[Opensim-users] Free objects (dmu1 and dmu2 .IAR files)

[Karen Palen]

Adam,

While I understand that you are merely trying to be cautious you need to be careful that you are not overreacting.

Remember that the intent of IP laws is to increase the creation of content and the "works" available to all and not to restrict dissemination of legal content.

Those restrictions (e.g. DMCA) are merely a 'means to an end" - the goal is still to increase the content or 'works" available to everyone.

This is why such laws as the DMCA have "safe harbor" and "takedown" procedures for unlawful content rather than requiring and explicit license for all content before use.

Patent law (35 USC, 37 CFR) is founded on the concept of releasing the knowledge of an invention to the "public domain" in return for "an exclusive license to make use or sell the invention for a limited time."

In other words content or "works" must be considered freely available to all unless there is evidence to the contrary. 

This is a vitally important distinction, every bit as important as the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" in criminal law.

In practice the difference is the amount of content that is made available at no charge. IP law has always required that this err on the side of maximizing the legally available content.

By all means lets follow the law, but lets not subvert the law by adding provisions that were never intended!

In other words the content must be considered "public domain" unless there is some evidence that it is restricted in some way.

Karen

--- On Thu, 12/10/09, Frisby, Adam <adam at deepthink.com.au> wrote:

> From: Frisby, Adam <adam at deepthink.com.au>
> Subject: Re: [Opensim-users] Free objects (dmu1 and dmu2 .IAR files)
> To: "opensim-users at lists.berlios.de" <opensim-users at lists.berlios.de>
> Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 6:59 AM
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> Sorry about this – but
> yeah, we need to be fairly careful here
> about respecting IP rights; we have the same problem on
> OSgrid policing
> freebies in the plaza’s – a lot of what people
> think is free content isn’t, so
> it’s better to assume none of it is authorized unless
> explicitly said. 
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> Adam 
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> From: opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de
> [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On
> Behalf Of Americo
> Damasceno
> 
> Sent: Thursday, 10 December 2009 2:34 AM
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> To: opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
> 
> Subject: [Opensim-users] Free objects (dmu1 and dmu2
> .IAR files) 
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> I believe that nobody can know if a
> copied (authorized to
> be) object from another OpenSim region is or is not
> pirated. 
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> But I respect the Adam's arguments
> and I have erased the
> links to the .IAR files. 
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> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
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