KittyCatS Love & Frustration

[Tad Carlucci]

Yes, but it's not a copy. If it were an actual copy, the solution would be simple: file a DMCA take-down request. Even a cursory examination, however, shows it's not a copy. All a DMCA filing would do is get him flagged as an abuser.

As I said, while he's acting as if the ToS prohibits the competition, it does not. All it does is prohibit copies, which is quite reasonable.

He cannot prohibit similar ideas, only actual copies.

Copyrights apply automatically and he does not need to specifically disallow copyright violations as he does.

That leaves trademark and patent protections. While he does not have either, he has some claim that "RM Profiler" is a trade mark.

He cannot, however ask for patent enforcement without an actual letter of patent; which he does not have and is highly unlikely to obtain. Without a patent letter, his attempt to restrict completion seems like an unfair business practice, and could get him into trouble with the Trade Commission, who enforces those laws.

Remember harassment can go both ways. So people need to be careful not to violate the Linden Labs ToS. He does, as well. Banning people from his web site, however, does not violate the LL ToS, even if that effectively renders his product useless to purchasers.

What it comes down to, basically, is he does not seem to understand what is, and what is not, proper. If he sends unsolicited harassing in-world comments (or turns harassing during a civil in-world conversation), certainly: report him. Otherwise, it seems unlikely any effective legal action could be mounted, so just ignore him and move on to his competitor.