Second Life | The Second Life® Brand Center

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Mark Baard

Ding!

I’d read that Second Life developer Linden Lab was prohibiting the press from using its logos, and thought that was ridiculous.

Behold:

Second Life | The Second Life® Brand Center
Guidelines for Press Use of the Second Life Hand Logo

(These are excerpts–mb)

Never use a Second Life Hand Logo (or any part or version of one):

in any name or logo of a business, news program, or publication, including any website or blog, in a header or banner of a website or blog (so far so good, right?–mb) in the title of … without……in any manner…

in any manner that tarnishes the Second Life brand name or the Logo. (My emphasis–mb)

In other words, you may not publish this logo (below), and say it looks evil.

Filed under: Advertising, Cults, Journalism, Second Life, Secret societies, Symbology, marketing, virtual worlds | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

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3 Responses to “Second Life | The Second Life® Brand Center”

  1. Ari Blackthorne, on March 26th, 2008 at 5:54 pm Said:

    pfft.

    Either you are totally tongue-in-cheek or you don’t know business and trademark law in the united States. :)

    *All* companies say the same exact thing in so many words. And, do read the statement just above the one you emphasized. By emphasizing one part of a complete statement takes it somewhat out of context. It focuses attention on the smphasized portion while diluting any attention on the surrounding portions… of the *same*, complete statement.

    So, take the whole statement in context and put it into layman’s terms: “don’t slander us”.

    However, fair use is always available to anyone.
    The point is you must avoid any possible confusion that Linden Lab and/or the official Second Life [entity] endorses you, is part of you or you part of it; is in any way officially related to you.

    But - it’s always fun to sensationalize what would otherwise be boring news. :)

    The only ridiculous claim in their whole “Branding” is that they claim a copyright and trademark on the initials “SL” - now THAT is what you should blog about :)

    Kind regards! :D

  2. mark baard, on March 26th, 2008 at 10:53 pm Said:

    Thanks, Ari, for the law lesson. This isn’t Britain, and libel (which is what I believe you meant to say) is hard to prove. You take a very narrow interpretation of the language, which many of studied in college.

    Fair use, on the other hand, is difficult to claim successfully in court.

    SL is flexing its legal muscles, perhaps either circling its wagons, or preparing for rapid growth.

    BTW, if S&M is your thing, Ari sells the goods at http://shop.onrez.com/Ari_Blackthorne

  3. David Quinn, on March 28th, 2008 at 5:23 am Said:

    brilliant Mark!
    keep it up
    all the best
    david

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