Publishers, take note: Use virtual worlds to illustrate your books - PLUS: A challenge to content creators

Thomas L. Friedman's publisher - Farrar, Straus and Giroux - ran into serious trouble when it came time to illustrate the cover of his book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. According to Wikipedia, "the original jacket illustration reproducing a painting called "I Told You So" by Ed Miracle, depicting a sailing ship falling off the edge of the world, was changed during the print run due to copyright issues." Shown left is the book's jacket illustration for the 1st edition hardcover: ISBN 0-374-29288-4, (see below for an explanation of "fair use" in regards to the publication of this image).

Of course, Second Life® has its own frenzied DMCA and lawsuit environment, including numerous discussions about the rights of content creators who's works are photographed by others and used for commercial purposes, as reviewed in Virtually Blind's thoughtful post on virtual world copyright issues by Benjamin Duranske.

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Meanwhile, in-world photographer Felony Fabre understands that we are just beginning to use virtual worlds as a tool, or even realize how many new applications can be given to our work. Just look at this image by her that popped up in my Flickr stream:


Sorry Columbus... wrong world

"I had to add the 'edge' effect in, but the coloration is mostly WindLight," says Felony. "If I could have achieved the effect in-world, I would have tried ... :)"

I just bet that there's a builder among you who could do an outstanding job of creating a camera-ready environment for Felony. In fact, I will make arrangements for the land + prims needed if I have any takers.

It's worth noting that Felony doesn't Photoshop. She prefers Paint Shop Pro and does some 'painting'. She also uses a tablet on occasion. She gets an A+ for concept in my book.

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Borrowing a bit from Wikipedia's style and language, herewith, an explanation of "Fair use" in regards to this blog's use of the photographed image of the artwork by Ed Miracle for the cover of the 1st edition of the book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman, originally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

* The Not Possible IRL blog is a not-for-profit online publication.
* This image is used for informational and educational purposes.
* This image is of the first edition of the book and cannot be replaced with a freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.
* This image is the only way to illustrate the topic of this blogpost.
* This image is a low resolution image, and has no commercial reproduction value.
* This image is only a small portion of the commercial product.
* The use of this image will not affect the value of the original work.
* The use of this image will not limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original. Copies of this image could not be used to make illegal copies of the book.

See also: Protect our Intellectual Property, Linden Lab