Playboy Dealing with Knockoffs in Second Life

After Playboy entered Second Life last summer, the company tried to draw users to its own island and creations. Eventually it realized an even stronger method of interacting with the community was simply to open up its brand a little and let Second Life designers sell Playboy-themed products on the island, drawing those designers' fans as well as providing an alternative to the brand-name knockoffs that sometimes seem rampant in Second Life. Now Playboy is investigating additional creators who continue to sell Playboy items on their own terms.  "I just wanted to know how widespread it was," Marc Girolimetti of Green Grotto Studios, which operates the Second Life presence, told New World Notes. "It's enough to justify me asking who is doing it."

Brand protection has been one of the concerns of almost every major company working inside of Second Life--and an issue that others have cited as a reason for not joining the virtual world.  One option pursued by Herman Miller was simply to give away official representations of its chairs for free, undercutting the infringers.

Playboy is going in a different direction, inviting some content creators to join its campaign and participate in a revenue sharing program to sell Playboy-branded goods officially. Others are simply being asked to stop and may face legal action and DMCA complaints.

Playboy also announced an intent to build its own virtual worlds sometime this year during its latest earnings call. Private worlds have been gaining traction for major brands for just these reasons. They may not offer the existing audience of a virtual world like Second Life, but they offer more control over branding and experience for those members that do participate.

If Playboy faces more issues in Second Life, that might spur the development onward. If things work out well, though, it seems plausible that the media company might view its Second Life island as just one of many virtual locations, just like the real world Playboy clubs.

[via NWN]