COPYRIGHT - Second Life virtual world and infringement of virtual designs

FireSabre Consulting, LLC v. Linden Research, Inc., No. 11-CV-4719 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 26, 2013)

From Eric Goldman's blog, case here, commentary here:

Dispute Over Authorization Precluded Court From Granting Summary Judgment

In its complaint, FireSabre alleged two instances of infringement: (1) the unauthorized display of the “Second Three Islands” after August 1, 2008, and (2) the unauthorized copying of the “First Three Islands” into the OpenSim environment in early 2011.

Ultimately, the court denied FireSabre summary judgment for both instances.

With respect to the First Three Islands, the court claimed that it had not been presented with enough information to give summary judgment on the question of substantial similarity. [Edit.]

As for the Second Three Islands, the dispute over authorization prevented summary judgment for FireSabre:

While Defendants have done a less-than-admirable job of teeing this issue up for the Court’s attention, they do assert that Sheehy believed the District had purchased the right to the continued use of the content Plaintiff had created for the Second Three Islands at her request.

Sheehy and the school district claimed that the $5,000 payment to FireSabre authorized them to continue using and displaying that content. The court gave considerable weight to this question, and noted that such an authorization could have been obtained by an implied license, under the first sale doctrine, or as a volunteered gift. The lack of evidence as to these three possibilities ultimately influenced the court to hold off on granting summary judgment.

A common lesson: 

Actually, the bigger lesson (too often ignored) is to make sure you have an agreement nailed down and in writing before beginning a time-intensive project.