intellectual property and ingenuity in second life // global capitalism in second life and the pride of big business
As a web-based corporation, Linden Lab was well aware of the fickle nature of the economy surrounding online startups. Revenue stream for those creating virtual communities, be they avatar based or otherwise, could flow with immense vigor, coming fast and furious only to dry up just as quickly. As such, soon after its commercial launch in July of 2003, Linden Lab was faced with a serious dilemma - the traditional revenue model for virtual communities, subscription-based charges, was gaining little to no traction for the metaverse. Residents were "given a weekly stipend of Linden Dollars, an allotment of land, and a set number of objects they could create on their homestead" - if they created more objects than they were allowed, they were taxed accordingly. While understandable in theory - Linden Lab could allow so much building in an effort to combat server lag - the system proved disastrous in practice.
Residents, quite literally, revolted. One group in particular, who were attempting to recreate relevant U.S. landmarks in the themed space "Americana" - the Washington, Monument, Fenway Park, a Route 66 gas station - found themselves creatively and financially stunted by Linden's policy. As Au points out, "it was an ambitious project that required thousands and thousands of prims [the building blocks of Second Life] to exist, and each member had to suffer the tax penalty." Eventually, the tax became too much for Residents - they saw it in direct conflict with the vision of a world fueled by "freeform imagination." Rather, this world was one "where stringent limits were set on [...] creativity", posing a direct conflict with Linden's hope for an "improvisational, collaborative, community-minded world." The revolt took on various forms, from signs and billboards to buildings set aflame, and while it eventually subsided (with Linden Lab's acknowledgment of its relevance) the essential problem remained - "ambitious creativity was still constrained by the State (i.e. Linden Lab)."
While the revolt had come and gone, Linden Lab was faced with the reality that their subscription service, which was informed by staff background in the game industry, was not creating the type of virtual world they had envisioned. As such, Linden Lab turned to three of the most prominent minds thinking about where Net culture intersects with law and political discourse: Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford Law Professor and founder of Creative Commons, a non-profit working on flexible copyright licensing; tech journalist Julian Dibbell; and Edward Castranova, an economics professor who has written extensively on virtual economies. This intellectual dream team, in conjunction with the staff at Linden Lab, began with a question that is constantly discussed in IR circles - "What makes a country successful and helps a third-world developing country grow?" Pulling from the work of Peruvian neoliberal economist Hernando De Soto (whose The Mystery of Capital had "garnered praise from both Bill Clinton and Ronald Regan"), the group came to the simple, yet profound, realization that "the informal economies of the poorest countries could be harnessed and transformed into long-lasting prosperity once the right structures were in place." In other words, users had to be able to "reap the benefits of their labor", meaning the required both "ownership and financial reward" for their ingenuity.
So Linden Lab's decided upon a new model. They would sell virtual land and charge Residents user fees for maintenance, allow Linden Dollars to be "bought and sold on the open market for real dollars" (something most other virtual worlds had prohibited), and most "unprecedented of all" they would allow Residents to "retain the intellectual property of the designs and depictions of the 3-D objects and scripts they created" . This was a point stressed unsurprisingly by Lessig, who pushed Linden Lab to live up to its slogan of "Your world. Your imagination." The group was satisfied, and although their lawyers initially posed particular resistance to the issue of IP rights, Linden's management pushed through with the change. In doing so, Linden Lab not only took a stance that was in line with its lineage in digital utopianism, but unleashed "an internal economy of virtual businesses in clothing design, engineering and architecture, entertainment, and beyond."
This stance was furthered in 2007 by Linden Lab's choice to license Second Life's source code under the GNU General Public License (GPL), allowing those outside of Linden Lab to modify the source code as well as copy and distribute derivative works. This can be done for commercial gain, but the resulting program must also be released under the same license. Net-theorist and sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow best explained the importance of such a move in establishing Second Life as a legitimate realm for economic growth:
Second Life is distinct because it allows in-game creators of objects to "own" them, sell copies of them, give them away, and license them under Creative Commons. Most other worlds require that you assign all your copyright to the game's corporate owners -- and prevent you from doing some kinds of creative stuff to avoid copyright hassles [...] But there's a fly in the ointment -- it's not very meaningful to amass in-game wealth if your ability to use it is contingent on your ongoing good relations with a single company [...] by opening up the source code for Second Life, Linden is inviting a competitive marketplace for Second Life hosters [...] This turns Linden wealth into real-world wealth."
Doctorow continues to theorize about the implications of "opening" Second Life's source code, claiming Linden Lab is positioning Residents as actual citizens as opposed to customers - "Citizens get to petition for redress of their grievances from a state that represents them; customers can only take their business elsewhere. Customers only ever get to love it or leave it. Citizens get to change it." With the ability to take their 'second lives' elsewhere, Residents can leverage Linden Lab against any actions they see unfit for the community.