It seems that nothing much can happen in Second Life without at least one sector of the community responding with misplaced and vitriolic posts. We saw it with the OpenSpace debacle, and again with the Adult Change situation, where people opted to pour scorn and derision on both Linden Lab & those trying to encourage more engagement on both subjects, rather than join in sensible debate.
And, if I’m honest – and I do try to be – at times I’ve been guilty of the same.
But the level of vitriolic (and largely unfounded) statements and backbiting some have entered into with regards to the Eros / Nomine class action against Linden Research that is evident on the blogrum really take things to a new low.
Leaving aside most of those issuing forth with spite / outright hatred towards Stroker and Munchflower have, in reading their posts, either failed to read the documentation relating to the action or had a failure of comprehension about what the papers are actually stating – I’m stunned at the degree of petty jealousy towards Stroker as a businessman that is inherent in many of these responses. Particularly when these same individuals would otherwise have us believe that they are “mature”, “professional” “business people”.
And yes, Stroker is a businessman; he’s sought to establish a professional presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and strive. It matters not whether the content of his business is of the kind LL themselves would like to actively promote – he has played by their rules and made a success. And like any successful businessman, he has every right to defend both the position his company is in, and the trademarks, IP, etc., invested in the products that business sells – regardless of whether the products are virtual or real.
Note I say, “he’s sought to establish a presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and thrive….” This is important, because it seems to be the point that many of those pushing out angry blogrum comments aimed at Stroker (and to a lesser extent Munchflower) seem to overlook.
Linden Lab promote Second Life as an environment in which real businesses producing genuine products – be they quantified in terms of physical prims, scripts and textures sold to other residents, or skills and abilities provided to others in terms of consultancy or expertise that results in in-world creations.
As such, Linden Lab does have certain responsibilities for in ensuring the environment in which they actively encourage others to engage in commercial activities is as secure as it can possibly be when it comes to protecting the goods and services provided by those entering the environment.
And the bottom line is that Linden Lab did little to prevent the emergence of tools such as Copybot (which came about prior to open-sourcing the viewer) and have done next to nothing to prevent its continued use – other than adding a somewhat woolly statement to the ToS against its “misuse”.
And while they have constantly promised to tighten-up things within SL, the fact remains that right now, six years down the road from SL’s launch, all we really have is a “roadmap” that the company is considering in order to “improve” things. A roadmap that is in itself somewhat questionable in its end goal – and which could be potentially far more “damaging” to the overall state of “free” commerce in SL than the action being brought by Eros / Nomine.
Thus, to suggest that Stroker and Munchflower are acting out of “greed”, or that they are risking the “status quo” of commerce in SL is at best misplaced sentiments – the issue does, whether people like it or not, go much deeper than this.
Which is why I can only – for one of the few times in my life – thank Prokofy Neva for posting one of the most lucid, intelligent and positive comments on the matter. For all her faults, Prokofy has a knack for getting to the heart of a matter – whether one likes or deplores her more usual style of posting.
In this reply she hits every pertinent nail on the head and – and I say this with hand on heart – echoes many of the thoughts I’ve been having around the timing of this action and the possible underlying motives. The difference is, she’s put words around the possible reasons far more clearly than I could have managed (and indeed, I did attempt to post my thoughts on possible “conspiracies” yesterday, but gave up due to lack of clarity of thought).
But…whether or not there is much more to this matter than meets the eye, whether the plaintiffs may in fact be “in league” with elements within Linden Lab itself…is currently so much speculation. What Prokofy Neva has done – I hope – is re-focus the discussion on what should be under discussion – the potential outcome of this situation in terms of commerce as a whole in SL, and what responsible merchants should be looking to achieve in order to prevent many businesses from finding themselves out in the cold as a result of changes forthcoming either as a result of this suit or Linden Lab’s own “roadmap”.
So, let’s knock it with the idiotic and irrelevant arguments that we “shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us” – again, for the reasons I’ve mentioned above – or that this suit is akin to someone suing the automotive industry for all car accidents – perhaps one of the silliest responses I’ve read on the matter. We may no all agree with the action Eros / Nomine have taken, and we all have a right to be concerned at the possible outcomes….
….But let’s at least try to be civil in discussing things, and mature in our dealings with one another.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 