Two highly admired, longtime SL content creators have entirely removed their work from Second Life, in protest over Linden Lab's new Terms of Service agreement, which claims rights over "all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats". Now when you visit the SL land of Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu (IRL: Fish Fishman and Shava Nerad), you will find nothing but darkness, and a note dispenser explaining why they've left and taken their Odd Ball magic show, which has run in Second Life for many years, to other worlds.
"These Terms of Service would give Linden Lab permission to recreate the show, the methods, the scripts, everything about what we do as well as the images and art primitives, and resell it as a kit, or print posters, create textiles, whatever they wanted," as Nerad explains, "or sell the rights to the art to another company who bought their company, or have that company sell the textures on the open market."
They are doing this, even though they've copyright registered their SL work, and even after Linden Lab has issued a statement saying they respect the works of content creators, raising some very good points in the process:
Fishman and Nerad's Oddball in Second Life (image credit: Tillie Ariantho)
"'Oh, but we wouldn't really [take your content]!' doesn't rate," Nerad argues. She also notes that many large real world corporations and government entities also have their content in Second Life, so Linden Lab's Terms of Service is claiming rights over content it can't possibly claim. "[H]ow does this relate to notions such as Coca-Cola's limited license to creators to use their logo in-world to create fan art? Does that art 'belong" to Linden Lab? I'd think not. Do private logos for Harvard University or the US armed forces automatically devolve to being Linden Lab property due to the Terms of Service?"
And even though they've copyright registered their SL work, that doesn't protect them against all likely scenarios:
"If they [Linden Lab] go bankrupt, I have to establish my rights to the receivers, who will assume anything not locked down is with the property. Date by date. Image by image. How likely might it be that Linden Lab goes into receivership someday, you figure? Want to bet your creative output on it?" (And their show has thousands of copyrighted images.)
So asserting their copyright would be practically unfeasible: "Tuna and I are small fish. This would be worse than the IRS audit from hell, if it went poorly, and relative to many artists, we're likely savvy and relatively prepared." To be sure, many (if not most) SL content creators are not anywhere near as prepared as they.
"And Linden Lab can fix it on their end by replacing that paragraph [in the Terms of Service] with a limited license," she argues. "So why don't they?"
That's a good question. In fact, I'm asking Linden Lab about that very thing now.
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Ask any educator about the validity of LL's promises. They last only as long as the current CEO, if that.
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 01:41 PM
The clause is absolutely absurd, for the many excellent reasons they provide, and more. Apparently Linden Lab forgot their exist ToS was already declared "unconscionable" by a Judge. Remember this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bragg_v._Linden_Lab
Posted by: FlipperPA Peregrine | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 01:45 PM
Sounds to me like this new policy by LL is gonna drive even more folks out of Second Life. Way to go, LL. Way to go.
Posted by: Sebastian Fitzhugh | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 01:58 PM
I make RL photos that get global attention, I have close to 30.000 likes on my facebook page and was thinking about setting up an exhibit with them in SL.
Not going to happen now.
I am not too worried about the other things I've build in SL, but not uploading my RL art work now.
Besides that, the idea that other companies and websites won't allow us to use their stuff in SL any more is also a big issue that I wrote about a while ago.
Because no matter how you look at it, this is stifling creativity, and creativity is the backbone of SL.
Posted by: jo yardley | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 01:58 PM
I wonder if anyone at Linden Lab had their head out of their ass when Instagram pulled the same bullshit, got hammered by its users and had to change the TOS back.
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 02:08 PM
What I wish for is everytime problems like this pop up, someone at Linden Lab actually took responsibility so that everyone isn't yelling at "Linden Lab".
In the Instagram incident Metacam mentioned, one of the co-founders stepped up for the brunt of backlash and corrected things. When Yahoo bought Tumblr and made content changes, Marissa Mayer was at the forefront. Everyone of power at Linden Lab hides behind "by Linden Lab" blog posts and their PR department in Peter Gray.
Linden Lab doesn't show its users nearly the amount of respect other companies do. I don't blame any content creators that don't trust the vows of an anonymous entity. Get it in writing.
Posted by: Ezra | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 02:27 PM
eyeroll, more doom and gloom on NWN, and I asked 10 people if they ever heard of this sim... zero, zilch heard of this sim. Judging by the pic, if I by chance did go there, I stayed all of 10 seconds. Looks like 2005
Posted by: 2013 | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 03:32 PM
It's more than faintly difficult to see the advantage of asserting unenforceable rights to the deck chairs on the Titanic. I guess LL thinks it beats shuffling.
Posted by: Alberik | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 03:33 PM
Dear 2013:
OddBall was not a sim. It was an entirely mobile creation and event that took place in the sky. ALL images changed frequently and were completely dynamic, manipulated in realtime by Tuna Oddfellow. It didn't look like 2005. It looked like 1968. Here's more: http://npirl.blogspot.com/2008/02/tunas-trippy-textures.html
Posted by: Bettina Tizzy | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 03:48 PM
/sigh NPIRL links, those were the days :) Tunas shows were always fun. Mind the particle system/environments, etc at cloud party are really suited to what he does.
Posted by: Cube Republic | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 04:27 PM
@alberick It's not difficult to see why they would attempt this. SL is becoming a sinking ship for sure. There hoping to salvage as much cash as they can and owning the property of people who can't afford to sue them to get it back is one easy way to do so.
Posted by: Madeline Blackbart | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 05:23 PM
I love virtual worlds. Many of us have poured our hearts and souls into providing content for Linden Lab.
We don't get rich doing it, we don't even get internet famous at best we get Second Life famous.
We build community and help to keep the concurrency of this virtual world up.
I am now in InWorldz setting up first a small club environment with particles and wonderment and then a new Odd Ball which will take on it's own shapes that SL will never see.
I am not asking you to leave SL but if you are a creator you might think twice.
I do challange you to expand your scope of the metaverse. Create an alt in InWorldz and other places. Learn OpenSim and HyperGriding.
I can only recreate my show because I have planned for this for years. Protect your art.
Hugs and Fishes,
Tuna
Posted by: Tuna Oddfellow | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 05:58 PM
This new TOS makes sense if one thinks LL is going to offload SL. By claiming 'ownership' to ALL the content in SL, they can then sell the whole shebang to someone else - or as been mentioned - go into bankruptcy and have all the content (created by residents, not LL) become part of the property of LL.
Unless they change this, it seems they are maneuvering to be able to sell off the whole thing.
Yikes!
Posted by: leal choche | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 06:10 PM
@2013, Eyeroll? Here's something to roll one's eyes, from the stats at gridsurvey.com
2012-10-14 Main Grid Total Regions: 28638
2013-09-22 Main Grid Total Regions: 26744
1894 regions gone in 11 months.
@Alberik, RMS Titanic broke in half I think. This is more like a listing ship in heavy seas. At a certain point, the list grows so pronounced there comes a tipping point.
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 06:12 PM
Everyone should have a have a bug-out plan, and a lifeboat or two in InWorldz and other OpenSim venues. You can probably register an avatar with your SL name and it's free. It's fun to pop in and see the [now almost parallel] development and explore. There are some fun things going on and a lot of old friends out there.
All it takes is a bad earthquake or extended power outage and Second Life could disappear for a while. Best not try to go cold turkey if it does.
Posted by: David Cartier | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 06:31 PM
InWorldz: Users online 126 (I'll pass)
Posted by: 2013 | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 06:49 PM
two points:
1)This is serious enough that Renderosity is pulling their content from SL: http://www.renderosity.com/news.php?viewStory=16783
2)If you don't control the servers that your assets are on ...you don't control your content. Opensim can allow you to control the servers your content is on, putting it on the hypergrid allows you to make it available to the public at large (and current opensim options can be set to forbid assets from leaving your grid, if you desire). Just a word to the wise...
Posted by: Han Held | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 07:19 PM
What if the TOS change is an attempt to clarify asset value. Like... oh, I don't know. For an IPO perhaps? :)
Lori A. Sheppard
(Skylar Smythe)
Posted by: Lori Sheppard | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 07:30 PM
ok lets be real and i am not bashing but honestly did anyone think that ll was gonna claim ownership from anything in the pic you are showing i think you are taking this a bit to far
Posted by: knot | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 09:03 PM
Linden Lab's statement is just a PR trick. If they really regretted their ToS change, they would fix it, before it's too late. Instead they seem to live in their we-never-make-mistakes mind set, that just strengthens SL residents' distrust towards them... It's not a surprise, that many content creators have found a friendlier home in other virtual worlds like Cloud Party and InWorldz.
Posted by: Timo Gufler | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 11:56 PM
Jo you should at least post the reply from Shao Hsing Lee and why some says LL option was the only one possible!
http://joyardley.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/huge-problem-for-all-creators-in-second-life/
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 03:00 AM
But i do agree, as we did already, that setting up a private grid, connected it via hypgrid, set a sim on kitely and learning how to host one or more via your computer to any of the myriad of open sim grids that = are not closed and are not commercial, is the best choice for those who create and dont mind sharing and just enjoy seeing others using their creations!
For the rest, Inworldz is not the only one closed commercial grid!
And all lack what makes me left open sims after being there for months, Mainland, Hundreds of continents connected together, Blake Sea and all the rsst that makes still, Sl, despite all, the Only place to be!
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 03:07 AM
Tuna - try Avination!
Seriously - we looked at a lot of platforms (Inworldz included) and found that Avination excelled in every way. It may not be as big as SL (yet) but a lot about it makes it the best alternative for creative individuals who want to ensure their property remains their own. Support is excellent (and personal) and I have always been surprised at the attitude of the people there. All helping each other and working together. It may not be huge - yet. But if the people matter - it will be! (PS the technology is pretty great also)
Posted by: Debs | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 04:10 AM
Tuna - try Avination!
Seriously - we looked at a lot of platforms (Inworldz included) and found that Avination excelled in every way. It may not be as big as SL (yet) but a lot about it makes it the best alternative for creative individuals who want to ensure their property remains their own. Support is excellent (and personal) and I have always been surprised at the attitude of the people there. All helping each other and working together. It may not be huge - yet. But if the people matter - it will be! (PS the technology is pretty great also)
Posted by: Debs | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 04:10 AM
2013 wrote:
I think this pretty much nails it. Linden Lab will get away with that TOS change because people are just too inert to go elsewhere. The vast majority of SL content creators wouldn't have a business in the first place without Linden Lab, so it's only natural for LL to dictate the terms, isn't it?
The funny thing here is that Tuna and Shava have de-rezzed their stuff but continue paying LL for their land, because apparently that is the only way to make their protest visible. Damage to LL's bottom line: zero.
Posted by: Masami | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 05:35 AM
@masami
?tier date
damage to linden reputation by notice to parcel visitors until next tier date
damage to linden financials after next tier date
Posted by: elizabeth (16) | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 06:21 AM
Opensim has a chicken and egg dilema in that you need content to pull in users, but you need users to pull in creators to make the content that people want in the first place.
I would encourage any creators or merchants perturbed by this to check out the Kitely marketplace. They have even less users than Inworldz right now, but I have never seen such an organised grid with the technology to deliver and responsive team. They have an amazing marketplace and you can even be paid direct in USD to your paypal.
Try to break your trench mentality and think of it as an opportunity. I hear a lot of people say "opensim is like SL in 2005" and thats true in many ways. Back then SL didnt have the content OR the users, but those brave enough to set up shop anyway grabbed that first mover advantage and many are still SL institutions to this day.
Dont see it as an instant money maker, but an investment in the future. I am certainly taking my store there. Cant hurt, can it? :)
Posted by: Ozwell Wayfarer | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 07:06 AM
I am going the do my building out in stages. I will be using InWorldz first because I have roots here that go back to 2010.
I have people who are sponsoring my art and my show. I would never judge which is better for creators InWorldz or Avination because I hear too much debate either way.
Protections of intellectual property of artists is taken more serious on these smaller commercial grids so far. These are policies that are always subject to change as these entities grow.
I will be part of Avination again perhaps after I finish my content creation push in InWorldz. I have a Tuna Oddfellow in Avination. I just need to start visiting there again.
I am a metaversalist. I believe it is important to live in multiple worlds and add some unique value to each one. I am also developing in opensim
We will continue to fight for all creator's rights as the metaverse grows.
I am paying nothing to keep my protest up and running. This is not about the visits to the land. The impact the larger have can be huge for creators. Sure it could do nothing to change the Lab's ways but we will see wont we?
Being silent and doing nothing always causes no change to happen. Take a stand and make some noise. Venue owner and creator? Host a black out. Spread articles about the new TOS to your friends so they can decide for themselves if they are Okay with signing away their art. If you are that's cool too but this is more than a game to many of us. It's our canvas.
the fact that we are talking about such an issue in New World Notes and SLNewser means people are being educated.
Thank You for being here.
Tuna
Posted by: Tuna Oddfellow | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 08:08 AM
You guys are doing the right thing. I would never encourage uploading new original content in any format (including visual art, writings, or music) under the current TOS. LL needs to revoke that language immediately. Solidarity!!!
Posted by: Armany Thursday | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 08:34 AM
@Ozwell
The early, immature SL had neither users nor content, yet managed to pull in both. Why did the chicken and egg dilemma not apply there?
I think it's because moving away from SL requires you to leave inventory and social relationships behind. There's just no way for other worlds to catch up with that, even if they are technically mature, affordable, and rich in content.
Posted by: Masami | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 08:41 AM
@Armany
"You guys are doing the right thing. I would never encourage uploading new original content in any format (including visual art, writings, or music) under the current TOS. LL needs to revoke that language immediately. Solidarity!!!"
If I'm not mistaken, Armany Thursday is one of two owners of the DNA Lounge in Second Life, which hosts original artworks and has open mike spoken word events on Sundays.
So, which is it... do you never encourage it, or do you encourage it by providing a venue for it?
Posted by: Former DNA Attendee | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 08:45 AM
Labs has neglected more than a few things in this grand finale of mistakes, report after report, including everything from griefing, to outright harassment, copyright infringement, stalkers, and on down the list have been ignored for a long while now. Gone are the days of actually getting realistic customer service. place like Inworldz, Avination, Spoton3d, Opengrid, could never harness the traffic that SL still has, even with the drop in attendance, people are so sold on the idea of staying there, even with the issues at hand. Avination, has created trust issues, Inworldz, was not advanced enough, Spoton3d, im not even sure what happened there, but people just DONT go to shows there, nor do they uproot and start fresh there. The last time I went to inworldz, I found motorcycles that couldnt drive any form that could be called normal. I have pulled my original music from second life. This will remain the case until I see improvemnt in TOS or simply go to another grid.
Posted by: Anek | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 08:57 AM
TOS, tier price...blah blah, doom and gloom, SL is closing, blah blah, go in Inworldz, its better, but no one is there..blah. Lets get past this new TOS that no one, including LL understands.
October is in five days when you can debate another crisis that SL is going to end...again. Same story, different month and year.
Everything via the web is apt to be copied, stolen, ripped, used by others, including your virtual stuff on SL. If you haven't realized this by now, step away from the computer until your realize its 2013.
Posted by: 2103 | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 09:24 AM
@ Former DNA Attendee I just saw this language in the new TOS yesterday. I am contacting artists and performers to verify that they want to continue exhibiting and performing original material under the current TOS. Unfortunately, I was hoping with time to bring in new talented artists to the grid. I would never do that under current circumstances. Not everybody is greedy, some people do see the big picture and realize how harmful this could be to their artistic careers should LL decide to exercise their granted rights as outlined in the TOS.
Posted by: Armany Thursday | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 09:36 AM
@Former DNA Attendee I imagine our venue will make necessary changes to continue our efforts to promote high quality original art. We have existing contracts in place that will be honored at DNA.
Posted by: Armany Thursday | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 09:43 AM
2013 arguing for corporate ownership of your stuff, well just because. Nice dude. You are either heavily monetarily invested in SL and freak out at the thought of any exodus, or you work for Linden Lab. Otherwise you're just a shill for the status quo.
Anyway, the funny part here is that Linden Lab actually thinks that Second Lifes value has come about based on something THEY have done. They provided the archaic software back in the day, it was the users who came in and gave others a reason to come. Second Life is an underlying platform that is worth jack shit if there are no creators. If everyone picked up and left tomorrow they would have NOTHING.
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 10:37 AM
@ Meta I am neither heavily invested nor work for LL, I'm a realist who just doesn't buy into yours, NWN, SLuniverse doom and gloom. It's the same rhetoric, different day.. "Omg, someone at LL sneezed, SL is going to shut down." Your arguments are old, and typical of sandboxers who bought into the "your world, your imagination" mentality, who haven't got past it and into 2013.
Posted by: 2103 | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 10:51 AM
@2013
How can you not buy facts? When has NWN ever used words like doom and gloom? Or said LL sneezed so SL is shutting down? People are usually more pointed and address realities like declining region count, and issues like this which have resulted in both visible, and invisible consequences. Your attempts at dismissing reality as rhetoric is the opposite of being a realist.
Eventually there's 0 for region count if they keep falling. No one is saying it's tomorrow, or next year, or even by 2020. Just that it's coming unless something is done, and incidents like this don't help. If your eyes are only on 2013 then I guess things are mostly peachy, but a lot of us are looking further than 2013.
Posted by: Ezra | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 11:44 AM
@ Ezra, typical doom and gloomer arguement, "region count is falling".
I won't even debate your answer because its a beat down dead horse on here and SLU.
Posted by: 2103 | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 11:53 AM
@Tuna
Too little, too late.
With their TOS update, Linden Lab is merely exploiting a lock-in situation that content creators were very keen to establish and support in the first place.
SL merchants frequently remind their customers that the content sold inworld is for use in Second Life only. It's rare for SL items to be sold with an export permission. In fact the OpenSim hypergrid was frequently criticized by SL content creators for the fact that it allowed inventory to travel between grids. To address these concerns and as a sign of goodwill, OpenSim developers finally crippled the hypergrid and implemented a no-export flag, which is basically the virtual world equivalent of the DVD region code. It will enable merchants to sell the same content on different grids at different prices (or not at all, thereby allowing them to disrupt the free market and pick winners and losers) and eventually charge customers multiple times for the same item. ("Oh, you want to wear that dress on the other grid too?")
This lock-in situation they helped create is now turning around to bite them. The right to use SL content outside the original grid -- frequently denied to paying customers -- is now claimed by LL. And guess what, suddenly creators rediscover their love for OpenSim, a platform they previously portrayed as a telecommunist copybot hideout.
Too bad they didn't think of that earlier. After years of keeping content (and consumers) locked into their favorite grid while starving all the others, they will find it rather hard to suddenly turn things around and trigger an exodus. OpenSim to the rescue? Good luck with that.
Posted by: Masami | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 12:16 PM
why so serious? fools.
Posted by: joker | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 12:36 PM
There are reasons for limited licenses. Creators "sell" items to other users, It's difficult to remove content from a back-up. And, yes, they would need to cover a change of ownership of Second Life.
There have been similar claims made in the first web boom. Companies backed down eventually. Perhaps there were few lawyers who knew what the internet was.
Here we are, over 22 years after the first web page, and it looks as though there are still people who don't know what the internet it, and some of them are working on contracts for Linden Labs.
Posted by: Wolf Baginski | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 12:55 PM
I've been contacting real life companies in SL for over a week now informing them of the TOS change. And advising they refer it to their legal for issues regarding their logo / marks.
LL may not yet realize it...but my bet is there is a whole S#$* storm headed their way.
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Updated-LL-TOS-Claims-FULL-RIGHTS-to-ALL-CONTENT/td-p/2201477/highlight/false/page/15
Posted by: Anti-Aeon | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 06:20 PM
Back to the old 2010 Vendor Lock-in issue of the Immersive Education Initiative, see item 2...
http://immersiveeducation.org/go/iED_Article_Taking_The_Initiative_CGW.html
What is Vendor Lock-In
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in
No wonder SL gave that Edu Discount back, if they increased their licensing property rights in the same stroke...
It's called a Confidence Trick (Scam)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
Removal is too late, transfer of licensing rights has already been executed, and the items are archived at LL...
LL nosed you...
Posted by: Eurominuteman | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 07:55 PM
News Flash, mostly forgotten oldbie gets free PR for their ventures elsewhere by restarting Drama and making a mountain out of a molehill, about the TOS...which was first discussed weeks ago.
Some of you sound a bit like cranks and conspiracy theorists, just waiting to find something to bring up for favorite Axe to grind.
Opensim is better even though there are no people and no content worth owning!
Millenials hate SL!
For profit universities should get discounts for bringing in their New Media students who pay for their classes!
LL should charge less for tier and reduce their income while increasing their expenses when people get more regions.
SL should be more like it was in 2004 when everyone was a furry sandboxer!
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 11:25 PM
Add me to the list. My art builds (Empyreal Dreams) will be removed completely from Second Life in a couple of weeks. Including from avatar inventory.
Posted by: Remington Aries | Friday, September 27, 2013 at 12:34 AM
@CronoCloud
QUOTE: "Some of you sound a bit like cranks and conspiracy theorists, just waiting to find something to bring up for favorite Axe to grind."
Spoken like a true Linden Lab employee or total Labby fanboy pushing off the backlash claiming it to be a storm in a teacup and the making of a bunch of Opensim conspirators. *coughs* Just sayin, Crono,,, like one conspirator to another. Don't you just love conspiracy theories!
@2013
QUOTE: "InWorldz: Users online 126 (I'll pass)"
It is easy to take the lowest off-peek online user count of one single grid and use that as a reason not to bother with the free Metaverse of Opensim worlds when, in fact, there are hundreds of Opensim grids to choose from where many are connected via hypergrid and open while others remain closed just like Second Life. The online user count across the many grids is still not as great as Second Life yet but, as a market for vitual goods, it is big enough already and still growing
The fact is you can take the free open source software which works very well on well-resourced servers and parallels SL reasonably well too. There you can create your own regions and exercise your own TOS (and TOS is the big issue here!). You can visit any grid too with your full appearance via hypergrid which Linden Lab once flirted with when at the same time they open sourced their viewer code thus inviting alternative server software branches to be developed. I think I can say with confidence that Linden Lab only have themselves to blame given the countless blunders and ill treatment of their users over the years. Not are they content to over charge users for serve space (regions) but they have given people less reason to be in-world shopping for stuff to buy (Hail web Marketplace!). Education had the discount pulled which was a mistake LL has had to put right and few are returning if at all. You see, the educators have tasted Opensim - that they can protect students better than trusting LL and the US army likes the security the platform offers. There are lots of reasons to use Opensim and the low price point is just the obvious one.
I would not claim Opensim is perfect but there is a strong team of developers which includes many of the viewer coders behind it who believe in it. Firestorm, Singularity and most of the viewer developers support it and very soon there will be Hypergrid 2 that fully implements the export permission which I believe will be a game changer for the better. Grids will gain traffic from the Metaverse as a whole and if the export perm is set for a particular item then it can be taken home. If it is set then it stays in the grid where is sold. That's simply enough and despite arguments to the contrary it has never been tested yet so it is a lie to say Merchants will use it to sell the same goods again on many grids. I believe Merchants who are honest and want to serve their customers well will offer free re-delivery to other grids they trust or have an outlet in.
So, for all the anti-Opensim die hard's please get real and try to tell the truth about the free Metaverse. Please!
There is a growing Metaverse community growing across many Opensim worlds so take a peek at some of the grid communities that have spunk up in Google Plus and see how they all relate to each other with help and exchange of ideas, event notices and content. https://plus.google.com/communities/116284417302234467612?partnerid=gplp0
Posted by: Gaga | Friday, September 27, 2013 at 05:01 AM
@Gaga
You know who else was considered an honest merchant with a trusted grid? Linden Lab!
Granting merchants the power to decide where customers can take their purchased goods is a recipe for disaster. Were you around when SL merchants claimed the right to monitor and harass their own customers using spyware such as the infamous zF RedZone, developed by a convicted fraudster during his probation? Do you remember how that guy managed to bug half the grid, track thousands of residents by their IP addresses, expose alt accounts and even collect SL passwords in his database?
Merchants considered that guy trustworthy. And now we are ready to give them the export flag, which allows them to pick the trustworthy grids from the metaverse. Be prepared for even more segregation.
Obviously we haven't learned anything.
Posted by: Masami | Friday, September 27, 2013 at 06:39 AM
@Masami
I don't see what the Redzone affair has to do with the export perm in Opensim. Anyone can gather IP addresses and other sensitive data if they want to by enticing people to open one of their web pages but to get things like passwords requires you to be pretty stupid to not be using a viewer from a reputable source or stupid enough to give sensitive data to people you know little or nothing about - especially when it comes to passwords! You are just scare mongering to suit your argument, Masami and that is understandable when one knows you are firmly in the Freebie utopia camp.
But anyway, the Redzone scam was stopped by Linden Lab.
Of course there are honest merchants in both Second Life and Opensim grids. You are making a blanket judgement on everyone which is more than unkind. Sunny Whitfield of Total Avatar Shop has been delivering sale items to any grid after taking the customer's money so there is just one to trust!
I believe Opensim grids will benefit from an open market where some stuff is free and other stuff is paid for. Why should it be that only server hosts and closed commercial grid owners should be free to make any money out of the investment in time, creativity and money spent. In Second Life many folks depend on sales to off-set the Lab's extortionate pricing so why can't Opensim folks who pay for hosting too not have the opportunity to sell stuff and off-set their costs. Opensim dose not just belong to the freebie community alone.
Posted by: Gaga | Friday, September 27, 2013 at 10:30 AM
HISTORIC TOS CHANGES
APRIL 2010. "The Big Glom"
Major exodus of content creators from Second Life after the SL TOS change "captures all public domain content" touching Linden servers.
MAY 2010. "The Big Downfall"
Second Life changes from a growing user base, to a declining user base. Number of sims slowly decline.
Coincidence?
Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.
Posted by: Lani Global | Friday, September 27, 2013 at 05:16 PM
@Gaga
The RedZone affair has shown that merchants cannot be trusted to protect the rights of consumers. They will abuse the export flag in ways I outlined earlier.
Gaga my dear, the camp I'm in is the Freedom utopia camp. One day you'll grow up and understand the difference. ;)
I believe that consumers have rights. When they legally purchase an item in a store, they have the right to take that item out of the store and use it wherever they want.
The export flag is designed to keep an item inside the merchant's grid even after it was sold. Its purpose is not to stop thieves; copybots will just ignore the flag and export the content anyway. But honest consumers will be locked into that grid, or lose what they paid for when they leave. It's a scam.
Posted by: Masami | Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 05:00 AM
@Masami
I really don't see a big problem with the export perm and if it reassures merchants that they have the benefit of customers teleporting in from other grids to view and sample their virtual wares then surely that will help increase quality content in the free Metaverse which is so often cited as a good reason not to go there by Opensim haters.
No one has to buy their stuff and it is going to be marked as exportable or not so you makes your choice. I personally think merchants will be savvy enough to offer free re-delivery to grids they consider safe thus helping to stimulate a global market in virtual goods beyond Linden Lab's control.
So copybot aside the fact is that freebies will still get distributed regardless and it is hardly a scam if items are clearly marked as exportable or not, or hopefully marked re-deliverable to other grid for one price.
I have a little more faith in Merchants than you I think.
Posted by: Gaga | Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 06:56 PM
"I personally think merchants will be savvy enough to offer free re-delivery to grids they consider safe thus helping to stimulate a global market in virtual goods beyond Linden Lab's control."
But right now, Linden Lab shows very clearly that we should not trust any grid owner. Why should it be safer for a merchant to provide content to the small hobby grids which do not have a ToS from the operators? I do not even want to know what the operators of hobby grids are doing on their servers without notice of the "free metaverse".
Posted by: Gordon | Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 06:02 AM
@Gaga
The "choice" will be: buy with strings attached or don't buy at all. The SL experience shows that merchants love adhesive contracts, except when they find themselves at the receiving end of one.
The current status quo already proves you wrong. The only grids that merchants consider safe are walled gardens. The export flag may open those grids up for hypergrid travel, but the walls around the content will remain. The market will be no more global than it is now.
Posted by: Masami | Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 12:51 PM
If I have an equal chance of being ripped off by a large corporation or a small company, I'll usually take the small one. They are a little closer to the people (their customers) and so care more about their reputation.
My sense from LL these days is that they honestly don't care about their reputation among customers because there are always more potential customers out there. Maybe they are trying to shake us off so they can attract some new people who won't have expectations.
It reminds me of how artists in RL populate vacant neighborhoods, which make things interesting, which causes the real estate prices to go up, so the developers swoop in to build upscale housing and the artists can't afford to live there anymore. I guess I've been through it enough to be tired of it by now. And frankly with the unlimited real estate of virtual worlds, it doesn't need to be this way. But maybe the opensims are the new vacant neighborhood.
Posted by: fineartzman | Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 01:50 PM
Personality I have also a new presence in Inwmorldz I am seeing around 100 new ppl per day now. Second life on the other hand is losing over 50 regions per week. I like the friendly feel of it. Sure it's small but that won't last.
Posted by: bits | Friday, October 25, 2013 at 02:32 AM
I would love to have some of this debate material for my Facebook page "Metaverse and Virtual Worlds Community". I opened it so everyone can educate themselves on the operations of different Metaversese, like Second Life. I too, have been changing focus to Inworldz as the cost are lower ot operate as a business, and without the Greed of Linden Lab breathing down your neck.
Licensing in Second Life is outrageous, and frankly, dont blame the multitude of people leaving or stopping their creative content from being abused in such a fashion. Linden Lab will be delt a heavy blow by companies and institutions much leger than them, and I am going to sit back and watch the show when it does happen.
Posted by: Kei Yuuki | Sunday, March 30, 2014 at 11:33 AM