[Opensim-dev] oddities with asset storage

[Tommi Laukkanen]

I have to admit I did not consider this through before posting. Still after
reflecting on it a bit I am thinking that we might need to consider this
from practical view point. Usually all copy right enforcing software is
cracked in no time and open source is especially vulnerable. So I would
state that if you can copy something say to your inventory or wear it you
can copy all dependencies to your asset provider. If someone resells
your assets or breaks your license in some other way you need to sue them
which is in reality only real protection for any immaterial rights.

Please note that if someone can even observe any asset in a viewer it is
trivial to write a version of that viewer which will make local copies of
anything you want. It might not be trivial for end user but cracked versions
would be soon available in internet. We can not even defend against that as
our software is open source and modifications are legit. Even those allowing
for local copies. I don't think legislation in any country forbits you from
saving a stream or image to your local disk even if it is copyrighted. It
becomes illegal if you break the license by for example redistributing
or selling. Instead of starting a fight we can not win we should make a
clean way to mark licensing and copyrights to all assets and leave it to the
morale of the users and legal systems.

regards,
Tommi
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