The TOS debate goes on, there’s an epic three hour (TLDL) video of a legal panel meeting inworld, which you can view here: http://youtu.be/jifM2n4ttSE. Now if that’s too daunting for you, Bixyl Shuftan comes to the rescue with a summary of the meeting (although Bixyl does point out that the video really helps to understand the details).
Personally I feel that the TOS oversteps the mark and really, Linden Lab should explain to their users where this is headed because the new TOS makes very uncomfortable reading. However when concerns like this are raised others see opportunities. Kitely have already done this with a blog post explaining their more friendly sounding TOS when it comes to content creators.
Now into the fray comes Cloud Party. Hamlet Au over at New World Notes posts information regarding a blog post from Cloud Party’s Cyn Skyberg. Cyn Skyberg used to go by the name of Cyn Linden and parade around Second Life as a pirate with a peg leg whilst being a fearless leader of the support team, she also had a taste for eels …… oh wait, that was the band, The Eels! I’m not making this up! More of that later, for now, the blog post from Cyn states:
“In short, our TOS states “Cloud Party does not claim any ownership right in any Member content”.
Photos, textures, materials, objects, models, scripts and all other content uploaded to our platform are owned solely by the user. We do reserve the right to use them for shameless promotion of the platform via marketing, but the content you create is, and always will be, yours. In fact, there is a “download original” button for everything you put into the service, so you can grab it whenever you like.”
The devil of course is in the detail and below the cut I’ll go into more detail about the detail, unless you’re already below the cut, then the detail will be right below this sentence!
The relevant part of the Cloud Party TOS states:
“We may, in our sole discretion, permit Members to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit Member Content via the Services. By submitting and making available any Member Content on or through the Application, Site or Services, you hereby grant to Cloud Party a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license to access, use, reproduce, modify or adapt (for formatting purposes only on the Site and Application, or otherwise for promotional and advertising purposes for the Services only), distribute copies of, disseminate, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit and stream such Member Content for the purposes of providing, promoting and advertising the Services and to authorize others to do the same. You understand and agree that this license enables Cloud Party to use your Member Content in whole or in part for purposes of promoting and advertising the Services.”
The Cloud Party TOS does also state: “Cloud Party does not claim any ownership rights in any Member Content.”
This is along the lines of the old Second Life TOS, but let’s compare it with the problem area of the new Second Life TOS:
“Except as otherwise described in any Additional Terms (such as a contest’s official rules) which will govern the submission of your User Content, you hereby grant to Linden Lab, and you agree to grant to Linden Lab, the non-exclusive, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, and cost-free right and license to use, copy, record, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, re-sell, sublicense (through multiple levels), modify, display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats, on or through any media, software, formula, or medium now known or hereafter developed, and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed, and to advertise, market, and promote the same. You agree that the license includes the right to copy, analyze and use any of your Content as Linden Lab may deem necessary or desirable for purposes of debugging, testing, or providing support or development services in connection with the Service and future improvements to the Service. The license granted in this Section 2.3 is referred to as the “Service Content License.”
There are no two ways about this, the Linden Lab TOS sounds far more exploitive than the Cloud Party TOS, particularly the area I’ve bolded in this post. Now one thing to remember here is that Linden Lab are going for a standard TOS across all their products, whereas Cloud Party only has to deal with Cloud Party. I don’t think Linden Lab are looking to exploit anyone’s content, nor do I believe they have any intention of going around selling or reselling content. However, the way the TOS is worded it really does give Linden Lab the right to do what the hell they want, when really the TOS should be about what Linden Lab need to do to provide and promote the service.
Linden Lab do need the right to distribute, display and share your content. They are also on very reasonable ground for wanting the right to use your content for promotional services, that’s part of the two way agreement but the new TOS, in my view, goes way beyond what’s needed in its wording, if not in its intent. Linden Lab sound like The clown with the frown driving down to the sidewalk fair. Finger on the trigger let me tell you gave us quite a scare.
Now back to Cyn, former fearless support leader, there’s a great interview with Cyn, performed by another former Linden, Courtney, at the time there was controversy raging about Adult Content changes on the grid, but the interview from 2009 gives a nice insight into Cyn’s role within an older and probably more innocent from a business point of view, I’ll post the link to the interview below:
Support Talks: An Interview With Cyn Linden.
Cyn really should be The girl with the curls and the sweet pink ribbon in her hair.