Remembering Tai'lahr Winnikow

Some residents are well-known for their accomplishments. Others, little word gets out about what they do. A few days ago. the passing of Miss Tai', or Tai'lahr Winnikow. As it turns out, she was a builder who worked behind the scenes in events such as the Fantasy Faire and Fallen Gods. But she was a private person who shied away from attention and preferred anonymity. But with her passing, people whom were once quiet began openly talking. So who was Miss Tai'? I would hear what she did from a few people, most notably from her close friend Kerryth Tarantal.

Read more in People.

Interview with Faust Steamer (Walton F. Wainwright), Builder of The SL14B Stage Left

Besides the Cake Stage, the build the Second Life Fourteenth Birthday will likely be known for the most is "The Guardian," or "Stage Left" as it's official name is listed. The huge beast with three moving heads wowed and impressed many. The man who designed and made the build was Faust Steamer (Walton F. Wainwright). Second Life Newser recently had a chance to interview him about his time inworld, and how it led him to create this noted structure.

Read the interview in People.

Interview with Shockwave Yareach

Deaflegacy recently interviewed one of the leading members of the Sunweaver community where the Second Life Newser makes it's home: Shockwave Yareach. One of the original members of the community, he is known as a man of many talents, from building, the DJing, to composing and singing song parodies, and his dry sense of humor. Although he has talked to the Newser at times about topics, he himself has never truly been the subject. He talked to Deaflegacy at his place in Sunweaver Space about his time in Second Life, and a little about what he does on his side of the computer.

Read Deaflegacy's interview in People.

More On The ToS Content Creator Rights Controversy

By Bixyl Shuftan

In the past few days, there have been more reactions to the revised Second Life Terms of Service concerning content creator rights. On Saturday October 5, Bryn Oh, a well known artist in Second Life known for her work on "The Rabbicorn" and other exhibitions, resigned from the Linden Endowments of the Arts' committee.

As it stands now I don't feel comfortable luring artists into creating content for Linden Labs who can pretty much do whatever they want with it.  I will take the risk with my own content but I wont encourage others to do so.  ...  Linden Lab could scoop (your content) up and put their money behind it, while you struggled to promote it from your basement.  The TOS ... is just another indignity artists and thinkers must suffer, and I don't want to be a part of it.  ...  I don't honestly believe Linden Lab would do these terrible, immoral things yet they have not explained anything to the community.  They have not said "Oh hey I can see how it looks alarming but really we just need that wording to help us market the product easier etc ect.. and we needed to add "sell" and "re-sell" to the wording for this reason.."  Do you want to sell our content through Desura your new digital distribution acquisition as some have speculated?  If so then explain and share and you might have a willing partner.  But right now there is a lot of speculation, distrust and no clarification.

Bryn Oh felt for now, the public should continue to watch and see. After that, "If in a few weeks they still have not addressed the concerns from the community, then perhaps it's time we preserve our avatar names in other virtual worlds as well." Bryn had accounts in both Cloud Party and Inworldz, "Perhaps spend an hour in a different virtual world each week. Hopefully it is all just a big misunderstanding and we can we can be reassured that our ideas and content are safely our own."

The following day, another artist became involved in the controversy. Johnas Merlin stopped work on his exhibit at LEA26 due to the new ToS. The reasons weren't specifically because of ethical questions, but the "new Terms of Service … make it illegal for me to use some of the content I had planned to use." Johnas has not yet decided whether or not to keep making art or other goods in Second Life.

Last week, New World Notes started a survey for content creators, asking those responding if they had stopped creating or selling content. Of the 266 people who answered, 121 or 45% answered "yes" compared to the 113 or 42% who answered "no." Hamlet Au remarked the results "suggest concern over the ToS which is actually affecting user behavior. Often a Linden Lab policy change causes drama and protest, but has little impact on activity. Apparently not so in this case."

Hamlet asked the Lab two weeks ago if they planed to change the words in question of the ToS to ease the content creators. He has yet to receive an answer.

Sources: Bryn Oh, Ziki's Blog, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Rederosity Website Bans Use of Its Textures in Second Life

On Wednesday September 25, Renderosity, a website for 3D artists, announced that its textures would no longer be allowed to be used in Second Life.

In the past, we have allowed a Buyer to use Renderosity products for their use in the Second Life virtual world, as long as the Buyer does not sell or give away the files. However, the new TOS at Second Life gives Second Life the complete ‘rights’ over anything uploaded at their site as of the date of their new TOS. Second Life’s new TOS conflicts with our Renderosity license … Our license “grants the Buyer a…NON-TRANSFERABLE license….[Buyers] may not distribute the Product or any of the Product’s files….in any format for sale or free.” Given Second Life’s new TOS, any Renderosity product uploaded there (even for personal use) is in violation of our license because their TOS is ‘transferring’ the rights them. This is a very disturbing TOS for the rights of anyone uploading items to use on Second Life. 

Renderosity joins CGTextures, which earlier this month also barred the use of it's textures within Second Life due to Linden Lab's change in its Terms of Service concerning the ownership rights of uploaded content. With Tuna Oddfellow closing the Odd Ball over the issue this week, Renderosity's action is likely to deepen the controversy

Hat Tip: Kylie Sabra

Bixyl Shuftan

Texture Website Bans Use Within Second Life Following Linden Lab ToS Change, Lab Responds With Statement Expressing Regret

By Bixyl Shuftan

CGTextures, a website for 3D artists, has been the subject of attention recently due to a change in it's Terms of Service: "using our images in Second Life is no longer allowed." They stated this was in reaction to Linden Lab changing its own Terms of Service.

[..]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.[..]

CG Textures stated Linden Lab's old terms of use was reasonable, giving the Lab "rights to use it in Second Life and not much more. With their latest TOS update, they go way beyond what is reasonable." They accused the Lab of greed and were showing a lack of respect for it's users, "as soon as you upload your model or texture, they can do literally anything they want with it." In theory, they could take content made from their textures and resell them, which is against CGTextures own terms of service, "The new Second Life ToS is simply incompatible with our own Terms of Use." They stated they contacted Linden Lab, and got only "nameless, canned replies … Apparently they don't care about this problem, so we don't see how we can come to a solution."

Jo Yardley of The 1920s Berlin project was among those expressing worry, "I hope Linden Lab realizes this is a big problem that damages one of the most important parts of Second Life; creativity." While she felt it was unlikely texture websites would be checking Second Life contents for their work, "for those of us who take this stuff serious, it is rather annoying and scary."

Hamlet Au of New World Notes suggested the Lab's actions weren't greed, but the intent was to protect itself from possible lawsuits, given that content builders in Second Life often accuse others of copying them, saying that the Lab never copied and sold any of it's users creations, "It's simply not in the company's interest to do so," saying such a move would bring disaster for them. He suggested that if a content creator was truly serious about protecting his/her products, they should be trademarked or copyrighted before being uploaded, "all that said, Linden Lab should probably add some language to their ToS which allays the fears of sites like CGTextures and developers like Jo Yardley."

The following day, Linden Lab issued a statement which appeared on New World Notes, Modem World, and presumably other blogs and newsletters:

“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. 

“As an example, Linden Lab’s Second Life Mainland Policies (cited as “Additional Terms” in the updated Terms of Service) have long included Linden Lab’s right to “re-sell or otherwise alter abandoned parcels of SL’s mainland,” including, if and to the extent necessary, any user-created content incorporated into such parcels. Additionally, Linden Lab often acts as an intermediary between Second Life residents (for instance, in its capacity as the operator of the Second Life Marketplace) which necessitates that Linden Lab have certain rights (such as the right to re-sell) in order to effectuate such exchanges or transactions.

“As evidenced by Second Life’s extensive history, functionality and well-documented policies for providing a platform on which users can create and profit from their creations, Linden Lab respects the proprietary rights of Second Life’s content creators. We regret that our intention in revising our Terms of Service to streamline our business may have been misconstrued by some as an attempt to appropriate Second Life residents’ original content. We have no intention of abandoning our deep-rooted dedication to facilitating residents’ ability to create and commercialize such content in Second Life. In fact, we strive to provide Second Life’s residents with evermore opportunities to do so.”

The readers responding to Hamlet's reassuring comments were mostly skeptical, with questions about Linden Lab's intentions. For Jo Yardley's blog and Modem World, the responses were more mixed. The SL Universe forums also has a thread on the subject (here).

Jo Yardley added in the comments under her blog post, "They can say what they want, but as long as the TOS does not support their recent statement and still has the same wording, people will still be worried and websites will still not allow us to use their textures. They have to put the old phrase back, or nothing will change." Those words seem to sum up the feelings of many content creators. Others feel the controversy is much ado about nothing, but another change in the Terms of Service to reflect the Lab's clarification wouldn't hurt.

This isn't the only ToS update to spark controversy for Linden Lab this year. In May, another change in Second Life's Terms of Service, one reguarding third party Linden exchange services, caused a crisis in which a number of overseas residents talked about leaving the Grid.

Sources: CG Textures, Jo Yardley, New World Notes, Modem World 

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab Announces First Set of Advanced Creator Tools Launched

Torley Linden narrates this video of the first of the "advanced creator tools" from Linden Lab for Second Life: teleport agents and temporary attachments. The video seems to be aimed at store owners and gaming area makers, though the blog post also suggested the teleport agents would be useful for scavenger hunts.

To read the Linden blog post, Click Here.

To read the thread on the Linden forums, Click Here.