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

Robert Martin robertltux at gmail.com
Thu Nov 15 14:15:42 UTC 2012 

what i would like to see is a way to create an asset and then prepare it
with a null "creator" id effectively making this a Public Domain item.

Anything that can enable Bulk Uploads of Inventory is a legal (and ethical)
Minefield with all the friendly mannerisms of a Bouncer Land Mine that an
Athrax secondary payload.

I would rather (Dresden Files reference) snark off to Ferovax Mab and
Titania at the same time.


On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Todd Davis <
opensiminfo at virtualrealmsgrid.com> wrote:

> Snow crash,
>
> I agree that before you release the software I would consult a lawyer,
> this can open you up to a lawsuit.  Something the Lindens from SL have been
> dealing with since day one.
>
> I am a grid operator/owner, my grid is small and just starting out.  I am
> still deciding on open or closed grid myself because of creators licensing
> because I know some creators will not create on a open grid because of this
> issue.
>
> This is a murky subject at best.   See this is one reason I left SL among
> others.  I have a avi on SL I do not play any more but have items that I
> have payed for on that avi that I want to use on another avi.   But can
> not.   Because of permissions.   This is the same issue as moving from one
> grid to another.  Does purchasing a item give you the right to use that
> item on another avi or grid?   That is the real legal question here.   I do
> not know that answer.  And I do not think it has been answered in open
> court?   I know in the US record and movie companies have been waging a war
> against digital rights and the abuse there.
>
> Bottom line should there be a way to control legal rights to digital
> property in OpenSim.   Yes! The how's and limits need to be discussed
> between developers, creators and grid operators.
>
> As for your software in theory a good idea.   I have the same feeling
> about having to restart a avi on different grids myself.
>
>
> I would like to hear from OpenSim creators on their feelings on digital
> rights issue. I know the SL creators stand on this issue.
>
> Snowcrash my one and only problem with your software would be that as a
> grid owner would allowing you to use that software on my grid open my grid
> to a lawsuit and for that matter would that discourage creators from coming
> to my grid.
>
>
> Todd
> Virtual Realms Grid
>
> On 2012-11-15, at 7:50 AM, Snowcrash Short <snowcrash.short at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> Before this gets out of hand, let me clarify, this is not a backup
> tool, at least no per se, one of the features is the ability to backup
> content from an existing account (a backup which is governed by a policy).
>
> The primary goal of the project is to move the inventory and the assets to
> their rightful users and to empower the users to use the assets as they
> want - within legal limits.
>
> In an ideal world - except for special cases, the inventory and the assets
> backing the inventory is controlled by the user, and that is the goal of
> the project, to bring the inventory under the control of the user.
>
> To this purpose it currently has two input streams supporting it (one more
> is planned), the first is client side access to .iar files, the second is
> download from the users existing inventory, to the extent allowed by law
> and agreements made between the user and grid operators.
>
> Knowing that only a few of the grid operators using Open Sim has policies
> in place, this email serves as an invitation to make these policies public,
> and to implement - to the extent possible - these policies in MyInventory.
>
> The question of attribution is only relevant when the assets are being
> distributed, MyInventory has currently no functionality for distribution.
> The as yet unfinished and only hinted at third input stream deals with
> distribution. The current implementation does not distribute any data, it
> only grants a user simpler way access to the assets the user has rightfully
> access to.
>
> Best regards
> Snowcrash
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Marcus Llewellyn <
> marcus.llewellyn at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Melanie speaks sense. Consult a lawyer before someone else's lawyer
>> contacts you. If you're willing to brave the legal worries this could cause
>> you, the only sound policy to default to is one that respects how the
>> content is licensed. This includes OSGrid, which respects user's copyrights.
>>
>> Right now, there is no export permission. There easily could be, but it
>> would require support from both the server and viewer side. Support for it
>> would need to be virtually (heh) universal, or have a default that was
>> agreed upon. A mantis for this feature request on the server side of things
>> exists [1]. Supporting this on the viewer side would take a great deal more
>> effort. You'd at least want those viewers with specific support for
>> OpenSimulator on board (Kokua, Zen, Firestorm, Teapot, Singularity, Cool
>> VL, and Radegast all come to mind). There will of course be legacy viewers
>> (like Imprudence and Phoenix) hanging around that may not ever get patched
>> for it, necessitating the need for the legally safest export flag default.
>>
>> Things can get even messier. Even with an export flag, will this software
>> preserve the creator name when the content is exported to another grid?
>> More than a few licenses require attribution to be preserved. Will it allow
>> upload to a grid or standalone where permissions have been disabled? I'm
>> sure many content creators would be unhappy to hear they could be. With
>> more caffeine in me, I might think of a few more important questions, and I
>> have no doubt that others who follow this list will be able to supply them.
>>
>> I don't want to give the impression here than I'm against the idea that a
>> user should be able to backup their inventory. I would opine that most
>> users would love this ability, and that many would respect creator's
>> rights. But many of those same users want their copyrights and licenses
>> respected as the law requires, and steps taken by software like this to
>> ensure this was so.
>>
>> Marcus
>>
>> [1] http://opensimulator.org/**mantis/view.php?id=5892<http://opensimulator.org/mantis/view.php?id=5892>
>>
>>
>> On 11/15/2012 5:03 AM, Melanie wrote:
>>
>>> The reason StoredInventory is closed source and very restrictive is
>>> that exporting/importing of items that are not compatibly licensed
>>> is, in effect, copybotting.
>>>
>>> The risks in making such a tool open source is that any restrictions
>>> can be trivially removed by the knowledgeable user, creating what is
>>> in effect the ultimate copybot.
>>>
>>> The people who made StoredInventory were particularly worried about
>>> SecondLife, since open sourcing the project would have allowed
>>> people to remove the protections that were placed to enforce SL
>>> compliance.
>>>
>>> This may result in SL suing the program creators as well as the
>>> program users and also may result in users of the program, whether
>>> these individuals infringe SL TOS or not, being banned from SL,
>>> possibly permanently.
>>>
>>> Exporting content not licensed for export, or protected by a grid's
>>> TOS, is theft. Uploading it to another or even the same grid is
>>> copybotting, which legally is plagiarism. Profiting from it by
>>> selling the copies may also be fraud in some legislations.
>>>
>>> My advice is to consult a lawyer at your place of residence, as in
>>> some jurisdictions producing software capable of performing these
>>> actions is a criminal offense.
>>>
>>> IMHO, open source is a very bad idea for this type of software.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Melanie
>>>
>>> On 15/11/2012 10:44, 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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-- 
Robert L Martin
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