Linden Labs Sends "Permit-and-Proceed" Letter

linuxwrangler writes "In sharp contrast to the incidents chronicled at Chilling Effects, Second Life creators Linden Labs have sent the parody site Get a First Life a proceed-and-permit letter. From the letter: 'Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception. In conclusion, your invitation to submit a cease-and-desist letter is hereby rejected.' The letter also grants permission to use the parody logos."

Yay linden labs

[ocelotbob]

Now if only other people could be so lenient towards copyright [livejournal.com]...

Re:Dangerous precedent being set

[RealGrouchy]

I have a better sense of humor than this feeble attempt at attracting attention.

I don't understand. Are you grumpy because:
(a) They are succeeding at attracting attention;
(b) You are not succeeding at attracting attention, despite your grumpiest attempts;
(c) You discovered that www.getafirstlife.com is not actually functional

- RG>

Re:IP and Fair Use

[networkBoy]

In fact you are very correct. (I was honestly blown away).
I've written about this on my site below in my sig, or specifically in the editorial section: http://www.farmersreallysucks.com/editorialgetafir stlife.shtml [farmersreallysucks.com]

While the response from Linden Labs was permissive, in another editorial (the one why Arent Fox sucks) I pick apart the inherent error in judgment sending a stern C&D letter up-front. You can always send a nice letter and follow up with threats if necessary. In the meantime, anyone who would shut down their site upon utterance of lawyers will still do so, and you'll get a feel for those of us who know our rights before you stick you foot in it, like Farmers lawyers did.
-nB

I've always liked the lindens

[OfficeSubmarine]

Despite never being able to quite get myself into a frame of mind where I'd enjoy second life, I've always liked the management. They've always seemed oddly sane, given not only the industry, but the fringe subset they've founded.

Re:Dangerous precedent being set

[Tom]

The law does have quite a bit of humour, you just have to be a lawyer or someone with legal training to appreciate it.

For example, a workers law here in Germany requires the top boss to talk to the elected workers' council at least once a month. Let me skip the why and boring details. One company persistently rejected to even acknowledge that elected body even existed, much less deal with them.

So one court case later, the judgement was to take the offenders into custody. It's called "Beugehaft" in Germany, the idea being that for minor crimes where fines aren't the proper punishment because what you want is someone to do something, you take him into custody until he says "ok, ok". Now here's the joke: The judgement called for this punishment to be levied on the entire board of directors, and immediately due to the danger of them fleeing. The people who thought they were above it all were in immediate danger of being put behind bars within the hour. And sure, they could call for revision, but they'd still be taken from their office by police and spend at least one night in jail.
A bunch of frentic phonecalls later, the CEO had binding instructions to cooperate fully with the workers council.

Lawyers laugh as much as anyone. It's just that most of their jokes are as puzzling to us as C++ jokes are to your grandmother.