You may have heard that Anshe Chung Studios is citing copyright violations and the DMCA in the use of her Second Life avatar image and textures during her interview at CNET's Second Life bureau last month.
YouTube has removed machinima of the event and Boing Boing and the Sydney Morning Herald are looking into their legal rights to use captured images of the event. According to Jason Shultz attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, avatars are copyrightable property, but that the fair use doctrine allows anyone to take screen shots or screen captures of avatars and the environment.
Last month when Wagner James Au at New World Notes was shooting some footage in world for an upcoming cable TV documentary, the producers of the event presented him with a virual world release form designed to apply to both the avatar and the real world person who owns it.
News coverage is a different animal of course, but considering virtual intellectual property rights are far from concrete, this seems like a simple enough thing to do when in doubt.
Read more about Chung at Reuters and CNET.
January 7. 2007
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