On January 28th, 2008, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and the IZDIHAR Project co-hosted Iraq’s first Iraqi Copyright Awareness Conference. While it was awarded minimal media coverage, the rare congregation of authors, creators, painters, innovators and government representatives exemplified the manner in which the political and social landscape is shifting in post-Saddam Iraq. The conference […]
Second Life, as it is aptly named, is a virtual world. Through online personas, known as avatars, users of Second Life interact with each other as well as with the virtual items that they create. Users reap rewards for their creative efforts by retaining and exploiting intellectual property (`IP’) rights in their creations; the result […]
YouTube, an extremely popular video-sharing site that was created in 2005, is rapidly increasing concerns over video-sharing online free of charge. Right-holders of the videos argue that they are being unfairly deprived of the profits that are due to them. These concerns have actualized into legal actions. Recently, music publishers have joined a group of […]
The past two decades have been marked by extreme technological advances.¦lt;br /> The internet has opened many doors in the way of business transactions, availability of resources and research and most notably a new communication ability and efficiency. In 2003, Linden Research Inc. launched Second Life which is one of the newest developments in […]
The events of early October, 2007 may herald a new age of respect for intellectual property (IP) rights. The first trial on peer to peer music file sharing pits the major record companies against a woman accused of copyright infringement, an act for which the U.S. Federal Court awarded a $220,000 judgment against her. The […]
Cross border transactions are a hot topic in today’s legal community. However, picture a very different type of border and a very different type of transaction. The dispute is real, the border vague, and the substance is, well, virtual. On May 1, 2006 Marc Bragg, a Pennsylvania lawyer, launched an action against Linden Labs Research […]
The issue in dispute deals with a user of the popular online game, Second Life, who exploited a flaw in Linden Lab’s online auctions. Marc Bragg used the flaw to purchase virtual land at well below market value and as a response Linden Lab seized his virtual land and shut down his account. This case […]