Tag: SL News

Lab launches Halloween / Dia de los Muertos photo contest L$16K in prizes

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeLinden Lab gets into the Halloween  / Day of the Dead mood with a photo contest which opened to entries at 10:00 SLT on Tuesday October 15th, and will remain open until 17:00 SLT on Friday November 8th.

On offer is a total of L$16,000, with a L$10,000 Grand Prize, and further prizes of L$3,000, L$2,000, L$1,000.

The blog post announcing the contest reads in part:

Every day is dress up day in Second Life, but now is your chance to win some cool prizes for it.

The Second Life Fa-BOO-lous Halloween Snapshot Contest is here! Get your avi ready and show us your best Halloween/Dia de los Muertos themed images.

The post goes on to list some venues where photos for the competition may be taken, as drawn from the Destination Guide.

A photo contest for Halloween ... but be careful what you wish for!
A photo contest for Halloween … but be careful what you wish for! (picture taken at Veil of Darkness – blog post here)

Those entering the competition should submit their snapshots via the contest web page. Winners will be voted on by the community.

The competition page also includes a link to the full competition rules, which people are advised to read prior to entering.

ToS changes: further ripples in the pond – Machinimatrix and Bryn Oh

Posted on by Inara Pey

There are further public ripples in the pond resulting from the August 15th changes to LL’s Terms of Service

Machinimatrix Refocus Terminology on OpenSim

Word is spreading that  the Machinimatrix team are responding to the recent changes to Linden Lab’s Terms of Service (ToS), having issued a blog post on the matter, which reads in part:

Dear customers;

Recently Linden Labs have changed their TOS. First and most important for you:

This has no direct impact on our support and we will continue our offers as before.

However we feel uncomfortable about the change of the TOS and we have made a few moves to support those who no longer have access to Second Life. And finally we have decided to reduce indirect advertisement for the Second Life platform.

The post goes on to state that:

  • Specific changes will see the team introduce a wider range of payment options for their products
  • All web documentation has had references to Second Life replaced by OpenSim, unless a reference is directly relevant to Second Life, in which case it has been replaced by “SL”
  • A top-to-bottom renaming within the Avastar user interface which sees all references to Second Life replaced with references to OpenSim,
  • A similar removal of references to Second Life in the Blender Collada exporter, with references to OpenSim replacing it. Other products within the Machinimatrix

The team also make it clear that in making these changes, no actual functionality has changed within their products.

Bryn Oh Resigns from LEA

Bryn Oh, perhaps once of the most high-profile members of the Linden Endowment for the Arts has publicly resigned from that body.

Having already commented on the revision to Section 2.3 of the ToS, Bryn has now written publicly on the subject from apersonal perspective, and does so quite damningly, highlighting one of the principal issues which has come about as a result of the wording of the section 2.3, noting:

One thing I do in both first life and Second Life is try to convince artists that they and their art are worth something.  You see, artists are quite often taken advantage of.  People will pay a plumber to fix a sink or a roofer to fix a roof because it is a skill they do not possess themselves, and they accept and recognize that.  However, most people also can not paint pictures, yet they will suggest that it would be great “exposure” to put things in their Law Office or Hotel.  When I was just out of art school I was convinced to do 25 pen and ink drawings for an expensive coffee table book.. for “exposure”.  They thanked me in the back of the book.  And somehow I felt like they did me a favour.  They probably paid everyone else but me.

She goes on:

As it stands now I don’t feel comfortable luring artists into creating content for Linden Labs who can pretty much do whatever they want with it.  I will take the risk with my own content but I wont encourage others to do so.  For example, if you developed a revolutionary method for treating people with Schizophrenia by using specific techniques combining art, original music and the virtual space then built or demonstrated it in SL, it would no longer be yours exclusively.  Linden Lab could scoop it up and put their money behind it, while you struggled to promote it from your basement … It is just another indignity artists and thinkers must suffer and I don’t want to be a part of it.

Bryn’s letter makes powerful reading, and underlines the fact that at the end of the day, it doesn’t actually matter why the Lab has seen fit to allow such sweeping statements as found in Section 2.3 of the ToS. It really doesn’t matter if it’s actually down to a short-sighted consequence of trying to combine the Desura Terms of Use with the ToS or whether there is some deeper, darker and hidden meaning people are exhausting time and effort trying to discern.

What actually matters is that the wording, as given in the ToS today, is untenable for many, and with very good reason, and is – as I’ve said before, and Bryn underlines – a further erosion of community / company trust which really should be more directly and clearly addressed by the Lab.

Sadly, and while continuing with efforts to encourage them do so elsewhere, I don’t actually believe they will.

Related Links

LL launch new video – first step in “getting them back”?

Posted on by Inara Pey

Linden Lab has just launched a new promo-style video, together with a blog post, which highlights recent changes and improvements to the platform.

Playing a little on SL’s birthday, the 57-second long piece is a typical sample of recent Second Life video promotions: plenty of fast cuts and beat-laden music. However, the text inserts included with it tend to suggest the target audience is perhaps those who may have tried SL and since wandered away, rather than those who have never tried it at all.

If this is the intended focus of the video, it shouldn’t come as any surprise. Around the time of the 10th Anniversary celebrations, Rod Humble made it clear in a number of interviews with the press, some of which I covered in these pages, that one of his aims has been to try to “win back” those 30+ million people who have tried SL only to walk away; and that it is something that has been on his mind for a good while. It’ll be interesting to see, therefore, if this is a one-off, or the first step in part of a much wider campaign.

Linden Lab launches SL Share and a look at the viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

As spotted by Daniel Voyager earlier in the month, and reported here as a result, the Lab has now officially launched SLShare, which they describe as, “an easy way to share to Facebook while In-world.”

Now, before people start getting all worked-up about Facebook, being “outed” and generally getting knickers knotted, there are a couple of points which need to be understood:

  • SLShare is opt-in. If you don’t want to use it, you don’t have to, you can ignore it
  • SLShare will only work if you actually have a Facebook account – so LL aren’t doing any “sneaky back-door outing” or “forcing” anyone into Facebook.

The blog post announcing the feature reads in part:

SLShare is a new, 100% opt-in Viewer feature that will allow you to easily update your Facebook status, share photos, and check-in from Second Life locations to your Facebook wall.

Whether you’re at a great in-world event and want to let your Facebook friends know where to join you, want to show off a photo of your avatar modeling your latest Marketplace purchase, or just share a thought inspired by your in-world explorations, SLShare makes it easy to share pieces of your Second Life experiences with your Facebook network.

The blog post also notes that the feature “isn’t yet available for everyone”, however, the release candidate viewer with the SLShare capability – version 3.6.7.281331 – can be downloaded via the SL wiki.

If you do opt to manually download the RC viewer, note that it will, by default, overwrite your current release version of the SL viewer (if installed), so please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to avoid this.

As noted in my original report, the Facebook capabilities are contained in a new floater, accessed via Me > Post to Facebook …, which in turn comprises four tabs.

The four tabs of the SLShare floater
The four tabs of the SLShare floater

The tabs are:

  • Status tab:  allows someone to post a text comment via their Facebook account
  • Photo tab: allows someone to upload a snapshot to their FB account. As with the current Profile Feed option in the snapshot floater, the resolution of the image can be selected at upload (minimum 800×600), and an optional SLurl / comment can be included with the image
  • Check-in tab: allows someone to share the SLurl for their current in-world location via Facebook, together with a short comment on the location and a map image if they wish
  • Account Tab: will allow those with a Facebook account to connect their SL account to it for the purposes of posting from SL to Facebook.

The last option will open a browser window allowing a user to log-in to their Facebook account and link their Second Life account to it for posting purposes (this must be done for any of the other tabs to actually communicate with a Facebook account). In addition, to make accessing the floater easier, the viewer introduces a dedicated Facebook toolbar button.

To help explain the new functionality, Torley has produced another of his TuTORials, and there is also a Knowledge Base page explaining the capability and its options.

Again, please remember that this is an opt-in capability, and no-one is being forced to use it. Whether SLShare will evolve to include other social media sharing, or whether additional capabilities for sharing with other social media platforms will be added to the viewer remains to be seen.

In the meantime, SLShare is available via a release candidate viewer, as noted above, and will be progressing as the de facto release viewer in due course.

Related Links

Facebook support coming to the SL viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Eagle-eyed (or given his avatar, should that be owl-eyed? :)) Daniel Voyager spotted a pointer that a degree of Facebook support is coming to the SL viewer for those who already have a Facebook account.

The new capability is called Second Life Share, which is being aimed at the viewer 3.6.6  code base (although it isn#t a part of the latest Materials RC viewer, 3.6.6.280797 released on September 11th).

When it does appear, the capability will be opt-in, an important point to remember. Nothing happens vis-a-vis the viewer and Facebook unless you want it to happen (and you have a Facebook account). It will apparently consist of a new viewer floater, itself comprising a number of tabs:

  • Account Tab: will allow those with a Facebook account to connect their SL account to it for the purposes of posting from SL to Facebook
  • Check-in tab: will allow someone to share the SLurl for their current in-world location via Facebook, together with a short comment on the location and a map image if they wish
  • Status tab:  will allow someone to share a text comment with friends via Facebook
  • Photo tab: will allow someone to upload a snapshot to their FB account. As with the current Profile Feed option in the snapshot floater, the resolution of the image can be selected at upload (minimum 800×600), and an optional SLurl / comment can be included with the image.

Details on the capabilities are outlined in Viewerhelp on the wiki, which also references a new Knowledge Base entry, Second Life Share. Unfortunately, clicking the link generates a 404 error, and a search of the Knowledge Base at the time of writing did not yield and further relevant results. I’ve included the link here in anticipation of the issue being fixed by LL.

Whether the title of the new functionality is “Second Life Share” is indicative that it may be extended to include other social media options remains to be seen. It will also be interesting to see what it might mean for the future of the snapshot floater – if anything at all – if this is the case.

I’ll follow-up on this post once the new functionality is visible.

ToS change and content rights: Lab provides statement

Posted on by Inara Pey

In August 2013 Linden Lab issued a revised Terms of Service which was widely reported upon at the time, including within this blog.

Unfortunately, what seems to have been missed from the analyses of the revised ToS (including my own), is a substantial rewording of the section dealing with granting “Linden Lab certain licenses to your User Content”

Up until the August change, this section (then Section 7.2 of the Terms of Service) stated:

“You agree that by uploading, publishing, or submitting any Content to or through the Servers, Websites, or other areas of the Service, you hereby automatically grant Linden Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicenseable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the Service.”

[my emphasis]

However, as of August 2013, the section (now section 2.3) has been expanded so that it now includes the following statement:

“Except as otherwise described in any Additional Terms (such as a contest’s official rules) which will govern the submission of your User Content, you hereby grant to Linden Lab, and you agree to grant to Linden Lab, the non-exclusive, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, and cost-free right and license to use, copy, record, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, re-sell, sublicense (through multiple levels), modify, display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats, on or through any media, software, formula, or medium now known or hereafter developed, and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed, and to advertise, market, and promote the same.”

[emphasis again mine]

The difference in wording here has been the subject of forum discussions and blog posts, with users raising concerns over the change, specifically the emphasized phrases. I also received a number of IMs and note cards about the change over the weekend, particularly as a result of one supplier of images used for texture uploads to Second Life announcing they could, as of September 6th, no longer allow their work to be uploaded and used within the platform.

Rather than add to speculation already circulating, I contacted Linden Lab directly about the changes to the Terms of Service and the concerns being voiced. The Lab duly replied with the following statement, which I have been given permission to reproduce in full here:

“Recently we updated our Terms of Service to unify the existing terms of service for our various products into a single version. This updated version included a clarification with respect to the specific rights which a user grants to Linden Lab when submitting user-created content (referred to as the ‘Service Content License’) and, except as set forth in any related Linden Lab policies (referred to as ‘Additional Terms’), the right to ‘re-sell’ such user-created content.

“As previously indicated, the updated Terms of Service encompass a wide variety of Linden Lab products and services. We made every effort to incorporate Second Life’s existing policies in a distinct manner. We realize that the general nature of portions of the new Terms of Service may have led some individuals to believe, mistakenly, that Linden Lab was renouncing existing Second Life policies and practices or attempting to expropriate content created by Second Life residents. To that end, we want to further elucidate and reiterate our practice with respect to the Service Content License (and specifically Linden Lab’s right to re-sell user-created content) in Second Life. 

“As an example, Linden Lab’s Second Life Mainland Policies (cited as “Additional Terms” in the updated Terms of Service) have long included Linden Lab’s right to “re-sell or otherwise alter abandoned parcels of SL’s mainland,” including, if and to the extent necessary, any user-created content incorporated into such parcels. Additionally, Linden Lab often acts as an intermediary between Second Life residents (for instance, in its capacity as the operator of the Second Life Marketplace) which necessitates that Linden Lab have certain rights (such as the right to re-sell) in order to effectuate such exchanges or transactions.

“As evidenced by Second Life’s extensive history, functionality and well-documented policies for providing a platform on which users can create and profit from their creations, Linden Lab respects the proprietary rights of Second Life’s content creators. We regret that our intention in revising our Terms of Service to streamline our business may have been misconstrued by some as an attempt to appropriate Second Life residents’ original content. We have no intention of abandoning our deep-rooted dedication to facilitating residents’ ability to create and commercialize such content in Second Life. In fact, we strive to provide Second Life’s residents with evermore opportunities to do so.”

Whether this is enough to quell concerns over the changes to the Terms of Service, or whether it is enough to be seen as acceptable to third-party sites providing content uploads (textures, etc.) to Second Life remains to be seen. However, I would like to thank Linden Lab for taking the time to respond to my request for clarification and feedback in the matter, and for permission to reproduce it here.

With thanks to Toirdealbach McDunnough and Carina Asbrink for initially contacting me about concerns circulating within Second Life about the ToS change.

Related Links