Situation is simple. You come to the place you like, looking just as you like, you take a snapshot (or as it usually is, tons of them), you tweak and torture those pixels a bit and end up with something that we call a SL photograph, or simply (and for clarity sake) an image. Like this one
And that's where all the simplicity ends.
If you present that image in public, let it be Flickr, two questions arise:
- What is moral and ethical to do about all the people that contributed to the image? Somebody build that sim, somebody made the clothes, jewelry and accessories, WindLight settings, pose…
- What is legal state of the matter?
Answer to the first set of questions, that I am in no way the sole author of the image above, is something that makes second life so interesting and compelling to me. There is at least ten people that met here in some plane that is even more meta than metaverse itself, ten people whose creativity joined in the moment of clicking the snapshot. But that's me, idealistic and carried by enjoying the world. Take a look at the Bettina Tizzy's post Proper attribution of images taken in virtual worlds to see that things are not that simple nor pretty. Beside that it's polite and good practice to credit people that contributed, some artists might want more than that or can have special requirements about who and for which purposes can take snapshots of their work.
Now, let's try to credit that image above. Sim is Hangars Liquides. I don't know if there are any rules about taking pics there, nothing told me about it. But if we want to be correct, I should find creator's web-site and check there, right? I don't have a clue how many people was working on the sim and if they were using somebody else's prims and textures. Dog tags were made by Dinee Ghia, which I remember because they were a gift directly from her. Glasses, two sets of piercings and clothes can be traced if I log in, find them in my inventory, rezz on the ground and inspect. Wait! Hair, skin and pose should be mentioned too. Hair is easy, but I have no clue which skin am I wearing, let alone the pose. See where this is heading? If you want to share an image you need to employ three more people to do the paperwork about creators of everything around.
OK, I am exaggerating and I am in no way telling that credits shouldn't be given. Far from that! I just want to point the problem. What was supposed to be shared environment, place where ideas join, inspire and amplify each other, turned out to be a mess of bureaucracy. And we haven't call the law to the party. Yet.
Surprisingly or not, copyright law is not adding much to the mess. As usual, when artsy souls cannot make peace, law cuts sharp and close to the body. Benjamin Duranske explains the practice:
In the virtual world, however, every dress, hairstyle, avatar “skin”, and building is really a tiny piece of online software, and online software, including the output of the software to the screen, is protected by copyright… If you want to incorporate somebody else’s artistic work into your own you are supposed to seek permission from the copyright holder. And if you don’t, the copyright holder can sue you — attribution, no matter how extensive, is simply not enough.
So instead of the purple image above, I end up with the white one. I should name it "White Body on White" and Malevich would be proud of me. I made my body shape and eyes. I hope that Linden Lab is not going to sue me for using the Ruth's pose.
Most of us get away with our crimes of using other people's work in our own. That's mostly because we rarely make any money here or, when we do, L$ peanuts are not worth going to the court. But that doesn't mean that we don't have a problem. And the problem is rooted in fact that our technology develops faster than our morality and comprehension of ourselves and our world.That disproportion creates the space where two extremes flourish. One that would like to cut everything down to white, and the other that steals and declare other people's as its own. Both are ruining creative and sharing atmosphere of out environment – the essence that makes this place so interesting and productive.
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