Thursday, April 17, 2008

Strike!

Apparently, some bloggers are leading a strike on Linden Lab to protest the trademarking. They think that this whole trademarking thing is going to nail innocent bloggers and residents.

Well, first of all, why not just change the name of your blog? I know I can in a heartbeat change this blog's name seven times by the end of the day. You could always go and re-register the domain or whatever. Or email the Lindens, I'm sure they'll understand and work with you. They're many things, but they're not inhuman monsters set on destroying you. I'm sure a well worded e-mail or inworld notecard explaining your situation would do.

Even just name dropping, there shouldn't be any problems. Linden Lab can't go and nail everyone in the known universe just because they didn't correctly write out their name (I remember being told many times it wasn't "Linden Labs") or add the TM, that's just ludicrous. I'm sitting at my Dell, drinking a Dr Pepper, and I don't have to label them with trademarks or (R) or whatever. Why? I dunno, maybe just because for one I'm dirt poor and you wouldn't gain much from suing me. Also because I'm not advertising or making either the computer or the soft drink the focus of my blog. Or whatever. I think, if you just put that disclaimer that LL (and really any other entity) has which states that you, the blogger, aren't affiliated with LL and SL.

And second, I don't understand how this is going to hurt Linden Lab. If anything, I think you should be doing the opposite and scream louder, not silence yourself on your own blogs. You're just clearing the air for three days. As they say, to Linden Lab, "No news is good news". Fan sites and blogs just don't hold much weight in the grand scheme of things and imposing a strike isn't going to do much, in my opinion. In my opinion, we should be shouting louder. The internet is not like South Africa or India or the American South, where civil protesting will work. On the internet, silence is a cessation of existence and when you're silent then for all intents and purposes you're dead to the internet. You have no physical presence on the internet which would carry some sway.

Anyway, even though I agree that LL should rework the way they're going about implementing the trademark deal, I'm not going to be striking.

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