The service itself is utter crap with no compelling features whatsoever, and Uri/Tizzy/the GLC/JLU/ the PN can all go there and we’ll all be happier over here.

And on the other side of the coin, the simpler the language of the contract, the more it tends towards ending up as a verbal Rorschach, open to so much interpretation that it might as well have not been written. I like the simplicity of Bill and Ted’s “Be excellent to each other” but I’d hate to go to court to prove how unexcellent someone else is!

This is more like “I can’t fuck anyone because no-one knows what the fuck is going on.”

It’s still not a fair comparison, because for a beta they need more restrictive terms that for the production version, but it’s closer.

LICENSE AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT
FOR BETA TESTING OF A PRE-RELEASE PRODUCT

Metaplace, Inc. (‘Metaplace’) has designed, developed and is the publisher of a software product entitled Metaplace (‘Beta Software’). Metaplace has established an Beta Test program (the ‘Beta Program’) to, among other things, allow a limited number of people to test the features, capabilities and performance of one or more prerelease version(s) of the portal, web API, hubworld, client software, hosted worlds, and third party client, network services (the ‘Service’) and provide feedback and comments to Metaplace. In order to participate in the Beta Program, you must read and agree with this LICENSE AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (this ‘Agreement’). By using the Service and participating in this Beta Program, you agree as follows:

You (a) are eighteen years of age or older, (b) are not participating in the Beta Program on behalf of any other person or entity, or as an employee, agent or principal of any other entity, and (c) are entering into this Agreement on a completely voluntary basis with no expectation of consideration, remuneration or any form of compensation whatsoever other than what is expressly provided for in this Agreement;
Metaplace may, in its discretion and at any time before or during the Beta Program, accept or reject your application for the Beta Program (or terminate your participation therein), and if you are accepted this Agreement is a binding contract between you and Metaplace;
You acknowledge that your application shall not be complete, nor shall you be considered for entry into the Beta Program, unless and until you provide Metaplace with certain DirectX diagnostic information (or similar diagnostic information from Macintosh or Linux if that is how you access the Service) from your computer as part of this application process, if requested by Metaplace;
Metaplace may, in its discretion, reschedule the start date or end date of the Beta Program at any time in its sole discretion;
You grant Metaplace the right and consent, for the term of your participation in the Beta Program, to allow Metaplace to collect certain DxDiag DirectX (or similar Macintosh or Linux) diagnostic information, hardware, software, driver, operating system and related information, including crash logs, from your computer solely for the purpose of analyzing, improving and maintaining the Service;
You agree to all of the additional terms set forth in the Terms of Service and that those terms are incorporated herein by reference.

1. License Terms.

1.1 License Grant. Metaplace grants you (the ‘Recipient’) the non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, limited right to access the Service for Recipient’s personal use. Unless otherwise authorized, Recipient may not use, copy, reproduce, modify, publicly perform or display, create derivative works of, sell, auction, loan, lease, rent, distribute, transfer or disclose all or any part of the Service (including, without limitation, any screenshots, videos, documentation or manuals relating to the Service) except as provided in this Agreement. Recipient may only use the Service for testing and evaluation purposes as set forth in Section 1.4 below. All other rights are reserved to Metaplace.

1.2 License Restrictions. Unless otherwise authorized, Recipient shall not:

(a) Sublicense to, transfer, network, transmit, distribute, or permit use of the Service by, any third party;

(b) Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any aspect of the Service including setting up competing networks such as shadow servers, gray shards, or pirate servers.;

(c) Transmit or communicate any data that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

(d) Harm minors in any way;

(e) Impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;

(f) Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any data transmitted to other users;

(g) Transmit, access or communicate any data that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under non-disclosure agreements);

(h) Transmit, access, or communicate any data that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;

(i) Transmit or communicate any data that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

(j) Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to ‘scroll’ faster than other users are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in real time exchanges;

(k) Interfere with or disrupt the Service;

(l) Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including securities exchange and any regulations requirements, procedures or policies in force from time to time relating to the Service;

(m) Monitor traffic or make search requests in order to accumulate information about individual users;

(n) ‘Stalk’ or otherwise harass another person;

(o) Modify, delete or damage any information contained on the personal computer of any other user;

(p) Unless otherwise approved by Metaplace, upload, post or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, ‘junk mail,’ ‘spam,’ ‘chain letters,’ ‘pyramid schemes,’ or any other form of solicitation;

(q) Collect or store personal data about other users without their consent. Even with consent, any personally identifiable information must be encrypted and stored on an external database;

(r) Harm the Service including using any program or other mechanism to slow or ‘crash’ the network; or

(s) Allow usage by others in such a way as to violate this Agreement;

1.3 Indemnification. Recipient (i) agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless, and (ii) hereby releases, Metaplace, its licensors, and their direct and indirect parent, subsidiary and sister corporations, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all losses, liabilities, claims, obligations, costs and/or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) which result from, arise out of or in connection with the use of the Service (including with respect to any User Created IP, as defined in Section 3.2, below) and all other services or activities related thereto.

1.4 Testing and Evaluation Obligations. Recipient hereby agrees to perform all of the following obligations: (i) to test, evaluate and analyze the Service and its operation, features, capabilities and performance, (ii) to comply with the reasonable requests of Metaplace from time to time regarding testing, and (iii) to provide feedback and comments to Metaplace (including, but not limited to, bug reports and test results). In some cases feedback and comments may be presented to Metaplace in the form of source code, object code, scripting, executable programs, interface design, art, or other intellectual property assets (collectively ‘Beta Contributions’). All of Recipient’s feedback, comments, and Beta Contributions shall be the sole and exclusive property of Metaplace and/or its licensors, and Metaplace and/or its licensors shall have the perpetual right to use all or part of Recipient’s feedback or comments in any manner or media now known or hereafter devised.

1.5 Personal Information; Monitoring; Privacy Issues. Recipient shall be required to provide to Metaplace, or allow Metaplace to collect on an ongoing basis, as a condition to participation in the Beta Program, certain personal information, including, but not limited to, certain specifications of Recipient’s hardware, DxDiag DirectX (or similar Macintosh or Linux) diagnostic information, video cards, drivers, operating system and software (‘Personal Information’) and Recipient hereby specifically grants Metaplace the right to upload or collect such Personal Information from Recipient’s computer system during his or her participation in the Beta Program, solely for the purpose of evaluating and improving the Service. Metaplace’s retention and use of all Personal Information shall be subject to Metaplace’s posted privacy policy, as that policy may be modified by Metaplace in its discretion from time to time. Without in any way limiting Metaplace’s rights with respect to such information as set forth in the privacy policy, Recipient acknowledges that subject to the Terms of Service, any and all world content and data that is stored and is resident on Metaplace’s servers, and any and all communications that he or she makes within the Service, the Service or as part of the Beta Program (including, but not limited to, messages solely directed at another player or players) traverse through Metaplace’s servers, may or may not be monitored by Metaplace personnel. Subject to the Term of Service, Recipient has no expectation of privacy in any such communication or in any communication referenced in Section 5.3 herein. Recipient acknowledges and agrees that Metaplace may transfer such information (including your personally identifiable information and personal information) to the United States or other countries or may share such information with our licensees and agents in connection with the Beta Program and the Service. In the event of a merger, acquisition, transfer or sale of assets, this information described in Section 1.5 along with any other information held by Metaplace may be part of the assets involved in the sale, merger, or transfer.

1.6 Term of the Agreement. Recipient’s participation in the Beta Program, and the grant of license herein, may be terminated by Metaplace at any time, for any reason or for no reason, in Metaplace’s sole and absolute discretion, by providing written, electronic or emailed notice to Recipient. Recipient may, at any time and for any reason or for no reason, terminate his or her participation in the Beta Program by providing written or emailed notice to Metaplace. The Beta Program will be terminated upon the earlier of (a) Metaplace’s written, electronic or emailed notice to Recipient or (b) the commercial release of the Service. The termination of Recipient’s participation in the Beta Program and/or the termination of the Beta Program, however, shall not modify or supersede the survival provision in Section 6.1 below. At termination, Recipient shall erase all copies of the Beta Program from Recipient’s hardware.

2. Confidentiality.

2.1 Confidential Information Defined. ‘Confidential Information’ shall mean (a) any and all information relating to or contained in the Beta Program and/or the Service, including, without limitation, information relating to (i) the performance, capabilities, bugs and contents of the Service, (ii) Recipient’s feedback and comments, (iii) any other Beta Program participant’s feedback and comments, and (iv) any Metaplace employee’s feedback and comments, (v) the existence and terms of this Agreement, and (vi) any and all information relating to the future or proposed Services, services or business operations of Metaplace. Confidential Information includes, without limitation, all such information disclosed to Recipient prior to the effective date of this Agreement. Recipient acknowledges and agrees that the Confidential Information constitutes valuable trade secrets of Metaplace

2.2 Confidentiality Obligation. Recipient shall keep the Confidential Information in confidence and shall not publish, disclose, or otherwise make available, directly or indirectly, any Confidential Information to any third party. However, Recipient may disclose the Confidential Information in accordance with a judicial or governmental order; provided, however, that Recipient shall give Metaplace reasonable written notice prior to disclosure and shall comply with any applicable protective order or equivalent. ONCE THE COMMERCIAL VERSION OF THE SERVICE HAS BEEN RELEASED BY METAPLACE TO THE PUBLIC, RECIPIENT’S CONFIDENTIALITY OBLIGATION SHALL CONTINUE ONLY WITH RESPECT TO INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS BETA PROGRAM AND ALL FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS (WHETHER FROM RECIPIENT, ANY OTHER PARTICIPANT, OR FROM METAPLACE EMPLOYEES).

3. Ownership.

3.1 Metaplace Intellectual Property. Except for the revocable, limited license expressly granted hereunder, Metaplace retains all rights, title and interests in and to all intellectual property rights associated with the Service and all copies thereof, and all world content and data in connection therewith. The Beta Software is copyrighted and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions as well as other laws. Recipient acknowledges that the Beta Software contains valuable trade secrets of Metaplace, and that Metaplace and/or its licensors own all intellectual property rights in and to the Beta Software, including, without limitation, all patent rights, copyrights, inventions, trade secret rights, trade dress rights, trademark rights and intellectual property rights therein and thereto. Recipient may not remove the copyright and other proprietary rights notices from the Beta Software. Recipient agrees that this Agreement shall be retained with all printed and electronic copies of the Beta Software and documentation constituting the Beta Software. Recipient agrees to prevent any unauthorized copying or distribution of the Beta Software. Except for the license as expressly provided herein, Metaplace does not grant Recipient any express or implied right in any patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secret information of Metaplace and/or its licensors. In accordance with Section 1.4, Recipient agrees that Metaplace and/or its licensors own all rights, title, and interests in any and all of Recipient’s Beta Contributions without any remuneration, compensation or credit to Recipient. To the extent any Beta Contributions are not the sole and exclusive property of Metaplace, Recipient agrees to and hereby grants Metaplace an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, world-wide license to distribute, display, reproduce, use, and commercially exploit the feedback and comments in any manner or media now known or hereafter devised. In addition, to the extent that any of the rights assigned herein cannot presently be assigned under applicable law, Recipient agrees to assign such rights at such time as the rights are capable of being assigned. Recipient agrees at Metaplace’s request to execute such further documents and to do such further acts as may be necessary or desirable to document, perfect, register or enforce Metaplace’s and/or its licensors’ ownership of any of the rights, title and/or interests hereunder, in whole or in part including, without limitation, execution of a copyright assignment in a form provided by Metaplace in its sole discretion. If Recipient fails or refuses to execute any such documents, Recipient hereby appoints Metaplace as Recipient’s attorney-in-fact, which appointment is coupled with an interest and is irrevocable, to act on Recipient’s behalf and to execute, deliver, record and file such documents. The rights granted, assigned and/or to be assigned by Recipient hereunder are granted for the entire universe, in any medium now known or hereafter invented, and shall inure in perpetuity, and, as set forth above, no further consideration shall be payable to Recipient at anytime in connection therewith. Recipient will acquire no right to use, and will not use without Metaplace’s prior written consent, the names, characters, artwork, designs, tradenames, copyrighted materials, trademarks or service marks of Metaplace or any related companies, employees, directors, shareholders, assigns, successors or licensees: (a) in any advertising, publicity or promotion; or (b) in any manner other than in accordance with this Agreement.

3.2 Recipient Intellectual Property. Subject to Sections 1.4 and 3.1, Metaplace will not claim any interest in any intellectual property or user generated content that you create within the Service as permitted by this Agreement (‘User Created IP’). User Created IP does not include feedback, comments and Beta Contributions. Subject to the rights of Metaplace and other third parties, if any, you shall be the owner of all User Created IP that you create within the Service. You acknowledge and agree that (i) the Service is untested and could be unstable, causing any or all User Created IP to be lost or destroyed, (ii) Metaplace is not responsible for any such loss or damage to User Created IP, (iii) you agree to indemnify Metaplace pursuant to Section 1.3, above, for any claims arising out of any User Created IP, and (iv) you agree to and hereby grant Metaplace, for the purposes of promoting and operating the Service, an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, world-wide license to distribute, display, reproduce, use, and commercially exploit the User Created IP in any manner or media now known or hereafter devised.

3.3 Licensed Intellectual Property. Metaplace or Recipients may, through arrangements with licensors, use the Service to incorporate certain external intellectual property (‘Licensed Intellectual Property’) into the Beta Program. This Licensed Intellectual Property shall remain the property of the licensors and any and all intellectual property rights thereto shall remain with the licensors. Obtaining the Licensed Intellectual Property rights are the sole responsibility of the party desiring to incorporate Licensed Intellectual Property into the Beta Program.

4. Injunctive Relief.

Recipient acknowledges and agrees that a breach or threatened breach of any covenant contained in this Agreement would cause irreparable injury, that money damages would be an inadequate remedy and that Metaplace shall be entitled to temporary and permanent injunctive relief, without the posting of any bond or other security, to restrain Recipient, from such breach or threatened breach. Nothing in this Section shall be construed as preventing Metaplace from pursuing any and all remedies available to it, including the recovery of money damages from Recipient.

5. No Warranty; No Liability For Damages; No Support; World Content and Data.

5.1 No Warranty. Recipient acknowledges that the Service is a pre-release version and is not a final game. RECIPIENT ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE BETA SOFTWARE AND SERVICE MAY WELL CONTAIN ERRORS AND DEFECTS. THE BETA SOFTWARE AND SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD-PARTY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE BETA SOFTWARE, THE SERVICE AND ALL OTHER SERVICES IS WITH RECIPIENT. SHOULD THEY PROVE DEFECTIVE FOLLOWING THEIR RECEIPT BY RECIPIENT, RECIPIENT AND NOT METAPLACE ASSUMES THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING OR REPAIR. Without limiting the foregoing, we do not ensure continuous, error-free, secure or virus-free operation of the Beta Software, the Service, your account or continued operation or availability of any given server.

5.2 No Liability For Damages. IN NO EVENT SHALL METAPLACE, ANY SUBSIDIARY OR OTHERWISE RELATED COMPANY, OR EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OFFICERS AND/OR DIRECTORS OF ANY OF THE ABOVE, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS, DATA OR BUSINESS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE BETA SOFTWARE OR SERVICE EVEN IF ANY OF THE ABOVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, no warranty is made that the Beta Software or Service will generate computer programs with the characteristics or specifications desired by Recipient or that the Beta Software or Service will be error-free. THESE DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS AGREEMENT.

5.3 No Support. Metaplace does not provide any support for the Beta Software or Service. However, Metaplace may provide an e-mail address and/or a password protected forum for Recipient to send any questions and/or comments regarding the Beta Software or Service. Metaplace does not, however, make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy of any statements or advice provided in response to Recipient’s e-mail(s) and/or board postings.

5.4 Test Environment. Recipient acknowledges that the Beta Program is a test environment, that world content and data will be frequently wiped or modified at Metaplace’s sole discretion, and that the Beta Program world content or data shall likely not be exported into the Service once the Service is commercially released.

6. Miscellaneous.

6.1 Survival. The provisions of this Agreement, other than Section 1.1 shall continue in full force and effect even after (i) the Beta Program has been terminated or completed and/or (ii) Recipient’s participation in the Beta Program has been terminated.

6.2 Governing Law; Jurisdiction. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of California excluding conflict of law rules and principles. Both parties submit to personal jurisdiction in California and further agree that any cause of action relating to this Agreement shall be brought in the County of San Diego, State of California (if under State law) or the Southern District of California (if under federal law) and such courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity, construction and performance of this Agreement and the legal relations between the parties hereto. Recipient hereby waives any claim that such venue is improper or inconvenient. Recipient also hereby waives any right to join actions together with any other Recipient in the form of a ‘class action’ or similar action.

6.3 Severability and Assignment. If any provision of this Agreement shall be held invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, and the validity and enforceability of all other provisions of this Agreement shall not be affected thereby. Recipient shall have no right to assign this Agreement.

6.4 Entire Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties hereto relating to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior oral and written and all contemporaneous oral negotiations, commitments and understandings of the parties. Changes made by Recipient to this Agreement will not be effective unless set forth in a writing describing the change and agreed to and signed by both Metaplace and Recipient. Metaplace reserves the right to change the terms of this Agreement at any time upon notice to Recipient by e-mail or on its webpage. Such changes by Metaplace shall be effective upon notice to Recipient and Recipient’s continued participation in the Beta Program after notice of a change in terms by Metaplace shall constitute Recipient’s acknowledgement of, and agreement to, be bound by such changes.

I’m not even sure whether to parse it as
simulate (harm to minors)
or
(simulate harm) to minors

Would that be a real or a simulated minor?

e.g. can a player who is under 18 play a first person shooter in which an adult avatar gets harmed?

I think it’s a really bad sign that it’s so unclear what’s prohibited by the number 1 item in the ToS.

If SL is any guide, people will push the limits of what they’re allowed to create. Expect disputes, and maybe even ligitation.

Can’t get your jollies when the avatar doesn’t look real, amirite?

get the picture folks?
what have you given up and for what?