[Opensim-dev] If MIcrosoft buys LL, impact on OpenSIm?

[Cristina Videira Lopes]

The OpenSimulator project has absolutely nothing to do with Linden  
Lab, aside from the fact that it includes one plugin that implements  
the protocol that their open-sourced viewer understands. In the  
extreme worst case scenario, if code in OpenSim was proven to come  
from the GPL viewer, OpenSim would have to be re-licensed as GPL --  
that's the worst that could conceivably happen (and I bet some would  
think that wouldn't be a bad thing). But, due to the project's strict  
contribution policy [1], we have no code based on the LL viewer and  
derived  viewers, and we also have no code from anyone who has been  
exposed to Linden Lab servers. So that worst case scenario is beyond  
the realm of possibility.

This is not to say that a future buyer of Linden Lab would never, ever  
try to stop an open source project from getting in the way  of their  
product. They might. I doubt Microsoft would do that, but there are  
companies much worse than Microsoft.

That's why we have that very strict contribution policy in place. If  
the future owner of Second Life would try scare tactics on the  
project, they might scare people, but they wouldn't get very far,  
because they would have no case. Unlike Blizzard and others, Linden  
Lab went public with their protocol and encouraged people to use and  
extend it. We should thank them for that (it's a huge liability from  
the point of view of being acquired by others) and wish them the best  
to recover from the bad time they've had recently.

[1] http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Contributions_Policy

On Sep 30, 2010, at 4:07 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Melanie <melanie at t-data.com> wrote:
> I can't see MS continuing with OpenSource viewers, and I can't see
> them supporting any platform other than Windows for the closed
> viewer they would come up with.
>
> I would most certainly liquidate my assets and leave if that were
> happening.
>
> Melanie
>
>
>
>
> The core thing I care about is not so much what MS would do with  
> SL....  I just dont want to see them trying to do anything to  
> OpenSim.  It's all speculaton, of course.   Recent events (Oracle,  
> and what they are doing to Sun/Java/Google) prompt my question.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> -- 
> Daniel Smith - Sonoma County, California
> http://daniel.org/resume
>
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