[Opensim-users] Announcement of inventory tool (MyInventory), mostly of interest to grid operators/grid nauts

Thu Nov 15 11:17:14 UTC 2012

I'm not terribly familiar with copybot, I've heard the name, but I don't
really know the mechanics behind it.

There is no doubt that there exists valid reasons for restricting what
content the users have in their inventories, a themed grid, like the one
you mention or educational grids spring to mind immediately.

I would suggest you deny access to MyInventory based on the channel,
MyInventory will always identify itself as MyInventory, however since this
is an open source project, people who know a bit about coding can easily
spoof the channel name.

I knew from the outset that this project would stir some controversy since
most content providers still rely on the same pattern of distribution and
income as record labels did back in the zero'es. MyInventory was developed
with this unworkable business model in mind. A quick search will reveal
that there is an abundance of very sophisticated tools available for
ripping assets from SL, I doubt that a backup tool will change the overall
problem in any significant way.

Although IANAL, it seems clear to me that the general rule will be that
users have a right to backup and use their licensed assets in any means
that suits them, as long as they do not violate the copyrights. So in
short, this project grants the legitimate users access to a tool that will
help them in daily frustrations, and the "blackhatters" and rip-artists
already have all the tools they need.

Second, this tool isn't really intended for Linden Lab's grids, although
due to similarities of the protocols it can be used on their grids. There
is a lot of content floating around in .iar files and general downloads,
which cannot be used by ordinary users, simply because you need to run a
grid or a simulator to be able to use this content.

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 11:32 AM, InuYasha Meiji
<inuyasha.meiji at gmail.com>wrote:

> Sorry, this is what I get for writing email at 5:31am.  So you are saying
> I would have to give you the gridinventory service link in order to choose
> to suport this service.  Ok then I guess I am goo dfor now, just won't give
> that info out.  Sorry I got confused.
>
> Inu.
>
>
>
> On 11/15/2012 4:44 AM, Snowcrash Short wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> I've been working on a client side tool for decentralizing user
>> inventories, which I will release as an open source tool in two weeks, some
>> of the features may be relevant to grid operators.
>>
>> The basic premise of the tool is that the inventory and the backing
>> assets of the inventory items really should be controlled by the user. The
>> tool is born out of a frustration of having visited a number of grids. Each
>> visit to a new grid presents me with an empty inventory, and I can then
>> spend time searching for suitable item, clothing, attachments and other
>> accessories.
>>
>> For this purpose I have created a tool which will allow me to backup my
>> inventory to a local cache and then upload the contents to another grid.
>>
>> If my tool becomes popular, both the upload and download mechanisms may
>> have some impact on the grid-operators, hence this email to serve as a
>> notice.
>>
>> The basic architecture is pretty simple, consisting of a number of import
>> agents, which can import the users inventory and backing assets to a local
>> database, and a number of upload agents which can upload inventory content
>> to a specific account.
>>
>> Backup/Import
>> There are two import agents, one which will import .iar files and one
>> which works very much like I believe "Stored Inventory" works, which can
>> backup the inventory of an avatars inventory. Avatar backup/Import is
>> governed by a policy. Currently there are two policies, one complying with
>> a very restrictive interpretation of the Linden Labs policy on backups, and
>> a completely unrestricted policy, where anything that can be downloaded
>> will be downloaded.
>>
>> When a new account is registered in MyInventory it checks if the account
>> is for a Linden Lab grid and limits the choices of policies to policies
>> suitable for LL's TOS, I cannot and do not know if other grids have similar
>> policies, I can well imagine that Avination has a similar restrictions, and
>> would like similar logic implemented to restrict the download. Any grid
>> operator which would like to have backup governed by a more restrictive
>> policy are invited to notify me and I will attempt to implement the policy
>> prior to the first release of the source code. or supply patches at a later
>> time.
>>
>> Upload/Export
>> MyInventory supports two mechanisms for uploading inventory content,
>> traditional upload using UDP/CAPS and direct access to the inventory and
>> asset web-services.
>> Due to limitations in the UDP/CAPS protocol each upload will create new
>> assets, and as of my latest read of the Open Simulator code the asset store
>> does not support "single instance assets", i.e. it does not use a checksum
>> to verify if the asset already exists, for this reason MyInventory prefers
>> to upload using direct access to asset and inventory web-services.
>>
>> I would propose that the grids which chooses to support MyInventory
>> augment their "GridInfoService" entries with the url's for the asset and
>> inventory web-services, e.g.
>>
>> [GridInfoService]
>>     assets = http://assets.osgrid.org
>>     inventory = http://inventory.osgrid.org
>>
>> Best regards
>> Snowcrash
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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