Trademarks brought to you by Linden Lab

As my old readers will notice, the "Header" of this Blog has changed to include some "legalease" that pronounces the Trademark of Linden Lab and various terms they claim as their own.

While I completely agree that you should Trademark items that directly relate to your company, I have a problem with doing while your own hands are "dirty"

There's an old saying in the Court System of our country, "You cannot bring action against someone if your hands are dirty". Basically that means you cannot sue someone for knocking your teeth out if you are responsible for starting the fight.

Trademark laws are all good and well and Linden Lab has a right to "protect" their interests, but they seem to overlook one of the MAJOR problems within Second Life, and that is simple, Linden Lab refusal to work with Content Creators to make it easier to protect their Intellectual Property rights. For the past couple of years, Linden Lab has insisted that Content Creators in Second Life file DMCA claims against those people that appear to be in violation of someone else's Intellectual Property rights. While this may work for large corporations in the Real World, it's not exactly clear what, if any, filing of DMCA claims will do for Content Creators. I've heard, from more then one, that filing DMCA claims have done nothing to stop others from the continual stealing of their Content.

It would seem that a company like Linden Lab, that relies on their Customers to create the world, would do more to help Content Creators protect their investments. I don't see the logic in having a Content Creator filing a DMCA claim, which can take months, against someone that is in essence stealing. I guess in my twisted idea of Reality Linden Lab would investigate these claims on their own since Content Creators are a MAJOR component of the Second Life world.

It seems to me that this is another way for a "Lazy" and "Incompetent" staff to "pass the buck" instead of doing real work. This isn't the first time Linden Lab has implemented this Philosophy, actually it is deeply rooted in their Corporate Culture. For instance, the Bug Squasher say they will not work on a Bug Report that doesn't have reproducible steps. In another instance of this "Lazy Corporate Culture" our friends from the Bug Squashing team have left it up to the Customers of Second Life to "VOTE" on which bug should be fixed first. Perhaps this is why the Grid remains unstable, the Asset server remains unfixed, and the Teleport Bug goes on forever, we just haven't produced enough VOTES to get them fixed. There are more examples of this "Lazy Corporate Culture", like telling your programming and development staff that they can choose what they wish to work on. There are no assigned projects at Linden Lab, you just choose what you fancy. I wouldn't mind having a job at Linden Lab, as I would choose to "browse the web" all day as my project, and seeing just how poorly many of the new features go into production, and how many fixes actually break more then they fix, it's safe to think that many people at Linden Lab have chosen the same as I.

Now that CEO Philip Rosedale has decided to step aside and let another person become the CEO of Linden Lab, we can only hope that Philip's replacement will be someone that takes far more interest in getting things done, than his predecessor did. It's my hope that whomever is chosen for the CEO position at Linden Lab, it be someone who will "crack the whip" a bit more and run things with the most important thing in mind; the Customers.

Well, here's to our newest Trademark portion of the TOS, and to those that continue to get ripped off while Linden Lab chooses the "easy way out". HIP HIP HOORAY!

By the way, I have decided to Trademark my name. So when you are speaking and you use my name, please be sure you give me credit for my Trademark.