[Opensim-dev] Interrelated difficult problems related to asset portability

[Antti Ilomäki]

Hmm sorry to cut in like this, but I'd like to voice my opinion on a couple of points here.

Kyle: "There are situations where multiple people do have independent right
to sell or distribute precisely the same content without needing
permission of any of the other copyright holders.  Why should the
first one to get the drop on the network get the Sanctioned Right?
How can the system know that the first copy on the network is actually
legitimately there?"

The system would not only include stuff you need to pay for. The creator of an object could release it for public use and it would be categorized as such in the content ID database. Of course there would inevitably be some misuse, but this is where I think the legal entities could step in. The legal entities could also step in in case of infringements in the form of derivative works when and if someone notices that a newly registered object clearly resembles an earlier work. Since the earlier work would already be in the database for comparison purposes and its entry date would precede the derivative work, this kind of matters might actually be solvable.

"The system doesn't know whether something is creative-commons, whether
something is public-domain, whether something is GPL, whether
something is all-rights-reserved.  The system doesn't transmit enough
(cryptographic) evidence of licensure to be able to make any decision.
 The system doesn't know whether the initial uploader is telling the
truth about the license that the work is supposed to be under (for
example, look at the PDF e-books of various public domain things that
Adobe put out that put use restrictions on, such as 'no copying text'
and 'no speaking text'.  The system can't determine whether any given
use is in compliance with any given license.  The system doesn't know
whether the initial uploader is truly the one who is supposed to have
the copyright in the first place.  With all these unknowns, it's
absolutely foolhardy to assume anything about any rights that any
party may have, and I'm rather unenthused about propagating that
error."

The licenses such as public domain or pay-to-use and many variations would be stored in the database and I don't know if the system would actually pay attention to anything else than simply wearing or using an object in a certain server. The initial loader-problem is always there, but there should be fewer of those than there are users of objects. The real problem is who would actually check the objects (for example can a giant dildo have "suitable for kids" in the metadata) to see if they're ok and what they claim to be. For payware stuff it shouldn't be impossible as someone would profit from doing so, but how about public domain stuff? Will have to think about that a bit more.

"er, you just said that the viewer /is/ the correct place to do it, and
now you're saying it doesn't need to?  Remember, the viewer is the
only thing that does cross the grid boundaries.  If we rely on grid
operators to connect to the network solely for the purposes of
copyright notification for purposes of changing their users'
experiences, you can bet that they won't and that they'll disable the
system entirely."

Well in the realXtend architecture the avatar and authentication services cross grid boundaries as well, but I'm not sure those would be the place to implement data checks etc. The motivation for grid runners to use a "DRM" system would be to support the market of virtual goods. And quite probably many of the larger grids that make money from selling stuff to the users (Habbo for example) very well might.

"(I tend to be somewhat libertarian/conservative when it comes to
making systems small and workable.  I don't want to have to pass new
laws to get something to work.  I don't want to waste money or time
designing something that reduces capability.  I don't want to damage
anyone's online experience.  I don't want to impose Yet Another
Limitation.  I just want to do my part to ensure that people who have
intellectual property rights under the current regime can have a bit
of help in reaping the benefits of their work.)"

A worthy goal if I may say.

One thing I'm a bit puzzled with is your vision of court involvment. So far they've been pretty powerless against piracy and that's not tneirely bad, because they'd have to be targeting individual people a lot, and with virtual reality objects you would usually be talking about less $ than in software and films, for example. The professional distribution sites have their servers somewhere far out of the reach of IP laws so they're not a very good target either. Could yo uplease elaborate a little more on your ideas?