[sldev] Permissions

[SL - Farallon Greyskin]

The short answer to your questions is "yes".

SL has a very diverse and open market, and no where is anyone forced to use 
a certain vendors products if they are too restrictive. People here are free 
to vote with their $ more than anywhere else. As long as the terms of use 
are spelled out before the sale and not lied about (though I have run into 
that in SL) then there is no problem.

And example almost no one would argue against: Applying the GPL  restricts 
certain users "rights" in favor of the creator's wishes. And the 
restrictions are pretty onerous depending on the user's desires. NO ONE 
would dare say that it was the user's right to not comply with the GPL 
restrictions should trump the author's wishes in applying it. If you don't 
want to comply with the GPLs restrictions on user's freedoms then write it 
yourself or go elsewhere. Same with SL products. Don't like the terms, make 
it yourself or go elsewhere. Any vendor that loses sales to another will 
change their tune.

I cringe at the state of the entitlement that a huge segment of the 
population seem to feel themselves in these days. If I want to release 
something with completely free perms, BSDed, GPLed or reasonably locked down 
for commercial gain that is my right as the creator, *I* created it, don't 
like it? Make it yourself or buy it from someone else. The only rights the 
consumer has is the right to not buy from me, and maybe complain to me about 
it. (Assuming I'm not lying in my advertisement or anything else shady or 
illegal of course)

The only case where that would not apply is in monopolistic cartels such as 
the music industry, grocery chains or oil companies (Of which you named a 
few as examples). If they own 99% of all available product under one roof 
and there is no reasonable alternative then they must have a leash put on 
that protects basic rights such as not being forced to pay 100$ for a carton 
of milk. However, this is NOT the case in SL at all.

A real SL example: A certain vendor of a pose stand that was basically free 
suddenly decided to start charging an arm and a leg for it. So I made my own 
pose stand and am selling it for cheap and giving it away for free to all my 
friends. See? The system works! Some creator gets too greedy or onerous (as 
is their right), there are 100 more ready to take their place. No need to go 
all trust buster on the fledgling SL creator community just yet :(

Farallon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Callum Lerwick" <seg at haxxed.com>
To: <sldev at lists.secondlife.com>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [sldev] Permissions


Well, the real issue with DRM systems is, should the will of the author
be allowed to usurp the legal rights of the purchaser?

Should Apple be able to dictate what software and hardware I can use to
play the songs I "purchased" on iTunes?

Should Sony be allowed to rootkit any machine I wish to use to play
their CDs?

When I purchase an avatar on Second Life, should the avatar creator be
able to tell me what grids and what sims I can use their avatar on?
Should they be able to prevent me from making a backup copy, and prevent
me from modifying it?

If the answers here are "Yes", then IMHO you really haven't bought
anything. I find it ironic that the classic cold war straw man argument
against communism was "You aren't even allowed to own your own
toothbrush!", and yet, if the poster boys of capitalism such as the
MPAA, RIAA and Microsoft had their way, you wouldn't own anything
either. You'd merely be purchasing a limited license to view their
content, on their terms, on a revocable basis. You're renting, not
buying.

And guess what, they're already getting their way.

(Not that there's anything wrong with renting. Netflix is awesome.
However, telling someone they're buying something, when they're really
not is *evil* and *wrong*.)

(And lets get one thing straight, I'm all for free market capitalism.
What the MPAA, RIAA and Microsoft are trying to do, is not a free
market. Are we deep enough into politics yet? :)

For further study I recommend everyone just go read (or watch) Lawrence
Lessig's "Free Culture":

http://www.free-culture.cc/
http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/

And while we're at it:

http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
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