Linden Lab ToS Update: SL Content Creator Union Requests Changes from Linden, But Doesn't Specify New Wording

The United Content Creators of Second Life have posted an open letter to Linden Lab requesting changes to the company's new Terms of Service, which claims "all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats". As I blogged last month, Linden Lab says it's attempting to revise the ToS to allay these content creators' concerns over such overly broad language. However, the new UCCSL statement doesn't always quite specify (in exact legal terms) the changes that it wants. For instance:

The language "for any purpose whatsoever in all formats" is far too broad and unacceptable. We would prefer that language be limited and would appreciate your input in this regard as we are not convinced that the language above adequately recognizes the rights of different categories of content creators, for example visual artists.

Emphasis mine. I'm not an expert negotiator, nor do I play one on the Internet, but generally speaking, I think it's a good idea to set out the terms that you want, rather than letting the other party frame them for you. Or to put it another way:

If the UCCSL really wants the changes they say they want, they should probably hire a real life lawyer who can frame the specific language they'd like to see in the Terms of Service, and ask Linden Lab to update the ToS to reflect those changes. They have a real life lawyer on their board, so that would seem simple enough. (Or maybe they should hire another RL lawyer with deep SL experience?) Otherwise, they're asking Linden Lab to pay its lawyer to figure out how to match these requests with what's feasible for Linden.

Finally, a related point: While the UCCSL statement suggests these changes are important for a "more co-operative relationship between Linden Lab and its creator community", UCCSL currently has only 533 members. I do not mean this as a criticism at all, but there are easily tens of thousands of content creators currently active in Second Life; from Linden Lab's point of view, it's probably unclear whether UCCSL is acting in the interests of that community as a whole, and the cost-benefit to making these ToS changes at all. Given all that, my guess is Linden Lab will make some superficial changes to its ToS on terms that are still in its best interest, the controversy will be defused, and Second Life will go on (as it always generally has).

Hat tip: Ciaran Laval, who has good comments.

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Comments

[Ezra]

"I think it's a good idea to set out the terms that you want, rather than letting the other party frame them for you."

Only Linden Lab knows exactly what they need to run and operate their service. It's not about "terms that we want", we just DON'T want nor see the need for granting unlimited rights, since unlimited is obviously infinitely far more than what's needed to run Second Life.

Don't make the users not drafting Linden Lab's TOS for them a point of contention. There's much more meat there to write about than nitpick on that.

[Oink]

Proof of Intellectual Property Piracy > Linden Lab sells licensed products on Amazon.com https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3r0rcAUJHFQQjhLOURLOWE0eXM/edit

More licensed products sold by Linden Lab on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=linden+lab

[Alisha]

@oink

Those amazon products were made under contract, by willing residents. No piracy, just an attempt at promotion.

[Metacam Oh]

So now the content creators need to hire a lawyer to rewrite SL's terms of service? Isn't that grand.

[Agenda Faromet]

I asked Hamlet yesterday to remove the reference to hiring me. I did not ask him to put that in this article, and he did not tell me he was doing it.

I've been very supportive of what UCCSL have been doing -- as some may know, UCCSL provided the venue for our very well-received legal discussion of the SL ToS changes last month. I have also been working, on an entirely volunteer basis, with some of the other groups of content creators who have been communicating with LL about revising the Terms of Service.

I certainly have no expectation of being hired for this. Everything I've done to help remedy the ToS situation has been completely pro bono and will remain so. I wish Hamlet had actually spoken to anyone involved in this project before writing this article.

[Oink]

STOP THE PROPERTY GRAB > IF YOU ARE A CREATOR ... Please go here - give them your vote for yes here -

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QxjYIR_3jXakeY-9TNjEnSs8gSJTCwpZVmxRsefApmM/viewform

If you believe that LL should meet with the content creators about the new TOS changes that seem to threaten the possibility of making it legal to resell creator's content without fair compensation.

[Desmond Shang]

Hamlet, to address your comment here:

"Otherwise, they're asking Linden Lab to pay its lawyer to figure out how to match these requests with what's feasible for Linden."

This wouldn't take a second, because they simply need to revert the terms to what they were. Otherwise, someday, there will be financial feasibility issues not legal ones. Mismanaging the userbase *obviously* results in long, slow, pervasive decline; it's been done with overselling land and poor community connexion; now it's being done with content creators.

The aforementioned content creator group is that tiny subset of people inbetween the "I'm not worrieds" and the "I no longer care because I'm done with SL content forever."

Also, and I hate to say this because I think the content creators are good people... but it's a futile fight. Why? Not because they can't make a difference here. They probably can. Rather, the problem is, Linden is remarkably unrepentant about the whole thing. Their corporate *integrity and character* have been revealed here, and made plain. How many of us wonder: what next?

An overdue service terms reversion won't even begin to fix this. It's about like a kid withdrawing his hand from a cookie jar, when caught red handed. Does that make him a trusted partner again? Not in my book.

Hamlet, anyone seriously contemplating financial exposure to Linden as a strategic partner, can't possibly miss what's gone on here.

[Oink]

It's a Buyer's market, not a Seller's market!

Cinema Class Gaming Industry offers a service to combat Intellectual Property Piracy:

The ESA's Intellectual Property Policy Department serves the public policy needs of video and computer game companies on a variety of domestic and international intellectual property issues

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[Hamlet Au]

"I did not ask him to put that in this article, and he did not tell me he was doing it."

That's correct. As Agenda says, I didn't communicate with her at all about this post, which is only expressing my personal opinion that her -- or for that matter, any other lawyer with her level of experience with SL -- should probably be hired to draft some substantial, legally feasible changes to the ToS. I've changed the post to reflect that opinion more precisely.

[Metacam Oh]

Hamlet, remember the last time users pooled money together to fix something for Linden Lab? Mesh deformer? How's that being implemented?

[anon]

It really doesn't matter. Linden lost "all" (not that they hadn't lost a majority prior) respect of those that took the technology serious at the point of the injunction and combination of the underage world allowed for those 18 and under, and the adult works and world of the main Second Life grid. Nothing left to see after that.

Anon