Discord Backs Down: Age Verification Delayed

 

Earlier this month, Discord announced that it's users would need to submit to age verification. Either they would need to show some ID proving their age, or they would need to show a picture or short video of themselves. The result was numerous users complaining. Part of the backlash were concerns about the safety of data collected as in October hackers had stolen the information of 700,000 government IDs owned by the platform via a third party service it was working with at the time. There were further concerns when other hackers discovered "the frontend code for their partner Persona was publicly accessible on the open internet," and the code "compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 categories of adverse media (from mentions of terrorism to espionage), and tags reports with codenames from active intelligence programs consisting of public-private partnerships."

So on Tuesday February 24, Discord announced a change of plans. They were delaying age-verification checks. Discord's co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy would explain:
 

In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works. The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why. That's on us.
 

Our goal is straightforward: keep the Discord experience completely unchanged for the vast majority of people while ensuring an age-appropriate experience for everyone. Over 90% of users will never need to verify their age to continue using Discord exactly as they do today. This is powered in part by our internal safety systems, which can already make an age determination for many adult users without any user action. We'll publish the methodology behind this in a technical blog post before we launch globally.

Vishnevskiy would go on to say the age-verification was "being shaped by legislation already in effect in the UK and Australia, with Brazil quick to follow, and Europe and multiple US states close behind." They were also no longer in a partnership with Persona, the platform they were working with when the hacking breach happened. 

So Discord users can relax a little, though perhaps not for very long. An article by "The Verge" stated, "Age verification is a reality on a growing number of social media platforms, requiring an ID or facial scan for full access to everything from YouTube to Roblox. The age-gating wave is coming along with calls for stronger child safety measures online, despite concerns about privacy, security, and censorship. In the US, lawmakers are pushing forward bills like the App Store Accountability Act and Parents Over Platforms Act to have app stores themselves verify users’ ages." So users of platforms valuing privacy will likely be needing to be very watchful for a while

 

Sources: Discord, Arstechnica, International Business Times. The Verge  

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Announcement: Virtual Ability's 14th Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference

 

You are invited to attend Virtual Ability's 14th annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference on Thursday, November 6, 2025.

Every year in the fall, our community hosts an international professional conference on topics related to disability rights. Not only is this an opportunity for our community members to learn more about important subjects from experts they probably would not have a chance to meet otherwise, it allows the general public to attend a professional conference at no cost. 

The theme of this year’s Conference is “No Health Without Peace.” This theme applies to everyone, not just to persons with disabilities. The broad topic allows our presenters and panelists from Canada, the UK, and the US to explore a variety of meanings of health and of peace. Presenters will also offer various strategies for achieving healthful peace.

The conference will take place in Virtual Ability’s Sojourner Auditorium, on Virtual Ability island. The SLURL for the auditorium is Virtual Ability (54/170/23)

You can view the conference schedule here: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2025/

The livestream will be here: https://www.youtube.com/@VirtualAbilityInc/live

All are welcome. We hope you can attend! 

 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23
 

Announcement: Virtual Ability Presents The International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC) on Friday, Nov 15

 

Virtual Ability, Inc.® presents the 13th Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC) on Friday, Nov 15, 2024.

This annual professional conference will be held online, and is free and open to the public.

The conference will take place in Second Life® at The Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island.Virtual Ability (54/170/23) 

The conference will also be Live Streamed on YouTube.

Our theme this year is “Disability & Health: Where will AI take us?” Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an area of current research interest and regulatory concern. It holds both promise and peril for people with disabilities and healthcare in general. The utility and problems of AI differ for people with different types of disabilities. This conference offers a quick look at this broad topic. We expect lively discussions and information sharing among presenters and our very interested and interactive audience.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

The events start at 7 AM SL time and end soon before 12 Noon. 

 

To see the schedule, Click Here. 

 

Virtual Ability's Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference

 

You are cordially invited to attend Virtual Ability's annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference. This year it will be held on Friday, November 10. It is in Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

This year's theme is "Do, Create, Live." We're looking at what people with disabilities can do, create, and live when their rights are respected.

Here is the schedule (subject to change, and in SLT, of course).

7-7:30am - Joseph English will talk about how setting up QuadRebuild to help others changed his new life as a quadriplegic

7:30-8:30am - Erin Willis and Daniel Garza will explain their research on patient influencers who do direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing

8:30-9:30am - Emily Wright, who survived multiple concussions, explains how she rebalanced her mind

9:30-10:30am - John Cronin, who has Down syndrome, describes his Crazy Socks store and how he runs it with his father Mark Cronin

10:30am-11am - a panel discusses what "Do, Create, Live" means in education

11:00-11:30am - BREAK!

11:30am-noon - Keri Gray tells about the National Alliance of Melanin Disabled Advocates (the NAMED Advocates).

noon-12:30pm - a panel discusses what "Do, Create, Live" means in the arts

12:30-1:30pm - Judy Mittag explains how advocates got federal legislation passed to require insurance coverage for lymphedema supplies

1:30-2:30pm - Heather Markham, author, shares how we can each choose a title for our own stories

You can learn more about the speakers here: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2023/

We hope you can attend our conference.

Questions? Ask Gentle Heron.

Announcement: Virtual Ability IDRAC Conference This Friday

 Save the Date- Oct 28 IDRAC 

Virtual Ability's annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference is a free public professional conference. This year's conference is on Friday, October 28, in the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island. The theme of the conference is "Access to Justice."

The impetus behind Virtual Ability's conferences is to provide professional-level information to the general public in a highly accessible format. Most of us would never get to hear from and interact with these researchers and other experts outside of Second Life!

You can see the conference schedule and more about the speakers here: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2022/

Presenters at this year's conference range from a lawyer talking about how "typical" employment hours are discriminatory,  to a student investigating the fairness of AI hiring software; from a retired professor who became a disability ally, to a physical therapist who has written children's books featuring a dog with an amputated leg who deals with discrimination and bullying.

Additionally, several of the poster sets on Healthinfo Island address topics related to Access to Justice. These you can visit any time during the month of October. Be sure to click each poster for additional information and live links. You can get a notecard containing all the text (posters + click text) plus image descriptions by clicking the entrance poster.

We hope you can attend the IDRAC conference on October 28. If you (your avatar) can't attend live in Second Life, you can watch the conference live stream on Virtual Ability's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtualAbilityInc

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

 

"EARN IT" Bill In Congress Could Mean Bad News For Internet Freedom

By Bixyl Shuftan

There's another Internet bill in Congress that could have potentially dire consequences for privacy expectations people online take for granted. Introduced "to establish a National Commission on Online Child Exploitation Prevention, and for other purposes," the "Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of  Interactive Technologies" Act, or EARN IT, "opens the door for the government to require new measures to screen users’ speech and even backdoors to read your private communications."

According to an article in Bloomberg, "The bipartisan measure, ... would affect a wide range of social media companies, cloud service providers, email and text platforms and other technology services. It could put Facebook in the government’s crosshairs for its plans to encrypt all of its messaging apps and undercut Apple’s refusal to create back doors into its devices and services." The article would go on to say, "The Justice Department has tentatively scheduled a Feb. 19 meeting on the future of the immunity known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ... The provision protects platforms from responsibility for content posted by third parties. Although the measure doesn’t directly mention encryption, it would require that companies work with law enforcement to identify, remove, report and preserve evidence related to child exploitation -- which critics said would be impossible to do for services such as WhatsApp that are encrypted from end-to-end."

Companies would have to "certify that they are following the best practices set by the 15-member commission." If they don't to its satisfaction, "they would lose the legal immunity they currently enjoy under Section 230 relating to child exploitation and abuse laws. That would open the door to lawsuits for 'reckless' violations of those laws ..."

Supporters of the bill insist the ability to read encrypted messages is necessary, saying efforts to protect encryption, “will make it harder to detect -- and stop -- child abuse and similar crimes." Elliot Harmon of the Electronic Frontier Foundation retorted that if the bill became law, "the Attorney General could unilaterally dictate how online platforms and services must operate. If those companies don’t follow the Attorney General’s rules, they could be on the hook for millions of dollars in civil damages and even state criminal penalties. ... It opens the door for the government to require new measures to screen users’ speech and even backdoors to read your private communications.

"EARN IT undermines Section 230, the most important law protecting free speech online. Section 230 enforces the common-sense principle that if you say something illegal online, you should be the one held responsible, not the website or platform where you said it. Section 230 has played a crucial role in creating the modern Internet. Without it, social media as we know it today wouldn’t exist, and neither would the Internet Archive, Wikimedia, and many other essential educational and community resources. And it doesn’t just protect tech platforms either: if you’ve ever forwarded an email, thank Section 230 that you could do that without inviting legal risk on yourself." Harmon would call the bill an attack on Internet Security, entrepreneur innovation, and just plain unnecessary.

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerburg has stated his company will continue to be “standing up for encryption, against those who say that privacy mostly helps bad people.” Senator Ron Wyden has openly spoken in protest about the bill, "a tired, debunked plan to blow a hole in one of the most important security features protecting digital lives of the American people."

The website fightforthefuture.org/ has a petition calling on Congress to reject the bill. As of the writing of this article, it has over 8660 of the 12,800 signatures it set as a goal.

The Justice Department is currently led by Attorney General William Barr, whom lately has been the target of calls to resign for interfering with the trial of an ally of President Trump.

Sources: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Reuters, Bloomberg, Ron Wyden

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Join Us for One Billion Rising in Second Life 2020!

For the seventh year, on February 14, 2020, men and women in Second Life will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and people across the world to Rise, Resist and Unite as a show of unity, individual strength, and the need for change.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

We call on you this year to be braver, go deeper, reflect, study, listen, learn, awaken to what you don’t know, ask the difficult questions, engage, take actions, and push yourselves out of your comfort zones physically and intellectually. We call on you to commit to resistance and solidarity.

Because Rising is no longer a campaign – it is a way of life.

RISE! RESIST! UNITE!

The Second Life event will feature a four-region stage where 200 people can come together to dance, surrounded by an area of art installations, an arena for poetry and dramatic productions, and informational exhibits. A variety of amazing live performers and DJs will play over the 24-hour period and poetry and dramatic events will be held at different times, enabling people all over the world to attend this virtual event no matter their timezone. The regions will have a General maturity rating to allow all residents an opportunity to participate. Pictures are welcome on the event’s Flickr group.

This year, One Billion Rising in Second Life is especially saluting the work and courage of female heroes from across the world. We’ll be posting more details over the coming month.

If you would like to volunteer to support the event, go here to find out how you can join in.

If you would like to report on the event as a member of the press, go here.

If you would like to create an art installation for the event, go here.

The objective of the event is to raise awareness, not to raise funds; however, information about real-world organizations will be available for those wishing to donate.

We will be announcing the sponsors for One Billion Rising shortly. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, go here. Please note, as we are not a fundraising event, we have a limited number of sponsorship spaces to cover costs of the 4 regions used for the 24 hours of music, dance, poetry, literature, art installations and shows.

To read more on One Billion Rising, Click Here.

Press Release: 2019 IDRAC Schedule

This year’s annual IDRAC conference will be held on Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2. It has the theme “We help each other, we help ourselves.”
Read about the conference here: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2019/

The conference is held in the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island.
The SLURL is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

Here is the schedule.

NOTE All times are given as SLT or Second Life Time, which is the same as Pacific time in California. You should use a converter such as https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html to confirm your local time.

FRIDAY
7 am SLT Mari Kimura (PCORI)
“The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI): Mission and Successes”
8:30 am SLT Arleen Ionescu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and Anne-Marie Callus (University of Malta)
"Reading the Personal and the Social in Disability Studies and Trauma Studies"
10 am SLT Catalin Brylla (University of West London)
“Disability and Media Representation”
11:30 am SLT Frederic Fovet (Royal Roads University)
“UDL in Higher Ed: Shifting access from the remedial to the proactive”
1 pm SLT Nohemi Lugo, Maria Elena Melon, Maria Concepcion Castillo (Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico)
“The representation of autism in the narratives of fanfiction.net: Affinity spaces as an opportunity for the negotiation of meaning”

SATURDAY
6:30 am SLT panel “Hearing Our Voices” with Alyssa Hillary (blogger and advocate), Rob Castellanos (Syndio Health) and Kirk Munsch (Rare Patient Voice)
8 am SLT showing and discussion of the video “The Bench”
9 am SLT Fleur Heleen Boot (Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands)
"Which factors influence access to assistive products for people with intellectual disabilities?"
10:30 am SLT Sunil Deepak (AIFO, Italy)
"Challenges and Opportunities in Community-based Rehabilitation and Emancipatory Disability Research"
Noon SLT Katherine Breward (University of Winnipeg)
"Disability Accommodation and Intersectional Identities: Evidence for Differential Requesting and Accommodation Rates"
1:30 pm SLT Lydia X. Z. Brown (advocate)
"The Autistic People of Color Fund: Building Networks of Mutual Aid by/for Negatively Racialized Autistic People"

Press Release: Virtual Ability's Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference, October 5 and 6

This year Virtual Ability will hold its annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 5 and 6. The theme of this year's conference is "Taking Care of Us."

We are very excited about the presenters we will have this year.

One is from the United Nations (he will speak at 8:30am SLT on Friday). Another is an Emmy award winning filmmaker (he presents Friday at 11:30am SLT). And on Saturday at 11am SLT, we will interview a Section Editor for the New York Times.

Our presenters are from Hong Kong, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the UK, Ghana and Mauritius as well as the US, so it's a truly international group of presenters. You can see the full schedule here: http://virtualability.org/idrac-2018/

Questions? You can email me (gentle@virtualability.org) or IM Gentle Heron.

Thank you kindly.

Press Release: Virtual Ability's International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference

The 6th annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference is a professional conference, free and open to the public, where we continue to celebrate progress in the disability rights movement and examine areas where we must continue to find ways to advance the rights of people with disabilities.

Below is the schedule for this year's conference, themed "Who Is Responsible?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY December 1
8:00am
Mr. Louis Olander, Doctoral Candidate, Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
9:30am
Mr. John McArdle, Black Triangle, Scotland, UK
11:00am
Dr. David Wasserman, Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health
12:30pm
Dr. Margaret Nosek, Baylor College of Medicine
2:00pm
Dr. Amie O'Shea, Deakin University, Australia
3:00pm
Social/Networking After Party
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY December 2
8:00am
Dr. Christopher McMaster, New Zealand high school educator
9:30am
Ms Katie Tastrom, MSW, Esq., blogger and author
11:00am
Dr. Sonya Freeman-Loftis, Morehouse College
12:30pm
Dr. Carol Moeller, Moravian College
2:00pm
D. Anjali Forber-Pratt, Vanderbilt University
3:00pm
Social/Networking After Party

For additional information, please see:

http://www.virtualability.org/conferences/idrac/idrac-2017/

http://blog.virtualability.org

Press Release: International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference This Friday, Saturday

International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC 2016)
"We’re Part of the Community.”
The Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island??
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/56/174/23

Friday, November 18
8am Caroline Pavis of Johnson and Johnson will talk about their HealthEVoices disability bloggers conference.
9:30am Theresa Lorenzo of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, will talk about her research on ways to make disability-inclusive services available in rural areas of South Africa, Botswana and Malawi.
11am A panel of members of Chronic Pain Anonymous will talk about peer support in various social media venues.
12:30pm Members of the Baylor College of Medicine (TX) Center for Research on Women with Disabilities will talk about their GoWoman weight management project for women with mobility disabilities.
2pm Maggie Sheets with the Disability Policy Consortium of Massachusetts will explain the importance of including people with disability in policy making.


Saturday, November 19
8am l’Arche, an intentional mixed residential community for people with and without intellectual disabilities (presenter still being confirmed).
9:30am Margaret Nosek, professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine, will talk about her research projects in Second Life for women with physical disabilities.
11am John Lester, expert in online communities and former Education Liaison with Linden Lab, will talk about early patient support communities in virtual worlds created by Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard.
12:30pm A presentation by Virtual Ability community member KriJon about people with disabilities and 9/11.

For more information about presenters and presentations, please see the Virtual Ability blog:
http://blog.virtualability.org

Virtual Ability Conference This Friday and Saturday

This year, Virtual Ability's International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC 2015) will be held Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14. Sessions both days will take place between 9am and 4pm Pacific time (SLT).
The conference will be held at Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

You can see the full conference schedule, including synopses of presentations and presenter biographies, here:

http://blog.virtualability.org/

The theme for this year's conference is "It's All About the People."

We invite you to attend the conference and tell your friends about it. You might consider bringing them along, especially if they are skeptical about the value of virtual worlds.

This year's presenters come from the United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the US. Please join us on the 13th and 14th of November as we celebrate successes, identify issues and re-affirm the rights of people with disabilities across the world.

Alice Krueger (SL: Gentle Heron)
President, Virtual Ability, Inc.
gentle@virtualability.org

Commentary: Windows 10's Dark Secret

Microsoft is releasing their latest version of Windows: Windows 10. In development for over two years, Microsoft calls it, "the best Windows ever." And the company is giving it out for free. So what's the catch? It seems the Operating System collects quite a bit of your data that gets sent to Microsoft. Nydia Tungsten had a few things to say about it.

Read more in Extra.

Press Release: International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference on Oct 3-4

You're invited to the Oct. 3-4, 2014 International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), sponsored by Virtual Ability®,Inc. This international conference will be held in Second Life®.

The theme for 2014 is "Technically, we're accessible... right?" Exploring True Inclusion in the Digital World.

Join colleagues, friends, and community members for presentations on web accessibility, advances in assistive technology, creating an accessible user experience, accessible gaming, emerging standards for technology, and more! Presenters from Spain, U.K., U.S., and Australia will join us at The Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island within Second Life.

Why don’t you join us, too?

Questions?
Contact sister@virtualability.org or Sister Abeyante
Keep your eyes on Virtual Ability's blog for more information as we get closer to this exciting event!

http://blog.virtualability.org/

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.

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab on The ToS Section 2.3 Update

On Wednesday July 16, Linden Lab posted on it's blog about their Terms of Service update. Specifically, they were letting people know they'd finally changed Section 2.3

When we updated our Terms of Service in August 2013, the revised language of Section 2.3, the “Service Content License,” caused concern among certain Second Life creators. The revision to this section was worded in such a way that these creators expressed concern that we intended to appropriate their original creations and sell or license such creations without their permission. As our historical practice demonstrates and as we have since tried to clarify, this was absolutely not our intent. Creators are the lifeblood of Second Life. It is you who have populated Second Life with a petabyte worth of unique content and experiences, and it is important for our collective and continued success that you remain confident in continuing to create in our world. To be clear: Linden Lab respects the proprietary rights of Second Life’s content creators and prides itself in its success in providing platforms on which users can create original content and profit from their creations.

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.

First, the modified version limits our rights with respect to user-created content in Second Life by restricting our use “inworld or otherwise on the Service.” Additionally, it limits our right to “sell, re-sell or sublicense (through multiple levels)” your Second Life creations by requiring some affirmative action on your part in order for us to do so. This language mirrors the corresponding User Content License currently in Section 2.4, which has been part of the Terms of Service for years.  

We know that the legal language of documents such as the Terms of Service can seem daunting, and we expect that some creators may continue to have concerns about particular elements of the updated agreement. Today’s revision to this section of the Terms of Service more closely expresses our intent - that we do not intend to appropriate or sell your content outside of our Service - and our hope is that the limitations clarified in the updated language of this section will support creators’ confidence in our platform.

They reminded readers that "Section 2.3 isn't the only thing that's changed," noting their updated terms of "skill games."

...we wanted to blog about this update to be clear about what’s different in this section, what it means, and why we made the change.

One can read the post in it's entirely at: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Updates-to-Section-2-3-of-the-Terms-of-Service/ba-p/2777874

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

Scenes from One Billion Rising 2014

Besides Valentines Day, Friday February 14 was also the day of the One Billion Rising event. Across the planet, men and women demonstrated in support of the rights of women against abuse. Second Life was also the scene of demonstrations in form of artistic exhibits, music, and readings in the four sim OBR region. Gemma Cleanslate was there as a greeter, and took a number of pictures while she was there, along with a few from Bixyl Shuftan when he dropped by briefly.

See the pictures in Events.

Scenes From One Billion Rising

For 24 hours starting at 11PM, February 13th, the One Billion Rising event will take place in Second Life. The event is actually one of a number events across the planet as part of a demonstration in support of womens' rights. On Thursday, Feb 13th, The OBR staff invited members of the press to the four sims people will be gathering at, and there were a number of artistic exhibitions up.

 The sims the event will take place at are:

OBR Rise (186/186/24)

OBR Release (68/68/24)

OBR Dance (168/68/24)

OBR Justice (68/186/24)

For more information, check the following links:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Billion-Rising/493344827375934
Second Life Group: One Billion Rising
Twitter Stream: https://twitter.com/OBRinSL
Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/2169739@N23/
Main One Billion Rising for Justice page: http://www.onebillionrising.org/

Pictures from Gemma Cleanslate