I’ll send an SOS to the world, I’ll send a… message in a bottle. For their SL5B build, Lillie Yifu and Dizzy Banjo are creating ‘A Message to Second Life’ and want to hear what you have to say. What does Second Life mean to you? How did it affect you? And what are your hopes for our brave new virtual world’s future? And who know, perhaps the messages perhaps it will be found again at SL10B?

We feel sometimes we shut people out of important happenings like SL5B, because they don’t speak the right Linden language - English in this case. So here is the call out in a few languages. Feel free to translate and spread the message for messages yourself! (And can we get a copy then? ;))

1. ‘A Message to Second Life’ (English)
2. ‘Eine Nachricht an SL’ (German) (by Andromega Volare)
3. ‘Votre message à Second Life’ (French)(by Trinity Clift)
4. ‘Bericht voor Second Life’ (Dutch)
5. Spanish Version (in the comments) (by a user form the Spanish SL forum)

English version

SECOND LIFE IS 5 YEARS OLD !

As part of the SL5B celebrations, Dizzy Banjo and Lillie Yifu are creating “A Message to Second Life”.

We have created a giant bottle, which we want to fill with all your messages to Second Life. What would you like to say to the entire SL community on its 5th birthday ?

What does Second Life mean to you ?
How has your Second Life affected you ?
What hopes do you have for the future of Second Life ?

You can submit your message in two forms :

- An uploaded audio recording of you speaking your message ( PREFERRED OPTION ! ! )
- A text based message in a notecard

Once we have recieved your messages they will all go into the bottle and spill out intermittently as part of a fun interactive sound and music installation celebrating the Second Life spirit !

At the end of the 2 weeks of birthday events the bottle will be sealed and cast off into the SL ocean, perhaps it will be found again at SL10B …

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR MESSAGE :

Audio Messages :

Watch this easy video tutorial which will explain how you can record your voice and upload your message and give it to us. Maximum 10 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLt-vyKQoc

Text Messages :

1. Please write your message within 140 characters in a notecard.
2. Make the notecard FULL PERMISSIONS by right clicking on it in your inventory and checking the “copy” and “modify” boxes
3. Goto SEARCH ( open the all tab ) and type in DIZZY BANJO and click my resident profle ( the top link )
4. Drag the notecard onto my profile.

Note : All messages need to adhere to the Second Life Terms of Service, and be PG in nature.

DEADLINE !!

ALL RECORDINGS AND MESSAGES MUST BE RECIEVED BY :

WEDNESDAY THE 18th OF JUNE 2008 !

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to hearing your submissions soon and putting them into the bottle !

German version

SECOND LIFE WIRD 5 JAHRE ALT !

Als Teil der SL5B Feierlichkeiten inszenieren Dizzy Banjo und Liilie Yifu
“A Message to Second Life” (”Eine Nachricht an SL”)

Wir haben eine riesige Flasche gemacht, die ihr mit euren Nachrichten an
Second Life füllen könnt. Was würdest Du gerne mal der gesamten
SL-Gemeinde an ihrem fünften Geburtstag sagen?

Was bedeutet Dir Second Life?
Wie hat Second Life Deinen Alltag verändert?
Was wünscht Du Dir für die Zukunft in Second Life?

Du hast zwei Möglichkeiten Deine Nachricht zu übermitteln:

- eine Audio-Aufnahme Deiner gesprochenen Nachricht hochladen (bevorzugte
Option!!!)
- eine Text-Mitteilung als Notecard

Wenn wir Eure Nachrichten haben, kommen sie in die Flasche aus der sie
dann- gemixt mit einer fröhlichen interaktiven Sound und Musik
Installation- zur Feier des Second Life Esprits heraussprudeln werden.

Nach den beiden Veranstaltungswochen wird die Flasche zugestöpselt und in
die Brandung des SL-Ozeans geworfen werden,vielleicht taucht sie ja zum
10. SL-Birthday wieder auf?
…

So sendest Du Deine Nachricht:

Audio Nachricht:

Sieh Dir diesen kurzen Film an, er erklärt wie Du Deine Stimme aufnimmst
und wie Du sie zu uns hochladen kannst. (in englisch) Make sure your message is maximum 10 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLt-vyKQoc

Text Nachricht:

1. Schreibe Deine Nachricht mit max. 140 Buchstaben in eine Notecard.
2. Erteile der Notecard ALLE RECHTE indem Du sie in Deinem Inventar
rechts anklickst und die “copy” und “modify” Kästchen aktivierst.
3. Gehe zur SUCHE (öffne den “Alles” Tabulator), tippe “DIZZY BANJO” und
öffne sein Profil ( der oberste Link)
4. Ziehe Deine Notecard auf das Profil (drag and drop)

Wichtig: Alle Nachrichten dürfen nicht gegen die Second Life Terms of
Service verstossen und müssen PG (jugendfrei) sein!

Abgabe bis spätestens:

Mittwoch, dem 18. Juni 2008

Danke für Dein Interesse, wir freuen uns darauf bald Deine Übertragung zu
hören und sie mit in die Flasche stecken zu können!

French Version

Dites nous ce que vous pensez de SL pour son 5eme anniversaire!

SECOND LIFE A 5 ANS !

A l’occasion des célébrations du cinquième anniversaire de SL, Dizzy Banjo et Lillie Yifu écrivent “un message à Second Life”.

Nous avons créé une bouteille géante que nous voulons remplir avec tous vos messages pour Second Life. Que voudriez- vous dire à toute la communauté de SL sur son 5ieme anniversaire?

Que signifie Second Life pour vous ?
Quelle fut l’influence de SL sur vous ?
Qu’attendez-vous de SL dans l’avenir ?

Deux solutions s’offrent à vous pour transmettre votre message :

-un enregistrement audio de votre message que vous aurez téléchargé dans SL (OPTION PREFEREE !!)
-un texte écrit dans une “notecard”

Après avoir récupéré vos messages, nous les mettrons tous dans la bouteille et ils se répandront de façon intermittante comme une animation audio et musicale interactive pour fêter l’esprit de Second Life.

A la fin des deux semaines d’événement la bouteille sera fermée et jetée dans la mer virtuelle, peut-être sera-t-elle retrouvée pour le dizième anniversaire de SL….

COMMENT ENVOYER VOTRE MESSAGE :

Message audio :

le lien ci-dessous permet de voir une vidéo qui montre comment enregistrer votre voix et comment télécharger votre message pour nous le faire parvenir :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLt-vyKQoc (make sure your message is max. 10 seconds!)

Message écrit :

1. Ecrire un message de 140 caractères maximum dans une “notecard”.
2. La “notecard” doit être “FULL PERMISSIONS”. Pour celà, afficher ses propriétés à l’aide du clic droit de la souris, puis cocher les cases “Modify”, “Copy”, “Resell/Give away” en bas.
3. Rechercher “Dizzy Banjo” dans le moteur de recherche de SL puis afficher le profil.
4. Faire glisser à l’aide de la souris la “notecard” depuis l’inventaire sur le profil de Dizzy Banjo.

Note : tous les messages doivent adhérer au “Second Life Terms of Service” et être de nature “PG”.

TOUS LES MESSAGES AUDIOS OU ECRITS DOIVENT NOUS PARVENIR AVANT LE

MERCREDI 18 JUIN 2008 !

Merci pour l’ interret que vous portez à cette démarche, c’est avec impatience que nous attendons vos messages afin de les mettre en bouteille.

Dutch Version

Second Life wordt 5 jaar!!

Voor de SL5B feesten - Second Life 5th Birthday - werken Dizzy Banjo en Lillie Yife aan een ‘Bericht voor Second Life’. ‘Bericht aan Second Life’ is een gigantische fles, die ze willen vullen met jullie berichten voor Second Life. Wat zou jij willen zeggen aan de volledige SL community nu we 5 jaar worden?

Wat betekent Second Life voor jou?
Hoe heeft Second Life je leven beinvloed?
En hoe hoop je dat Second Life’s toekomst eruit gaat zien?

Er zijn twee manieren waarop je je bericht kan achterlaten:

- Een geluidsbericht, waarop jij je boodschap inspreekt. (Voorkeur!)
- Een tekstberichtje in een notecard.

Zodra de berichten ontvangen worden, gaan ze allemaal de fles in. Ze zullen te horen & te lezen zijn als deel van een leuke en interactive geluids- en muziekinstallatie om de ’spirtit’ van Second Life te vieren. Op het einde van de twee weken dat SL5B duurt, zal de fles verzegeld worden en in de virtuele oceaan geworpen worden. Wie weet, misschien komt ze op SL10B terug boven water?

HOE JE BERICHT INSTUREN:

Geluidsopnames:

Er is een simpele tutorial - in het Engels weliswaar - over hoe je bericht, maximum 10 seconden, kan opnemen, uploaden en aan Lilly overhandigen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLt-vyKQoc

Tekstberichten :

1. Maximum 140 lettertekens op een notecard.
2. Zorg ervoor dat de notecard ‘full perm’ is! Rechtermuisknop klikken op de notecard in je inventory, en zorgen dat de boxjes ‘copy’, ‘modify’ en ‘transfer’ zijn aangeduid.
3. Ga naar ‘Search’ en typ Dizzy Banjo and open zijn profiel.
4. Sleep de notecard naar Dizzy’s profiel.

Belangrijk: De berichten moeten ‘PG’ zijn (niets sexueels of extreem grof) en mogen de Second Life Terms of Service niet schenden.

DEADLINE:

Alle geluidsopnames en tekstberichten moeten ontvangen worden voor:
WOENSDAG 18 JUNI 2008!

Alvast bedankt voor de interesse! Hopelijk kunnen we snel je inzending in de gigantische fles stoppen! ;)

Tags: library, second life, sl5b
Categories: Art, Second Life, Vint Falken
3 Comments »

A few weeks back the three first price winners of the Koinup WindLight Contest were announced. Today they were celebrated in world with a live performance of Jax Streeter and an exhibition of their photographs and 7 ‘honourable mentionings’ at the Rezzable ‘Cannery’.

Seeing there works on display in the virtual world was sure as hell impressive, and so was the music and the guests… Miss Ravenelle and Mister Torley ‘Linden’ Olmstead. Woot! I must admit, this was the first time for me to see Torley IRL.. euhm.. IVL and I was kinda stuttering. First thing Torley said to me? ‘Is that a watermelon drink you’re holding?’ :p

Jax Streeter gave the best of his virtual self and played one hell of a set - with ‘Avatar Superstar’ as my favourite song. As promised, I bumped the song 9 times on TheSixtyOne.com and gave Mr. Streeter my underwear layer. He has at least one new fan after this gig! /me hums: ‘No matter where you’re from. No matter who you are. In this world… you are… superstar… avatar. Play like you are. Act like you are. Rezz like a superstar, avatar!‘

More photographs of the exhibition opening in the Koinup Windlight Exhibition Opening Flickr set. For those curious: All photographs except the one of Torley Olmstead were shot with the ‘Pirate’ WindLight Preset.

The winning entries and 7 nominees for the Koinup Windlight Contest will still be on display in-world for a few week, so if you missed the opening, you can still go and see them. Correction, you should still go and see them! Directions: Open your map and search for ‘Cannery’ (or click this SLURL), upon arrival at the Cannery sim, you’ll see a big sign saying ‘Koinup & Rezzable’. Click the TP disk located under it, and we’ll get you right to where you need to be… but you won’t hear a live concert of Mr. Streeter.

PS. A certain Miss Mira owns me bandages for my poor little sour paws. Never ever give me a lighter before telling me to detach it when I plan on typing! ;)

Mr. Jax Streeter performing ‘Avatar Superstar’:

Tags: cannery, contest, jax streeter, koinup, music, rezzable, torley linden, windlight
Categories: Art, Contests, Music, Photography, Rezzable
1 Comment »

Not participating.

How many of you went to visit SL4B, and did you go to see my little exhibition / build there? Did you enjoy your stay, or was it laggy as hell? And did you get to see some new artists, Second Life ’scenes’ or virtual worlds stuff you never heard of before?* And how many of you will be participating in the new and upcoming Second Life 5th Birthday Event? The theme for this years SL5B is pretty much set to be the “culture” theme. An overview of the different ‘cultures’ can be found here although they are still debating and tweaking them.

Who’s in charge of the ‘art’ department - and especially virtual photography - you will no doubt wonder. Because she did such a great job last year, she’s back this year: Miss Shoshana Epsilon. She warns us to be timely with our applications for some space at the art part of the Second Life 5th Birtday Event:

Tags: photography, sl4b, sl5b, SLart, virtual art
Categories: Art, Second Life
2 Comments »

For those of you that own a garden, did you ever ‘discover’ something in it? Something that makes you go ‘woooow, this is awesome’? It may be little things - a beautiful butterfly, a cute little frogg - or huge things - ‘hey, did I have a three, that grows eatable stuff?! Woot!’ A friend of mine recently discovered a secret pathway to the city centre in mine. How can one miss that? Well, there’s a whole pile of crap in front of it. :p Anyway, those little things can utterly amaze you. This is how I feel each time I visit the - Rezzable, yes, Jon, I won’t forget to put that in front this time - Garden of NPIRL Deligihts.

It’s huge, and although I saw it grow and flourish, there are that many builds I have not seen yet. Or that you take for granted, as being part of the Garden, but that are actually little artworks on itself. A beautiful example are Artoo Magneto’s beautiful trees: a small detail, easily overlooked, but it makes the whole… well.. astonishing.

Another thing that I overlooked - or did not know off - is my own, Dutch music heritage. Apparently the song ‘Het Land van Waas en Maal’s lyrics are about the Garden of Earthly Delights. Would be so kewl if it could be covered by an artist who performs at Gardenstock.

So, there are a few ways how you can discover the Garden of NPIRL Delights:

1. Get the HUD. Available at The Dump entrance.
2. Go to The Dump and go on foot - don’t forget to take a miner’s helmet - or fly or jetpack or whatever. NPIRL ways of strolling the Garden are encouraged.
3. Go to The Dump and walk through the tunnel and take a tour vehicule. Best for easy adjustment to a huge load of NPIRL virtual art. The tours give you a great overview in less than 10 minutes, so it’s a great start before you explore on foot.

Let’s end with a quote of Lauren Weyland that I absolutely love:

Alice in Wonderland never fell far enough. Gulliver didn’t sail far enough. Michael Smith didn’t imagine enough. For if they had, their authors, Carroll, Swift and Heinlein would have written about the Rezzable Garden of NPIRL Delights.”

PS. Yeah, the belgian weather is back and it is sure as hell rainy. More SL playtime for Vint again! ;)

Tags: real life, rezzable, the garden of NPIRL delights
Categories: Art, Exploring, Rezzable
2 Comments »

Le jeudi 24 avril soir, j’ai gag…. euhm… wait… I won! I won! I won! What did I win? Best ‘photograph’ - virtual world photograph, that is - in the Dr Muglerstein’s Machinima & Fantastic Picture Experience contest. Yeeey! Winning in the category ‘Art de la métamorphose’ with my Valentine Squid pic - I love it even more now, it also won me the Koinup contest - I’ll receive a large print of me kissing the squid. And it will get to hang in Paris somewhere. Yeeey! All hail squids! ;)

Other winners are:

1. Machinima - Marie Lauridsen
2. Instantané Paysage fantastique - Amelia Fayray
3. Instantané Portrait d’avatar mutant - Maya

I must admit I am a bit jealous of the machinima winner Miss Lauridsen. She will get a real life sculpture of her avatar, crafted by Standard Non Standard. I’m extremely curious how that one will look, and if the French company ‘Standard Non Standard’ is better at replicating avatars than the company we all now from the ‘take your avatar to work day’ ads. What they have up at their website under 3D printing (click ‘impression 3D’) seems promising.

But despite my jealousy, I’m already really happy I won in the first place. I did not expect that to happen at all. You can see the winning machinima, photographs and the other submissions at the Dr Muglerstein Island in Second Life. Oh, and don’t be surprised if they say ‘allo’ in stead of ‘hi’. ;)

Tags: contest, french, mugler, photography
Categories: Art, Contests
5 Comments »

“Primolution” was created in 2006 by Stella Costello and the photograph seen here was taken by Tao Takashi. Just to awesome to not share this finding with the rest of the my world:

Tags: flickrfind, second life, SLart, Stella Costello
Categories: Art
No Comments »

Really fun, what Christian Contini did: he took a Second Life avatar, and photographed this avatar under different angles. This photo source material ended up as a first life hologram. This can’t be that hard to do? Keep your horizontal camera position steady and rotate around your avatar? Best you can do, is to cut the avatar out from the background, and keep that static, to enhance the 3D effect. Yet, I’ve never come across a service that allowed printing holograms from self-supplied photographs.

Woot! I must admit, I’d love to give this a try myself. It looks like an awesome - and even a bit a ‘nostalgic’ - way to import images from a 3D virtual world into first life. I want business cards like this. And portraits of my favourite befriended avatars to stick in my wallet. And a ‘Second Life’ trading card game with holographic images and cards such as Queen Tateru, Governor Philip, Watermelon Torley, Warrior Dandellion and Jester Prok… . :d

For more on the technique used, see below this video.

‘If not sure, mail Tobie‘, this is going to be my new (virtual) life motto. ;) October pointed out to me that I used the terminology ‘hologram’ wrongly here, and she’s right. Yes, I must admit, it does not look much shiny and rainbow coloured.

So if it’s not a hologram, what printing technique is used here? Lenticular printing: Each image is sliced into strips, which are then interlaced with one or more other images. These are printed on the back of a piece of plastic, with a series of long, thin lenses moulded into the other side. The lenses are lined up with each image interlace, so that light reflected off each strip is refracted in a slightly different direction, but the light from all strips of a given image are sent in the same direction (parallel). The end result is that a single eye or camera looking at the print sees a single whole image, but an eye or camera with a different angle of view will see a different image.

An explanation with graphics that make it all much more obvious, you can find here. Same question stays, it will probably be very hard to find an affordable price for small quantities of small lenticular prints… ? Jeej! Mr. Contini hints that it is something you can ‘DIY’ with a semi-decent homegrown printer. ;) *goes to read his full explanation*

Tags: hologram, lenticular, mixed reality, photography, sl to rl
Categories: Art, Photography
10 Comments »

Maybe doomed to disappear into the ‘objects’ folders of the Second Life residents, but more likely to reside in hawt places such as ‘favorite avatar customization’, ‘fav clothes’, ‘killer outfit’ and ‘I look Woot!’ are VintLab’s latest creation, the SLartyFartsy Human Eyes.

Don’t worry, they go great for Neko’s, Elves and other creatures related to humans as well.

SLartyfartsy as word is derived from my human’s RL terminology ‘artyfarty’. Although this appear to be a performance group, the human and her friends used it to point to humans that think they are that so-called artsy. They dress ‘art-like’, they go to elitist art places, pretend to know everything of - mostly modern - art and because of that feel they are that much more than us, the everyday plebs. They are also the ones to judge what is art and what not. And most of the time, if it’s comprehensible, according to them it’s not art. An estimate was made that 25% of the minimal electro scene exists out of Artyfarty-people.

So far for the background on the history of our brand new brand name. As this brand is used as an accusation, against something we think is utterly absurd, we felt like doing SL + artyfarty + ‘add ‘S’ to stress the fart part’ was the right thing to do. End result: SLartyFartsy.

Although eyes are a wonderful thing: one of few avatar textures that allow true detail and the body part that in RL together with the 4 other senses make how we perceive our world, we won’t just stop with eyes. VintLab’s lab rats are working on designing more SLartyFartsy stuff, all accusal to the state SLart find itself in at the moment. So as there is more to come, the SLartyFartsy brand needed a logo, something that drawns attention, yet makes clear the absurdity of the situation. Our first attempt was courageous but lacked the absurdity - a bit. With the tagline ‘Dare to say it’s yours!’ referring to something you produce - SLart - we try to not be just a commercial Second Life brand, but to get a message out there.

But enough talk, let us now present the eyes: 14 pair of eyes in a box for L$50 and both copy/no-trans as trans/no-copy versions are available. Positioned perfect on their texture, with realistic iris and highlights they are a delight to stare in. 7 pair of the eyes are normal clean, verions. The other 7 are branded with the ‘SLartyfartsy’ logo - which is not noticeable at first look, only when you take a better ctrl+0 look - for those who really want to get the message out there.

You may find these awesome eyes in-world at VintLab’s shop at Bloedkapel, Brugge or on the web at OnRez (copy version, trans version), by exception on Slexchange (copy version, trans version) and using the MetaMart HUD. As usual, you can also get them at OnRez with a 50% discount*.

As a final note, we just would like to shout ‘Reclaim the streets SLarts!‘

* As usual, 50% off is given to the people that are listed in my ‘exclusive vendor thingie’ on Shop.OnRez, so if you want to save 25L$, say ‘hi, me wants to pay less’ (comments, e-mail, IM, …), and I’ll add you to the vendor. That way you will see the sales item listed under ‘exclusive’ on your OnRez homepage. But I won’t protest if you prefer to pay the 50L$. (Disclaimer: Avatars added to that vendor will be more likely to be approached by me to serve as guinea pigs. I don’t approve animal testing, but I do appreciate feedback on the outfits. So hence I need to use avatars for that. ;))

Tags: eyes, selling, SLartyfartsy, vintlabs
Categories: Art, VintLabs
2 Comments »

For those who did not follow the updates on the ‘SLasshole trademarks SLart’ topic, what I deemed impossible, is a - far from virtual - reality after all: Richard Minsky owns - at least some kind - of trademark over the SLars: slart, Slart and SLart are all his. Apparently, according to USA law, putting a TM means just a trademark, the R with a circle around it, is a registered one. It’s still not 100% clear to me which if SLart is now a registered trademark: this document would say it’s registered, but Richard Minsky still just shows the ‘TM’ on the SLartmagazine’s website. Either way, this leaves us with only SL art, Second Life Art and SL-art to use…

… and me with a lot of e-mails, IM conversations and blogposts to read and ponder over. This all started with Loki Popinjay’s blogpost, which was quickly followed by mine. Also Daman Tenk expressed his views on this and so did Sofian, in English as well as French. Tateru wrote a more nuanced piece for Massively and Cyanide Seelowe rethought changing the SLartwiki’s name. The discussing goes on on Flickr and on the ‘virtualartpedia’ - former known as the SLart wiki - someone says there is a bit of a controversy going on about the term ‘SLart’. Before yet another person asks, I did not edit that wike. Ever. One has always be taught that one needs to be more or less neutral to change informational wiki data. ;)

Also:

1. Dandellion Kimban - How To Kill A Businessman
2. Osprey - SLart Warfare
3. New!! Virtually Blind - SLart trademark

I contacted Mr. Minsky on this through IM, shortly after my first blogpost - hoping for more clarity on which use of SLart he considers fair use and which one he would send cease and desist letter out for. He never replied to me, so we did not have the chance to have this conversation.

I am still convinced that I although I believe there is no clarity on if Rezzable would be allowed to use the ‘SLart’ word as ‘fair use’, he had no right, no reason and not a single feeling of ‘ethics’ when he bothered Ganymedes on removing the SLart word used for describing - guess what, Second Life Art - from his profile. Neither does ‘protecting your trademark’ asks from you that you force a wiki that has no aim in making money to change it’s name.

In the bunch of e-mails, the IM conversations and etcetera, some ‘Plans of Actions’ were suggested to me and discussed. I’ll run them here, with a statement as to why or why I’m not considering them. Please bear with me, and feel free to correct me when you think I’m wrong.

The choice of what to do, and how to react to possible cease and desist notifications when you use ‘SLart’ is something we need to decide on for ourselves. Yet, personally, I don’t believe in the ‘let them walk over you, a broken back is something to enjoy’ theory. ;)

An eye trademark for an eye trademark

A very popular suggestion was: ‘trademark something that he thinks is important, and then switch/force him in letting you use SLart in exchange for his use of your trademark‘.

I can not find any good reason to this, as it would take a lot of effort, some money, I would need to come up with something that actually makes sense trademarking it - unlike SLart - and I would feel mean. Next one.

Legal assistance: why we feel we may use SLart

A costly plan of action, that would mean we should get organised and seek professional legal advice. That professional legal advice could get the asserted group a general draft document on ‘why we do not think your cease and desist letters make any sense and we should not obey’ for general use.

As we are in different situations here - SLart at the Cannery, use in profiles, a public wiki, blogpost, … I feel this would get very complicated, and doubt if there would be one document that could serve all. Yet I am not completely ruling this one out, and neither am I dismissing the following option completely.

Legal assistence: cancellation of the SLart trademark

(If existent.) An even more costly endeavour, but the one that feels most ‘just’ to do. Yet, a lot of avatars & their respective are needed to work on and pay for this, which would be a waste, as I don’t feel the trademark was justified in the first place. Of course, if it does exist etcetera, this is the only way to prove it shouldn’t have existed in the first place?

I should thank both Mr. Duransky as Mr. Legal Writer for explenation of terminology, pointing out some interesting links to me and advice on the legal options.

Cease and Desist

Not an option. Over my dead body!*

*On a no-damage-enabled sim, that is. ;)

Screw you! I have to right to say ‘SLart’

As for this moment, I’m going with this one as it comes to vintfalken.com, my flickr account and in-world pressence. Rezzable’s SLart at the Cannery’s future, is not a thing I can decide upon solely, I can just give my opinion and advise.

As far as my vintfalken.com is concerned, I fall under Belgian & EU trademark law. I find my use of SLart as a descriptive terminolgy for the Second Life arts & artwork to be justified, and shall not end this. The same goes for my presence on Flickr. In-world use of it might be a bit more tricky, as LL is rumoured to actually comply to trademark violations reports - opposed to copyright violation that is. ;) Yet, if I may write I drink Redbull in my profile, why would I not be allowed to say I consume SLart on an almost daily basis? Or put a profile pick on the places I love to go for my dose of SLart?

And you? Do you still dare to say ‘SLart’, or do you stutter ‘S… SL… a.. aarrr….’ and then fall into silence?

Disclaimer: This post is written as an in between follow up, and is in no way a definite statement of mine as it comes to my position on the use of the - assumed - trademarked letter-thingie ‘SLart’. Especially as discussion is still going on, I’m learning new things everyday and someone promised me another dose of information on the subject.

Tags: art, second life, SLart, trademark
Categories: Art, Second Life
25 Comments »

slart! SLart! SLART!

See, I’ve said it too! May I add to that that both Richard Minsky as well as ArtWorld Market - Mr. Minsky’s avatar - are SLassholes? Yeah sure, this is my blog, I may say so. Just as I may say ‘SLart!’, no mather how much Richard Minsky is threatening humans and avatars all over the internet and in Second Life that are using SLart in their profile picks, on their blogs, textures and the like.

Why would he do so, you wonder? SLart is not that an ugly, offensive or idiotic word. On the contrary, Richard Minsky liked the terminology ‘SLart’ that much that he trademarked it. He found it to be such a pretty word, that nobody but him may use it, unless they pay him a ‘reasonable fee’, of course.

If you - just like me - find that trademarking ‘SLart’ does not make sense, look at the end at this post for tips on how to boycott Minsky.

Why SLart can and may not be trademarked

!!! Update: Benjamin Duranske found me this. Which is very bad news. Yet, I still think, he has no right to ‘trademark SLart’. The trademark request was filed on the 26th of March 2007, and as from how it looks, approved. He also gave me this overview of the trademark law. *goes to read*!!!

Why I refuse to remove any SLart mentioning, and will refuse to pay any fee for letting me use the SLart-world, if asked: I do not reckon Minsky’s claimed claim on SLart makes sense:

1. Although Richard Minsky claims he trademarked SLart, up to now, I have seen no proof of Minsky’s SLart trademark claim. I dislike false threats.
2. No real cease and desist letters where send out. Really, those normally come in a way that you have to prove you got them by putting your paw on them. I don’t think Instant Message conversation theaths count.
3. SLart is to generic a term to trademark. We have SLove, SLaw, SLex, SLinivation, SLavery, SLetiquette, SLasshole, … . All these are the abbreviation for Second Life (SL) + the real live word. If the real life word starts with a vowel, the SL is put in front. If it starts with an L, an S before that one is added, if it starts with an S, the L is added after the S. I am sure you can think of numerous other examples.
4. If we do some investigation, I’m am sure we can find proof that the word ‘SLart’ - or slart, or Slart, and even slART - was widely used before Minsky and ArtWorld Market sought to make a gain out of it. It probably was even common Second Life jargon before ArtWorld Market even rezzed. If it’s still allowed to trademark words that frequently used, by hell, I’m going to trademark ’sex’ for sure. For christ’s sake, he does not even own SLart.com.

Richard Minsky’s SLartistic threats

I first heard of this on the 7th of January, when Shoshana forwarded me an e-mail by the SLasshole Richard Minsky. Concerning the SLart at the Cannery exhibition, and the need to change it’s title, internet locations, … . The best pieces from this e-mail:

One thing I must remind you of, however, is that you agreed to remove all of Rezzable’s instances of the use of the term SLart, which is a trademark that I own. As of today none of the uses that infringe the SLART™ trademark have been removed. Please attend to this before the end of this month, or purchase a license to use SLART™ by the end of this month.

Please be aware that SLART™ is a Standard Character Mark, meaning that its status as a Trademark/Service Mark is independent of font or style (Upper/lower case, bold/italic, etc.). SLART, SLart SLArt appear in different places on your sites, and all are infringements.

If Rezzable does not purchase a license for each use or cease and desist from the above and all other uses of SLART, whether in electronic, paper, or other media, by December 31st I will have to take further action. Please understand that I would like to remain on friendly, cooperative, terms with you personally and with Rezzable, but ownership of the trademark requires me to enforce it, which includes sending you this notice of failure to comply in a timely manner.

Enforcement may include contacting the providers of all services and products wherever infringing uses are discovered and taking action to close the offending uses. Additionally there may be punitive and compensatory judgements sought.

If you would like to discuss the benefits and costs of a SLART™ trademark license, please let me know by return e-mail. If you have not seen the real world edition of SLART™, there are pix and info at *you don’t think i’m going to link to this SLasshole, now do you?*.

Best regards,

Richard Minsky / ArtWorld Market

People Richard Minsky has threatened

Richard Minsky also talked in this greedy, egoistic and arrogant way to a friend of mine, Ganymedes Costagravas and made a row over a few ‘SLart’ mentionings in his profile. But kindly said SL art and sl-art are allowed. This conversation you can find at ‘art of making money of SLart‘. Also Cyanide Seelowe got a ‘cease and desist’ IM conversation or e-mail on the SLart wiki. That is right, Minsky thinks also open-source non profit initiatives should die because he likes to make money of the SLart word that much. Sadly enough, Miss Seelowe has given in to Minsky’s threats.

Anybody else was contacted on the ‘SLart’ subject by kind Richard? And was kindly suggested to pay up?

Own the SLart (and Richard Minsky): POA

There are a few things we can do to make sure SLart stays (or becomes again) public domain:

1. Use the ‘SLart’ word as much as possible. Put it in URLS, headings, titles, profiles, whatever. It consers SLart, no? Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)
2. As you’re busy doing that, you might as well mention that Richard Minsky and ArtWorld Market both are SLassholes. Somebody might stumble over this Googling their names and discover that truth. They will also find that not all agree with Minsky’s claim and that there is no reason to give in to this.
3. Tag ALL your SLartsy photographs on flickr with ‘SLart’. Think of also using ‘SLart’ in their title’s. ( Organize > Select All > (drag to window) > Add Tags > “SLArt” ) Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)
4. Send a nice little IM to ArtWorld Market to tell him the human Minsky is a SLasshole. Repeat that every 15 minutes. Do consider asking him why he trademarked something that belongs to the Second Life SLart community.
5. Whatever you do, don’t give in to Richard Minsky threats and do not remove SLart, slart or SLART from your blogs, profiles, photographs, … . It’s not much use claiming it’s ‘overall present’ when everybody takes it down. Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)
6. Get organised and seek expert advice on this.
7. - suggestion more than welcome -

In the mean while, I’d really love to hear Benjamin Duranske’s opinion on this. It might not be his speciality (?), but he’s the only SLawyer I know (well, in SL that is). :d

Mind if I finish of by saying ‘Free slart, free SLart, free SLART!’? ;)

Tags: SLart, SLassholes, trademark
Categories: Art, Second Life
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