Episode 13 of The Drax Files Radio Hour featured an excellent interview with Richard A. Goldberg. I covered it here : Second Life TOS – Why Bergs Should Collide. I’m not going to go over it all again but Richard made some excellent points on why the TOS was problematic, why Linden Lab should not need all the terms they require, why there should be limitations and he did all this in a very calm and rational manner. Ebbe Altberg should at least listen to what Richard A. Goldberg had to say and then he may understand more of what the issue is.
The Linden Lab blog post on the updated terms of service states :
As part of an update to our Terms of Service today, we have made a modification to further clarify Section 2.3. The updated section still provides Linden Lab with the rights that we need in order to operate and promote Second Life, so you will see that we have retained much of the language as the previous version. However, the updated section now also includes limits that better match our intended meaning, and we hope will assuage some of the concerns we heard about the previous version.
Now the problem arises with the words that have been left in. First of all let’s rewind a little and give Linden Lab some credit for the change they did make, but also let’s rewind further and see what the controversial section said before the changes of last August, a time when it wasn’t remotely controversial :
You agree that by uploading, publishing, or submitting any Content to or through the Servers, Websites, or other areas of the Service, you hereby automatically grant Linden Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicenseable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the Service.
I’m struggling to understand why that is no longer suitable, it’s clear, it’s to the point and there’s no ambiguity as to whether it refers to the Second Life service or not. However let’s move on to the controversial TOS and break this down, again, first of all this part :
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, modify, display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and sell, re-sell or sublicense (through multiple levels)(with respect to Second Life, Inworld or otherwise on the Service as permitted by you through your interactions with the Service)
Now that’s better than before because of the part about being with respect to Second Life, inworld or otherwise. That’s the big plus point from the change, the problem is with the next part of the TOS, which makes absolutely no reference to this limitation.
The next part starts after a comma in the above section :
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.
This remains a problem, why do Linden Lab need these terms without limitation? They should not need these terms in this fashion. There definitely should be limitations on usage, any purpose whatsoever is extremely unfriendly to content creators, it’s also a kick in the teeth for collaborative work with people outside Second Life because there are very few, if any, commercial licences for textures that would be compatible with those terms.
On the other side of this coin I should point out that some of the commercial texture sites have terms that are far too restrictive for collaboration too. Some commercial sites also don’t seem to understand that it’s necessary to allow distribution for usage in virtual worlds and gaming, not direct distribution of course, but distribution in terms of allowing an end user to see the conent. There’s a gap a mile wide between the two camps. Both camps need to come a little closer to the middle so sensible use of assets can be achieved.
However Linden Lab’s terms are too encompassing and they should not really need to use this sort of language.
The final part of this section of the TOS is not remotely controversial and makes perfect sense :
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
This part is absolutely necessary and should not worry anyone. Linden Lab have made a small step in the right direction this week, but it’s a very small step and I was really hoping they would take more of a leap.
Obviously companies want to protect themselves but these terms remain unfriendly to content creators and going forward, this really is not a good place to be for Linden Lab or their community, if Linden Lab really want their new world to achieve the reach they envisage, they really are going to have to come back to these terms of service, hopefully after speaking to people such as Richard A Goldberg and gaining insight into these issues from the other side of the fence.
LL must by now be perfectly aware of these issues, and has very obviously chosen not to address them.
Updating the ToS and keeping the “for any purpose” clause is a clear sign that yes, this is what they want the ToS to look like, all collateral damage be damned.
I can’t figure out why they think this is a beneficial business decision, and Ebbe Altberg’s “openness” has become just so much empty PR talk.
Qie Niangao over at SLUniverse made one of the best comments I’ve seen about this ;
“This change seems like the passive-aggressive act of a petulant IP attorney who really wanted to keep everything unchanged.
A dangling parenthetical with undefined scope? Really? Followed by the same problematic language that undoes any limitations that came before? ”
They really should not need the for any purpose clause, it’s boilerplate and plenty of others have it but LL, as the home of user generated content, should know better.
Actually, I think they didn’t intend to change the section 2.3 at all. They just realized that it would look bad if they could change the Skill Games section on a week’s notice after “having worked on” the 2.3 section for 10 months, so they threw *something* in there to say they changed it.
They chose to “address” something that didn’t actually matter, and left what mattered completely unaddressed. And the rewording is confusing, poorly-written, and incomprehensible. Any attorney I know could come up with a much better wording in less than two hours. LL’s attorneys took 10 months for THIS?
If that’s the best they can do, they need to be disbarred on grounds of illiteracy, have their Law degrees and High School certificates annulled, and then get sent back to grammar school to learn how to read and write all over again.
They really are running up against the wrong side of Hanlon’s razor. They can’t be *that* incompetent, can they?
Human incompetence, stupidity and social loafing know no bounds.
To Rod Humble Second Life is just a game title. Rod Humble the mmo veteran convinced the Linden Lab board about this fact. This is not the metaverse, this is just a game title he said. I know cause I am behind the Sims which is a huge game said Humble.
The board at Linden Lab did believe Rod Humble.
So Rod Humble said the board, any suggestions?
Yes said Humble, we will create the sequal to Second Life a new virtual world more advanced and better that will make more money.
Great said the board, get on it Humble. No need to rush Humble, Second Life is a product that makes a lot of money without direct competition but we like your ideas Humble.
Humble gave the order at Linden Lab to start work on the next game title well over a year ago. At that point Linden did start to make plans how to get control back over their virtual world. Control they had to give up slowly over the years no matter what they had tried. That is when suddenly these TOS changes became in effect that did not make any logical sense. The TOS changes were not with the intention to steal residents their content or resell residents their content. These TOS were intended for when Linden would close Second Life as we know it so that no claims could be made and Linden could not face legal charges for cutting service to people their goods.
Humble at that point was to busy with his own little game projects so not much did happen yet. There was no threat from facebook or other upcoming platforms at that point so no need to push the new platform. A small team of coders must have been working on this project.
Humble at the end of his contract had more than enough of Linden Lab and ran away the moment he could. Humble had done nothing for Second Life and had not managed to make Second Life grow at all. His new games were weak overall. The only thing that had a small success was Blocksworld which he had purchased and not invented himself. Humble knew he did not have talent to work with at Linden Lab and would not get it either. Humble just left as fast as he could the moment his contract was up.
Linden was shocked at that point and their backers had to look for a replacement CEO fast so they found Altberg who had some crappy CEO job at a place he did not like. Who else would want to run Linden Lab that would do his homework about this company?
Altberg got hired and started to look at the company during his first weeks and months. When finding out the pile of crap the company is and how Linden did mess up Second Life Altberg did decide to let Second Life as we know it and everything and everyone that comes with it go up in flames.
Fast and under pressure because of Facebook and what they might do, scared to miss the boat Altberg did pick up the project from Rod Humble which must have been miniscule back then. The rest is known, vague statements, no commitments to the userbase. Everything will get cleaned except the customer identities and accounts and of course the Linden Dollars from the residents so that they can keep spending.
Everything and everyone else will get deleted by Linden Lab
Now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When a company allows customers to purchase credits or virtual money on their platform, on their servers and service and accept hard currency for this the company has legal liabilities to act in the best interest of the consumer. Why do you think there is such a thing as consumer protection laws? So that people do not get fucked over like as Linden Lab is now trying to do. That is why there are consumer protection laws in place.
When Linden Lab does still exists as a company, a legal entity and suddenly cuts access to the Inventory of the virtual goods of their clients who did pay up to 20000 USD or 30000 USD in some cases over the years to get these inventories. What do you expect a judge will say in court? Even today Linden Lab does have clear intentions to shut down Second Life as it exists but this does not hold Linden Lab back from offering simulators for sale with a setup fee of 1000 USD no matter if they cannot guarantee Second Life will still be here in one year from now because Linden Lab is programming a new platform themselves to compete with their current platform.
Does that not sound like sleazy business to you? That is why Linden Lab puts in their TOS that Linden $ do not have any value and you cannot redeem Linden $ from Linden Lab and should be aware of this. That is why Linden Lab claims that they own all the content.
Linden Lab prints virtual money and sells this to consumers at 250 L$ per 1 USD hard currency and Linden Lab does this for millions and millions of USD.
This virtual money is used to purchase goods and services on Linden Lab their platform. Then Linden Lab claims the virtual money does not have any value and cannot be redeemed. On top of that Linden Lab also claims ownership of all the virtual goods that consumers did purchase on their platform with the virtual money that consumers did exchange hard currency for.
And to make it even more of a scam Linden Lab codes up a new platform to where they will not transfer any of that content and clearly indicate that this new platform will become a direct competitor to the current platform until the current platform is not financial viable anymore to Linden Lab
This is consumer abuse and dictatorship at its finest. I expect there will be many court cases in the next years and it does not look good for Linden Lab at all. This will go into history as one of the largest internet scams that ever took place.
Thank you very much for the immensely valuable inside information. I understand you must have been working at the Lab for quite some time, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to offer us such a thorough and detailed low-down of what has been happening behind closed doors. Exactly when did you resign from the Lab, by the way? And what took you so long to warn us all about this scam you’re referring to?
Hey Mona? Why don’t you tell us how you get your inside information that makes you such an expert on the inner workings of LL?
Or is intimidation your only worthwhile strategy when confronted with truth that doesn’t sit with you and your pom-poms?