doctrine. If the purchaser acquires the property by an honest contract or agreement and without knowledge of any defect in the title of the seller, or means of knowledge sufficient to charge the buyer with such knowledge, the purchaser is deemed innocent."
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Posted: Jun 15th 2008 6:09PM (Unverified) said

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actually Ann that is only US law and differs in the UK. And as only 45% of the user base are US that's one of the challenges.

I am a content creator and a legal owner of my work. It's design rights registered. Therefore I want all copies removed from all databases.

I do feel sorry for those who brought stolen versions, but buyer beware. It's why we have asked over and over and over for the content creator level accounts with enhanced RL validation. That way somebody commits theft/fraud/borrows a nice picture - there can be legal accountability.

Also as most are long gone, perhaps you questions should be directed as those who exit USD from a virtual platform where the company performs ZERO money laundering checks. PayPal 1700 EUR in Europe and you need bank account validation level, address and phone validation level. Linden Lab perform none.

I actually want full removal for every DMCA case. Because Linden Lab hold zero legal right to have it on their asset servers. If they continue with it for the good faith users, they are breaching my IP and therefore will fail the test for Safe Harbor.

They are now reacting correctly.
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Posted: Jun 15th 2008 11:38PM (Unverified) said

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Good Faith can be argued, but the argument would have to take place between the person who purchased in good faith, and the copyright holder. Probably in front of a judge in many cases, if there's no easy agreement.

A copyright holder gets to decide who does and who doesn't get content and under what circumstances or conditions (within the framework provided by law).

For Linden Lab's part, they either comply with the takedown and derive some basic immunity, or challenge it (the latter being a potentially costly process) and risk some liability. Granted, that's a bit of a simplification, but it's a workable guide.

Some have argued that this is one of the principle flaws of the DMCA; for example, the EFF co-founded by Mitch Kapor (ex-chairman of and currently board-member of Linden Lab) has argued this point on a number of occasions.
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