[sldev] Opening the server source?

[dirk husemann]

Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> [...]
> Right now I get the closest thing to "complete ownership of land" on
> the sims that Linden Labs most closely controls. Where Linden Labs
> control is weaker, my ability to own land is weaker... that is, on a
> private island even if I buy land it's only rented.
>
> Why would you expect a private server owner to provide me more
> "ownership" of land than a private sim owner?
>
> Or are you equating "owning land" to "owning a sim"?
>
> Even there you're beholden to Linden Labs for the access to the grid,
> to an ISP for access to the Internet, and to a hosting site for power
> and maintenance.
if you can run your own sim on your own server(s) --- and that includes
all the necessary sub-services --- then you are more independent, in the
worst case it would just be your sim. sure you still have to pay for
power, etc. we are looking at scenarios where our customers would like
to have a (completely?) detached grid with very high reliability. would
that help Linden Lab? perhaps not directly.

then there are scenarios where you'd like to have your own grid but
connect that to the linden grid because of its huge wealth of content
--- and that will probably mean some kind of interconnect fee or
certification fee or at the very least a legally binding contract if you
want "fully trusted" status.
>
> "Land" in SL is the thing that seems hardest to treat as something you
> "own" rather than "rent". Land is processor time that you rent, that's
> all.
>
> The *configuration* of that land and the *contents* of that land,
> maybe, but there you run into the property rights problem that I
> started with: when you buy some asset in SL you're rarely buying
> unlimited rights to that asset. If you can take that out of SL you're
> taking more rights than you're entitled to.
IMHO, you are right about that --- the DRM  "solution" is *not* going to
work, as the assets need to be "played" on the sims they are being used
on. so, obviously we are going to have situations where assets will not
be exportable unless you have full rights to them or the grid you are
exporting to is trusted by the originating grid.

let's look at the situation where you have untrusted grids that you want
to export to: we only have problems with that for restricted rights
assets (RRAs); full right assets (FRAs) are no problem, i can already
copy/modify/transfer those to my hearts content. so, what's going to
happen is that

    * the FRA version of an asset is going to be quite a bit more
      expensive than the non-exportable RRA version (you pay for the
      exportability)
    * the FRA version is not going to be available (the RIAA/DRM "solution")
    * the FRA version is going to be available for free with no RRA
      version being available (the open source way of life)

> [...]
> That's what I'm going on about, here. What kinds of things could be
> done to accommodate people who want to control their "real estate" in
> Second Life without wrecking the economy of Second Life.
we don't really need to look that far: we have all of that already in
RL. i've bought very little SW in the last 10 years (and i'm very
careful about adhering to the licenses of SW i'm using), likewise i've
only bought music in the last 10 years that i've full control over
(i.e., no DRM-ed stuff). is the economy suffering from me? looking at
how fast my monthly pay check disappears: don't think so.

one thing is certain: we will have non-linden operated grids. period.
it's just a question of how those grid will inter-connect.

    cheers,
    dirk

-- 
dr dirk husemann, pervasive computing, ibm zurich research lab
--- hud at zurich.ibm.com --- +41 44 724 8573 --- SL: dr scofield


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