That is awesome to read, Crista. It is what I suspected, but even better.<br><br>Daniel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Cristina Videira Lopes <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lopes@ics.uci.edu">lopes@ics.uci.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">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.<div>
<div><br></div><div><div><div>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. </div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Contributions_Policy" target="_blank">http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Contributions_Policy</a></div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div>On Sep 30, 2010, at 4:07 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:</div>
<br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Melanie <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:melanie@t-data.com" target="_blank">melanie@t-data.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> I can't see MS continuing with OpenSource viewers, and I can't see<br> them supporting any platform other than Windows for the closed<br>
viewer they would come up with.<br> <br> I would most certainly liquidate my assets and leave if that were<br> happening.<br> <br> Melanie<br> <div><br><br></div></blockquote><div><br><br>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.<br>
<br>Daniel <br></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Daniel Smith - Sonoma County, California<br><a href="http://daniel.org/resume" target="_blank">http://daniel.org/resume</a><br><br></div></div><div class="im"> _______________________________________________<br>
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