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

[Doug Danforth]

Hi Chris,

Well said. Your description of a legitimate use is spot on. Certainly there
can be illegitimate uses, but that in and of itself doesn't negate the fact
that legitimate uses exist. If I create a thing on my grid, and this tool
allows me to take that thing over to Fleep's grid, that seems pretty
legitimate to me.

A tool that allows for the convenient management of allowable inventory
across grids is sorely needed. That a users things should travel with the
user seems to my tiny brain as being a no-brainer :-).

Doug Danforth
On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 2:31 PM, Fleep Tuque <fleep513 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Regarding legitimate use cases:
>
> It would be a perfectly legitimate use for someone to download any and all
> content they have received on FleepGrid and then import that content into
> any other grid.  Every item available to another user via $0 sale or "take
> a copy" on my grid is CC licensed for such use (to the best of my
> knowledge) and there would be nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical about
> it.  In fact, I encourage it!
>
> Likewise, it would be a perfectly legitimate use for someone to download
> all 500+ items I have created and listed on the FleepGrid webshop, which
> are primarily in IAR format, and then upload those items to any other grid.
>  Right now, as far as I know, the only way to do that is through console
> access, which means only grid owners can really use the items I put on the
> web, not end users.  That's due to a technical limitation of existing
> tools, not my intent.  My intent is for anyone to be able to use them.  If
> I understand Snowcrash's description correctly, his tool would make that
> possible for any end user of a grid, which in fact would not only be a
> legitimate use of the tool, but a wonderful and extremely helpful addition
> for those of us who opensource our content and make it available in IAR
> format for transport.
>
> I really don't mean to beat a dead horse, but those are legitimate uses.
>  To say there is NO legitimate use of such a tool is simply not true.  What
> is true is that there could be both legitimate and illegitimate uses.  And
> I agree Snowcrash and any other developers should do their very best to
> safeguard against that where possible.  But you can't argue that no
> legitimate use case exists because I've just given several.  My desire to
> create content and share it freely with whoever wants to use it is as
> legitimate as any other content creator's desires, and ditto for any
> law-abiding end user who wishes to use that content in an easy, convenient,
> legal way.
>
>
> Regarding the concept of "my inventory" (lowercase):
>
> I agree with Snowcrash that the concept of "my inventory" is the mental
> construct that the vast majority of virtual world users have. Once I have
> personally verified the license of an opensource item and have gained
> access to it (currently by downloading the IAR or XML file to my local
> computer), then I consider that file to be "mine" (or my licensed copy if
> you prefer) to use as I wish, on any grid I wish.  The creator said I
> could.  Great!  Except the ability to actually use that item on any grid I
> wish requires me to upload it over and over each time I go to a new grid.
>  And for IAR items, the only portable format that fully preserves an item,
> I can only upload it if I have console access to the simulator - which of
> course I do not have access to on any grids but my own.  That is not an
> ideal situation at all.  I have an inventory of stuff that is mine to use,
> my inventory, but using it on every grid I visit is at the moment an
> exceedingly cumbersome process at best, and maybe not even possible at all
> unless I have console access.
>
> A tool that would allow me to upload all the legally licensed XML and IAR
> files I am currently storing on my local computer to a third party service,
> that would hold those files for me, and then magically import them into any
> grid I visit without me having to manually do it item by item myself would
> be a godsend - and perfectly legal, legitimate, ethical, and proper.  I
> know every XML and IAR file on my local computer is licensed for such use
> and I would use such a tool with no hesitation at all, and would probably
> want to kiss the developer who made it because it would save me an enormous
> amount of time and effort.
>
>
> Regarding third party inventory services:
>
> So let's say 20 reputable opensource content creators got together and
> decided to pool our resources to make a repository of content available,
> and we each had 500 items to contribute. Think Linda Kellie, who has the
> most open permissions of any Opensim creator I know, or Vanish Seriath of
> Opensim Creations, etc. So now we have a repository of 10,000 items that
> are legally licensed from trusted sources that can be used on any grid.
>  Would you really argue the ideal situation is that each user should
> manually download each item from that repository and then each user should
> manually upload each item to each and every grid every time they want to
> use something from it?  Surely not, that's crazy.  But that's pretty much
> the current situation.
>
> The ideal situation would be to have my inventory of legally licensed
> freebie and purchased content (if it was licensed for such use) hosted not
> on each grid, but somewhere else, and accessible to me no matter what grid
> I travel to without me having to do any uploading at all. When I log on to
> a grid, some established protocol talks to my inventory (or inventories, I
> can imagine multiple services/sources), displays it as a folder when I open
> my inventory in the GUI, and makes a local copy of an item only when I rez
> it out into the world, or wear it, or whatever.  Or something like that.
>  For freebie licensed content, perhaps grids subscribe to the third party
> inventory repository and provide it as a folder in the library for every
> user of their grid, or.. I dunno!  I can imagine many permutations.
>
> I am not a developer, so I don't fully understand all the mechanisms and
> protocols that exist or could exist to make that kind of  functionality
> possible.  But in general, it seems like Snowcrash's tool is trying to
> implement some version of that concept, and I for one am very interested in
> seeing how it might be implemented in a legal and ethical way. It would
> solve what I view as one of the biggest obstacles to Opensim adoption -
> lack of easy availability and portability of known, legally licensed,
> trusted content.
>
>
> Regarding opensource content creators and the need for better mechanisms
> to share opensource content:
>
> I think Linda, Vanish, and I might be three largest web-based opensource
> content providers at the moment, but there may be more that I don't know
> about.  I obviously can't speak for them, but for myself, I spend an
> _enormous_ amount of time, energy, and what amateur skill I possess not
> just making items for the community, but countless additional hours
> packaging them up, indexing them, loading them onto a website, and doing my
> best to make it easy for people to actually port them wherever they want
> and _use_ them.
>
> Since I am not a coder or a programmer, I unfortunately can't contribute
> to the development of the Opensim code itself.  Creating openly licensed
> content represents my attempt to contribute to the Opensim community in
> another way.  Which is why it is quite sad to me that for all the countless
> hours of effort I've dedicated to making these resources available to
> people, in the hopes of making a significant positive contribution to the
> Opensim community, the current technical limitations prevents the vast
> majority of end users from being able to use my content at all!
>
> If Snowcrash is trying to resolve that problem, I am behind that effort
> 100%, even if I share everyone's concerns about illegitimate uses and the
> need to protect others rights, and sincerely hope that those issues and
> concerns can be addressed, too.  But I can't agree there's no legitimate
> need or use for a tool such as this - from my perspective, there is in fact
> a great need for it.
>
> . . .
>
> I do apologize, both for the tl;dr length of this post and because I've
> posted an awful lot in this thread, far more than I usually do. Clearly I
> feel passionately about the topic.  Maybe I'll try to take a backseat for a
> bit to make sure I'm not drowning out other voices and to think more about
> all of the possible implications of a tool with this functionality.  And
> while, for the purposes of this discussion, I am taking a strong position
> on the potential benefits for opensource creators and law-abiding end
> users, I hope it's clear that I genuinely understand, respect, and agree
> with many of the concerns that have been raised as well.  I want all
> content creators' and grid owners' rights to be respected, not just my own.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> - Chris/Fleep
>
>
>
>
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