Topamax tegretol. No change in appetite on topamax. Topamax ortho mcneil.

With that said, it seems to me that the salient issues here are about
privacy and to a much greater degree at the moment intellectual property
rights. Oh, yea and money and lots of it. Oh, and did I mention lawyers?
(I meant to mention lawyers…) Lots of them too.

What I see is that LL is the first (noticeable) entity to even PRETEND to
offer IP rights to it’s users. To even PRETEND to offer PROPERTY rights
to it’s users. To even PRETEND to do so on a contractual basis. This at
the least creates an EXPECTATION in the user base of such. Further,
the relative success of the experiment (IMNSHO SL is at this stage an
experiment…) shouldn’t be ignored. If this expectation is not met
(due to a bad decisions involving short term gain, or perhaps overeager
associates?) the current experiment will crumble.

Guaranteed.

(I mean get a grip, take away ‘value’ of the ‘product’ the client is
paying for and it will be over…)

And when (not if) this happens there will be a MUCH more savvy bunch
come right in behind them (before the dust even settles) that will take
their shot at this and most likely they won’t make THIS stupid mistake.
They will make different stupid mistakes, oh well…

On what evidence do I base this? Simply the numbers. The numbers boys
and girls. Several thousand people online 24/7 worldwide in such an
interface has MASSIVE potential that has not even been scratched yet.

BTW, this argument over is there a difference between SL (or whatever 3D)
and web pages at MySpaced is just ridiculous. Have any of you here heard of
something called the future? How about tomorrow? Maybe you’ve heard of that?

Hey I understand about bytes are bytes, and even what ‘content’ really means.
(I’m not THAT fucking old…)

And unless you are locked away in a lab at CISCO or the like I don’t see
why you aren’t clear on the relevant paradigm. (you data is friking data
kids don’t sound like you are at all down with that to me.. but that of
course is my take from the wilderness..)

But the people sending in the $9.95 a month aren’t buying bytes or ‘content’
not matter how much you kids want to delude your selves to the contrary.

Everybody knows exactly where to get enough bytes and ‘content’ to choke on.

If LL fails to grasp this (no one on the planet can be that stupid right?
well on the other hand look at the ‘current occupant’, doesn’t have the
brains God gave shit, so I guess it’s possible.. but I digress..)

Ok, I mean ANYONE who fails to grasp this is working in a different business
model. Which is fine. But they damn sure will not have a future in THIS
business model. (it’s kind of analogous to the idea that pattern matching
does not a virus protection make, ok? oh, yea, well not for long it won’t
just watch and see..)

Ok, I’m done. Sorry to bore you…

From section 4.2 of the TOS – “Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may use and create software that provides access to the Servers for substantially similar function (or subset thereof) as the Viewer; provided that such software is not used for and does not enable any violation of these Terms of Service.”

in conjunction with,

from 3.1 (I think) of the TOS- “You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service.”

Seems to cover any concerns in regards to the search feature ESC has come up with, in fact with both sections seen in conjunction it seems LL expressly allows this sort of third party feature.

I’d just like to (politely) point out that you are mixing up patent rights and copyright. Patents would cover software processes, whereas Copyright covers writing, art, and other “original creative works.” Linden labs has clearly made an effort to protect intellectual property rights in SL by writing in protections for objects.

Your quote:

“You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service.”

DOES not say that you give up your patent rights. It simply says you grant a perpetual license to LL and it’s users. Whole different thing- it is written to protect LL from getting hit with lawsuits over licensing fees for software invented in SL. You can sell your scripts- but you can’t license them annually.

Here’s a clarification post from the Knowledge Base:

“In Second Life, subject to certain licenses in the terms of service, you retain the intellectual property rights you may have in your content, including copyrights. “Intellectual property rights” are completely separate to the rights of ownership of data – the bits and bytes that reside on our servers. In order for us to provide the service of Second Life at a reasonable cost, we must retain the right to own what we physically own or control – the server infrastructure, including the data on it. But ownership of bits and bytes of data does NOT by itself give Linden Lab the right to publish or distribute your copyrighted material.” (http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=321 )

The appropriate TOS snippet (with >>emphasis>as permitted by you through your interactions on the Service,> use and reproduce (and to authorize third parties to use and reproduce) any of your Content in any or all media for marketing and/or promotional purposes in connection with the Service, provided that in the event that your Content appears publicly in material under the control of Linden Lab, and you provide written notice to Linden Lab of your desire to discontinue the distribution of such Content in such material (with sufficient specificity to allow Linden Lab, in its sole discretion, to identify the relevant Content and materials), Linden Lab will make commercially reasonable efforts to cease its distribution of such Content following the receipt of such notice, although Linden Lab cannot provide any assurances regarding materials produced or distributed prior to the receipt of such notice; >Further, you agree to grant to Linden Lab a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable right and license to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights you have in your account information, including any data or other information generated by your account activity, in any media now known or not currently known, in accordance with our privacy policy as set forth below, including the incorporation by reference of terms posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php.< <

[Again- this is LL rights- NOT ESC rights- and is written to cover their ability to duplicate content in other formats. See how authors sued over this issue: http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2001/oct01/copyright.cfm

As for data just being data- nope. Any original creative expression represented in data is subject to copyright laws- in fact, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was created just for “data.” See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA
Copybot, for example, was a DMCA violation given that it circumvented the digital rights management (DRM) system inherent in SL.

By these standards, ESC is not (yet) violating intellectual property rights, as all they are doing is duplicating facts.
What Grid Shepard is doing is invading people’s privacy. The question is, do we have a reasonable expectation of privacy in SL?

These portions of the TOS seem more applicable:

In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not: (i) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content that infringes or violates any third party rights; … (iii) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content that violates any law or regulation; (iv) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden Lab at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;… (vii) upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, or promotional materials, that are in the nature of “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation that Linden Lab considers in its sole discretion to be of such nature;

So- apparently it is at LL’s discretion to decide if Grid Shepard invades our privacy by being opt-out rather than opt-in. And I don’t think this was the kind of unauthorized advertising they were thinking of

And no- I’m not a lawyer so I could be talking out my ass. I’m sure no one here will hesitate to inform me if that’s so.

I’d like to add that nothing I’ve written “crosses any lines”. I write the truth about a 40-year-old virgin with sand (and by the looks of it, white phosphorous as well) in her vagoo and a really advanced case of AIDS from the Habbo swimming pool conspiring with a fascist Wikipedia moderator to destroy the twin towers.

WHAT?!

Prokofy, please, for your own sake, think before you type.
You come off as more and more of a raving lunatic as you go on.

Look up free speech, do some research. GET OFF THE INTERNET AND LEARN SOMETHING.

coco