Applications Open For Halloween Shop and Hop (Last Day Sunday)

 

It's not even September, and already Linden Lab is getting ready for the spooky season in shopping. Pm Friday August 14, the Lab announced they were accepting applications from merchants interested in taking part in the Halloween Shop and Hop. 

 

The Halloween season is creeping up on us once again, and so is one of Second Life’s biggest shopping events! If you’re a Content Creator, now’s your chance to conjure up your best items and reach thousands of shoppers across multiple regions.

 

Those interested need to fill out a Google doc form (here).  As with previous Shop and Hop events, participating sellers need to offer a 20% discount on all items on sale, plus offer a free gift to any shopper regardless if they're in the store group or not. It either must be a new product, or a gift card worth at least 300 Linden dollars. All products, and store decoration, must be rated moderate (No nude succubi or other clearly adult Halloween-themed monsters and items). Nothing political is permitted, and stores cannot be used to promote items at other events. 

 

As the poster above states, The event runs from Friday October 2 to Sunday November 1. The merchants have three days from September 25 to 28 to set up their shops. 

 

The deadline for store owners to apply is Sunday August 23.

 

To read the blog post in full, Click Here. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Linden Lab's Payouts to Residents Exceed 1.1 Billion in Total

 

An article by Venturebeat has gotten attention in recent days. In part, it's because of the amount Linden Lab has invested in Second Life over the years, 1.3 billion US dollars. But it also mentioned something the residents would find more interesting. It's paid out a total of 1.1 billion US dollars to the residents.

It would be mentioned in a letter shared with some residents by Brett Linden

The formal numbers are:  Linden Lab has officially surpassed $1.3 billion invested in building our world and $1.1 billion paid out to our incredible creators. These milestones speak volumes about the vibrant economy and thriving community that we have worked together to build over the years.

Fun fact: Creators in Second Life are 100x more likely to earn over $10K annually compared to Roblox - as highlighted in this VentureBeat article detailing how Second Life remains a shining example of a creator-first metaverse.

This achievement underscores the power of Second Life as a creator-first metaverse and the dedication of our vibrant community.

 

While Roblox does pay it's users for content created, they don't make as much in comparison. They give content creators about a 70 percent share. In contrast, Linden Lab allows Second Life's content creators a 90% share of what they make, taking in ten percent in fees. 

An article in New World Notes would get into this further. According to it's sources, of the 21,152 people that made money in Second Life in 2023, about 30% or 6,446 made over $1000 USD. 1580 would make over $10,000. 138 would make over $100,000. And 14 would make over a million dollars US. 

 

That's quite a bit of money from what some would dismiss as a "game."

 

In contrast, only 0.2%, a fifth of one percent of Roblox users make more than $1000 USD. Venturebeat compared it less than favorably to Second Life, "the business of Roblox today consists of a few winners and more losers, kind of like the triple-A game business today, where the odds of any given person’s success are pretty low."

Hamlet Au would call the businessmen and women of SL about four percent of Second Life's monthly users, about 500,000 in number. While the big moneymakers in the past were land barons such as Anshe Chung, it was his opinion that today an increasing number were in the mesh avatar and accessory business. 

On a personal commentary, there's no statistics available for those who made a little less than a thousand USD, but it's not hard to imagine someone who makes several hundred dollars a year DJing or small-time content creating or some other inworld income, and while one might not be able to make a living that way, a few extra bucks in one's pocket can make life a little more comfortable.

 

Sources: Venturebeat, New World Notes  

Bixyl Shuftan

Looking Back: The ToS Content Creator Controversy

 

 There's no denying Linden Lab was pretty smart in creating Second Life and keeping it updated over the years. But unfortunately, they've also been known to make some blunders as well. Ten years ago was when they made one of their most memorable, a change in the Terms of Service that basically stated they could take the hard-made work of content creators, and sell it as their own. The result was an uproar of criticism, by both people accusing Linden Lab of plotting to rip off it's residents, and people criticizing them for refusing to own up to it's mistake of poorly written language and correct it.

Read the story in Extra.

 

News And Commentary: Questions Raised About Horizon Following Zuckerburg's Comments, Announcement of Creator Fees

 

It's no secret that many Second Life users roll their eyes at Linden Lab a lot. But can anyone else do a better job at developing a virtual world. The biggest company gicing it a try is Facebook/Meta, with it's Horizons. This virtual world has already been ridiculed for having avatars with nothing below the waist. But certain comments by the company founder plus how much of a cut it plans to take from content creators is making it look worse.

Read more in Other Grinds, MMOs, and Games.

Top Stories of The 2010s, Part Four

The 2010s are over. But as we say goodbye to the decade, there's some looking back at what happened. The Newser has covered much in the past ten years, and we're looking at some of the top stories that made the news and got more attention than most.

Read the fourth part of the series in Extra.

News and Commentary: More on Youtube And COPPA

Youtube has long been a staple on the Internet. It was a place that people could post videos, as long as they weren't porn or graphically violent, for friends and anyone else interested in watching. Over time, there were changes. There were the ads, there was monetization, there were the takedowns of videos that were seen as infringing of copyrights, and others. But one recent change has scared many video makers: the new rules concerning COPPA. Second Life music video maker Nydia Tungsten ended up removing most of her videos as a result, and many others are doing or considering doing the same. So why are they worried? The new rules in question are just too vague to trust.

Read the commentary in Extra.

Commentary: Second Life Is Dead, Long Live Second Life

Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich) recently wrote a  commentary. In it, he asked himself why do people still come to Second Life. Social networks seem to come and go. And in the virtual world, clubs and hangouts seem to last only a few months. So why does Second Life continue to last? Cyfir believes he knows the reason why.

Read Cyfir's commentary in Extra.

Linden Labs Announces First Invitations to Sansar Sent, Drops "Project" In Name

In a press release yesterday, Linden Lab stated that this week, they would be sending the first of their invitations for Sansar to the content creators whom applied since May. For the first time since they named what had previously been called the "Next Generation Grid" in May 2015 as "Project Sansar," Linden Lab began referring to the virtual world simply as "Sansar," dropping the "Project" part of the name.

Linden Lab® today announced that the first invitations to the Sansar™ Creator Preview are being sent this week. Select applicants will be invited to create their own social VR experiences with the new platform, slated for public release in early 2017.

The Sansar website, where content creators can still apply to early access, has been changed to www.sansar.com .

It was announced that over 6500 people had applied for early access, "As the platform matures, we’ll continue inviting more and more creators up until public release early next year." Earlier this month, Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Lab, stated in an interview he expected Sansar to be ready to be fully opened to the public in January 2017.

Inara Pey noticed the change in the name, and emailed Linden Lab's Peter Gray (Peter Linden) about it. His response was simple: "Good eye." Inara commented, "The new name shouldn’t really be a surprise – after a year or so of referring to it as “project Sansar”, to the media and the VR public, changing the platform’s name to “Sansar” is a lot easier and less confusing than trying to effectively rebrand the platform, even if it hasn’t yet been formally launched."

Linden Lab would also post four screenshots from Sansar onto it's Flickr account. Among the pictures was one with a few avatars, the first such screenshot they have released so far.

To view the press release in it's entirety, (Click here).

Source: Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Scammer Alert: Unauthorized Full Perm Item Resales Reported on Marketplace

By Bixyl Shuftan

Strawberry Singh recently wrote about an apparent problem on the Second Life Marketplace after being contacted by the maker of full permissions, or Full Perm, items which he sold on Second Life's Marketplace. Unscrupulous individuals are taking such items, and placing copies up for resale on Marketplace, not bothering to get permissions or give any kind of compensation to the content creators. Unless the offending party agrees to take down the items themselves after being contacted, the only recourse for the creators is to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request with Linden Lab "over and over until they are taken down, but then they must also DMCA items that are being sold by people who have bought these illegal full perm items and are selling them in their stores thinking they have a legal copy of the item."

Unfortunately, while sometimes this is the end of the ripoff, sometimes it continues, "A DMCA take down usually takes a week to be taken down, but the next day, that account puts it right back on that same Marketplace as a new listing."

Strawberry offered the following suggestions of "some of the things that you should look for and be aware of before making a purchase."


Before purchasing look at the seller’s other listings. If there is a hodgepodge of brand names and the vendors all look different, they are most likely an illegal seller.

Purchase the items from the inworld store of the full perm creator instead of the marketplace, to ensure that you are not purchasing from an illegal seller.

Most of the illegal sellers have blank profiles. Real full perm sellers usually have a full profile filled with links to their websites, mainstores and marketplace stores.

Most Full Perm sellers have started using water marks on the vendor ads which say the name of the avatar that is supposed to be selling it. The illegal sellers are still using those ads, even with the watermark. So it is important to look at the name of the creator on the watermark, and if it isn’t that person selling it, don’t buy it.

Try to find a way to report these items, either to Linden Lab by flagging the listing or to the original creator of the items.


That among her suggestions is not using Marketplace to purchase these items, Hamlet Au, who also wrote about the issue, called this, "Ironic, because a key point of the Marketplace existing at all is it makes online shopping for virtual content much more convenient than having to go rooting around for items in the full 3D client." Hamlet would go on to say Strawberry felt Linden Lab's options for dealing with this problem were limited.

"I honestly don't think they can because for them it would be hard to tell who is a valid seller without someone informing them at first and that's why the DMCA needs to happen." She was quoted as telling Hamlet, "If they went around closing accounts of people they suspect might be doing this without someone claiming it first, then they could potentially close some innocent accounts."

One possible solution, Strawberry suggested, was closing the accounts of those DMCAs had been filed against. But the Lab would need to be careful about unfairly shutting down creators whom are the target of false reports. Doing to would take time and resources (and money)by the Lab. But as Hamlet put it, "doing that would cut into Second Life's steadily shrinking profit margin. Then again, alienating content creators by not giving them a secure market also is also a profit-limiting move."

Among those leaving comments after Hamlet's article, one resident compared the problem to selling real life goods if they were easily duplicated in a fast-operating and extremely cheap to operate 3D printer. The person felt if someone was selling something completely Full Perm, rather than copyable but not transferable or transferable but not copyable, the seller was taking a chance, except perhaps if such items were useful only as parts to make a more detailed good.

Sources: Strawberry Singh, New World Notes, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye On The Blog: Linden Lab Offering 50% Discount For Training on Virtual Clothing Maker

On Monday December 7, Linden Lab announced on the official Second Life blog that residents would receive a fifty percent discount for taking the training course by "CG Elves" for "Marvelous Designer," which was described as "an advanced tool for creating 3D mesh clothes." The offer was good only until December 30.

Marvelous Designer is an advanced tool for creating 3D mesh clothes, and for a limited time, Second Life creators can save 50% on an online training course from CG Elves that will teach you how to use this software.

Visit the CG Elves site through this link, opt in to the “Mastering Marvelous Designer: Beginners Course & Advanced Workshops,”  select any add-ons you may want, then use secondlife-special in the coupon code section of the checkout cart to receive your discount.
This offer is only good until December 30th, 2015 - so find out more about the training course and if it’s right for you by visiting the CG ELves website today!

Is Linden Lab trying to encourage residents to take up making mesh goods? Ciaran Laval called it "a step in the right direction," noting it had a resume with some impressive names, such as being used in the "Assassins Creed" game series, and one of "The Hobbit" movies. Inara Pey wasn't sure what to make of this "unusual promotion ... to be honest, I’m scratching my head a little over it." She noted that although it came with a fifteen day free trial, Marvelous Designer wasn't cheap, with a $59 monthly subscription fee, a $360 yearly subscription, which could be discounted up to fifty percent to $180, and a lifetime one time cost of $550. The training program itself was $399 before the discount, of which the limited offer cut down to $199.50. She also brought up Project Sansar, wondering if this was some "vague pointer" the upcoming virtual world would support this designer's tool.

Hamlet Au hasn't written about the training course discount yet. Instead, he responded to a comment made by one of his readers, about how the "Prim-Based Era" of 2007/2008 was Second Life's "golden years" of content creation, as prims made it relatively easy to build and create, comparing it to "Minecraft" in which although limited to blocks, people were capable of building some amazing things there (such as actual working cell phones). But mesh "completely broke the whole 'easy to make' part of the content creation. If nowadays a new player came to me and was like 'HEY, that looks nice, how do I build something like that?' I would go 'Sigh... you study modeling, unwrapping, rendering, texturing, animation and programming for 5 years and who knows, you might get there...'"

For the Linden Lab blog post, Click Here.

Press Release: Allhallows Showcase Festival

Blue Moon Enterprise Presents Allhallows Showcase Festival
Sept 12th – Oct. 31st, 2015

Fantasy Creator's Showcase Event, Rising Phoenix (190, 191, 23)

https://fantasycreatorsshowcase.wordpress.com

https://www.flickr.com/groups/2859517@N23/

The Allhallows showcase festival shines on the creativity, imagination and beauty of 12 of Second Life’s most excellent fantasy creators. Each creator was asked to pick their favorite items to feature at the showcase. In addition they will offer a FREE hunt item in the seasonal theme.

Come join the fun and collect your hunt pumpkins found at each Creator's Booth! 

Enjoy the sim as we have lots of unique decor and a Haunted House!  Photographers will want to snap a few photos, too!

Don't miss out on the fun, great gifts and super unique items!

Sneak your way into a pre-Halloween event and come get your "boo" with us!

Fantasy Creators in Showcase are:

Angel Fae Boutique / Sorrell and Rose
BamPu Legacies / Bambi Chicque
BlueMoon enterprise / Solas NaGealai
Chimeric Arts & Fashion Shop / Punkerella Summers
FANTAVATAR & MOONSTRUCK / Luna Barak
Folklorica / Folklorica
Lilith's Den / Runa
Old World Designs / Haratio Clawtooth
~*Sweet Revolutions*~ / Gwen Von Aurora
*Souzou Eien* / Draconias Timeless
United Inshcon / Eldowyn Inshan
Velvet Whip / Madmacit

New Sponsor: M&M Creations

Longtime readers from our predecessor publication Second Life Newspaper may remember their big sponsor over time was M&M Creations, 10 and Marcthur Gooson. Not only have these expert content creators build a number of high-quality objects for Second Life residents over the years, one can use their scuplts and textures in their own builds (contact them before making items intended as freebies or for sale), plus they have offered classes and tutorials on building. As the years have gone by, their wares have expended to include mesh, and more recently fitted mesh. Besides Second Life, they have taken their talents to InWorldz and Spot-On 3D.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that M&M Creations has decided to help sponsor Second Life Newser. We look forward to informing the Grid once again about their quality products.

Website: http://www.doublemcreations.org/ 

Second Life location: DoubleMM (179/77/76)

InWorldz location: DoubleMM (173/180/82)

Second Life Marketplace: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/9798

Shop: (link)

Interview with Prokofy Neva, Part Two

Earlier this summer, we interviewed Prokofy Neva, an outspoken, sometimes controversial figure in Second Life. Prokofy had much on his mind as we talked. In the second part of the interview, he discussed last year's third-party Linden exchange services' ban and the recent controversy about content creators' rights. He also talked about his opinions about the plans for a new Grid, and why Second Life hasn't caught on with the masses like Twitter and Facebook have. One thing that might take some critics by surprise, he had a few kind words for a friend.

Read the interview in People.

Linden Lab Updates Terms of Service Section 2.3

It was August last year that Linden Lab made one of their most controversial Terms of Service updates. Specifically, section 2.3 had been changed in a way that some interpreted as saying the Lab reserved the right to sell content created by residents or otherwise distribute without any compensation for the creator.


[..]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.[..] 

Seldom in the history of Second Life have a few lines generated such controversy. Texture websites began baring the downloading of content for use in Second Life, Noted entertainer Tuna Oddfellow took his Odd Ball out of Second Life to InWorldz for a time, a "United Content Creators of SL" group was created in response, a conference was held to discuss the issue, and more. Although Linden Lab expressed regret about the misunderstanding, the Terms of Service remained unchanged. In April, the new Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Linden told a crowd of listeners the terms would change. Finally On Wednesday July 16, The Terms of Service were changed, including the controversial section 2.3.

[..] ... 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, 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), and otherwise exploit in any way manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content (and and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats, on or through any media, software, formula, or medium now know or hereafter developed, and with any technology or devices now know 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. ... [..]

Curiously enough, not only did one need to agree to the terms to log on to Second Life, but also to log into Linden Lab's website, secondlife.com. This has raised a few eyebrows on the official forums.

With the words "with respect to Second Life, Inworld or otherwise on the Service as permitted by you through your interactions with the Service," it would appear at first glance the Lab has finally made the change desired by those whom have kept asking for almost a year. On her blog though, Inara Pey was not willing to say quite yet that it had.

"Moreover, the limits as stated would appear to stand in contradiction with a further clause in the Terms of Service which was introduced with the August 2013 changes, and remain unaltered with this update. To wit: that Linden Lab can 'otherwise explot in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your user content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever.' Hence to the untutored eye, it is actually hard to discern what the Lab is in face saying with this upfate, or what they are actually adressing."

So perhaps the final words on the matter have yet to be made.

Official forums thread: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/A-new-TOS/td-p/2777928

Second Life Universe forums thread - http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/97904-new-terms-service.html

Inara Pey's article - http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/lab-updates-section-2-3-of-their-terms-of-service-will-it-calm-doubts/

Bixyl SHuftan

"Time To Move On" - Kylie Sabra Leaving the UCCSL

For months, Kylie Sabra tirelessly led the United Content Creators of Second Life group, a group created in response to Linden Lab's change of it's Terms of Service in reguards to the rights of content creators. She had urged level-headed dialouge with the Lab. In February, she concluded the Lab had no intention of changing the terms to ease the concerns of builders, saying the group had to pursue other options if it wanted the Lindens to change. In her latest post a few days ago, she announced she was moving on from the UCCSL.

LoveCat Thei and I had hoped to create  group that would benefit creators, but we had also hoped that others would join us in providing much-needed services. Alas, no one stepped forward to take on any of the tasks that would need to be accomplished in order to bring you those services. ... LoveCat and I both earn incomes from our work here and realize that as much as we want to contribute, we need to take care of our families first. I wish we had more impact on effecting change to the ToS. Failure does not sit well with me, but when it comes I know that I simply have to get up and move on with life.

Kylie mentioned a detail that she felt was a sign the ToS move was not a power grab, "I would like to point out something that has come to my intention, that cements for me that Linden Lab does not intend to steal our hard work. ... Linden Lab recently approached an in-world artist and entered into a written contract to use their photos to promote Second Life." Still, she felt the Lab could have handled the issue much better, and the consequences would be long lasting, "Whether the ToS sits well with us from a moral/ethical standpoint is moot. They are within their rights to do as they wish. I think it unfortunate that they chose such inflammatory wording. ... we will never again feel that we are partners in this endeavor with Linden Lab: We will never again trust so blindly as we once did."

For now, the UCCSL group is still open, though Kylie may close it if membership plummets. She also stated she would continue to speak out in the future about other issues.

"Wishing you all a pleasant goodnight–for now."

Bixyl Shuftan

UCCSL Leader Kylie Sabra: "Linden Lab Has No Intention of Making Any Change to the Terms of Services"

Since forming the United Content Creators of Second Life in October 2013 , Kylie Sabra has been tirelessly been urging Linden Lab to undo it's changing of it's Terms of Service in regards to content uploaded, which many residents interpreted as the Lab saying they could take and sell the content made by residents at any time without any compensation, or at least modify them to recognize the rights of content creators. At the same time, she was urging calm, saying as long as reasonable and friendly negotiation with the Lab was open, there was nothing to be gained by angering the Lindens. To do so could very well end the chance of negotiation and rewording the ToS back to the favor of Second Life's builders.

On January 30th, Kylie posted on the UCCSL blog a different message. She had given up on getting Linden Lab to change its way.

I mentioned at the end of December that would be sending a personal letter to Linden Lab, and I did not share that with you. However, it is clear to me now that Linden Lab has no intention of making any change to the Terms of Services. As many pointed out, the first two responses were merely smokescreens

Kylie showed the letter to Linden Lab later in her post, addressed to Peter Gray, Linden Lab's Director of Global Communications. This was her final plea to the Lab.

It seems my emails to you have been lost in the hubris. It’s unfortunate that a formal CMRR letter is required to receive an answer. As we move into 2014, I am transitioning the group. We still believe that the ToS is abominable and the lack of follow-up from Linden Lab has only served to increase the anger and frustration of creators. I imagine the Lab thought that if they just ignored the outcry it would diminish. That has not proven to be true.

I am looking to the future and I believe the more we work together the more success we will all realize. Right now there exists a deep chasm between the Lab and Creatives. I’m willing to work to bridge that, but I need your help.

Kylie would go on to describe her real life difficulties, and how Second Life had become important to her real life income. The change in the Terms of Service made her feel like she was on a "sinking ship," going on to say, "I am fearful. This ToS does not bode well for any sense of security in my future here."

Attached to the letter was a list of content creators and their various reactions to the ToS controversy, from ceasing their building to taking their business entirely to another Grid.

I have given valuable tools to the group to use as individuals toward the end of effecting change in the ToS. Whether they use them or not, is their decision. How I’d like to say, “Hey, you don’t need to do any of those things because we are making headway.”

Peter.  It’s broken. Let’s work together to fix it. I have the voice to help with that, but need something concrete, worthwhile to say.

But there would be no answer.

Kylie felt the ball was now in their court as to their next move. One option she felt was worth pursuing was appealing to the US Government, "I have sent my own letters to the government entities as cited in our Google Docs.... The U.S. government has interceded in cases like this before, without anyone going to court. If you are not in the U.S., then by all means send the letters to the applicable government agencies in your country."

There was one other option. In March, there will be a "grid-wide corporate logo hunt." I had a chat with someone who explained that the purpose of this hunt was to expose copyrights being violated. With Linden Lab claiming the ability to use any content uploaded for whatever purpose they wish, an argument could easily be made this is also an acceptance of responsibility for any material copyrighted in real life uploaded by others without permission.

After the blog post was announced in the UCCSL group, there was a chat about it about this and the departure of Rod Humble. I also had a IM chat with Kylie. She didn't have much else to tell the Newser what wasn't already in her statement. Only she had worked hard for a while, and was going to take a short break from dealing with the ToS controversy. It was now time for others to step in. While there was a role for the press in helping to keep the public informed about the issue, it would also take the content creators themselves, and their customers, to get the Lindens to eventually reverse their decision.

For Kylie's blog post, check the UCCSL Blog (Here).

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Responds to Content Creators in E-Mail

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last Friday, there was finally some word from Linden Lab regarding the ToS controversy. On Tuesday Oct 22, The United Content Creators of Second Life group sent an open letter to Peter Gray, Linden Lab's Communications Director. They asked for a meeting with people from the Lab in order to "resolve these issues and concerns … regarding the August 2012 Terms of Service, specifically Section 2.3." On Friday August 25, Kylie Sabra, the leader of the UCCSL announced they had received a response.

In Peter Gray's email, the Lab stated "we greatly value Second Life's content creators" and "we remain committed to providing Second Life as a platform on which residents can create and profit from their creations." They insisted, "the revision of the Terms of Service was made in order to further extend the ability of content creators" to sell their wares through other means owned by Linden Lab, notably their Desura distribution platform, "not just within Second Life."

However, there would be no meeting with the content creators, "We believe that it would be more fruitful to avoid further debate of the assertions made to date regarding the intent and effect of our updated Terms of Service, and instead focus on whether there may be an approach to address the concerns that have arisen in the community." A statement that could be seen as aimed at criticism of the ToS as a whole.

The Lab stated they were "currently reviewing what changes could be made that would resolve the concerns of Second Life content creators," with the intent of allowing content creators to sell content with Linden Lab acting as their "agent," but there would be no "reverting to the prior wording" of the ToS, "We are optimistic that we will be able to arrive at a mutually agreeable and beneficial way forward, and ask for your group's continued patience as we work to do so."

In a letter to the members of the UCCSL, Kylie saw the Lab's response as basically good news, "I see this as a positive, an opening for ongoing dialoug … They admit that the current ToS does not serve both them and the client base well. It is a tough issue, the protection of content creators' rights and giving Linden Lab the latitude they need to work across multiple services." Kylie did caution, "Bear in mind, this is a business, and they have no obligation to disclose their business plans. And speculation about the whys and wherefores is not productive." But she and the UCCSL "will continue to assert pressure on Linden Lab until we reach a resolution." Kylie also sent an article to the Sim Street Journal. In the article she was critical of Linden Labs for their stand, departing from her usual cautious optimism in recent days.

Gone is Rosedale’s concept that content creators own their work and should even share in the value that is created. Rather, the originating ideology of Philip Rosedale is laid waste with the scythe that is the August, 2013 Second Life Terms of service. This sweepingly destructive tool fells both pride of ownership and pride of creation with sharpened tines of shredding words.

While Kylie appealed for calm (outside her SSJ article), others remained skeptical. Several people responded to Daniel Voyager's post on his blog about Peter Gray's email. All expressed some level of skepticism about Linden Lab's intentions. Skepticism was also rife at the Sunweaver Estates where the SL Newser office makes it's home, with a few residents in IMs expressing doubt about Second Life's future. A hint the Lab's message may not be changing many minds on the issue.

The UCCSL group (blog at http:// unitedcontentcreatorsofsl. wordpress.com/) is currently at 458 members, and has been organized in several sections, or guilds, for different kinds of content, artists and filmmakers, fashion designers, musicians, scriptmakers, etc. The group has a headquarters at Angel Manor (131/134/4002).

Sources: UCCSL, Sim Street Journal, Daniel Voyager


Bixyl Shuftan

"United Content Creators of SL" Group Formed in Response to ToS Changes

A group specifically for those concerned about the recent Terms of Service controversy in Second Life has been formed: "The United Content Creators of Second Life." The group was founded by Kylie Sabra (Kylie Angel Skyborne) on Sept 29, and is open to all.


This group consists of content creators who want to protect their rights and work for the common good of all content creators in Second Life. By working together we can achieve much. Please invite fellow creators.

As of now, the group has more than 270 members.

Daniel Voyager called the group, "huge news and this recent TOS change effects so many people/places on the grid. Change has to happen at some point in the near future and hopefully Linden Lab will do something. The best thing is to participate today and spread the word. ...
This group needs backing with a lot of support if there is going to be any impact at all."

Addition: The UCCSL has a blog at http://unitedcontentcreatorsofsl.wordpress.com/

Interview with Will Burns (Aeonix Aeon) About The ToS Controversy

By Bixyl Shuftan

Will Burns (account name Aeonix Aeon) is a resident in Second Life of a number of roles, including content creator, businessman, and is the writer behind the Andromeda blog under his real-life name of Will Burns, where he writes about Second Life, and virtual worlds in general. Among the articles on his blog was one he wrote in October 2010 following a series of moves by Linden Lab most residents couldn't make sense out of. Will at the time felt he could, concluding the Lab was looking for an investor or a buyer.

So what did Will think of what was going on with Linden Lab now? I talked with him shortly after he had written about the matter. When I questioned him about his comment to Shava Suntzu/Shava Nerad about calling Linden Lab's move part of an exit strategy, he responded, "yes, but not the sort of strategy people think. … The exit strategy may very well be to transition SL into a closed and highly controlled gaming system where they own everything, and it can be offered for resale to indie devs as a service on Desura in order to bolster their other diversification offerings. Either that or to transition it to (possibly) a 'Second' Second Life which could be high-fidelity, or whatever, in which case it still stands that the closed system mentality and control is needed to make sense in the whole for Desura and the closed gaming platforms they are making in an ecosystem."

"It could be a little bit of both, but as it stands - and exit strategy looks a bit toxic from the outside because SL is a wild card and looks like a giant headache for not being able to own the content. In order to alleviate that, they look to be circling the wagons for a transition to another system where they can outright make it closed and vetted only through Linden Lab for user generated content, much like they now do for TPVs, which gives them ultimate rights and control. But it wouldn't surprise me if they offered a content pipeline service to indie devs on Desura in order to make it lucrative for adoption. I wouldn't rule out a future point where they may also say that everything is a review process for import, either. There is a lot of reasons that make sense. But most of them revolve around the end-game or transition."

Unlike most, Will felt the Lab knew what it was doing when it wrote the new ToS, "They couldn't have written it better. Because that's what their intention actually was. If it wasn't they would have fixed it already. … Even if you went to another Grid,  they still have the copies and will continue to have the rigths unless you enforce otherwise. When you delete inventory, you are only deleting the UUID key that you have to each item. But the master copies stick on the server because *other people* might have access to it. So unless you send DMCA or removal requests to LL, all deleting your inventory does is delete *your* own access to those files, but doesn't delete from the servers. If you want them all gone, you likely have to send the DMCA or similar for content removal to get them to remove the *master* copies on the servers so *nobody* in SL can have a copy.  *Then* you can go to another grid knowing you've cleaned your stuff out of SL completely. Otherwise.. just picking up shop and moving to Inworldz doesn't do anything to what is on the server unless they specifically sent the removal request and DMCA type process.

Of course, if you've sold anything in SL, like say.. a brand, if I send a DMCA for removal of content, that means everyone that bought my stuff loses it and you probably owe people refunds out the a**. See the catch 22 LL is betting on? That's why the TOS is written just the way they want it. Even if it's a total rat bastard power grab, still does just what LL wants, unless you take them to court in a class action to reverse the TOS agreement. But I dont see much of anything for a option at all, really. It's a hard situation no matter what. Somebody is gonna lose, and LL is the least of the loser(s), no matter what."

"There is a third option," Will suggested, "make content that requires a 3rd party authentication to be useful, so taken out of the auth situation, would be utterly useless." I asked Will to give an example. He answered, "Sure. That's exactly how 'eureka!' works. It's a front end HUD, but the actual mechanics and such are on a external server which they can't claim ownership of. Same deal with the kiosks - they require the external server to work. Without it, both are DOA, essentially. Kinda like a built in kill switch. You take away the external component and the product becomes worthless, in the sort of manner of like, texture for a mesh shirt is defaulted to something god-awful ugly. But the HUD (connected to external server) fixes that.  I would imagine Meeroos wont work without external servers, etc."

"But the best bet would probably be a legal one en-mass."

It was at this point Will had to depart, and we went our separate ways. He did remind me that he wasn't calling for Linden Lab to be leveled, "Just looking at all angles and possibilities based on a corporate mentality premise."

Will Burns' articles about the ToS controversy can be found on both Andromeda, and his Google Plus page.

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: C.A.L.L. Asking For Artists in Protest Exhibition

Somnium Photo Art Gallery hereby invites all artists in SL to take part in a free, open and non-commercial exhibition - C.A.L.L. (Creators Against Linden Lab)

Create a piece of art that expresses your point of view on the Linden Lab terms of service section 2.3. - create a piece of art which property rights you will gladly grant on your own free will to Linden Lab. If there will be enough entries, Somnium Photo Art Gallery will host an exhibition of these pieces of art throughout November and December.

Pieces of art should be not more than 2 prims and 4 x 4 meters. They will be set for sale at 0 L$, as the content you have uploaded to SL is not yours anyway with the current LL TOS. All pieces should be submitted as a full perm copy to Walt Ireton until October 31st. If there will be more entries as there is available space in the exhibition room, I will select which pieces will be in the exhibition.

Remember that Linden Lab "owns Intellectual Property Rights in (...) Linden Lab trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos" - as it is stated in the same document which grants full property rights to LL for all YOUR creative content. Don't use anything that violates legal property rights of LL.

Contact Walt Ireton if you wish to be a part in this exhibition or if you have any questions.

CALL Exhibition Room
Somnium Art Gallery
Greece (51/25/35)