Tag: TOS

Over on the official forums there’s a thread which details the response letter from the UCCSL to Linden Lab:

NEW MAIL FROM THE UCCSL TO LINDEN LAB OFFICE AND PETER GRAY

I’ll post the contents of the letter below the cut. The letter is addressed to Linden Lab Office and Peter Gray. Poor Peter Gray, he’s public relations but he shouldn’t be being named like this, he’s more like the negotiator to broker peace talks. I still see him carrying a briefcase, wearing shades, a suit and looking like a character straight out of Resevoir dogs … actually he could be Mr Gray, although Mr Grey works better for me!

The letter makes suggestions regarding the limits or lack of them, in the new TOS, suggests that licences should not be perpetual, asks for limits on sublicences for third parties and suggests that purposes of use need to be limited. The UCCSL are not jumping up and down regarding all aspects of the new TOS and they seem to be focussed on section 2.3.

I still think the root problem is Linden Lab wanting a Linden Lab TOS for all their products, the problematic sections largely arise from the old Desura TOS and as Second Life and Desura are now under the same umbrella TOS, Linden Lab are trying to fit the Second Life square peg into the Desura round hole, which obviously isn’t a sensible fit.

However Linden Lab have suggested that they are moving towards opening more windows of opportunity for content creators across their range of products and this is really what Linden Lab should be discussing, rather than getting sidetracked with trying to right the new TOS, they should be explaining why they need these terms to open those windows.

Continue reading “UCCSL Issue Response To Linden Lab Regarding TOS Changes”

“This doesn’t mean there’s been no impact, or that Linden Lab should not revise its ToS to be more fair and transparent — in my opinion, it should — however, it’s also worth keeping this data in mind. Because having consulted for Linden Lab many years ago, I can make a educated guess at what they’re thinking right now:

They see a few thousand people (at best) making complaints, while several hundred thousand continue on as usual. And from their perspective, they’re probably wondering how genuinely controversial the controversy really is.” Hamlet Au in a blog post on New World Notes: Despite Second Life’s Draconian Terms of Service Change, SL User Activity Growing Strongly Since Then

The above quote is from a blog post where Hamlet Au explains that concurrency in Second Life has risen since the TOS changes. Below the article in the comments people point out that this is probably the traditional recovery from the summer slump. However whether it shows the TOS changes aren’t having a negative impact in terms of concurrency or not, it really exemplifies how Linden Lab have lost control of the conversation, we’re back to the speculation nation.

I’ve been a long time critic of Linden Lab’s lack of communication with the community. The TOS issue has really highlighted how much of a pickle a company can get itself in when it does not communicate well. Having read numerous blog and forum posts, as well as looking into old TOS I’m now firmly of the opinion that Linden Lab come in peace. I believe that they wanted a unified TOS and decided the terms of Desura made the best fit for parts of a TOS that covers pretty much all of Linden Lab’s products.

The problem Linden Lab have faced from the Second Life community is that Second Life users are reading this as a TOS aimed at Second Life only. This has caused people to speculate that Second Life is going to be sold, that Linden Lab want to sell Second Life content anywhere they like and that Linden Lab are making underhanded moves. If Linden Lab’s intent was to sell Second Life, they’d have been better off leaving the TOS as it was and allowing the new people to change it, bringing it under the unified TOS suggests to me they have no intention of selling.

However as I said, the lack of communication from Linden Lab has allowed this sort of speculation to grow. They’ve also put themselves in a position whereby other virtual worlds, such as Cloud Party, have been able to make tongue in cheek blog posts giving them a bit of a ribbing and stating how they respect content creators.

Continue reading “Linden Lab Should Embrace The Art Of Conversation”

Just when you’re talking about Linden Lab’s lack of response to the TOS issues (still need a name for this folks) Kylie of the United Content Creators Of Second Life (UCCSL … see acronyms, it’s all about acronyms) has received a response.

When Linden Lab need to get all official and make a measured and official response they have a man for the task, a man who possibly wears a suit, sunglasses and carries a briefcase with a combination lock.

One man on a lonely platform
One case sitting by his side
Two eyes staring cold and silent
Shows fear as he turns to hide

Ah, we fade to grey, Peter Gray

Look, there’s always room for some Visage! Anyway more importantly, the reply. I’m not going to copy and paste the email, it’s in the link above, but the email is the most encouraging sign yet that Linden Lab are actually listening to the concerns of content creators. There is also other intriguing information in the email, such as Linden Lab looking to open avenues for people to sell content across platforms for their other products.

Continue reading “TOS – We Fade To (Peter) Gray”

The TOS debates continue, over at SLUniverse Desmond Shang suggests: “We need a name for what’s happened. The great User Rights Theft of 2013?” Personally I’m not sure that’s catchy enough, previously we’ve had names such as GOM, when Linden Lab took over the money business and of course there’s The FIC.

Then at other times things just end in fiasco or debacle, such as The Open Space Fiasco or The Adult Content Debacle. Something catchy and short is needed, answers on a postcard to ….

However on a more serious point I’m seeing a lot of speculation that the terms of service change is a sign that Linden Lab are getting ready to sell Second Life. There’s one big flaw with this theory, the same terms of service link appears on the pages of other Linden Lab products such as Dio, Blocksworld, Patterns, Creatoverse and Desura. This ties in with the statement Linden Lab sent to Inara Pey in September, which in part said:

“Recently we updated our Terms of Service to unify the existing terms of service for our various products into a single version. This updated version included a clarification with respect to the specific rights which a user grants to Linden Lab when submitting user-created content (referred to as the ‘Service Content License’) and, except as set forth in any related Linden Lab policies (referred to as ‘Additional Terms’), the right to ‘re-sell’ such user-created content.

“As previously indicated, the updated Terms of Service encompass a wide variety of Linden Lab products and services. We made every effort to incorporate Second Life’s existing policies in a distinct manner. We realize that the general nature of portions of the new Terms of Service may have led some individuals to believe, mistakenly, that Linden Lab was renouncing existing Second Life policies and practices or attempting to expropriate content created by Second Life residents. To that end, we want to further elucidate and reiterate our practice with respect to the Service Content License (and specifically Linden Lab’s right to re-sell user-created content) in Second Life.”

Whereas that statement has not placated Second Life content creators, it does suggest Linden Lab are trying to implement a one size fits all TOS across their product range, with the exception of Versu, which may well have been an oversight. Will Versu ever appear on Android? Anyway, I digress.

Continue reading “TOS Applies To Nearly All Linden Lab Products”