Linden Lab acquire Virtual Marketplace websites

LucreziaRyba

Reading now on the Second Life blog that Linden Lab, the corporate behind Second Life, acquired two well know websites for selling-buying clothes and other virtual goods.....

Now, their goal is to make more easy for shoppers and newcommers in Second Life to find nice stuffs and buy them......and they aim to integrate these two marketplace in the client for better shopping experience....

 

have you read about that,? some opinions? on the blogosfere, it seems that most bloggers have a quite negative opinion on this acquisition and the news is getting a sort of bad coverage, I'm on the contraty quite convinced that it is positive step by the Linden Lad, because until this move finding cool stuffs in SL it wasn't so immediate....and easy.....newbie kept to stay newbie for long time, because of the difficult to find something cool for their avatars....

 

anyway, let me know your opinion

 

Arra_Jinx

There is some speculation that LL is doing this to gain total control over intellectual properties. Should this be the case they will most likely move of second inventory next to collect that asset. This brings about a concept of personal ownership in a virtual world, the creators have their concept of intellectual property, but because the items in question were made within a virtual world format own by another company does that item belong then to the creator of the virtual world?

Rachell

Originally posted by Arra_Jinx


There is some speculation that LL is doing this to gain total control over intellectual properties. Should this be the case they will most likely move of second inventory next to collect that asset. This brings about a concept of personal ownership in a virtual world, the creators have their concept of intellectual property, but because the items in question were made within a virtual world format own by another company does that item belong then to the creator of the virtual world?

The question of ownership would, IMHO, depend on the terms of service (TOS) for the platform.  While I have read the TOS before, I must sadly admit I have not read it lately.  There are many development companies out there with employee agreements that state any creation while in their employ is the property of the company.  Much the same could be said of SL.  LL has the platform through which nothing in would could be created without said platform's and LL's permission.  Therefore, it would be arguable that anything created would be ultamately the property of LL. 

As to the original question of LL's objective by aquiring independent sales systems, I am less convinced it is a matter of gaining control of products as I am sure it is another form of controling funds.  Many people put real world money into the system.  By reducing the amount of L$ in the system, they create a need for more real $ to be put back in.  Take Xstreet (formally SLExchange) for instance.  With every sale, there is a small fee.  That fee is of no real value to LL except for the fact it takes L$ out of circulation.  The fee is tiny in comparison to any given item, but is huge when added to all the other items sold in any given period of time. 

Again, this is just my opinion of their objectives, but from a business standpoint, it makes sence.