Alphaville Herald

Typepad Threatens Takedown of Herald Justice League Unlimited Exposé

Will role-play superheros' copyright claims trump free speech?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affair desk

Typepad administrator Jen has given Herald a deadline of January 29th to gut our coverage of the Second Life Justice League Unlimited's wiki, citing a Typepad Terms of Service violation for "displaying copyrighted text and images without permission". The Herald has declined to remove the disputed materials, setting the stage for a new media showdown between the press and an embarrassed group of Second Life avatars brandishing copyright claims.

At issue is the Herald's exposé of the JLU, a group which has run a multi-year surveillance program on members of the Second Life community and compiled 1700 pages of files on other players - files containing often false and potentially libelous information.

To bring the excesses of the JLU to the public's attention, the Herald has quoted from the leaked JLU wiki under the doctrine of fair use. Meanwhile, the JLU has been running a vigorous program of copyright complaints, in hopes that site administrators will not notice the JLU is a group of avatars who wear super hero costumes that infringe on others' intellectual property.

Is Typepad aware of how ridiculous they will appear if they follow through on the threatened take downs [text after the jump] based on a frivolous copyright complaint from virtual spandex clad Second Life avatars? We may find out in the next few days, unless there is an outbreak of common sense at SixApart.

Egghead Studies Second Life Chickens - Clucks To Shocking Conclusion!!!

The Web Ecology of Sion chicken society explained

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Patrick Davison is part of several performance groups including What We Know So Far and MemeFactory and is also involved with the Web Ecology project at Harvard - exactly the sort of scholar that can bring meaning to the Second Life Sion Chicken phenomenon. He has graciously agreed to allow the Herald to publish slides from his talk titled  "On Chickens" - a groundbreaking work presented earlier this week  illustrating the problems perceptions create in the online realm - and the awesomesauce role of the Herald plays in the new media metaverse.

 

Out Of Touch Egghead To Pontificate on Second Life

Herald founder keynotes 2009 Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference

The Herald's own Urizenus Sklar - who is widely believed to be self-identical - will present a virtual keynote titled "Virtual Communities, Virtual Cultures, Virtual Governance" for the Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference Monday October 26.

Virtually viewable here http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/ludlow/ after the virtual presentation Monday - the virtual keynote will be followed by virtual cocktails at 1 PM EDT at the virtual "meet the virtual speaker" session to be held in Second Life's Abacadabra sim: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abracadabra/201/90/31.

It's going to be virtually impossible to miss this event, because Uri's real real life typist is believed to be Peter Ludlow - Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He has worked on a number of topics at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive science, and has also published a number of works on the emergence of community and governance in virtual worlds, including High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (MIT Press 1995) and Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (MIT Press, 2001). 

Watch "Another Perfect World" Documentary in Metaplace

by NuMedia Econobot

Another Perfect World - a documentary investigating the quest to construct digital utopias - premiers in the United States Thursday September 10 at noon PDT in Metaplace at The Stage. For our readers' convenience, the Metaplace space for The Stage is embedded below.

showtime: Thursday Sept 10, 12 noon PDT

The film includes interviews with the real life typists for sexbed entrepreneur Stroker Serpentine, Metaplace founder Raph Koster, Second Life founder Philip Linden. and the cat-attracting Alphaville Herald/Secondlife Herald founder Urizenus Sklar, along with many others.

Recommended.

New Vaneeesa Blaylock Performance Art Saturday

I Advance Masked video released

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

If you missed Vaneeesa Blaylock's recent performance art piece, I Advance Masked, all is not lost. The event was documented by Codewarrior Carling in an evocative machinima - and Ms. Blaylock and company have a new work scheduled for Saturday September 12 from  noon - 2 PM SLT at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wandering%20Spirits/38/177/21.

CodeWarrior Carling of Ideajuice Studios shows you what you missed

The upcoming performance is described by Ms. Blaylock as

"8 pairs, or diptychs, of avatars appear as identical twins. Each wear the skin of one and the shape of the other in a performance that challenges our cast to take on the body of another... and to allow that other to take on a part of their own body... and challenges our audience to consider what their virtual body means to them: are you unique? Does someone else wear *your* skin? If you change your appearance do you change your being?"

To prepare for the show, Herald staff will be consulting with the fur community to research how changing appearance might affects someone's fursona. Perhaps M Linden needs a new look?

Chipmunk Warns Against Second Furry-Troll YouTube War

Time is better spent on Second Life, fur affinity account

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tamias the Chipmunk - a war weary veteran of troll/furry conflict on YouTube - issued a new video warning against a second furry war in the user-generated content battleground that is YouTube.

Although Tamias feels that repeating pro- and anti-furry arguments serves little purpose, he is concerned that the trolls he refers to as "stupid pinhead morons" may continue a program of flagging, vote-botting, and issuing false DMCA take down requests against furry videos.

Tamias goes on to say that furrys should prepare themselves with DMCA counter claims and mirrored content to protect against successful account suspension efforts against high profile furry advocates. The outspoken YouTube video warrior details DMCA takedown tactics in this video

Many of the Tamias the Chipmunk's warning were echoed by rebel wolf Wolfee Darkfang who points out that in e-wars, "the harder you fight, the dumber you look" because "trolls say the same stuff like a brain damaged parrot".

Basement Dwellers of WoW -- Lives and Loves On Film!

Second Skin documentary online through August 13

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Raids, addiction, online love, and real life meet-ups of WoW players are featured in Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza’s award winning 1998 2008 documentary “Second Skin” - now screening online through August 13th via the SnagFilms.com distribution network.

While much of the content covers familiar ground for those immersed in online culture, Second Skin is a good introduction to the highs and lows of MMO’s impact on players’ lives for those outside the culture.

As for SLebrity sightings, the real life typist for Herald editor Walker Spaight makes a brief cameo appearance, fashionably attired in an EVE Online t-shirt. Stanford researcher Nick Yee and our friend Tony Walsh are also featured. Unfortunately, there is more than enough pontificating from Ed Castronova - but the film’s main focus is the player experience and how their real and virtual lives interact.

The coverage of several players' marathon WoW session is priceless, as the competitive rush to level up faster than everyone else drives non-stop sleep-deprived gaming over several days creating in a sordid scene in the basement.

Of course, this sort of thing never happens in Second Life - or does it?

Second Life residents may be a bit disappointed that WoW players are the main focus for the film, although a wheelchair bound Second Life resident does appear late in the film.

Those willing to endure the Tide and Charmin ads inserted into the video stream can view the 1998 2008 documentary for free for the next week.

you mean I'm going to help sell toilet paper and laundry detergent?

[video after the jump]

Watching Obama in Ghana from Metaplace/Second Life

Ironic ads courtesy of USTREAM video

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A bit of unintentional irony was my reward for attending an early-morning cross world Second Life/Metaplace live stream of President Obama’s speech in Ghana today, as incongruous advertisements streamed along with the USTREAM feed rebroadcasting the Voice of America coverage of the speech.

Was I the only one who thought it odd that Obama's speech was being streamed with advertisements for paternity testing for immigrants? Another classic and distracting mashup was the “Obama Budget Cut Medicare” ad in the picture above - apparently a solicitation from a political action committee with concerns about the administration's proposed budget. Perhaps Google's constant juxtaposing of conflicting ads will make this seem normal in time - unfortunate product positioning is the price we pay for "free" streaming media.

Coverage leading up to the Obama in Ghana event had seemed aimed at promoting the image of a wired up administration using SMS and Twitter - does online life get any better than a White House Twitter feed?  But Second Life and Metaplace were not willing to be left out and joined together to be part of the show.

Raph Koster scored some coverage at CBS in a story that suggested that deeper and more active engagement beyond 140 character tweets might be possible in virtual worlds. But deep engagement may come at a cost as Charles Cooper's story went on to remind everyone that the signature moment for social engagement in Second Life came several years ago with a flying penis attack on Anshe Chung during a press conference. 

The Awful Truth About Internet Dating!

by Dr. Denise Levertov, virtual advice columnist

---

dear dr. denise:

i'm lonely, desperate, and thinking of dating on the internet.
my friends tell me I'm crazy, but what is the worst that could happen?
is there anything I should watch out for?

 - miss lonelyhearts

---

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts,

I sense that you have self esteem issues and have been disappointed before - or your keyboard's shift key is broken. In either case, there is a series of instructional videos that I think you should watch to familiarize yourself with what you will be facing.

- Dr. Denise