Do not throw caution to the wind. Anything you create or even edit with the new Photoshop® will become property of Adobe Systems®... for all intents and purposes.

Okay, let's clarify a bit here. Intellectual Property (I.P.) rights is a big issue in the world. It always has been. Just turn an eye at what the hoopla about the music labels and movie studios cracking down on all those who file-share.

The issue is no more important, but incredibly intensified within the world of Second Life®. I.P. issues are being raised with louder and more forceful voices. What you work hard to create is yours to decide what is and is not done with it.

You rightly should retain full control.

Anyone who copies your Intellectual property - especially the intangible stuff, such as artwork, textures and photographs - is plagiarizing you. It's theft by another word. It happens quite often in Second Life (SL) and real life (RL) quite often.

Now, back to Adobe: Adobe has seen fit for the last few releases of most of their software to cram down out throats a side-application called Adobe Bridge™. It can be useful, but personally, I think it's an overweight, bloated pig whose tasks are accomplished by better tools and utilities that are either built into the operating system or via lightweight free mini-applications available on the Internet.

One of the functions of Bridge was that it provided access to Adobe Stock Photos™. Now, Adobe didn't really own a stock photo library. Rather, it was simply a clearing house for about six or seven other stock-photo resellers. Adobe sold these for them on commission.

As of April 1, 2008, Adobe Stock Photos as a service is dead.

[Indemnification: the following is strictly my opinion and conjecture and not fact. It is the conclusions I have come to based solely on my own reasoning based on what I know, suspect and have heard. So, I may be way off-base here.]

Did Adobe kill it? I don't know and I don't care. I suspect the providers all simply pulled-out as soon as their contracts were up.

However, I also suspect adobe found it to be quite lucrative and it earned them a lot of easy money.

So, what to do? Find a way to host peoples artwork and photographs... much like Flickr or Picassa... but then how to gain the rights to use all that stuff, either for your own use, or to sell... in the same way the stock photo houses do? And, how to do it without paying a single cent in royalties?

Create an online 'lite' version of Adobe Photoshop, allow anyone to use it for free, and sneak the creepy language into the terms of service that no one ever reads.

Photoshop Express link: https://www.photoshop.com/express/

The terms basically say that anything you upload to Photoshop Express is free to use by Adobe... any damned way they please - including selling it and not paying you a single cent.

News article here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1477

Now, the same basic terms apply to anything you pump into or create inside Second Life. However, the difference is this: Second Life is, as Prokofy Neva calls it, a "walled garden" - it's more or less blocked-off from the rest of the world. [Second Life TOS: Intellectual Property]

So this isn't as big an issue since anything you put into SL, stays in SL (provided you lock it down according to the permissions system.)

The huge uproar and backlash has Adobe reportedly reconsidering, or at least rewriting their terms of service.

Article is here: adobe-joins-list-of-companies-not-reading-own-eulas

So, do you read the terms of service every time you sign-up for some online service? Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular. And remember, these services will write their TOS in a way that benefits them, not you.

What's your take on it?

The problem is that it is unlikely you will even notice it, but the friends list on the web has been hosed for a long time. Some say since January. I think it's really more since mid-February, for this SNAFU, anyway.

If you rely on the "Friends Online" page of the Second Life web site, you should go to the public Jira and cast your vote (link at the bottom of this article.) Here is the issue:

The friends list web pages are stuck. They are frozen in ice... time... whatever you want to call it. The reason you might not notice is that the list appears to be actively working and here's why:

For most of Second Life's web pages, you'll notice the URL address changes. Yes, obviously enough. But what I am referring to is the sub domain: the server that page is being served from. For example, with regard to the friends page it can come from:

More new Second Life tutorials from Torley and the detractors are out in force again. It's funny, as they say "sometimes the best way to show a fool for a fool is to let him have his way." Do these people realize how trivial and childish they sound?

Today focused on voice features of Second Life. Take the example quote from the talkback page of the voice tutorials released today:

"If it was so wanted to hear mouth breathers and teenaged griefers how come there were so few votes to have this “feature bling” added over stability and a little decent governance."

I think it is about time.
There have been a lot inquiries to Linden Lab about getting a hold of the Second Life logo for use in or out of world. So this new logo program is a good idea and, no doubt, it wasn't invented yesterday. These things take a lot of time to prepare and build, long before such an announcement.

So, do you plan to sign-up? I do.

And yes, I stole their banner right off their page! But i have 90-days to apply and make myself legal.  >:)

Though I am still laughing really, really hard at all the childish replies on the blog post.

could also use the inSL logo in marketing materials, on your website, on your letterhead, in conference materials, in presentation slides, on promotional items, on product packaging, and in other areas where you wish to promote your contributions to the Second Life world.

I didn't know Eon Ayres, but that doesn't really matter. This resident is a mystery to me. The reason I'm posting this is because there's a certain helpless emptiness that comes when I hear about a recently-deceased resident of SL. We've all experienced it... First there's the doubt -- not simply because people like to fake their own deaths online, but because the first, innate human response to grief is denial.

What I'm getting at is that, as someone who doesn't know a lot of people, with a small family, someone who has only cried over a lost loved one a couple of times in her twenty-five years, I find myself more speechless and more helpless than others might because I simply cannot fathom the kind of words I could say that would help or lessen any burden of pain. And because it would be awful to simply walk away, I am always left gape-mouthed and terrified, filled with guilt, because some subconscious part of me feels like there ought to be a response coming out of me. It's robotic, in a way.

Still, the point of my posting is this: If you live both an online life and a real one, whether you're a resident of SL or just do a lot of instant messaging, consider writing up a quick document that contains your passwords and people you would like to notify in case something terrible happens to you. As a person who suffers from a constant fear of the pain she would leave behind in others if she passed on, I can say matter-of-fact-ly that knowing such a document exists will help assuage the kind of fear that could keep you from living your life normally.

On the flip side, I also advise you to always treat every meeting and encounter as if it will be your last -- to an extent. I do this, but it tends to sadden me... still, I fight with the idea that were I not to do this, that I would spend years hating myself if something were to happen to someone the day I chose not to look at them as they passed down the stairs out of sight.

I don't know... perhaps it's more healthy in the long-run to be more frivolous. Perhaps it's easier to get over knowing you didn't say everything you could have said than it is to live the (more likely) day-to-day, lucky life around someone you care about constantly terrified that they'll get into a car accident or have a desperate asthma attack when you aren't around... regardless, don't take anything for granted this year if you can help it. And by that, I mean, be safe, smart, and care about others just as much as you care about yourself.

Corporate R&D, educational classrooms, commercial showrooms, fantasy Gorean swordplay and now... war room. For real life.

Forbes magazine has an interesting article on how the Feds are coming into virtual worlds to... help catch terrorists and other bad guys.

Always fun and fascinating news:

Leave it to the U.S. government to suck the fun out of innovative technology. As the inhabitants of virtual worlds like "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft" fulfill fantasies of flying between islands and fighting armies of blood elves, the feds are looking into using the virtual realm for far more mundane--if more practical--activities: sitting around a conference table, watching PowerPoint presentations and attempting to track down terrorists.

Go ahead, call me 'heartless'.

The whole Gitmo routine is really getting boring. But what cracks me up is how the ACLU (sometimes a great organization, sometimes hell incarnate) demands rights for terrorists.

Like the quote from this story:

Gone Gitmo is a Second Life experience of rendition and Camp X-Ray, the now-defunct arrival center at Gitmo, developed as a virtual world companion piece to the documentary Unconstitutional. Gone Gitmo allows SL avatars to experience being hooded, handcuffed, verbally abused and detained.

The content theft in Second Life is starting to gain attention out in the real world - places and bloggers that don't usually report on Second Life.

Though in my opinion, the content theft in Second Life is not actually "theft" by definition of the word (the creators are not actually deprived of the creation,) rather it is plagiarism, I also can understand why the term is used. It packs a heavier punch, even though the real reason the term is used has more to do with our laziness and lack of true understanding of our own language. And many can be rather niggardly about it.

This is a good read.

Not so much that it's about the complaints, (and even shrill, in some cases, whining,) about the current lead of comment, but because it applies to all plagiarism in SL - including those who 'borrow' from real life, such as popular names and logos.

"What these programs do is allow users to copy models and designs from others of the Second Life universe. However, typically these creations are sold in virtual shops and are not designed to be copied. In fact, Second Life has a permissions system that, theoretically, is supposed to prevent such unauthorized copying."

If you've been following all the SL Blogs, you know there is a lot of hoopla about Intellectual Property (IP) rights and content theft. There even is an awareness campaign being run by many of Second Life's better-known creators.

Many, including myself consider the campaign to almost be a waste of breath. Almost. But, as it turns out, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg and Second Life residents are the Titanic. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

The issue is the untested waters of Second Life and virtual IP as it pertains to the law. real world law. It has already been proven, at least to a small degree that real life law can and does apply to virtual IP as found in the Eros vs. John Doe case of 2007.

If you are a creator in SL - creating your own stuff, marketing yourself, or even if you 'borrow' real life logos and marketing approaches, and especially is your are a content plagiarizer, you'd do very well to read the linked article.

For anyone involved in any way with Intellectual Property in SL, builders, designers, scripters, SELLERS... fasten your seatbelt. It's going to be a rough ride if you aren't careful.

Quote:

"For example, it's not clear whether someone who commercializes a virtual copy of a patented real world object commits patent infringment [sic] and if so, in which jurisdiction. It's also unclear whether someone who develops a trademark used only to identify virtual goods and services generates enforceable trademark rights in the real world. And it's not known whether making virtual use of a trademark, which can be confused with a real-world trademark, amounts to trademark infringment [sic].

"But rights holders can't really stand around waiting for the courts to decide the law."Failure to enforce is particularly damaging to plaintiffs in trademark infringment cases," [sic] says Kristina Rosette of Covington & Burling, which has offices in the U.S. and Europe.

"Mr. Bennett argues that abusers can do as much damage online as they can do in the real world."

"...I had heard of colossal time wasting games like “World of Warcraft,” and “Everquest” as well as the virtual worlds “Second Life” and “Sims” where people can create a character in a utopian fantasy world and spend countless hours posted in front of their computers armed with a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, a Hot Pocket and a waistline growing as fast as their logged hours played. But hey, to each their own and as several people in “Second Skin” say, we all have our little time wasting addictions and online gaming is theirs."

Oh the joy!
Like the Rezzable Dinosaurs, SL went kablooey. Again.
I really should have known better!

I was working on a few things. Suddenly, I noticed the scripts weren't working. No response. They weren't resetting. In fact, it was bizarre: I got the old error that there are no scripts in the object.

Of course there are scripts in the object. I'm looking at them. Just put them in there as a matter of fact.

So I took the object back into inventory and set it out again. Now, the delay in the object jumping out of world and into my inventory should have beena loud, bright clue. But it went eventually and I was multitasking in Fireworks and Photoshop at the time, so my full attention wasn't in-world.

When I set the object out again, the scripts should have reloaded. Nothing. Hmmm...

Okay - let's restart the sim.

I go back to work off-line and return about 10 or 15 minutes later. "Region unavailable, you are being moved to a nearby [read: half-way across the SL globe] location." I end-up at my home location, currently set to Naoki's shop.

Okay - I go to map and search for my estate. There it... why is it still red, reading "offline"? Okay - just stand there, go back to offline work. 10-minutes later, search the map again. Funny. Still offline. Must be my viewer.

I log out and back again. STILL offline. Okay - contact support.

So, in the chat, TJ tells me he'll get the sim marked to return to online status, but that it might be very slow because of the database issues. I thank him and move on.

Not two-minutes later comes the Linden in-world notice to not perform any land transactions or L$ transactions at all. LL BLOG is updated.

I laugh.

Yes, laugh.

I am not going to whine and be all pissed-off because the database is borked, my sim is down and all money I earn in SL is in or on (vendors and servers) that sim - so as my sim is offline and effectively dead to the SL world... I laugh.

I don't consider SL to be a game. But I don't stake my life on it either. And, I have no doubt the Linden weekend crew are jumping through bootstraps to get things working again.

So, back to offline work for me... with a chuckle and a smile.

Did the Sunday database borking piss you off?
If so, I can only shake my head and ask why?

Over at Freep.com, (Detroit Free press,) apparently a Michigan paper, is a long, in-depth article extolling the positive virtues of Second Life, focusing on a few different aspects, including a couple people who are highly successful entrepreneurs in-world (one making $150,000 - $300,000 a year.)

Also in the article is a segment about how the University of Michigan is working on both hardware and software that plugs into Second Life, for example: 3D glasses. it is reported that Linden Lab is so impressed, they may just build the functionality directly into the viewer, allowing resident users to simply turn the feature off and on through a check box in preferences.

Not only is this an interesting read, but it reminds me, and should remind you that Linden Lab doesn't always toot their own horn. Bu this I mean that there are things in the works that aren't necessarily 'top-secret', but are not publicly known.

For example, people have ben venting (whining) in the LL blog for ages that an in-world web browser needs to be available whether it's 'web on a prim' or not. Another common request/vent has been some kind of teleport history. Ta-dah! As of the most recent Release Candidate Viewer, they both are here and functional now.

Here's an example from the story:

"The lab has at least three major "SL" projects under way. First, it developed a program that allows "Second Life" users to see the world in 3D, using traditional bicolor stereovision glasses. That program has been so successful since its release a few months ago that Linden Labs is testing the idea of building it right into the world as a checkbox that people can turn on or off at will."

Yes, Second Life goes more international than we first thought.
Welcome Kazankstan! This is apparently the government's effort to improve Western perceptions of the country. It might work, I don't know. Go visit Astana and tell me if it improves yours. :)

"But social service Second Astana is something more, the first spots (central block of the left-bank Astana from Bayterek to the Pyramid) of the Kazakh land in the popular virtual world of Second Life, with which the developers seem to be in the process of establishing cooperation."

Brian Dipert over at EDN has a great article about how Second Life [and other virtual worlds] will become more and more real as time goes on. The point being the it only looks feels the way it does right now due to technology constraints, that are improving exponentially.

Now, his column is only about Second Life or the technology behind it at all. It's actually a very good read and has to do with his predictions for the not-too-distant future.

Here's an excerpt:

"Human beings, like many if not all creatures, seem to have a natural compulsion to intoxicate themselves in striving to escape the un-pleasurable aspects of real life and instead flee (albeit temporarily) to a seemingly 'better' alternative. We cling to what feels good, and we push away what feels bad...not realizing, as we do so, that this grasping and aversion is at the root of our suffering...but I digress. Yes, I'm taking you down a blue pill/red pill Matrix scenario here."

Creating in Second Life is creating.
Starting a business in Second Life is starting a business.
Marketing in Second Life is marketing.

Okay, starting a business in SL is pretty straight forward and the easiest of these three. Find a mall, plop down some Linden Dollars (L$) into a rental box - all set. But what do you sell? The first option above is a bit more difficult.

Creating in SL requires a pretty steep learning curve. And, there are multiple facets to it: Prim building (creating that sofa,) Texturing (Using your favorite image editor to create the image files that, when applied to your prim sofa, will allow it to look like a sofa,) and then scripting (adding pose balls or something more elaborate.)

Many will go the easy route and purchase a "Business in a Box" (BIAB) - unfortunately, this is a bad idea. First, BIABs are usually just chock full of freebies or someone else's throw-aways. The items are not very good, quality-wise and the prim items are usually quite bloated and heavy with inefficient prim-building design.

On top of that, if ten people buy the same BIAB and all set-up shop in the same mall, what does that do for each of them?

The next best thing is to learn to build prims. Then head off to a texture vendor to shop for textures. This saves time, and doesn't require image-editing talent or upload costs. You buy the textures, plop them onto your sofa prims and away you go.

The same for pose balls. You can buy 'resale' pose balls that you can attach to your sofa, and sell the whole kit-and-kaboodle at will. of course, this route requires a monetary investment (resale pose balls are not cheap!)

Then of course, you could simply do it all yourself, taking the time and effort to learn what you need to learn to make things happen, or a combination of all of the above, except for the BIAB.

Then comes the marketing.
Ouch.

This is by far the most difficult of anything you can possibly do in SL. The reason is that it is too easy to just buy stuff. There is always someone who creates what you create. Many will be lower in quality and many will be higher.

The problem is that there is a mall or shopping vendor in 99% of every place you could want to visit. In fact, SL is really just one gigantic shopping mall. Everywhere you turn, there is always a vendor machine or box with something to buy.

So how do you market your wares and not get lost in the 'for sale' desert?
One idea is to put your vendors in as many places as you possibly can. But be careful, this can backfire. Personally, I am so sick and tired of seeing that horrible pink "Kinky-O" logo every damned where I go. To the point that I refuse to buy anything from the creator or visit her properties (her properties are owned and run by her alt - or vice-versa.)

So, you really need to work the classified and search system. Doing this, and marketing in general is beyond the scope on this post. But suffice it to say, there are those who cheat in this, too.

We all know about campers. As soon as I land at a mall or shopping location, or any venue where I see campers, I teleport out to the next place before the floor even finishes rezzing for me.

I also stay away from bogus logos.
I've written about this before.

And yet, here is another column about the plagiarism of logos. If you use a logo without an explicit license or written permission from the logo owner, beware. The wolves are out and they are hunting. If you don't believe me - put up anything that looks like or mentions "Mickey Mouse' related to your product. You be on the national headline news before long. I guarantee it.

Yes, we all know Coca-Cola has given explicit permission for Second Lifers to use their logo. But Coca-Cola is open that way. And others like Apple Computer just brush it off, knowing it is all fandom-created anyway. But be careful, I say.