Day: May 26, 2009

Maybe I *am* a cynic, but…

Posted on by Inara Pey

Jack Linden’s latest post on Homestead tier rates makes interesting reading.

In it,  we are informed in glowing terms as to how “Linden Lab’s business remains strong and our revenues are healthy”, so that they can now very kindly “forego the planned homestead price increase in July for one year and also Grandfather tier on Homsteads to the current $95 USD/month”.

Of course, there is a catch: this very “kind” offer is limited to all Homesteads currently operating on the Grid, and those purchased or reactivated before July 1st 2009.  Anyone attempting to buy a Homstead after that date will still get whacked with a hefty purchase price increase and a tier hike to $125 USD/month.

Worse still, anyone who abandoned their OS sim prior to January 1st gets no benefit either – as the offer to reactive sims at no charge doesn’t go back beyond that date, despite the fact many surrendered their sims prior to the end of 2008 because Jack (and others in Linden Lab) stated categorically that Grandfathering was not, and would not be an option. Period.

But even so, at least LL are making an effort, and that should be applauded, surely?

Well, actually no. This “good news” (as Jack has the barefaced cheek to call it) is nothing short of again gaming the land-owning community within Second Life. Why? Well, because:

A) The subject of Grandfathering was first raised back when the whole OpenSpace / Homestead debacle came up at the back end of 2008, and was given exceptionally short shift by Jack himself. It simply wasn’t an option. Now, suddenly it is. So why the shift? One can only assume it is because Grandfathering always was on the cards, but Jack and Co simply wanted to keep this card up their shelves, knowing that if they play it a lot closer to the announced July 1st additional hike in Homestead pricing / tier they could spin things into looking like they are doing people a favour and possibly encourage those who simply abandoned their old OpenSpace sims at the end of 2008 into reclaiming them.

B) If LL are doing so well, with a “strong” business and “healthy” revenues, one has to ask why Homestead tiers are being Grandfathered at all…why not simply announce that the planned price / tier increase has been completely abandoned for the foreseeable future?

Such an announcement would be worthy of note: it would genuinely demonstrate that Linden Lab are prepared to stop profiteering and put user interests first for once. Furthermore, it would potentially make far more enconomic sense over time. After all, what is likely to generate more income:

  • A 6-week opportunistic attempt to artificially bolster Homestead sales before their price / tier makes them economically unviable
  • Maintaining prices & tier at least a further 12 months, thereby keeping Homestead sims on the cusp of profitability for land owners & thus encouraging their continued purchase over a much longer period of time.

But what of those already with homestead sims – surely this is a boon to them, as they are no longer facing a $30 USD/month tier hike on their sims ($360 a year). Well, yes it is – if one assumes that the July 1st tier hike was going to be applied as originally stated. As I’ve said above, I really don’t think this was the case. I think Jack and his gang always intended to offer Grandfathering in this manner. Thus any perceived “saving” is just that: perceived, not actual. so any thanks given  for the “move” in policy is potentially premature.

Age verification – the facts

Posted on by Inara Pey

In order to try and clear up some confusion and misconceptions relating the the upcoming Adult Content changes within Second Life, particularly around the question of age verification, I put out a NC to friends and members of my personal Group in-world recently, and thought it would be a good idea to reproduce (and expand) upon it here.

Why is Verification Required?

Because Linden Lab is making substantial changes to the way in which Second Life operates, particularly in reference to “adult content”. The details can be found elsewhere, however for the purposes of this blog entry, suffice it to say that part of the changes will result in land – and the sim level – gaining two new flags “Adult” and “Age Verified” and changes to filter-out “adult” material from SL in-world searches.

What kinds of Verification are there?

Blondin Linden, in replying to questions from Couldbe Yue, indicates there will be two means of being verified, and that for the moment it would appear to be an “either / or” situation:

  • Account verification requires a user to have payment information on file (PIOF) or Payment information used (PIU) in-world, or have given their payment details to XStreetSL. This will be sufficient to provide access to all adult-related content with the exception of land flagged with Age Verification.
  • Age verification requires (as it always has) verification via the Integrity Aristotle system. This will provide access to all adult content within SL, including land flagged as requiring Age Verification.

There are a couple of flaws in this arrangement that may yet lead to changes:

  • Some credit card companies (e.g Visa) have effectively decoupled age verification from their criteria and terms of use. So the use of credit card details as a verification of age is potentially problematical for Linden Lab going forward as Visa (the largest supplier of credit cards in the world) now give no guarantee as to the age of card users
  • The “Age verification” flag appears to be down to the land owner to set; it is difficult to see many situations where this will be the case, as few will likely want to put users off of visiting their land by making them go through the Aristotle Integrity verification process.

So it is entirely possible things may further change between now and the end of June.

The Age Verification Process

The only means at present of age verification is via Aristotle Integrity using the Age Verification link on your My Account page of the SecondLife website. While there are concerns – rightly so – about the system’s ability to verify accurate / inaccurate information & whether it is actually an effective means of ring-fencing a service, I don’t intend to enter that debate. All I’d like to do here is clear up a few misconceptions relating to the service that seem to be circulating.

  • “Aristotle breaks EU law”. No. Integrity is used in every major country in the the EU. Of the top 10 countries employing the software, 6 are EU nations: UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain
  • “The information is US-centric and doesn’t apply anywhere else”. No. Set your country of origin when completing the form, and then select the verification criteria applicable to your country
  • “You don’t know what information is being stored / datamined”. Linden Lab state outright that no personal information is stored by either Linden Lab or Aristotle-Integrity, the only caveat being “that [which] is required by law, i.e. pursuant to a law enforcement investigation and proper legal process”

Things (good and bad) to bear in mind:

  • The system is currently accepted by some 152 countries worldwide as a “safe” means of verification
  • The process is a simple secure system to secure system check. The data you provide is ostensibly validated against government-held information relating to you. This does not result in further information relating to you being passed by Integrity or any information about you being passed to Linden Lab. It results in a simple “tick-in-the-box” that you are age verified
  • While Aristotle as a company have had certification under the EU / US Safe Harbour data policy, the certification is currently listed as not current
  • It’s pretty easy to fool the system – Elvis Presley appears to be one of the most frequently-verified people to have used Integrity.

Yes, there are broader concerns relating to Aristole as a company and the use of more detailed information it captures. But again, these need to be balanced against several factors, including a) the actual information being asked for as a part of this verification process, and b) the systems referred to in articles such as the Vanity Fair link relate not to Integrity, but to Aristotle’s other products.

But – if you are concerned, there is an easy answer: don’t use Age Verification; it is very probable that the majority of “Adult” access will be set to “Account Verified” rather than “Age Verified” – at least initially.

Hope this clears things up a little!