[Opensim-dev] Global identifiers

Tue Aug 31 16:11:54 UTC 2010

YES - this is a separate and VERY involved discussion!

As a content creator and retired IP lawyer I share mysticaldemina's concerns
.

However, lets not lose sight of the fact that the underlying legal issues
are far from settled!

Is a "virtual good" an "object" of some sort which is bought and sold, or is
it a "work" which must be licensed, or is it some other animal entirely?

There are courts which have found aspects of all three!

Concepts like "fair use" and "scholarly use" are nowhere near settled for
either software or virtual goods.

There have even been recent attempts to use "copyright infringement" as a
from of censorship!

In the US, the Library of Congress (who administer many aspects of US
copyright law) has issued a policy allowing legal "DRM circumvention" in
certain cases.

The real life fashion industry has totally abandoned the concept of
copyright and accepts "knock offs" as part of their business model. The
economics work out to be very similar to virtual fashions with very much
smaller numbers for both originals and copies.

Finally I note that many new bands are abandoning the "sell copies of our
music" business model and depending on their concert revenues to pay for
their art. Are they any good? Will this work? Who knows? I certainly don't

My point is that any DRM must exist within a framework of laws and must
reflect those laws or it is totally useless.

This issue is far more than "lock the doors firmly to keep the bad guys
out"!

It does need to be discussed (extensively!) but as Melanie points out this
belongs to HG V2.0 planning NOT HG V1.5!

Karen

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 6:23 AM, <mysticaldemina at xrgrid.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As a content creator this concerns me.  I believe if I license my content
> to
> an avatar, and then they go to another grid that any content pulled should
> be from the grid that I have the content loaded into.  I think I should be
> in control of my content.  I also think I should be able to block grids
> that
> my content is being accessed from.  If you don't always maintain the
> original content location there will be no control.  If I give someone a
> copy of my content, then that is something else, they are now the owner of
> it and are free to do as they please with it, at least within any license I
> give them.  But that is a legal stuff not a technically programmed one.  At
> least I don't expect all situations to be programmed.
>
> Also when asset services start happening this will become more of an issue.
> I will have XRMarketplace.com live soon and plan to start selling content
> and provide that content as an asset server.  How will I maintain any kind
> of control over the use of my content if people don't have to pull copies
> from me?
>
> I also think, and haven't seen in the new hypergrid, if someone goes to a
> new grid I may not allow any of my content to go there unless that avatars
> gets an authorization from me which should be attached to his proxy profile
> for access into my grid/asset server.
>
> The other thing to think about is how updates or corrections are
> propagated.
> SL has a terrible system of only supporting copies so any updates or copies
> have to be sent to everyone.  Seems content replacement needs to be
> supported and if content is all over the place this will get even crazier.
> Also to support dynamic content there needs to be a ways to refresh or
> update content.  I suggest there needs to be an expiration date on the
> content just like how images and HTML pages on the web work so that cached
> content will know to pull a new copy.  And if the expiration date is 0, at
> the time it was pulled, it will always get refreshed.
>
> This is maybe should have its own discussion thread but seems to be part of
> how this is all going to work.
>
> M.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
> [mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Ai Austin
> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 4:17 AM
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] Global identifiers
>
> myticaldemina makes a lot of good points... one thing that could be
> problematic though relates to this comment...
>
> >From: <mysticaldemina at xrgrid.com>
> >...I would suggest any
> >proxies would give the external system and identifier and not chain proxy
> to
> >proxy unless there is a reason to do it, and the assets should be copied
> >from the original source.
>
>
> I agree with the first half... no chains, just hand over the external
> system "authority" and its given identifier pair for the identity involved.
>
> But I don't agree at all with the idea that you then have to get the
> asset from that original authority.  The permissions could have
> changed, corruptions could have occurred or much more likely the
> authority simply will no longer be there.  The asset "as is" (with
> its textures, scripted content and what not) should be provided to
> the destination location/grid if the object permissions allow it,
> with proper transfer of the permissions to next owner exactly as if
> an avatar to avatar transfer or rez in world took place on the local
> grid, without trying to reload the asset from an original source.
> .
>
>
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