Second Life – Rights Policy Change

Lately, we have had more articles and videos appearing that deal with or touch on Rights Infringement, theft. Hamlet on New World Notes posted Linden Lab Updates IP Enforcement Policies To Make DMCA Process Stricter.

Back Roads

Back Roads

He points us to a significant warning now included in the Policy statement.

If you are unsure whether you hold rights to a particular work, or whether the content you are reporting is infringing your legal rights, please consult an attorney before filing a DMCA Notice. Please be aware that under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by us or our users, if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing.

I agree with Hamlet the purpose is more to scare than actually bite. But, it certainly opens the door for the Lab to go after those filing frivolous DMCA notices.

Flickr Sharing vs All Rights Reserved

Rights management is complicated. Photo sharing sites are by necessity complicated. Flickr.com has made it as easy as possible to share and manage rights. But, people still mess up, authors and consumers. Especially in an age where people are moving fast and using technology to speed things up.

Nal's Flickr Channel August 2016

Nal’s Flickr Channel August 2016

A point in debate is whether an image placed on Flickr and marked All Rights Reserved can be shared. That is a different question from WHETHER it should be shared.  Continue reading

Project Sansar: The “Oh Crap!” Problem

Hamlet Au writes about the competition that Project Sansar® will be facing. It is an opinion piece. See: Project Sansar Faces Heavy Competition from Major 3D Platforms & Needs “Something Special” to Survive.

Some Bad Habits

Some Bad Habits

A point brought up in the article which I had not thought of is the Linden Lab ToS (Terms of Service). If the same ToS is used for Project Sansar that is in place for Second Life™, some think it could render Project Sansar DOA.  Continue reading

Linden Lab TOS and Creative Commons

I’m bring this up because I saw some people proclaiming we can use Creative Common licensed items within SL and with the Linden Lab Terms of Service (LL TOS). This is an area where people have to sort out intention, time, and who/when complexities to make decisions.

To actually know what one can do in this regard you must consult a licensed intellectual properties attorney and even then you will only get an opinion. Until a judge rules on a matter it is all opinion.

Going back a bit in time, many think the legal panel discussions (UCCSL) in SL revealed we do not grant SL ownership. Their idea is the TOS only APPEARS to do that but not really. Also, that it was never the INTENTION of LL to take ownership.

You can hear the panel discussion (3 hours) from links in my article: Second Life TOS Update 2013-42. Continue reading

TOS Action Steps – Second Life

Many of us are unhappy with the change in Linden Lab’s® Terms of Service (TOS) for Second Life™ and other Linden services. For those that want to know what steps they can take, join the United Content Creators of SL’s (UCCSL) in world group.

The UCCSL recently sent another letter to the Lab and sent out a note card to residents with the steps an SL resident can take to help effect a change in the TOS. I have posted a copy of the text: Continue reading

The Second Life TOS and Impatience

There has been a turn taken in the battle to get the TOS changed. Mostly drama and little productive result that I can see. I’m mostly involved in RL projects the last couple of weeks. I obviously missed something. So, what’s going on?

UCCSL Guild Hall

UCCSL Guild Hall

Hopefully, you know about the TOS change in mid August. It is hard to tell how many people are troubled by the August TOS change. I believe it is a small number. I also think the ones bothered most by the change are the more left brained creative types that can see and understand the impact of the TOS change. I think that more left-brained group is a small part of the creative community. I believe the result from the nature of artists is; the majority of the creative community is just not interested in the TOS change.  Continue reading

Second Life TOS News 2013-43

There is a post in the SL Forum by Toysoldier Thor about a letter Linden Lab® sent in response to the United Content Creators of SL. See: PeterGray @ LL Responds to UCCSL RE: LL TOS Concerns.

There is a point that is obvious to users, which the letter now suggests is the official policy of the Lab. It is the idea they are not going to be debating the merits of the change. They, the Lindens, have been very silent on the subject. You may have noticed that Lindens in general will not discuss the TOS change. I think we can safely speculate that it is official policy for staff to keep silent in regard to TOS.

Peter gray, the PR person for Linden lab, leaves little if any about whether or not the Lab will discuss this issue with users or user groups. Continue reading

Cloud Party TOS

Cloud Party hasn’t said much about their Terms of Service (ToS) lately. That changed as they pointed out the major difference between CP’s and LL’s ToS’s.

See: A quick review of our Terms of Service

This dramatically illustrates what is needed to operate a virtual world service and what a company thinks they can get away with. The free market allows competition. There is usually someone that will cater to people’s desires. In a free system they can do that. In this case CP is hungry for users. So, we ‘users’ get treated better.

I see it as the difference between big established companies verses small start ups. Management has different concerns.