So a few days ago I wrote that it might behoove individuals, bloggers, to be precise, to get themselves involved in their own part of the blogosphere for somewhat Machivellian reasons. Belonging to a herd affords a certain amount of protection that one can’t get alone — with particular reference to intellectual property protection.
Sure, it sounds like you’re joining the Mob, but as a recent article in Wired on Second Life shows, its not really such a preposterous idea. Much like Haute Couture or French Cuisine, there are certain value based norms that carry penalties in certain communities, even where there is no outright law against IP theft, or the stealing of ideas. The self-policing results in such community behaviours such as shunning or ostracization. The analgous situation in the blogosphere, however, would be the calling out of said party as an asshat.
The dilemma in Second Life revolves around a coopybot program which devalues creative goods as, a la Star Trek, it allows you to copy any virtual good, thereby eliminating scarcity (which drives value). It looks like Linden Labs, the guys behind Second Life, are trying a new way of enforcing things that mimic the “posse” phenomena.
The writer makes an excellent point, however — in that the effectiveness of this self-policing will largely depend on how much different communities of individuals within Second Life ascribe value to creative works, whether or not they really are worth defending.
The blogosphere seems to work in this regard already, as I think, any individual who blogs will naturally understand what it means to invest time and energy creating worthwhile posts for everyone to enjoy. Furthermore, there is the implicit understanding that stealing intellectual property or claiming someone’s else’s work (writing, graphics, design) as your own is intrinsically wrong. And as such, there is a pretty seamless transition to defending a claimant when the proof is overwhelming.
Unless of course, you’re a content scrapping splogger.
In which case, you’ve got absolutely no leg to stand on.
November 21st, 2006 at 4:15 am | Permalink
Copybots eh? Only in Science Fiction were these amazing bots once spoken of. They are real now as much as you or I are real. We are entering a new realm where it’s only a matter of time before one of these bots gets smart; becomes intelligent. AI.
;)
November 21st, 2006 at 6:49 am | Permalink
Actually it looks like this Copybot isn’t able to eliminate any scarcity from Second Life, since it is buggy, hard to find and use - definitively not a user-friendly tool.
Experienced users can use it, sure - but they won’t get working copies of scripted objects - and I think scripted objects are a really relevant part of Second Life.
Interestingly, Linden Lab has received only a few of complaints regarding the use of Copybot: http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/11/16/copybot-action/
November 21st, 2006 at 9:45 am | Permalink
Hey Signore — thanks for stopping by.
I am by no means an expert in Second Life, however, even if the copybot isn’t perfect now, I will bet large sums of money (if I had any) that there will be a future where someone does create a better script that does the trick.
Once the concept has been released, it will be a Pandora’s box of issues — one wonders whether or not the current self-policing will work in that environment as well.
November 30th, 2006 at 12:07 am | Permalink
[...] Herd immunity, I suppose. [...]