Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) is considered to be one of the great natural wonders of the world, as well as one of the most sacred sites of the native aboriginal peoples. For a long time after Federation, Uluru was state property before being returned to the traditional landowners on 26 October 1985, on the condition that for 99 years it would be leased back to the National Parks and Wildlife Agency, who would jointly manage it with the native landowners.
Telstra Big Pond's presence in Second Life contains a replica of Uluru, and this is raising some objections. The native peoples of Australia have specific religious and philosophical beliefs about certain land and sites, and about images of those sites and of deceased people. Images of parts of the northeast face of Uluru are not permitted, and all images of Uluru must, in theory, be submitted to the native landowners for approval.
That said, Uluru is iconic. Literally thousands of images exist of the rock, in books, television commercials (commercial and government), movies, and stylised representations in commercial logos and other advertising.
Legislation protecting images of Uluru did not, however, come into effect until 1986, which means that there is no case against images before that time, which the majority are.
Telstra did not seek permission to use the representation of Uluru - Does the replica count as a more recent image? Or would it be exempted if sourced from a pre-1986 image of this natural feature?
Additional questions have been raised about Tesltra's use of Sydney landmark, the Sydney Opera House - but face it, the Opera House isn't nearly as interesting as Uluru.
The debate continues. New generation technologies raise new questions. Questions we have not necessarily yet answered for previous generation technologies.
[Thanks, SLOz]
1. I'm a little bemused by the hoo-haa about this. UnAustralian, I know, but one has to ask: at what point is a representation of one's sacred cows nothing more than a picture?
Hopefully this gets ironed out to every one's satisfaction. With Uluru and the Sydney Opera House neutered out by demands from the owners of these virtual sites' owners, The Pond will have to work significantly harder to make the build feel more like home for the Bigpond users who can't afford to let the meter tick over outside of the continent too often.
It might even fail. If it does, what sort of backlash will be aimed back at the owners of these sites for failing to find in favor of allowing a presence within Agni for their property? Interesting to be sure.
Posted at 5:08AM on May 29th 2007 by Patchouli Woollahra