Taser Drops Misguided Lawsuit Against Second Life
from the focus-on-your-first-life,-please dept
Back in April, we had a story about how Taser was suing Second Life's parent company Linden Lab because some users in the game had created fake Taser-like virtual stun guns. Yes, seriously. It was hard to see how Linden Lab would be responsible for the actions of its users, but Taser has a long history of being ridiculously overaggressive in trying to protect its brand. However, perhaps someone explained how unlikely its chances were in court, because the company has dropped the lawsuit. Anyone know if Taser-like devices are still around in Second Life?
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: second life, taser, trademark
Companies: linden labs, taser
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Linden lab responsible for user-created content...
"""It was hard to see how Linden Lab would be responsible for the actions of its users"""
Haven't been much on 2nd life (roughly 40 min. in total 2 years ago) but I believe that the content created by users has to be validated by Linden Lab to be released in the virtual world. In the process, Linden lab acquires every possible right over the created object (piece of clothing or 3D animation or taser model). They hence are the legal owners of everything in the 2nd life world, including user-created content.
So, I guess that yeah, they can be responsible of their users actions in this case (when users create content).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If you wish to avoid the flying phalluses on your way to pick up yur intarwebs, a tube full of trucks can be delivered directly to your door.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Content does not have to be Validated
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Though it does have this confusing thing about we own everything, though you own the copyrights.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tasers are still there under a different name
https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1520075
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Balogna
Why shouldn't Taser defend its brand against the lies being published about it every day in the media echo-chamber by journalist wannabes who only repeat what others say instead of doing their own research?
Every single death involving Tasers has been extensively examined by independent coroners, courts, and juries and none of them have found that Taser "caused" the death. Only in about 30 cases has Taser been found to possibly have contributed to the death? Tasers have been used over 600,000 times. You figure it out.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There should be a small adjustment to the game code.
The Tazer has always been a over priced toy for dumb fat cops that can't run or hold a suspect over age 3.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]