[sldev] Developer directory on secondlife.com

[Jason Giglio]

Rob Lanphier wrote:
> Ummmmm.....how did you read that into it?  What the agreement says is
> that if you own any patents which could be used to stop distribution of
> your Contribution (see definition in the agreement), you have to give a
> royalty-free patent license to all recipients.  This prevents someone
> from getting us to implement their patent, and then shaking us down for
> royalties after we become dependent on it.
> 
> Rob


Yes, I think I read a little too much into it.  It's still not without flaw.

If Linden Lab offers permissive commercial licensing terms to a 3rd 
party, a 3rd party could implement the patent using code from the SL 
client in their completely proprietary, unrelated to SL, product, and be 
immune from ever being sued or paying royalties.

I'm against software patents, but this is probably an unintended 
side-effect.