I've had to take a break from Second Life for a few months, in order to concentrate on getting my RL health back on track.
I was slowly easing my way back into my Second Life this month, when I heard about a disturbing situation regarding a copyright infringement dispute involving skin designer Gala Phoenix of Curio:
Curio's Gala Phoenix is currently in the midst of legal issues which have resulted in her content being removed from the grid, pending the outcome of her legal battle. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) process in Second Life requires that when there is legal action taken against your content, Linden Lab will remove it from the grid until a ruling is made. Gala's fellow content creators have come together to host a fundraiser to help with the substantial legal costs she will incur in contesting these baseless claims.
This fundraiser, One Voice, is currently underway on the Mesh sim, and runs through July 22.
I've decided to contribute four outfits to the event. 100% of the proceeds are going to help Gala with her legal fees.
The reason I'm doing this is best summed up by the event organizers:
This fundraiser is not only to help Gala Phoenix, but to also take a stand for the community of content creators, for many of whom SL is their main source of income. This could happen to any one of us, and it's necessary that we stand up and fight back to ensure that it doesn't.
I hope you'll take some time to visit the fundraiser -- and remember, keep your avatar simple, to keep lag for everyone at a minimum. The sim has been almost completely full each time I've visited in the last 24 hours!
