Do Virtual Aeron Chairs Violate The Rights Of Herman Miller?
from the getting-ridiculous dept
Apparently the maker of the famed Aeron chair, Herman Miller, has joined Second Life... and discovered that there were virtual Aeron chairs created by others. To its credit, the company didn't go sue crazy... yet. Instead, it offered those who had a "fake" a free trade-in program to get official virtual Aeron chairs (yes, official virtual chairs... what is this world coming to?). However, it has started sending cease-and-desist notes to the makers of the unofficial virtual Aeron chairs, which they note are "firm, but polite." The company claims that these virtual Aeron chairs violate both copyrights and trademarks, but it's an open question whether or not that's necessarily true. The trademark claims may be somewhat stronger, but there's a point at which you need to take a step back and simply ask what's the harm being done here? It's a virtual world. The fact that people are making fake Aeron chairs should simply be seen as flattery and a sign of just how iconic the chairs have become.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: aeron chairs, second life
Companies: herman miller
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OMFG
I'm going off to start a new nation. Who wants to come?
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Re: OMFG
Oh what a sweet idea. If only you could. The only trouble is that the 'your not allowed in because you are a lawyer/politician/FIAA member/..../just dumb' list would be so long that you would be dead before you got to the end of it.
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Re: Re: OMFG
check this out.
the process is simple, stop participating here, and start participating there. it's not easy, but it is simple.
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Second(No)Life needs a better TOS agreement...
...No claims of "Real World" intellectual property infringement (Patent, Copyright or Trademark) will be permitted between members. Such assertions will be grounds for termination of your account.
...You agree that all images, entities, objects, concepts, methods, situations and dialogs within SecondLife are ficticious and any similarities to any analalogs in the "Real World" are purely coincidental.
...And on and on...
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heck yeah
or wait... can you just move secondlife servers offshore somewhere? jurisdiction? hmm.
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They want virtual chairs, they can have them. We'll take our real money elsewhere.
Who wins?
Person with the money.
Duh.
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The real question is
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Copyright/patent/entertainment/personal injury attorneys are the absolute scum of the earth and represent the biggest threat to a truly free society based on private enterprise and innovation.
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I disagree...
Of course, there's another issue here. We're talking about some brand here which will be associated with anything else that it's linked to in SL. Since sex plays a major factor in SL it is likely that such a chair would be used in some sexroom for all kinds of weird sexual fetishes. Thus the brand gets associated with these too. There are people who think it's fun to play a child avatar or a furry avatar. It would not be good if there would be a room in SL full Aeron chairs where those furries can sit down while children provide them with lapdances... :-) "Look! With this Aeron chair your child can goive a lapdance for your lapdog!"
But basically, I think brands should only be introduced to SL by those who own the brand name. Not by fans of their products. At least, not without the permission of the brand owner and in this case, the brand owner doesn't give any.
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Aeron is a scam
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Blah Aeron Blows anyway
Get a Steelcase Leap, instead
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With Second Life economy churning over 1.2 millionUSD daily, this is not play money!
I also understand, that the 'brand violators' have been making up to $30,000 a year.
Serious gaming indeed.
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