Gala Phoenix of the well-known SL fashion brand Curio is raising $20,000 to cover her legal fees in a copyright/DMCA dispute with another SL content creator (apparently based in Canada) which has led to the Curio brand being taken offline from Second Life, and Ms. Phoenix, reportedly, without a primary source of income. As she writes:
Because there is already a case in court, I will probably have to go to court to clear my name and get my business back. Copyright litigation is very expensive, though. Just a small copyright case like this costs around $20,000 to see through, and most of that is court fees, which can’t be waived even if I found an attorney in Canada who’d take the case pro bono (I have an attorney here in America).
She says a group of fellow SL designers are holding an in-world fundraiser on her behalf on the Second life virtual world.
Gala is currently mired in a hot mess of a legal battle that started back in March 2012. At that time, Gala discovered that Hush Darkrose, of Hush Skins, was selling skins that looked similar to her creations. This is something designers sadly have to do all the time in the age of virtual piracy. Gala filed a DCMA against Hush and then Hush reciprocated. In April, Hush had her skins copyrighted in Canada and went on in May to file a copyright infringement (also in Canadian courts) against Gala and filed a DCMA takedown notice with LL.
In the CurioOnline website Ms. Phoenix writes “In May, right after she sent the takedown notice, Hush put up a blog post. In it, she accused me of copyright infringement and claimed that a court had “reviewed the evidence” and determined her claim was valid. She even included some language she took from the complaint, rewrote it, and made it sound like the court had granted her an injunction.”
SL content creators [should] make sure they register their copyright with the government because in the US doing so increases the ability to sue for damages and recover legal costs.
Tech Khabaren 