Category: News-Opinion

Linden Lab and content creation (2)

Posted on by Inara Pey

Well, it seems that LL are determined to capture more and more of the market represented by incoming new users. I’ve previously commented on the fact that they appear to be going up against private estate owners by providing prefab sims. Now, with (I’m assuming) huge swathes of Mainland cleared of the “pesky” Adult Content, it seems that Linden Lab are about to effectively bite the collective hand of the Mainland landowners there who feed them through tier, with this announcement, which will provide (quote) content already in place, including busy commercial districts and residential areas.

Given the way Linden Lab has handled land over the last couple of years – yes, the OpenSpace sim debacle is just coming up on the first anniversary of the original hike announcement – this seems a pretty sharp kick in the teeth for those actively engaged in the Mainland market as land owners, as Prokofy Neva lucidly states in response to Courtney Linden’s latest (and totally inappropriately-titled) post on the subject of land.

Whether one agrees with Prok vis-a-vis her comments on FIC-status land barons (although I personally can see this being the case only too easily) one cannot deny that the that fact LL are now moving on both private and Mainland “themed” and “pre-fab” land underlines the fact that the die has been cast as far as Second Life content is concerned and LL’s role here.

If this is the case, one cannot anticipate anything less that the out working of the recently-proposed content roadmap will further the move towards greater control of content (and potentially content creators themselves) by Linden Lab, under the guise of “controlling” the genuine issues around content ripping – in much the same way as the genuine technical issues relating to OpenSpace sim performance was used by LL as a thin excuse for the massive price / tier hikes implemented at the start of 2009. (And I’d point out that those underpinning technical issues still haven’t been fully addressed, 11+ months down the road from the original OpenSpace sim announcement.)

But why are LL making these moves into pre-fab sims, Mainland or otherwise? I don’t for a minute buy the spin that it is to improve the “new user experience” – people have managed perfectly well within Second Life for the last six years without any need for intervention on the part of Linden Land when it has come to the provisioning of land, homes and the like. And as Prok rightly points out – the issue is not one that couldn’t be solved through vetted advertising at infohubs and greeting centres and better-up front information on the options and alternatives people can find as they explore SL.

Can the need to maintain a cashflow be so great that LL are now feeling compelled to enter their own market in direct competition with the people they ostensibly support and enable? Again, that doesn’t read right.

Taken together with the Adult Content moves though, one cannot help but wonder if elements within LL are trying to “sanitise” SL – at least in part. If this is the case, one has to ask why….is it purely to make SL more attractive to “big business”? Last year, Philip Rosedale, speaking at Metanomics made a passing comment that he’d like to see SL and the teen grid (which some regard as an epic fail in and of itself – although whether this is the case or not, I can’t say; I’ve never been there as I’m entirely the wrong age!) at “some point in the future”. Well, the “future” gets closer each day….

Or is it simply because LL are once again moving towards that other chestnut that gets raised from time to time: they’re seeking to IPO Second Life and focus their efforts in technology licencing in terms of the grid technology….?

Speculation is rarely accurate given the traditional lack of information  / feedback / commentary from those within Linden Lab itself – but if I were to be pushed into indicating which of the above scenarios I’d consider to be the case – I’d be edging towards the desire to “sanitise” Second Life in order to make it more attractive to Big Business.

For one thing the other two don’t entirely stand up to close inspection. But, more prevelently, it’s pretty clear that with all the recent blog and other efforts (Amand Linden’s sadly laughable Open Letter to Your Boss, her myraid of other posts relating to SL as a platform of “business” and the oft-promoted “behind the firewall” “solution”), that LL are very much pinning their hopes on “cracking” the commercial market. As such, a more “sanitised” (or “uniform”) approach to mainland development seems to fit the picture. Sadly.

Vitriol “rules”

Posted on by Inara Pey

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.

LL Facing Class Action

Posted on by Inara Pey

SexGen is a well-known name in SL. Go just about anywhere in Zindra, and you’ll see adverts for SexGen beds….so much so, that you’d think that “SexGen” was a generic term.

It’s not. It’s a trademark. It belongs to Eros LLC, operated by Stroker Serpentine – as does the underpinning code and IP relating to objects powered by the SexGen system.

That so many apparent knock-offs of SexGen items thrive in SL points to the endemic nature of content theft in-world – theft which LL are only now resuming efforts to try and make harder, despite having over six years  – plus their pre-launch period – in which to more properly address the matter and try to stay abreast of evolving techniques and capabilities.

Thus, it is unsurprising that Eros has – together with clothing making Nomine – filed a class action against LL for allowing such copyright infringement to run unchecked in SL for so long.

The suit itself makes interesting reading – and has already created a storm of debate on LL’s own blogrum and elsewhere. Certainly, the suit is taking a different tack from other attempts at suing LL. In all it cites twelve individual causes for action against Linden Research, the majority of which relate to deliberate / negligent trademark / copyright violations, but which also extend to breaches of Californian business codes and intentional / negligent interference in economic relations.

The crux of the argument is that Linden Research is benefitting from the inappropriate use of trademarks and copyrighted property in that the infringing  / illegal goods must be sold via in-world land – from which LL benefits in terms of tier payments OR via XStreet – from which LL benefits in terms of the commission they receive on each sale. The argument even extends to ripped textures (particularly relevant in the Nomine side of the action) – wherein LL benefits to the tune of L$10 per ripped texture uploaded. Finally, there is the claim that LL also benefit in that they receive a 3.5% commission on every transaction of illegally-raised L$ transferred out of SL as hard currency.

This is indeed an interesting track to take – and one in which it is hard to see LL being unable to escape any claim they are failing to meet their responsibilities, either deliberately or simply through their own negligence – again, note that the action purposefully differentiates between the two and brings separate causes for each in terms of trademark and copyright infringements against Linden Research. Thus, it is hard to see that “ineptitude” on LL’s part can in any way be proffered as an excuse.

Certainly, the approach calls into question whether Linden Lab will be able to defend itself using the DMCA in much the same way as Veoh has apparently successfully done. But that is not to say the case is by any means open and shut. Take the DMCA and couple it with LL’s own recent announcements on the subject of content protection, their ToS, the fraud protection within Lindex – and one can see that LL may be able to mount a persuasive – to a judge, if not to content creators – defence of their position.

What cannot be dismissed is that should this come to an open trial, it puts Linden Research between a rock and a hard place. Should the case come to court and they lose – then they undermine their self-promoted position as the “safe” virtual platform for “serious” business – which has been touted so very recently by Amanda Linden. If they win, then they risk losing the confidence of every earnest content creator, big or small, already within Second Life.

Thus, either winning or losing the case could irrevocably tarnish Second Life’s reputation as a “serious” platform.

…Which, in a way, is why this may yet end-up as a non-issue, inasmuch as one can see it being quietly resolved out-of-court, which may in turn result in little or no major changes within SL beyond those already roadmapped by LL themselves. Or maybe the fact that the matter is now in the public eye – and being so widely debated – may still encourage LL to be more proactive in dealing with content ripping despite any out-of-court they may reach with Eros / Nomine.

Switch-over today

Posted on by Inara Pey

Today is the day LL “throw the switch”, so to speak, on Adult Content – from today, all commercial / advertised content related to Adult Activities must either be located on the “Adult” continent of Zindra or on a private island sim which has had the Adult Content flag set.

Exactly how much confusion is likely to come out of this has yet to be seen – but my honest opinion is that, despite the wailing, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments by many in the BDSM community, there won’t actually be very much confusion at all and that life with more-or-less go on as normal.

I say this because, despite LL’s truly abysmal handling of the entire affair in terms of the lack of clear-cut announcements, bringing the changes to the attention of the community as a whole, the confusion evident within their own ranks (Cyn, Jack, Blondin all issuing contradictory statements at one time or another – or even at the same “press conference”), the unwillingness to engage more directly with those with genuine concerns (who admittedly had themselves to fight against a wealth of misinformation circulating within the BDSM community relating to things such as Age Verification, and who were frequently shouted down as a result)….the fact remains the those who will be most affected by the changes are now sufficiently aware of the changes – thanks to the BDSM commuity itself – that the “flicking of the switch” will barely affect them.

And that’s perhaps the saddest part of these changes: not so much that they had to be made (I’ve never actually had much against the changes in principle) but in the fact that despite the utter ham-fisted manner in which LL executed the entire “programme” the overall lack of confusion will cause those most responsible for the repeated blunders of communication, understanding and implementation within LL to give themselves a self congratulatory pat on the back and walk away in the mistaken belief that, despite all the naysayers, they clearly did “communicate” “clearly” and they obviously “listened” to the user community – and therefore see little reason to change how they “manage” such interactions in the future.

One thing I did find interesting in a quick-fire trip around Zindra some 24 hours before the switch-over was the large number of “Mature” rated sims their that were still attracting relatively new avatars (less than 3 months old) with NPIOF. Now, granted said avatars may have been age verified, but I do have my doubts as to whether they are – and the fact that they were happily enduring the already noticable lag on Zindra suggests that there will at least be some confusion after today, as people find their way barred to places they’d visited 24 hours before. Or maybe I’m doing them a disservice, and they’re aware of the changes and were making a quick “last visit” before the doors closed…

LL and Content

Posted on by Inara Pey

Way back in the mists of time – during the OpenSpace farago, to be precise, a number of people, myself included, wondered if Linden Lab weren’t considering a shift from merely supplying land to moving complete, ready-to-occupy prefab sims. Anne O’Toole actually gave voice to our concerns, as I mentioned in a past blog.

Now, in the latest from Linden Lab we find that the idea of the pre-fabricated sim direct from Linden Lab is actually about to become a reality. In amongst all the gloss of Torley’s video and the PR department’s carefully-compiled script is this nugget, commencing at 1:13 in the video: “We’ve also completely redesigned the land store experience to make to make it easier to use and understand. We’ve launched themed private regions which are ready to move into after purchase…” (my italics for emphasis).

Exactly what form these “themed private regions” will take is unclear – but I’ll frankly be surprised if they are not Homesteads – even if this does mean a shift in LL’s current policy that Homesteads can only be purchased by those owning at least one full sim. I’d even be prepared to wager that should this be the case, the policy will be revised so that those with a premium account will be eligible to purchase such “themed private regions”.  But – Homestead or full sims, this move (however it might be dressed up) marks a substantial shift for linden Lab, bringing them into direct competition with both private estate owners and content creators.

Perhaps this is also why Linden Lab is now seemingly keen to engage with the major land barons on the question of Mainland development, zoning  – and even perhaps future management(?) – as recently reported upon by Prokofy Neva. Taken together, these two moves are anything but coincidental – the one (Mainland zoning deals) smacks very much of sweetening the other (selling pre-fabricated private regions) and making it easier for the big land barons to accept.

Beyond this is a further spectre. Jack Linden has made no secret of the fact that Linden Lab are looking to create “partnerships” with those using Second Life who meet some pre-ordained criteria (details of which are unclear beyond the fact that anyone engaged in “Mature” (will that be “Adult” now?) activities are precluded from such partnerships). So…following-on from this, will we yet see certain content providers elevated to special status, able to supply houses and builds for these new “themed private regions” while lesser mortals are effectively locked out?

Indeed, are we starting down the road towards Second Life becoming an environment much like the much-hyped Blue Mars appears to designed as – where all content creators must in some way be “licenced” by LL in order to operate fully and effectively in-world?

I know it sounds outrageous to say this now….and I hope I am reading far too much into things. However, then you take this latest (somewhat buried) announcement with the likes of Jack’ comments in seeking partnerships and LL’s recent acquisition and rebranding of SL Exchange, one has to admit the paradigm seems to be shifting – and control could well be the name of the game. Certainly, it could be argued that reining-in content creation through the control of outlets and in a possible “licencing / partnership” arrangement with the Favoured Few in SL may well be the “simplest” long-term solution to the twin issues of IP protection and convincing the corporate world that SL is a “safe” place to “do business”.

Time will tell, as they say.

Kudos to Rezzable

Posted on by Inara Pey

I recently took RightasRain Rimbaud to task over his proposals regarding Builderbot – not so much for the tool itself, I openly agree that is has a potential use – but in the manner in which he initially proposed releasing the tool into the open source environment sans any means of protecting people’s content, and then attempting to justify the original decision in the face of a strong backlash from the content creations community.

Following my post, RightasRain responded to my post, claiming I was somewhat out-of-date in the matter. This was a hard thing to verify, as at the time no official statement had come from Rezzable on the matter, other than vague platitudes from RightasRain that they may well review the situation.

Well, the good news is – and after I challenged RightasRain to put something in writing – it appears the decision has been made and it is the right one. Kudos go to Rezzable for this, and for RightasRain for putting it in writing – albeit 5 days after his comment on my blog.

Ensuring the permissions are maintained is, currently, the only means of coming close to “protecting” people’s own creations in Second Life – and it matters not whether illegal copying is always (to use RightasRain’s words) “gonna be out there”. If you want to put a capable tool out into the environment, then at least take the reasonable step of ensuring that the chances of it being abused are minimal.

Rezzable are now doing that – and while one could argue  that, whether they asked the question or not at the start, they could have averted the level of aggravation / concern shown by simply taking this step from the start – this is really now beside the point, and they should be congratulated for acting both wisely and positively in response to concerns if they are indeed to release the tool.

RightasRain should also be congratulated on clarifying points of concern within his post, as he does in his reply to Saffia Widdershin’s comment following the blog entry.

Do these steps elminate the risk of copy ripping – no. Do they put BuilderBot on a par with Second Inventory (which, to use RightasRain’s words, is used “without a lot of drama” simply because it does offer such protection) – then yes, and this is really what people wanted.

So again, kudos to Rezzable and RightasRain for taking the right steps.