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

[John Sheridan]

If I may say, the way we're looking at and treating assets / content is 
quickly becoming outdated in the world outside of this little 
micro-chasm we call Virtual Worlds. There are many sites out there that 
allow you to share and sell content created in the standalone designers 
such as Maya, Blender, etc.  And with each, upon acquiring that content 
you agree to a license which is often attached to the file itself.  With 
some, you own it outright.  With others, you're limited to merely using 
/ customizing it and are forbidden to distribute.  And with others, its 
just a matter of simply citing your source when using the creation.

Either way, its far more complicated and in a way more advanced than 
ticking a combination of three check boxes then tossing in some 12 page 
mention buried in your grid's TOS written in high legalese explaining 
what the user can or cannot do.  These days there are two types of 
assets / inventory available.  Those that users create and use for 
themselves (private) - and those that are distributed in one form or 
another inside, out of, or between worlds.

Surprisingly enough, this seems awfully familiar to me in dealing with 
mono / .net dll libraries in that each has meta-level tags for creator, 
owner, _license_, version, etc.   In fact, in watching the OpenSim 
commits just the other day I saw a few fly by that included data marking 
libraries such as OpenSim.Core.Whatever as created by "OpenSimulator 
Project", "BSD License", "(C)opyright OpenSimulator.org".

In short, a DLL is a component / library / creation that can distributed 
and used in file form with whatever application the developer needs.

An asset / inventory item is a component / creation that too can be 
distributed and used in whatever form that a developer (in this case 
user, builder, scripter, texture artist, grid owner, etc) can include 
and use as needed.

It really would seem to me that its just a matter of adding in a bit of 
meta data to the asset objects, then hooking in a minor bit of drm into 
the system that would restrict import / export based on a set of flags 
in combination with the standard copy / mod / transfer bits such as "no 
export, grid only, etc."

Of course, there may be an issue with existing content - hooking all of 
this in system wide, etc.  But all of us here are brilliant, creative, 
and innovative individuals.  I know that some sort of systemic solution 
can be formed that would work for the greater good and cover all use cases.

Thanks, :)

  - Orion Pseudo / Fhang / Whatever my name is by now.  @.@


On 11/15/2012 10:23 AM, Mike Chase wrote:
>
> Actually, as the creator of an item I own it.  Not the "user".  That's 
> clear  because I get to set the permissions under which the next 
> "owner" or licensee can use it.  When someone acquires an digital 
> asset I created they get a license to use it. The value of the 
> creation itself usually far exceeds what someone pays for it.   I only 
> create in grids I trust because the grid operator must defend my 
> rights via a DMCA process.  So no a "user" doesn't have rights to copy 
> items in inventory they "own".  Because ownership of digital assets 
> doesn't transfer.  Only a license to use them for a purpose.
>
> So in short I think some of your thinking about users "rights" is 
> somewhat flawed.  That doesn't meant there aren't protocols to do what 
> you want to do.   But yeah, I think providing such a tool is asking to 
> get sued. And it probably damages the reputation of OpenSim as serious 
> software for serving digital assets.  That's a shame because there are 
> a number of closed grids trying to actually correct that assumption by 
> providing a more secure environment for content creators to operate in.
>
> Just my 2 cents.  Do what you will with it
>
> Mike
>
> *From:*opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de 
> [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de] *On Behalf Of 
> *Snowcrash Short
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 15, 2012 7:51 AM
> *To:* opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
> *Subject:* Re: [Opensim-users] Announcement of inventory tool 
> (MyInventory), mostly of interest to grid operators/grid nauts
>
> 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
>
>
>
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> Opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
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