Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - August 2014 | Page 69

HOW TO DISSECT ANY TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT AS A NEW MEDIA AUTHOR - p2

How to dissect
any Terms of
Service
agreement as a
new media
author

Because you have rights, you must Pay
A en on to enforcement!¹
The best way to approach the Terms of
Service agreement is by iden fying the
different rights that you are gran ng and
receiving but especially how to enforce
your rights in the event of a dispute
against other users or against the service.

by Juris Amat kirla Tamiko Rochelle Franklin

1: Remember you have rights
2: Look for them under the terms
3: Look for contact info in case of each
possible type of viola on
As an author of designs and textures,
anima ons, art and objects, you have
certain rights to control and enforce the
use of your works.
In the context of a TOS agreement you as
an author are at least being asked to
license upload content that may be
protectable under copyright laws.
Depending on your crea on process
some of you may even have original
works created on and hosted by service
servers. Interna onal laws such as the
Berne Conven on and the World
Intellectual Property Organiza on
Copyright Trea es, both ra fied by the
United States, provide individual authors
(that means you) worldwide (that means
no ma er where you are) with automa c
copyright protec on and rights.

You are looking for informa on that
shows what rights you have and how you
can enforce². For example, if you ever felt
like your rights were violated, what
possibili es would you have under the
Terms of Service or End User License
Agreement to, challenge uses of your
content, remove content or have your
own content removed.
In my experience the most important
provisions for creators are:
1. Content licensing provisions (given
to the service by the author, given to
the users by the author, licenses
received by the author from service)
2. Enforcement provisions (dispute
resolu on, infringement no fica on
details, abuse repor ng,
termina on and jurisdic on)
In the last two versions of the content
license contained in the Second Life TOS,
the author is basically being asked to
donate, at least, the master copy of their
Nu Vibez Magazine - August, 2014 - 69