Trademark This!

First off, my surgery went fine if you care.... everything is good so far and I will have final results in about a week. Probably won't share them here unless they are negative.

Now, you may have noticed a new logo over there to the right, it says inSL.... go ahead and ogle. That little graphic and the associated legalese is causing quite the uproar in the SLBlogging community right now. This all started when Linden Labs released a new resource called the Branding Center. The new logo came with many rules for how you could use their brand names and logos. They advertised it on their blog, and tulmult results. The issue is complex and beyond me as I'm not a lawyer, but suffice it to say, to use the hand in eye logo that I've had on this site since day one I had to agree to legalese that I do my best to follow. To use the inSL logo I'll have to do the same and have. If I have to change my site because I get a letter from a lawyer I will, but in all honesty I believe this site is not in any danger. The question from most SLBloggers comes from wanting clarification of that assumption. Gwyn has her thought's here and I mostly agree with them, however I'm undecided on whether or not I shall include myself in the blogging ban. James Au has his post here. And the forums at SLBloggers are here. Once again this is a community rant and rave session so be kind and realize that passions are raised, in all liklihood this will all blow over and things will get back to 'normal.' As normal as things get when you include vampires, nekos, angels, demons, goreans, anime fans and roleplayers in a new world with the vanilla people.

The interesting thing to me in all this is that Linden Labs is going through growing pains as a company. Like all technology firms they are taking slow but sure steps to becoming a sustainable enterprise long term. Is this disruptive to the customers/content producers? Sure. Is it nessecary for those people to continue to enjoy the technology, Absolutely. Now, I know that it could be handled better but we have to realize as Taturo Nino wrote in an editorial (apologies I can't find the post, if I do I'll update), that Linden Labs overarching goal is continuance, and it is in our benefit as residents to recognize that. There may be reasons from a corporate standpoint that none of us understand but everyone at the company still wants to make money and get their paychecks, that's ultimately why they do things.