Philip Rosedale To Testify Before Congress On Virtual Worlds

The time was bound to come eventually, I suppose. With the growth and acceptance of virtual worlds, and the many predictions that some kind of virtual reality like Second Life will be Net 3.0, Congress was bound to take an interest in it. Reported in New World Notes:

Mr. Linden Goes To Washington: Philip Rosedale To Appear At First US Congress Hearing On Virtual Worlds

What I am curious about is what kind of questions they will ask Philip, and what will result from this hearing. While I see the need for some kind of legal standard in world, the very international — or even trans-national — nature of a globally accessible virtual world, along with the peculiar way that things work in world, makes writing good laws a delicate, tricky operation. While it’s all too easy to write law, good law is another creature altogether.

(I’m not sure if I can express this in a way that is clear and unambiguous; so I’ll just plow ahead, and hope that I can clarify in comments as necessary.)

I fear any plan to actually enact a binding tax on SL income — one thing that is likely to come whether we will or no, Neal Stephenson’s dreams of the First Distributed Republic notwithstanding. But what I fear most is an attempt to restrict the in-world environment and culture to some narrow, politically driven standard of morality. Mistake me not; I wouldn’t mind seeing what porn palaces and dangling dildos exist in world to make a noise like a hoop and roll away, to borrow from Dorothy L. Sayers. At the same time, in the privacy of one’s virtual home, between adults, what goes on is their business.

If any kind of community standard is to be set, it is best to restrict it to no more than the set of internationally agreed-upon standards of social behavior with the broadest amount of personal latitude. When lawmakers get hold of something like this, though, it becomes a political football; witness the ongoing battles in America over polarizing concepts of “morality” in RL, such as abortion or the ever-popular “family values.” And any laws made in America concerning an internationally accessible virtual world will have some sort of international effect as well, the example being our restrictions on Net gambling that resulted in the Grid gambling ban. At the risk of invoking a much abused argument, I would contend that much of the law already in existence is sufficient to the cause as it is, and does not need to be amplified except to adapt it to the peculiar situation of in world.

I don’t say that we need to be paranoid and start worrying about what will come from these hearings. What I do say is that we need to pay attention, as any good citizen should, to the legislative process, and make our voices heard should the need arise.

Rosedale’s testimony will be streamed, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time (6:30 SLT). Open the stream from the Committee’s schedule page. (Windows Media required; an archive will be posted of the hearing as well.)

Frank’s Place Has a New Landmark

Why do I make noise about this? Because the old landmark is no longer good. The region’s name has changed, from Oasis Resort to — “Franks Place”!

The new SLurl is here.

Among other things, the Sinatras are running a large expansion of their mall, oriented toward the formally-dressed clientele of the club. Fine stores such as Virtual Impressions are there, and a look is much encouraged.

Linden Lab Promises a Reply on Trademark Issue to Blogger – Updated

New World Notes‘ Wagner James (Hamlet) Au reports that a press representative for Linden Lab has told him that the Lab will issue a statement on the Second Life branding issue concerning many of SL’s bloggers sometime Friday or Monday.

In his article, Wagner states that he received an E-mail from Peter Gray of Lewis PR, the public relations firm working for Linden Lab, promising the statement. No specific time was announced for its release, nor was any information disclosed on what the statement would contain. Wagner is a former in-house blogger for Linden Lab. The statement may be in response to the call for clarification issued by Gwyneth Llewelyn on her blog, which has been reprinted in the same article by Wagner along with the note from Peter Gray. Gwyneth is calling for a 3-day strike of SL bloggers, beginning April 15, if no satisfactory response is made to her request; this call is meeting with support from some bloggers, based on reading of the ongoing discussion at the SL Bloggers group on Ning.

=====

It’s uncertain at this point just how much notice the larger community of Residents is giving to the trademark flap. In a thoroughly unscientific examination, I wore Kit Meredith’s attachment (pictured above) yesterday to the daily Morning Coffee at the Blarney Stone in Dublin. Nobody asked me to explain it, and I was there for two hours. I presume they all thought I was wearing a Funny Hat, and left it at that. I intend to repeat the experiment today for a span of time, and see if the results are better.

The more libertarian bloggers worry that another freedom is being cut out from under the community without its noticing, citing such examples as the gambling and banking ban. I myself, though, don’t see this turning into another Tea Crate Rebellion at any time in the near future. It all depends on how much the SL public perceives this as affecting them. It could affect them by putting a chill on discussion and reportage; if bloggers don’t know what the exact requirements are for them, or can’t meet those requirements easily, then they’ll likely stop writing. This is already threatened, at least in part, by the strike action planned by Gwyn. If the bloggers shut down, then Linden Lab will be losing tons of free publicity that their previous easy trademark policy fostered — the publicity that drove knowledge of the Second Life brand to over 10,000,000 people who have signed up.

Linden Lab does have the right to defend their brands; there is no question there. But, since they have created the community that has, in return, helped drive subscribers to their service, it is incumbent on LL to clarify the situation at the very least. It would also be a simple courtesy as well.

=====

UPDATE, March 29:

Ham hasn’t published any statement on NWN from Linden Lab, so we appear to need to wait for a word from them until sometime Monday. If it appears before 12:00 p.m. SLT, I’ll work to get at least a link to the comment in a new article.

In the meantime, check out the following for fresh discussions from important bloggers in this controversy:

• NWN, “Two Lawyers Puzzle Over Second Life®’s Trademark Policies” (Make sure to read those comments Hamlet links to!)
• Kit Meredith, “Hamlet Au Owes Me Two Hours”

SL Brand Center — Followup

As I was getting ready to write this, I punched up Reuters’ Second Life site to see what the latest was from the professionals, if anything. Only I was greeted with — silence. At the best, secondlife.reuters.com is churning without loading a page, or Firefox told me that the domain was “taking too long to respond.” We can interpret this in four ways:

1. secondlife.reuters.com is overloaded right now.
2. It’s Maintenance Time. (Hopefully not PM — as in “provocative maintenance,” which creates more problems than it solves [grin].)
3. Reuters is taking the subdomain down (“by order” of their lawyers) to set up a new domain name, and it hasn’t propagated through the DNS yet. (Though a redirect could be quickly set up as well….)
4. The one consistently publishing source of professional news in Second Life is pulling the plug, so as to take no chances with the new branding policy.

Only time will tell which one. I’ve been trying to connect since 7:00 a.m. RL, and nothing yet. (It’s currently 9:30.)

=====

In the time since Linden Lab’s announcement of the new SL branding policy, reaction in the out-world from Residents has been loud and thick. Here’s a list of the blogs and news reports I’ve found so far (after the break):

Linden Lab “Tightens” Trademark Control (?)

Just to keep myself on the safe side of the lawyers, any “conclusions” as to the law obtained by me below are not necessarily correct legal opinion or precedent, and should not be regarded as such. So don’t rely on my word for it, folks. All I can claim is that, having seen some experience with these things over my time, I think I’m pretty close to how the real world works with these questions.

Yesterday, Linden Lab announced through the Big Blog the creation of its “Second Life Brand Center,” which lays out strong, explicit rules and examples of how its various trademarks and service marks may be used. “Discussion” started quickly in the comments section to the announcement article; and, across 139 comments (as of this writing), the consensus has been strongly — if not almost universally — sarcastic, disparaging, and just plain negative. At least one commenter suggested that LL might be preparing for an initial public stock offering, and is trying to establish control of tangible and intangible assets, which trademarks certainly are to a company. (Witness the trademark inspectors who were running around restaurants during the Seventies and Eighties at the height of the Cola Wars, making sure that waitresses identified their product as their product.) Many were angry that, while LL is taking steps to protect their copyrighted material, the company seems unwilling to do anything to protect the same rights for Resident merchants.

In reality, this kind of lawyerly comedown is not that new. Any subscriber to, say, Writer’s Digest will see batches of ads several times a year imploring authors to refer only to Kleenex™ facial tissues or Frigidaire™ refrigerators, etc. This is to protect their brand name and market position, since excessive use in a generic way forces the name into the public domain. That’s why we have Velcro, and then we have everyone else making “hook-and-eye fastener strips.”

My (legally uninformed) take on how this will affect most of us after the break….

Open Your Hard Drive and Say “Ahhh.”

I’m afraid the main computer’s going into the shop for a few days; it has this disconcerting habit of shutting off when I’m doing something — mainly working with SL or Paint Shop Pro. However, I have access to several other computers, and I may be posting a few more book reviews and news pieces over the time this sucker’s in for work. There just won’t be anything on fashion or travels.

Don’t forget about me!

Elvis ain’t dead; he’s just de-rezzed….

…and re-rezzed in Second Life:

(with thanks to Torley Linden)

(Actually, I still say that Elvis is still in RL, disguised as a small black cat at the Metro Animal Shelter in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. But then he was also supposed to be a grocery clerk at an IGA in Climax, Michigan. And, of course, the Men in Black say that Elvis didn’t die; he just went home….)

Still Decorating!

You may recall how I was notified a week or two ago that I’d exceeded my prim limit — on a 500-prim house! I solved the problem by gutting out the office I’d just bought and decorated a week before that, plus a pair of chairs in my bedroom.

Today, after talking with a friend, I started wondering just how much I could save yet on my load, and so I set to find out. My landlord’s prim counter still isn’t working for me (and I’d love for someone to tell me the reason why!), so I went through the long, but also sure, process of a hand prim count. And I found out some interesting things. That set of Craftsman living-room furniture I enjoyed so much in the “formal” room downstairs was high on cost, as I’d expected — 76 prims for just the two chairs and settle alone, if I remember my figures; add in a 12-prim stool and two tables, and there were about 100 prims in just that area. And a pot of big sunflowers on my upper deck had 36 prims! I sure hadn’t got that thing from Bliss Gardens….

Clearly, some work was required. I’ll have to save my dreams of an Arts and Crafts home for the far-away time when I buy some land — assuming I ever do that, since I’m quite comfortable now where I am. So I packed up that lovely Craftsman set into a storage prim and shoved it into Inventory, and set out for TMS Designs, who had done that wine/gold overstuffed set in my solarium. And I found the below:

This is a rattan set that is just as “comfortable,” has more poses, cost less — and took up only 57 prims. I’d say this is a gain…. I got back some 20 or so prims out of this; and, with a little more work at this and that, even with buying some new plants (from Bliss’ potted-plant store!), and adding in the previous gain I had, I now stand 128 prims to the good.

I may still be able to decorate those two rooms, if I’m careful….

Filling In for the Absent…. (updated March 19, 2008)

(Originally posted March 5)

The other night, I was at Frank’s Place, and I was commiserating with one of the other habitués about how there was always a dearth of men on hand who were interested in dancing. Jaidyn, the manager of the club, overheard us, grinned at me, and then sent out a group message:

Harper Ganesvoort: If I wasn’t writing a blog article in the background here, I’d pull on a male skin and offer to take up the slack.

Gentlemen! If that’s not an invitation to come to Frank’s for the ladies, I don’t know what is! Please come and keep our beautiful ladies company with a dance and a laugh. You’ll find no more beauty anywhere on SL. ~smile~ See you soon!

That was a quote, incidentally (grin). And I do have a male avatar or two that I pull out when I’m in the mood to — just see toward the bottom of my About page.

But it does seem the case that the male avatars often aren’t interested in romantic dancing, even at clubs that are founded for just such a purpose. Why is that? Are men just not wired that way often, just not as interested in the romance of romance, if you understand what I mean? If nothing else, remember that dancing is a great way to meet people, fellas — and you might just meet someone that you’ll be truly interested in [1].

Until then, if it comes to it, I might yet consider filling in occasionally. But I’d rather be dancing in the avatar I consider me, and with a partner of the opposite affiliation.

UPDATE: March 19

Kit Meredith just put up a long post on a closely related topic — a surprising one, too, considering the reputation Second Life has as a den of iniquity in some circles. Very much worth the read. It’s got a giggle or two in it, but it’s also quite curious.

=====

[1] Oh, dear, I just realized. That’s starting to approach quite close to the Word of Anathema — “commitment.”

(GRIN)

Book Review — Second Life: The Official Guide, 1st ed.

Rymaszewski, Michael, et al. Second Life: The Official Guide. 1st ed. Hoboken, N. J.: 2007, Wiley. ISBN 047009608X.

This book, and the more recent Second Edition, is Linden Lab’s official user’s guide to the experience of life on the Grid. The review will focus on the First Edition, which may still be available in some areas.

=====

Who better than Linden Lab, the logic runs, to write a guide to their main product? And the result is adequate to the task as well as fun to read. The downside to this is that familiarity may let the authors (or sponsors, if nothing else) miss tips and techniques that would come in useful to Residents. You know something that, down in your gut, you’re sure everyone knows; but you forget that you know it only because of your day-to-day familiarity with the intricacies of the program.

I am not sure at this point if that has happened with this book. Of course, Second Life is not a fixed point in the software universe; it undergoes constant change and debugging, and what’s part of it one day could disappear tomorrow. What I can say is that common tricks such as alt-zoom, which I use a good deal of lately, are not covered in this first edition. One hopes that such easy-to-fix lacunae are repaired in the newer edition.

What the guide does do, among other things, is thoroughly discuss the uses of the Library and, especially, the Inventory. Control of your Inventory is neither art nor science; it is both, and it is an absolute necessity. I try to prune my Inventory almost every session in world, and it’s in part because of this book [1]. Another chapter is devoted to short-talk pieces by some of the Grid’s notables, e.g. Desmond Shang, Tao Takeshi, and Iris Ophelia. Their personal words on what got them involved in SL make for fascinating reading; I long for more.

Overall, this is not a perfect book. (What book is?) But it is an adequate book, as I say, and useful as a first stepping stone to other volumes, and, of course, learning more with experience.

Incidentally, the foreward was written by the new Chairman of the Board of Linden Research, Philip Rosedale. Take a look at his words to see how well things are matching to his vision.

=====

[1] A digression concerning Inventory control: it would be wonderful if LL allowed us to drag folders into a THiNC box or similar device, instead of needing to “repackage” them to keep related items together. Having to add in this extra operation slows down the entire process, making it more of a pain than just simply sifting through the thousands of items of freebies, demos and other detritus we’ve accumulated in our careers in world.