"In recent weeks, a couple New World Notes posts inspired an interesting e-mail conversation with a very interesting figure: Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, and the original author of the General Public License, which the Second Life viewer code (like much software) is licensed under..."

A trademark lawyer writes about the reaction to the recent decision to grant trademark registration to the term "SLART", widely used to refer to art done in the Second Life virtual world. The registrant is reportedly trying to stop others from using the term. The article includes an overview of trademark law and discussion of its application in virtual worlds.

Linden Lab, the creator of online virtual community Second Life, released its viewer earlier this year with a GPL 2.0 license, adding a clause called the "FLOSS exception," which releases developers using certain open source licenses from the requirement that any derivative works be licensed under the GPL.