Second Life Recognizes IP Of User-Created Objects 190
Thanks to TerraNova for pointing to a Yahoo press release revealing that "online world" Second Life now recognizes the ownership of in-world content made by subscribers. According to the press release, "The revised TOS allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs." As well as this, "Second Life has committed to exploring technologies to make it easy for creators to license their content under Creative Commons licenses", but, while these CC licenses are still being discussed, questions about the just-implemented IP issues are addressed at an official FAQ page on the Second Life site.
This is the first MMORPG I've been tempted to play (Score:5, Interesting)
Really neat stuff. It lets average people get a feel for what programming is like in a MMO environment. So the fact that they recognize your stake in what you create is meaningful, given that you aren't just repositioning in-game objects but actually designing your own stuff to entertain others in the game. I may actually have to give it a try now, although the folks that get a little too into these things have made me leery of doing so to this point.
clothing business in cyberspace? (Score:4, Interesting)
i can't wait until people start trading real money if they can... i can see some name brand clothing retailers buying accounts and creating officially licensed clothing for the game...
Nobody can create an idea. (Score:2, Interesting)
Weird requirments (Score:3, Interesting)
Well that was fun while it lasted
A brief on SL economy/rules (Score:5, Interesting)
Every week you get a stipend, of roughly L$1000, which will never increase your account balance beyond $3500. To gain more money than that, you have to earn it. One way of earning L$ is to sell things, such as clothes, models, or scripts.
Unless you figure out an exploit, you cannot steal anyone's things. Every note, script and object you create has a list of permissions, such as copyable, modifiable, moveable, buyable.
In most of the SL world, you cannot hurt anyone. In the areas where you can be hurt, if you die, all that happens is you get teleported home. That's it.
You don't have to worry about someone beating you up and robbing you
My favorite thing about SL is the scripting language. Like Hiro in snow crash. You can literally click an object in the game, and bring up the scripting code in a window, and start futzing with it. This is a really good toy version of the metaverse
Re:I can do anything? (Score:2, Interesting)
People can have homes (oft built by the player), they can lock the doors (using player built locking scripts), and if you're especially motivated you can probably find a way around the scripts.
However, objects in the world have permissions so that if the owner says noone can take an object, you cannot take it regardless of them leaving their door open.
As for defiling other avatars, that (along with most anything illegal in the real world) violates their terms of service. There have been instances of harassment leading to expulsion.
Killing on the other hand is possible in any damage-enabled area. It's not as satisfying as you'd think though. The avatar is simply teleported home. Also, obnoxiously annoying people in any way could probably be considered harassment and the authorities are pretty good at maintaining order. Not to mention the internal system... if you're a dick, you're rated down (and possibly banned from people's land). If you're rated down you don't get as much money. If you don't get as much money, you don't get to do as much stuff. The game becomes less fun for a-holes and idiots.
Re:Wow... (Score:1, Interesting)
I was quite surprised though when I found myself actually enjoying the game. Oh sure, it's not your hack-n-slash, beat em up, kill em all, find the dragon, do the quest, type game, but it is the type of game I always wondered about, it's what I call a "Sandbox".
Basically LindenLab's has created the world, but they've given the players the tools (the exact same tools they use) to build and script, thereby giving players the ability to really change the world. Linden Labs may have created this world, but it's the players to build.
Not only have I found it extremely enjoyable to build my own home, but I have also enjoyed the challenge of learning the scripting language to make my objects react, act, and do things I want them to do. You can have your front door react to every user that comes to it by sending the user a message that says, "Hi Player X, welcome to my home", or if you get really good at the scripting, you can make your own spaceship and "abduct" people.
While this may not be the action/rpg game like Star Wars is, I find it refreshing on the level that you, the player, are the one that makes the world go round. If you want to hold an event, to find the Holy Grail, great! Go make the Grail, hide it where you want, and start the event. The best part is, LindenLab's understands that they need to keep their players happy. When you run an "official event" you will get $500 Linden-Dollars to give out as rewards. The only thing that comes out of your pocket, is time.
Why not head over to SecondLife and give it a try. It comes with a 5 day free trial.
2nd Life Sourceforge? (Score:2, Interesting)
How about a 2nd Life virtual machine for running 2nd Life code on my Gnome desktop? How long before we move that desktop *inside* 2nd Life, for development teams?
Re:As a Second Life player, I applaud this. (Score:2, Interesting)
By doing this they have also made it quite difficult or impossible for a vast amount of people to also create things.
Re:A brief on SL economy/rules (Score:3, Interesting)
As a further note, L$3500 is a decent sum, but not vast riches either. As an example, buying an article of clothing from someone else can vary from anywhere around L$20 to L$500, depending on how prim-heavy the clothing is and how much the seller thinks they can get away with. Things like flying cars can cost L$1000 or more. But L$3500 and the stipend are enough to keep you comfortable and buying interesting things without having to build or sell a single thing if you don't want to.. while at the same time, if you want to create something really ambitious, then you have to have some sort of 'business' to make up for the taxes you'll be charged.
Re:IP as in Copyright not Networking (Score:3, Interesting)
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
this link
for more information.
So while I appreciate the link to acronyms, I am rather relieved that it hasn't made it yet.
Like those people who "google" for things. There are many more ways to search the internet then google.com, and much more to the internet then what can be seen via port 80. Google is a trademark, not a verb. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for that word to disappear when Google goes the way of Altavista.
Re:Wow... (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, I actually dug out my WinXP Laptop and gave it a shot. And know what: Yes, it's dead-boring.
Certainly some interesting playground for the developers but not for the players...
It looks like a bad experimental 3d-engine with some very-limited scripting language tacked on top. Not even close to a "game". No concept, no gameplay, NOTHING.
You basically just mess around with it to run into its constraints every 5 minutes.
Then when you've realized how limited it is (took me about 40mins) you'll just drop it like a hot potatoe and release a big yawn cuz there's nothing left to do.
Oh yea and there's not even a linux version.
(as if that poor 3d engine required any exciting directX stunts...)
They're hardly the first (Score:3, Interesting)
Copyrights for any original works made by Content Providers belong to them, or jointly to them and Dragon's Eye if their work is based on Furcadia artwork or other content to the extent that it constitutes a 'derivative work' under current laws. By uploading their original work and/or derivative work to Furcadia, Content Providers automatically grant their permission for other players to use the Furcadia software to view and experience those works, a process in which the software may download copies of the works to the viewer's computer for viewing. In addition, the act of uploading grants Dragon's Eye license to redistribute the work in other formats or on other media that the software may support in the future, and to redistribute it in any way that it deems beneficial towards the goal of promoting Furcadia to the general public. Content Providers recognize and acknowledge that making their content available for other players to view and use incurs a certain amount of risk that some of those players may use, modify, or distribute that content in unauthorized ways which may infringe on the copyrights of the Content Provider. Each Content Provider agrees that they assume the entire risk of such infringement when they choose to upload, that they indemnify Dragon's Eye from any liability resulting from such infringement by third parties, that Dragon's Eye assumes no responsibility for taking punitive or corrective actions against such copyright violators, and that the Content Provider will pursue any and all remedies for such infringements on their own, whether these consist of requesting the infringer to cease and desist, filing a civil lawsuit against the infringer, or any other measures. In the event that a Content Provider chooses to file suit on a copyright infringement matter, Dragon's Eye agrees to provide any requested information regarding the transfer or use of the content involved that it may have in its records in a timely fashion.
I suspect that games like Regenesis and Alpha World were treating user created artwork and such as belonging to the user before we were, though I never actually read their license agreements.