New Third Party Viewer Policy Runs Into Backlash

 

At the same time as the Beta of its new viewer, Linden Labs also announced a new policy concerning the use of third-party viewers in general, such as the Emerald viewer. The Lindens say they are willing to accept the use of these viewers, though a number are raising questions about the wording of the policy.

The policy was a long list of legalese that this blue collar worker in real-life found hard to understand. Going through the Linden blog, readers expressed similar confusion. Some thought things looked fishy.

Well, not one single instance or version of the 3rd-party clients that I have ever seen or used can meet a strict interpretation of the new rules for an "approved" client, So you have, despite all your noise to the contrary, effectively banned ALL 3rd party clients, as they exist today. At least, banned their use by anyone that plays by the rules. The thieves will still use fake tags and pretend to be an LL-approved copy of Snowglobe and have a field day.

And you know what? LL's OWN CLIENTS can't pass those restrictions!

One of my friends came to me. He thought that the Lindens were making the use of a third party viewer punishable by suspension or ban, and pointed out an entry in the Boy Lane blog. Boy Lane called herself one of the people behind one of the 3rd party viewers, and had this to say:

What happened now however is going way too far beyond a reasonable policy. Besides making some clear statements about content "backup" LL also introduced some funny terms they could not legally enforce previously. Such as not using the generic term "life" which one has to explicitly agree upon by signing LL's new policy.

But unfortunately not all can be labeled "funny". To come to the (at least in my opinion) main point. LL introduced one killer clause:

7. Your Responsibility for Third-Party Viewers
If you are a user or Developer of Third-Party Viewers:

a. You are responsible for all uses you make of Third-Party Viewers, and if you are a Developer, you are also responsible for all Third-Party Viewers that you develop or distribute.


What this means is that a viewer developer has to take (legal) responsibility for any action of any viewer user. That's something GPL specifically allows to exclude, now LL forces such responsibility back to software developers. It is pretty much impossible for anyone to take such a responsibility. Besides many other questionable points this clause renders the whole 3rd party viewer policy unacceptable.

Boy Lane stated she refused to comply with the new policy, and recommended others stop using third party viewers, saying they were risking being banned from Second Life.

Tateru Nino in Massively called the new policy, "the worst day's work that we've seen come out of the Lab to-date. ... the TPV policies have a number of glaring flaws, chief among which are multiple incompatibilities with the existing source licenses, so that you can't actually build and distribute a viewer from the open source code-base while simultaneously being in compliance with the TPV policies. That's quite an astonishing oversight. In fact, not a single release of the source-code made by Linden Lab to date complies with the TPV policies. An unmodified build from the trunk code-base would be violate the policies as they presently stand."

Why were the new policies so poorly written? The question was summed up between comments between Tateru and one of her readers. He thought the Lindens were too proud to admit that their viewer was inferior to that others could build. Tateru thought this wasn't the case, but rather a blunder, wondering if, someone on the legal team just phoned this in half-asleep.

Word is, Soft Linden is writing up a more clear policy. Hopefully this will clear up a good deal of confusion and suspicion, and quiet fears the Lindens are trying to ban third-party viewers without saying so.

To go to the Linden Blog post, Click Here

To go to the comments, Click Here.

Other sources: Massively, Boy Lane

 

Cartoon of the Day

Eye on the Blog: Lindens "to Retire the Current Mentor Volunteer Program"

 

 

Upcoming changes

The company has decided the time to evolve and grow as a volunteer community has come. While the official Mentor Volunteer Program has been an extremely valuable endeavor, its sheer size has made it increasingly difficult to support, and we need to reallocate our resources at the Lab for other Resident-focused programs. We've decided to retire the current Mentor Volunteer program—launching new opportunities for expanded volunteerism within Second Life.

For more information about the close of the Mentor Volunteer Program, please take a look at our FAQ.

We're sad to see the Mentor Volunteer Program go, but we're also excited about new opportunities! Now is the time participate in new offered programs, create your own programs or groups, or simply volunteer on an individual level. On our end, Linden Lab will work even harder to create the framework that highlights your efforts and supports the efforts of even more volunteers—heralding in a more sustainable and more creative phase of volunteerism. Rest assured that we will always want and appreciate volunteers in Second Life!

Announcing two new programs!
Linden Lab is focused on building robust volunteer programs in collaboration with the Residents of Second Life. Not only do we plan to help support their amazing work, but we also want to increase the visibility of their contributions for other Residents to enjoy.

If you're looking to volunteer, here are two Linden-supported programs that might interest you:

1. Second Life Answers. Residents submit questions and other Residents answer them—it's both simple and awesome at the same time. With over 200,000 page views, the Second Life Answers Beta has been a huge success, thanks to our Residents who participated by sharing knowledge, guidance, and friendly support on a wide range of topics in multiple languages. As Second Life Answers continues to grow, it will become even more effective as it attracts even more questions from Residents and more knowledge from our volunteers.

2. Coming Soon: The Resident Help Network (RHN) Beta! This program, which is expected to launch in about a week, will highlight the “best of the best” Resident-run help groups. There's a lot of great information out there among different help groups, and this network is designed to help our Residents find what they need. To apply to be part of the network, help groups must meet a high standard for helping new Residents, maintain over 50 active members, have an established history, produce documentation on how they help, and submit three Resident testimonials. There are more criteria for applicants, which you will be able to read when the blog and wiki information is available at launch. The accepted RHN groups will be listed on the website, featured inworld, and help shape future new Resident experience. We also hope to have an inworld Resident Help Network Fair early next year, so you and other Residents can learn more about the first groups accepted into the network.

Read more in the complete blog post by Lexie Linden Here.

Griefing at Woodbury

'The particle spam you see is from objects owned by Furnation owner Corsi Mousehold
she has been attacking these sims for the past three days
crashing them
lagging them up with particle spam
Harry Linden, head of the g-team has been ignoring abuse reports filed against her'
So our informant told us as we TP'd in to the loudest noise you ever wish to hear honestly I had to remove my headset!
We asked about to try to find out what was happening :
[14:39] zomg Babii: its a mario moshpit, a old PN particle spammer [14:40] JamesT Juno: who - why - what
[14:40] zomg Babii: corsi mousehold, i spoke with her 2 days ago and he threatened the sim
then i found this stash of modules
[14:40] JamesT Juno: and what was going on
[14:41] zomg Babii: it seems that a troll attacked the ark a few days ago, this appears to be a retaliation, pointed in the wrong direction, yes you can quote me
[14:42] zomg Babii: a number of furnation members and furries have also been caught griefing the woodbury sims
[14:42] JamesT Juno: okay - anything you want to add to this ?
[14:43] zomg Babii: the animosity between our two groups is unwanted by woodbury univeristy, as said by our leader
[14:43] zomg Babii: but it seems the furries wish to start fights
[14:44] JamesT Juno: thankyou
_______________________________
[14:34] **** (anonymous): Harry Linden of the g-team wants a grid war and the furries miss the attention
[14:44] JamesT Juno: proof ?
[14:44] ****: Harry Linden and Plexus linden falsely accused me of copybotting a megaprim owned by michael linden
[14:44] ****: michael has never used a megaprim in his life, is opposed to them, harry has been banning the accounts of reformed former griefers trying to harass them into rejoining the PN
Harry needs to impress the new CEO of LL showing his dept needs resources with griefing dying out, his job is less necessary he may have to do real work for a change
______________________________
[14:46] Madelena Rossini: Basically the first I heard of all this was when I got back from dinner in San Francisco on Saturday to be told that the sims had been attacked and that the folks from Furnation were responsible.
Never being one to jump to conclusions I contacted the leader of Furnation, Corsi Mousehold to try and peacefully resolve it.
What I got in response was a torrent of abuse and a promise that our sims would be taken down permanently. He also made death threats against others. I have just come online now to this, so am not fully in the loop.
Madelena Rossini: He also told me to kill myself
__________________________________

Not long after this Corsi Mousehold showed up and and deleted the spamming objects (a huge relief to my ears)
Unfortunately she refused to answer any questions directed towards her and seemed surprised the objects had her name on them as owner :
Corsi Mousehold: I'll be damned. It is listing me as the owner.
[2008/06/16 15:11] Corsi Mousehold: Scout ... Madelena ... I will speak with you alone. Everyone else in this area is now muted.
_______________________________

UPDATE
I just recieved this in my IM:
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I Did not build thoise. I did not rez them.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I have been shit on all weekend from Woodbury.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: My stress level is through the roof and my blood pressure is likely to put me in the F****** HOSPITAL at this point.
[15:36] Corsi Mousehold: Woodbury is known .. WELLL known to harbor the B-tards ... Where the Patriotic Nigras got their founding in Second Life.
[15:37] Corsi Mousehold: All a Patriotic Nigra is, is a B-Tard that wants to take shit personally.
[15:38] Corsi Mousehold: Did you get all that?[15:38] Corsi Mousehold:
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I Did not build thoise. I did not rez them.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I have been shit on all weekend from Woodbury.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: My stress level is through the roof and my blood pressure is likely to put me in the FUCKING HOSPITAL at this point.
[15:36] Corsi Mousehold: Woodbury is known .. WELLL known to harbor the B-tards ... Where the Patriotic Nigras got their founding in Second Life.
[15:37] Corsi Mousehold: All a Patriotic Nigra is, is a B-Tard that wants to take shit personally.
[15:38] Corsi Mousehold: Repost just in case.

DV

Thanks, Lindens

It seems there's been no shortage of troubles in Second Life. Griefers, lagging, blackouts, and all kinds of bugs have plagued the system from the time I first came here. And sometimes I've wondered if the designers, the Lindens, had lost sight of fixing the basics while pursuing fancy new viewers.

But what does one say when a problem that's been with you for months finally disappears?

For as long back I can remember, porting from one region to another had a chance of my avatar not messing up. Everything on me but my clothes would suddenly appear at my midsection, so my head appeared to be up my rear end, my feet were in the front of my pants, etc. It appeared on others, but for a furred avatar like mine, the results were more extreme. I called it "Porting Sickness" or "Motion Sickness." Others had a name for it more to the point, "Headcrotch Syndrome." So quite often, about half the time I ported it seemed, after greeting my friend, I'd say, "Oh, blast. Excuse me a moment, I need to clean up my avie."

It was annoying as heck, and pretty darn inconvenient. Not just for me, but those I went to talk to in-person (or is that in-avatar) other than chat through IM. But there wasn't much I could do about it other than re-rez my avatar and wait. And that's how it went for months.

Then a few days after the new version of the viewer was released, I noticed something. I hadn't had to re-rez my avatar in a while. No porting sickness. When you take a convenience for granted, one certainly realizes when it goes away. A nagging inconvenience that can pop up the next time you travel or not until several times later, well, you may not notice it for some time.

So thanks Lindens, thanks for getting rid of this darn nuisance.

Now, about my friend's inventory issues, could you get rid of the bug that makes her unable to wear her skirts?

Bixyl Shuftan