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

[Diva Canto]

My 2cents.
Anyone can do whatever they want without asking for permission. In this 
case, Snowcrash is asking not for permission but for feedback, as well 
as for buy-in from grid operators. Here is my feedback.

On 11/15/2012 1:44 AM, Snowcrash Short wrote:
> 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

Nothing will be copied from the server side unless grids provide this 
information and put these services outside the firewall. If grids are 
worried about content protection, these would not be the URLs of the 
internal services but the external ones (hypergrid or similar). In 
particular, if these are the URLs of the Hypergrid Suitcase Inventory 
service and the HG Asset service, I can see this tool being useful and 
safe. It would provide a sharable Suitcase. OpenSim/HG2.0 has provisions 
for separating protected content from public content, and it's all under 
the grid operators' control. There can be complete separation. 
(Obviously, that would frustrate Snowcrash's intention, but at least it 
would allow _some_ content to be shared, under the control of the grid 
operator)

Melanie, I don't think his code being open source will pose much of a 
threat as long as the services are firewalled. It looks like his tool 
interacts with the services directly, and not via the simulators -- 
which, of course, is the real Aquilles Heel exploited by plenty of other 
tools out there.

Snowcrash: Content that is uploaded to a service provided by someone 
else and that is used within that service for entertainment or other 
purposes doesn't necessarily belong to the person who uploads it. It all 
depends on the TOS! For example, my scientific papers published by the 
ACM and the IEEE belong to the ACM and the IEEE, because those 
publishers require a copyright transfer. Shocking, but true in general 
with scientific publications. Much less content that is "acquired" 
within that service! "Acquisition" many times doesn't mean the same as 
physical object acquisition, and the use of these words "buy", 
"acquire", etc., which are used in SL, is an abuse. But, again, it 
really depends on the Terms of Service -- the TOS is what rules this 
whole thing.

Someone provides a service; they have the right to demand whatever they 
want, as long as it's legal in the jurisdiction where they operate. The 
users of that service have the option not to use it. They also have the 
option to complain and try to change the service provider's policies if 
they think they're too restrictive. That's the kind of struggles one 
gets by using other people's services.

People who don't want to deal with other parties' restrictions have one 
option: run your own services. Or form a group and operate a shared, 
small grid. It's not that hard.

But good luck with having grid operators' buy-in!
Diva