complete press contact list for creative commons

[Glenn Otis Brown <glenn AT creativecommons.org>]

Attachment: CC_Press_2ndLife.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Press contacts:
Robin Harper 		              Glenn Brown                      	 Laura 
Lynch	
Linden Lab                           Creative Commons                    
Stanford Law School    
415/243-9000                          650/723-7572                        
650/725-2565  
robin AT lindenlab.com 	    glenn AT creativecommons.org     
llynch AT stanford.edu 	



Second Life Residents To Own Digital Creations

Linden Lab Preserves Real World Intellectual Property Rights of Users 
of its Second Life Online Service


NEW YORK CITY (November 14, 2003): Linden Lab, creator of online world 
Second Life, today announced a significant breakthrough in digital 
property rights for its customers and for users of online worlds.  
Changes to Second Life’s Terms of Service now recognize the ownership 
of in-world content by the subscribers who make it.  The revised TOS 
allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for 
the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, 
scripts, textures, objects and designs.

In addition, Second Life has committed to exploring technologies to 
make it easy for creators to license their content under Creative 
Commons licenses.

Speaking to an audience of digital rights specialists and virtual world 
enthusiasts at the NYLS “State of Play” conference, Founder and CEO 
Philip Rosedale described the new policy as a major breakthrough for 
users of online worlds.

“Until now, any content created by users for persistent state worlds, 
such as EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies, has essentially become the 
property of the company developing and hosting the world,” said 
Rosedale.  “We believe our new policy recognizes the fact that 
persistent world users are making significant contributions to building 
these worlds and should be able to both own the content they create and 
share in the value that is created. The preservation of users’ property 
rights is a necessary step toward the emergence of genuinely real 
online worlds.”

Unlike traditional online game environments where anything created 
in-world is owned by the service provider, Second Life has responded to 
its residents’ desire to own their work just as they would any other 
original creations. Under these terms they can create, and sell 
derivative works based on content they’ve made, or license the work to 
others.

Second Life residents began creating their world in October, 2002 as 
beta testers, and continued through commercial launch of the service in 
June 2003.  In just over a year, more than 10,000 users have created a 
richly diverse world, filled with more than 200,000 objects, complex 
characters, a range of living situations from whimsical hobbit-style 
homes to urban apartments, to sprawling mansions, and special 
recreational areas including a 40-ride amusement park and an island 
retreat.  Everything in the world, from the antique carousel to the hot 
race cars to the resident-abducting alien spaceship was designed and 
built by the residents.

The economy supporting this activity includes over 12,000 objects for 
sale. Each month, nearly 100,000 user-to-user transactions for goods 
and services take place, with more than Linden$19million in in-world 
currency changing hands.

“Linden Lab has taken an important step toward recognizing the rights 
of content generators in Second Life,” said Lawrence Lessig, Stanford 
University Professor of Law, and Founder of the Stanford Center for 
Internet and Society.  “As history has continually proven, when people 
share in the value they create, greater value is derived for all.  
Linden Lab is poised for significant growth as a result of this 
decision.”

About Linden Lab
Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip 
Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D entertainment. 
 The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of 
many of today’s streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. In 
April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus 
Development Corporation, was named Chairman.

Second Life launched in June 2003 after being named a Time Magazine 
“Coolest Invention of 2002” during its beta test.  Currently available 
to all PC users via a download at www.SecondLife.com, the world of 
Second Life, which grows with the size of the community, is now close 
to 1000 virtual acres and by the end of 2004 should be as large as 
Manhattan. A Macintosh version is expected early in 2004.

About Creative Commons
A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use 
of intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained 
by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain, the 
Hewlett Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur 
Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it 
shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school's Center for 
Internet and Society. For general information, visit 
http://creativecommons.org.

Note to editors: Second Life and Linden Lab are trademarks or 
registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.  All other trademarks 
are properties of their respective owners.

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