EOTB: Linden Halloween Costume Contest, 25,000 L Prize (Deadline Thursday)

 

On the official blog, Linden Lab announced a Halloween costume contest. To encourage more people to enter, they're offering a 25,000 Linden dollar prize. The catch, the deadline for submissions is a few days before Halloween, and the rules leave out some costumes.

 Unleash the costume of your dreams for a chance to win L$25K!

The Official Second Life Halloween Costume Contest is open for submissions from now until Thursday, October 28th at 8AM PDT.

Costumes will be judged on creativity and originality. Show us a look that will turn heads (180°, preferably)!

Need some spooky inspo? Check out:

    The Haunted category of the Destination Guide
    Our official Flickr pool to scope out the competition
    The Halloween Shop and Hop, with almost 300 vendors offering free gifts, discounts and bone-chilling clothes and accessories

The winner will be announced next Friday, so go on witch your bad self!

As stated, you have only until 8AM on Thursday October 28 to enter. There can only be one entry per resident (or at least email address). The rules on eligible costumes include that they can't be too suggestive or "unnecessarily violent," be of celebrities living or dead, be of a political nature, "promote" alcohol or tobacco or firearms, "communicates messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and good will to which we wish to associate," etc. 

For a list of the rules, Click Here.

For the blog entry, Click Here.
 

News and Commentary: Political Ads Banned Under Ad Farm Rule Change

With America's Presidential Election Day in a little more than two months, it seems Linden Lab is trying to cut down on the size and number of political advertising signs.  In a Concierge and Land User Group meeting last Wednesday August 26, the rules about advertising signs were amended to include a prohibition on political ads in their rules about Ad Farms.

Shortly afterwards, it was brought up in the Second Life forums and subject to some debate. Some supported it. Some were solidly opposed it. Others felt it was well-intentioned, considering how sour political rancor has gotten, but smacked of censorship.

More than once in the forum thread, someone stated no one has to worry about taking down a "Vote for XXXX" sign from their home parcel on the Mainland, provided such signs are within common sense (no huge banners standing over 8 meters in the air, no flashing lights, etc.). Taking a look in one spot, the political signs themselves I saw seemed to be within the eight meter limit, though one guy was doing a subtle jab at the opposition by making what looked like a giant body bag with the other candidate's banner. When I checked the following day though, both the sign and the bag were gone.

The Newser has written very little on the 2020 Presidential Election this year. This is partially because of the lack of headliners like the Trump Manor , the Trump Wall, and the Trump Organization getting banned by the Lab four years ago, partially. The other reason is people yours truly talking to on Second Life and the Internet expressing their revulsion and exhaustion with the state of politics and political debate today. With the home stretch of the campaign season upon us, there will be some political coverage. But don't expect it every week.

Bixyl Shuftan

Flickr Users Cannot Use Free Accounts to Promote Second Life Business

According to an article in New World Notes, those whom use screenshots stored on Flickr to promote their Second Life business will have to upgrade their accounts to "Pro" if they haven't already. When Hayden Pierce asked if using pictures from the virtual world applied to it's rules concerning commercial activity and free accounts, he got the following answer.

For free accounts, linking to a store in Second Life is considered commercial activity. Linking to a blog that links to a store is also considered commercial activity.

If you were to link to a separate place in the blog, it would need to be clear it has nothing to do with purchasing poses, accessories, clothes, etc.

Why is Flickr forcing free users whom use their service to help advertise their wares to get Pro accounts? It seems they've been having some financial difficulties. In December, they were pleading for more users to upgrade their accounts. "We cannot continue to operate it at a loss as we’ve been doing." So it appears the move is to get more cash from it's Second Life users.

The responses to Hamlet Au's article were mostly accepting or supportive of Flickr's move. One commented, "it is only a clarification to all the folks who ignored Flickr's rules on commercial activity. It has been forbidden a while by now and many SL users ignored it. Can't say I am surprised they decided to take action." Another thought clever Second Life business owners might write it off on their taxes as an "advertising expense."

So it seems for Second Life business owners who use Flickr, it's go Pro or go home.

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

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.

One SL Music Video Maker's Reaction to COPPA

This week in a number of Second Life and Discord groups, there's been some discussion about a law called COPPA and what it means to Youtube. Called the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act, it recently imposed a huge fine on Youtube, which reacted by announcing a new plan that confused and scared a number of content creators. Among them is Nydia Tungsten, whom has made many music videos in Second Life over the past few years and put them on Youtube. But no more. This week, she announced that no more would be going up on Youtube. I would talk to her about what she thought was the big worry, and what she may do next.

Read the story in Extra.

Announcement: Furry Fashion Changing Sim Rating to Adult

To Our Valued Patrons,

We have big changes coming to Furry Fashion and we want to make sure everyone is in the loop so things go smoothly!

2018 is bringing in a new Furry Fashion, we will be converting from a mature sim to an adult sim. So what does this mean for you?

It means more merchants, new themes, and new attractions!

Of course, it also means new rules. We want to be clear that we do not plan to be a "Yiff" sim, there are enough of them as there is. We will be welcoming adult attachments with some restrictions, and we will be having (private) adult attractions.

This also means we will be disallowing child avatars and products on sim as well. But fear not! We will have a separate FF branch for our merchants and patrons that enjoy these!

Thank you for taking time to read this, we hope 2018 will be a killer year for us and we look forward to working with you!

FF Management

Editors Note: Talking to owner Amethyst Crystal, she explained that the final decision was made only after lengthy discussion with the staff, including listening to the concerns of those with reservations about changing the sim rating. Certain behaviors are still not allowed, and the security personnel will still be enforcing those rules.

News and Commentary: FCC Votes to Scrap Net Neutrality Protection

By Bixyl Shuftan

No, the Internet isn't dead. But things will almost certainly be getting more difficult and complicated for many of us.

Yesterday on December 14, in a 3-2 decision, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the rules it passed to enforce Net Neutrality.  Outside, the building, protestors called on the Commission to maintain the rules, and the proceedings were briefly interrupted by a bomb threat. The vote came despite calls to maintain the rules by Congressmen and women of both political parties, tech companies and other businesses, and thousands of individuals. Jessica Rosenworcel (D), one of the two dissenting votes, called the decision a “rash decision ... on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public. ... This is not good ... Not good for consumers. Not good for businesses. Not good for anyone who connects and creates online.” 

So what happens next? The attorney generals of several states have indicated they will or will likely sue to the FCC to reverse it's decision. It's probably the number will grow as nineteen state attorney generals appealed to the FCC to delay it's Net Neutrality ruling due to the huge numbers of online requests to repeal it being made with stolen identities. In the meantime, the FCC will be making final adjustments to the new rules, or the absence of, which will likely take a few weeks, and will take a few months to be official after being filed on the Federal register. After that, while Internet Service Providers will be free to throttle Internet access to all but favored customers, slow down or block access to websites and services of rival companies, or impose limits on broadband use that would result in huge fees or disconnection of exceeded. "The Verge" suggested for most customers, rather than obvious restrictions, they will see more subtle moves by ISPs to get a little more money from them, "that may initially sound good. But in the long run, they disadvantage upstarts that don’t have the money to pay up. ... we may not know what products and services we missed out on because they never made it through the mess." Philp Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, was more worried that ISPs would be fairly likely to impose limits on broadband use.

It's possible Congress may pass laws of it's own to restore Net Neutrality protections. Wired reported that, "Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota) recently called for Congress to pass bipartisan net neutrality legislation. In 2015, Thune and Representative Fred Upton (R-Michigan) introduced a bill that would have banned blocking or slowing legal content, but limited the FCC's authority over internet service providers." While neither efforts got much of anywhere at the time, after the FCC's decision, there may be more of a sense of urgency, as well as a desire to calm down the voters whom emailed them about the issue.



So what does Ajit Pai, the Chairman of the FCC who wrote the proposal to dismantle Net neutrality think of the criticism? He responded to it with this video. a semi-subtle slam at the critics in which he grins at the audience while telling them of "7 Things You Can Still Do On The Internet After Net Neutrality." It's notable in the "Game of Thrones" clip the dragon flies right over Pai, and in the "Star Wars" reference he wears a dark outfit while wielding a lightsaber. Pai would almost certainly know that opens himself up to people doing videos of the dragon catching and eating him or Star Wars parodies of him being the new Dark Lord of the Sith. Maybe he thinks it's funny, feels it gives his critics something to hate besides the overturning of Net Neutrality protections, or both.

Hopefully the protections Net Neutrality once had will be restored soon.

Sources: BBC,  Ars Technica, The Verge, Wired, Av Club 

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: "Adult Content Won't Be Allowed" in Sansar

In a Sansar chat on Reddit, Peter Gray (known in Second Life as Peter Linden) brought up the issue of whether of not adult content will be allowed on Sansar. It won't be, at least not for some time after it opens.

Adult content won't be allowed at the opening of Sansar's creator beta this summer. Ultimately, we want Sansar to be an open platform that enables creators to make all kinds of experiences, but early on we also want to be careful that a single genre of content doesn't come to define the platform and potentially limit its appeal to other creators.

Gray's exact words were "at the opening of Sansar's creator beta this summer." But it's a safe bet that the Lab will keep this policy for at least a few years.

It's an issue that's been brought up by the Newser before, as well as New World Notes. With many longtime Second Life residents expressing skepticism about the upcoming virtual world, Linden Lab is taking the opportunity to correct what it sees as "mistakes" in it's development of Second Life. The lack of rules and restrictions on what could be made allowed for a great deal of creativity. Unfortunately, it also led to griefers harassing people with such adult content, notably the infamous "flying penis attack" when virtual real estate mogul Anshe Chung was being interviewed. While these incidents didn't stop companies and people with big pockets from coming to Second Life at the beginning, there's no real argument that it gave some pause.

As the residents of places that are adult-themed will tell you, the freedom to make adult content can be a very good thing, at least when everyone follows the rules. Besides allowing consenting adults an outlet for their more hormonal sides, it allows real-life couples a chance to express intimacy when separated by long distances or when they want to try something they're nervous of on the other side of the computer. While there have been attempts at virtual worlds aimed purely at adult activity, namely "Red Light Center," they have done poorly. One man who told me who's been to both saying it utterly pales compared to the options available in Second Life. And of course there's the Libertarian concept of "let the individual decide" rather than decisions made from above by higher-ups who may or may not understand the concerns of "little people."

But companies tend to be wary of controversy and "bad press" that might go viral and define their product in ways they fear. And with many young adults in colleges and universities demanding "safe spaces," perhaps Linden Lab is getting the impression the current generation of new computer users isn't as tolerant of adult material as the one that came to Second Life in it's early days. And of course, there are the griefers, the anonymity of the Internet encouraging a few jerks to harass and bully others, sexual-themed harassment being a favorite tool of some of them.

In a sense, it brings up an old issue in both real life and virtual life and the Internet. Do you try to protect people from the damage a single deranged or malicious individual can do by installing a great deal of rules and restrictions many will find annoying aggrivating, some finding them smothering to the point they cannot be themselves. Or or do you allow the public a great deal of freedom with only a few rules and allow individuals to better express themselves in works and speech, with the fact a few wicked-minded individuals will take advantage of this freedom for their own ill ends?

In 2009, Linden Lab began an adult continent policy that established an adult-themed continent, Zindra, established an "adult" rating for explicit content outside people's private homes, and residents had to adult-verify themselves with real-life identification such as a drivers license to be allowed access to adult-themed areas. Many residents reacted with worry and fear, seeing this as the beginning of Linden Lab "ghettoizing" adult content to one corner of Second Life or perhaps eliminating it altogether. And the Lab never did add to these policies and the adult verification was eventually relaxed.

One resident, "Zebragrrl," had this to say further on the thread (a few sentences trimmed):

As for the experience, I can only say that experiencing it made it clear to me why it's still not an open public beta yet. There's still a lot of user interaction missing. An example I can give, is of a strange island I visited. The lighting was beautiful, the rendering was beautiful, but all I could do is walk around. I couldn't interact with anything. I could get on a elevator that was constantly moving up and down, but I had to time my exit precisely to avoid getting squished as the elevator took off back upwards again. The UI is pretty. The whole experience really is very pretty.. but all I could do was walk around. And I do mean that. No running, no flying, no driving.... just walking. ...

Was it beautiful? yes. Was it fun? not particularly. Kind of like walking around in GTA V, with all the NPCs turned off. And I think this is where Sansar and SL may be drastically different for a lot of people. This was a VERY curated experience. The whole environment was like a museum, or a singular creation of 3d artwork. I felt like a guest, or a viewer, of someone's creation... not like a participant, not like someone bringing something unique to the experience for others. 
 
In SL, our world has been built up kind of from scratch, first using rudimentary building blocks, and later with more and more detailled builds, but it's the users, the avatars, that are the real attraction in SL. Seeing each other's individual forms of expression, seeing the cool new things people built, or bought.

Sansar seems to be going the other way.. focusing itself as an engine for artistically crafted 3D VR experiences.. rather than as a meeting place for avatars. I'm not saying that the latter won't come in time.. just that for the moment, it's a little more like visiting the Louvre by yourself, rather than meeting your friends at the pub. More Myst than World of Warcraft.

Is there a place and a purpose for a VR engine like this? I'm sure there is. Is it something that artists can monetize to help cover their RL bills? We'll have to see.

Linden Lab's latest move is moving Sansar further away from the early perception that it would be "Second Life 2.0," and towards something quite different from Linden Lab's existing virtual world. While people can build content, it has to be done using software tools rather than through inworld prims. I've been hearing it's areas can't be connected like Second Life sims often are into continents and larger islands, but each is an isolated place onto itself that can only be portaled into. Ideal use will require high end home computers and be hard to use or unavailable to people with laptops and older machines. An article in Koatu magazine is saying, "Users may pay a small subscription fee for access." And now adult content, perhaps adult language, will not be allowed.

Most middle and working class people like going to theme parks and museums on occasion. But eventually they have to return back to their neighborhoods where they actually do things. This is probably how most Second Life residents will see Sansar, a great place to visit, but not necessarily one to make their virtual home in. Sansar may become Linden Lab's Disneyland, but for most Second Life residents, the grid they've known will continue to be their virtual home.

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au 

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: "Skill Gaming in Second Life"

In Second Life's earlier days, games of chance were completely legal. One could go around and find games of blackjack, poker, roulette, slot machines, and more in which you could put down and risk as many Lindens as you wanted. Then several years ago it was banned by Linden Lab, citing laws against Internet gambling. As time went on, games which required Lindens to play and offering a chance at a prize began to slowly return, such as "Zyngo." The makers explained these games did not depend completely on chance, but required some choices and skill by the players.

On Wednesday July 9, Linden Lab announced on their blog that they were updating their official policies.

Gambling is strictly prohibited in Second Life and operating, or participating in, a game of chance that provides a Linden Dollar payout is a violation of ourTerms of Service. However, games of skill are legally permitted in many jurisdictions, and we’ve seen that many Second Life users are interested in playing such games for Linden Dollars. Therefore we are updating our gaming policy in Second Life.

There was then a link that took readers to a page on the Second Life wiki which had the details. Among them:

"Skill Games" will only be allowed in specially designated areas. Those whom wish their virtual land to be able to house the games will need to apply to Linden Lab, and pay extra fees, which the Lab says are to offset "additional administrative and compliance-related costs."

Only those approved by Linden Lab to operate "skill games" will be allowed to operate them.

Makers of "skill games" can only sell or otherwise distribute those approved by Linden Lab, and will need to pay "a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee."

Only those living in states where gambling is legal and are old enough are allowed to play the games. Those whom are not either one who try will be considered by the Lab as breaking their terms of service.

The rules are stated as going in effect on August 1, 2014.

Games such as Japanese pachinko machines, which offer not Lindens but tokens which can be exchanged for prizes, card games that offer no Linden prizes but are simply for play, and the "sploders" that are a frequent sight in Second Life clubs are presumably outside these restrictions.

For the blog post in full: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Coming-Soon-Skill-Gaming-in-Second-Life/ba-p/2771080

Linden Lab's Skill Gaming Frequently Asked Questions page: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_FAQ

Skill Gaming Thread in the official forums: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Skill-Gaming-Policy-Thread/td-p/2771090

SL Universe Skill Gaming thread: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/97651-incoming-pages-pages-rules-skill.html

Jacek Shuftan of Podex on the US Treasury's New Guidelines for Virtual Currency

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Friday April 5th, Second Life Newser wrote about the US Department of the Treasury's new guidelines on virtual currency. This move has consequences for Linden Lab as they'll have to spend time, and probably money on extra lawyers, on required paperwork for them. And it's likely this is just the beginning.

Over the weekend, I met up with Jacek Shuftan, the head of the Podex Exchange. He had spoken briefly about the matter at the time the article then was being written, "every coin has two sides, if (Linden dollars) were virtual currency, it would be more trustworthy, and (Second Life) will have more investors." I felt as a Linden reseller, he would have more to say on the matter.

I asked him, "Was there anything else you wanted to say about the US Treasury and Linden Lab?"

"I am still thinking how close it is, and if it (will) happen," Jacek answered, "For now, it is not an obligatory law. For now, it's guidelines. But it does appear there will soon be some regulations. I think that bitcoin is the main point of this, and Lindens is only side effect. But anyway, it can be a pain for us all."

"Anyway, it's too late to stop (the) economical revolution started with virtual currencies. If they ban LS, people will sell objects in SL for, bitcoins, Avination CS, or whatever else. It's only a few lines of coding. Even the real world is full of such 'currencies.' If you go to car wash and get a special metal coin to put into machine, what is it if not currency? You can sell it to other car drivers, exchange it for a glass of beer, or keep it and sell for a higher price when the price of a car wash will go up. Or you can just return it to car wash owner and get cash back. Isn't it currency like Lindens, guaranteed by the car wash owner."

"But nobody cares. and governments look at virtual coins because they are new, and the turnover is higher than a car wash (grin).

I asked, "So even if the Lab calls it's Linden dollars a 'transferable license' and not virtural currency?"

"Its not important what name Linden dollars are called," Jacek answered, "if real-life authorities say it's currency."

"I am afraid it's inevitable, governments can not let citizens have something independent of them."

"So you think it's more about control," I asked, "and not so much a desire for another source to tax?"

"Both," he answered, "It's not a secret that lots of bitcoins are used for illegal operations, and governments want to control it. But taxation is also something tempting for governments. If we go this way, ie if we tax Lindens, what about (virtual) land? It's also a possession. Should we write in a yearly tax statement - 512 sqm parcel by the sea? Ferrari car, 123 prims, bought on Marketplace?"

"I can bet any money that officials do not know what to do with it. So they are just testing now."

I asked, "So they're just seeing what they can do before people complain?"

"I think (to them), it looks like a pimple." Jacek answered, "New activity, like virtual economy, appears. Nobody cares at first, but its growing and growing. You try to ignore it as long as you can, because nobody likes having a pimple at the end of the nose. But finally, it's so big and painful that you must accept it, and we are close to this moment."

I asked, "So that's how you think government sees it, in your opinion?"

"Yes," Jacek answered, "They tried to ignore it as long as they could. And now, its high time to do something. But nobody knows what. So they gave us this paper … And they can always say it's only guidelines if something goes wrong. We observe the same tendency in Europe, and in the USA. So it's a worldwide problem, I think."

" 'There is no such wickedness, or cruelty, which otherwise would not have committed a mild and liberal government, when it runs out of money.' Alexis de Tocqueville, at least through Google translator."

"We will see what the future brings. But people adapt fast. We are very flexible in Second Life."

The interview then ended, and Jacek went about his way.

Jacek Shuftan’s Podex Exchange, sometimes called the Podex bank, exchanges Lindens for several world currencies. Recently they moved to the Coda sim at (45, 218, 61).

Bixyl Shuftan

New Guidelines on Virtual Currency by US Government Mean Complications For Linden Lab

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last month, the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an "interpretive guidance" (pdf link) or guidelines for the regulation of virtual currencies. Alex Kadochnikov of the "Modern Payment Systems" blog had a few things to say about the matter and what it means for Linden Lab. For the average Second Life resident, these guidelines don't directly affect him/her. But for Linden Lab, "FinCEN now considers Linden Dollar as a convertible centralized virtual currency," and it means regulations and paperwork.

To begin with, Linden Lab's terms of service doesn't refer to Linden dollars as virtual currency but each being a "virtual token" or a "limited license" that could be traded, "Linden dollars are not real currency or any type of financial instrument …" But these words haven't meant much to residents who've treated it as money within Second Life, the only risk being if they ever lost their connection to the Grid. As Kadochnikov wrote, "FinCEN goes by the approach 'If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.' And Linden Dollar sure does 'quack' like one. Linden dollar is a virtual currency because it has value in real currency (a buck will buy you about 270 linden bucks); and people buy good and services with it."

As "an administrator and an exchanger of virtual currency" they were a "Money Service Business" or MSB under US Treasury guidelines. As a result they, "must register with the Treasury Department and make Anti-Money Laundering and periodic reports." This means more expenses for Linden Lab as, "these reports are not little one page chores a trained monkey can do. There is a reason corporate compliance departments are stacked with lawyers and accountants. As you can imagine both of these items cost a lot of money."

Hamlet Au thought that this would mean Linden Lab will have to hire two or three additional lawyers just to deal with this matter, costing them about a half million dollars a year. The only other option it seems would be to abandon the Linden dollar and deal just with real world currencies. While it would save them these bureaucratic headaches, it would be "like turning off a printing press that prints money. And who in their right mind wants to do that?"

Hamlet Au thought there was one additional complication. If the Lab was thinking of selling Second Life, it just became more difficult as any buyer would have to deal with these regulations and expenses. One result of the Treasury Department's new guidelines may be that Linden Lab can pretty much forget about someone buying the virtual world from them.

Second Life Newser did briefly discuss the matter with Jacek Shuftan, the head of it's sponsor Podex Exchange. He expressed suspicion of the US Government's motives, but "every coin has two sides, if (Linden dollars) were virtual currency, it would be more trustworthy, and (Second Life) will have more investors." So perhaps the move has some benefits.

Sources: New World Notes, Modern Payment Systems

Bixyl Shuftan

"Six Strikes" Internet Rule Likely Installed Monday

By Bixyl Shuftan

Internet Privacy activists expressed worry when on Monday February 26, the "Six Strikes" rule was set to go into effect. Devised last year, the rules involve the "Copyright Alert System" set up by the following Internet Service Providers: AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon.

Under the system, copyright owners are supposedly alerted to people downloading their content without permission, and they can alert the ISPs to the people targeted by the system. The first alerts are warnings. After a few warnings come "mitigation alerts" which depending on the ISP results in temporary reductions in Internet speed, a downgrade in the service tier, redirection to a page for a period of time, or other measures. After six alerts, there are no more, but each supposed violation is recorded in case the matter is taken to court.





Critics point out that the system is imperfect, that in wireless Internet "hot spots" that an innocent user could potentially be tagged as illegally downloading even if he/she wasn't as open wi-fi signals allow for their IP address to be used by others. Also, there are methods for determined pirates to avoid the system, such as cyberlockers, streaming sites, offline swapping, and others. Then there are privacy issues. Electronic Frontier Foundation director Corynne McSherry called Six Strikes, "just a great big expensive system to snoop on and intimidate people" whom she felt were mostly behaving themselves. She called it's recording of violations, "a private copyright system, and it doesn't have the protections and balances that the public copyright system has." It has also been noted that the system's software to identify copyright violations was inspected and approved by a former lobbyist of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

In early 2012, RIAA was among those trying to get the US Congress to pass the SOPA bill, which alarmed critics who stated it's vague language threatened to shut down the Internet as we know it. It was in the months following it's defeat that the Copyright Alert System and Six Strikes was set up. It was supposedly to be enacted in late 2012, but was delayed by the damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Sources: The Guardian, Torrentfreak.com, Theverge.com

Bixyl Shuftan

Flickr Posting Has Little-Known Restrictions

The Flickr photosharing service is very popular among Second Life residents. Many use it to record pictures of Second Life events, such as Daniel Voyager's screenshots of the "One Billion Rising" event last week. But how often do people think about it's rules. That one doesn't use it to post images showing graphic sexuality and violence is obvious, or copy others without giving credit. But as it turns out, there are others not that many are aware of.

Iris Ophellia found out about Cory Edo, a builder and the owner of a furniture store whom ran afoul of Flickr's management. They restricted her account and a number of images were blocked. Unable to "get a straight answer from support after two requests," she checked the Flickr forums, and found "it's not enough to not link a sales site - you can't have pricing, you can't link to your blog."

As Iris pointed out, rules "that almost every other designer, blogger, and photographer in SL" are breaking because they "aren't exactly shared openly by Flickr to begin with."

Cory wrote details on her Plurk account, "and if you get a notice from support about your account, don't bother asking them for details b/c they just give you a c/p response that doesn't clarify any of the above additional stipulations ... keep in mind this is what the forums people on Flickr are telling me, its not in the TOS, I was told to respect the 'ethos' and I guess figure all this out myself. ... I was told that linking to my wordpress blog (that I do not sell anything from directly) was still advertising. Bloggers usually link to the stores that they're featuring, sooo ... "

Cory got some feedback from other Flickr users, Damien Fate commenting, "Well I only use flickr FOR advertising, and I pay for a pro account. If that's not allowed then their loss, I'll remove my pro subscription." Luna Jubilee wrote, "This comes up and around through the sl community every year or so ... flickr reserves the right to remove that photo or set ... up to your entire account. with or without warning." Daphne Klossovsky wrote, "Yeah, we had this problem before too. Someone flagged something and the mods also flagged us for commercial. So I just deleted all text (we don't have prices on our posters). They seemed satisfied with that, But I don't see why you can't link to your blog."

Cory made the decision to go from a pay to free account, "I've just been contacted by another Flickr user (not support) who offered to tell me the secrets of what violates Flickr's TOS and I don't even care. I'm dropping the Pro account and deleting most of the pix ... if I'm paying a company I expect to talk to their support and not a bunch of self-righteous hall monitors in their forums. ... I've gotten the impression they barely tolerate SL users in general, again that whole 'we're a real photography site' attitude. ... "


So what to do? Ophelia wondered if Second Life residents should start looking for alternatives, mentioning "Tumblr" and "Pintrest." One of the people responding to Cory wrote, "I used photobucket before SL...but then switched since flickr was where everyone was hosting." As Ophelia put it, "But unless there is a major shift in where the SL community at large wants to be, most of us will probably cling to Flickr for as long as possible, even if the service is ill suited for our needs."

Sources: Iris Ophelia's NWN article, Cory Edo's Plurk

Bixyl Shuftan

A Titanic Misunderstanding

A few years ago, Bixyl Shuftan wrote a much commented-on article about people getting banned from places because of their avatar's appearance. Recently, he was alerted about a protest at the Titanic sim, the protestors saying they were banning furry avatars even though they were following the dress code. But a closer look suggested a somewhat different story.

Read more in People.