Thursday, October 2, 2014

2014 IPRIGHTS: Status in SL. Year one summary

 IPRIGHTS:  Status in SL.  Year one summary 
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Recent events 

Second Life TOS (probably) relinquishes its claims on your creations. Finally!

The matter is (probably) closed.  I will continue to report on the matter if there are further developments, but I think the Lindens consider the matter closed. Probably most of the people who felt their interests affected by the action have already taken what they consider appropriate action.  My guess is that the action is as follows:


Content creators. Accept the assurances from the Lindens and the revised (if ambiguous) language of the TOS and continue to produce new products for sale on the SL marketplace.  Investigate markets in Opensim, particularly those, such as Kitely Market, that are able to deliver to the Hypergrid.  Other factors, such as the development of Second Life 2, may also be influencing content creators to look for wider markets.   

Writers.  Regardless of the intent of the Lindens, writers who bring their writings into Second Life may be giving up the ability to sell exclusive rights on their work to a publisher or other buyer.  The Lindens have no experience with publishing, do not seem to understand the problem, and so are not likely to fix it.  
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Fortunately, writers do not have to bring their writings into Second Life to share them with other writers. There are plenty of other sharing resources available on the web.  Concerned writers have probably already shifted to those resources.  Other writing groups have already moved affected activities to Opensim, where the TOS language avoids claims of license-granting beyond what is needed to operate the service.      
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In the long run, writers may move largely to Opensim, but Linden Lab may not consider that a serious loss, as long as LL can keep the vampires.
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Videographers and Machinimists.   The situation is similar to that is writers: Videos made in Second Life may be considered to be derived from content in Second Life.  Thus, regardless of the intentions of Linden Lab, the producer of such a video may not be able to sell exclusive rights to it.  
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Video production, however, has high space and prim requirements.  It also has no need for people other than the production crew.  These conditions strongly favor the use of Opensim.  As a consequence, the production of marketable videos in Second Life is probably destined to migrate to Opensim anyway.  The TOS problem may only hasten that move (as it did for me).
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Consequences.  A number of people in Second Life have started evaluating Opensim as an alternative for some activities and for marketing their creations.  In previous years I used to respond to suggestions about Opensim, "I'm not going there unless my friends go 
there."
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Now I find that a lot of my friends are in Opensim. So I have started going there, not just to make videos, but also to meet with friends, report on Hypergrid places, and do a little building.    I still go to Second Life for events--that is where all the people are.  But a lot of us are seeing Opensim as a viable alternative to Second Life-- at a much lower cost.

Suggested Terms of Service from Maria Korolov

Related-Previous

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News and Notes

Scroll down for News and Notes 

Events in the virtual worlds  

How to handle a Hypergrid address 

From any Hypergrid-enabled grid, paste the address into the address bar of Firestorm and press enter. Or paste it into the world map search bar of any viewer, search, and click Teleport when the destination is found. If it doesn't work, don't give up. Try again later. Some hypergrid destinations are offline part of the day.

Opensim podcast

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Contests and dated calls/invitations/events

CALL FOR STORIES for BOOFest '14, October 19th
2014 Project SciFi Competition in partnership with Screen My Shorts and sponsored by the Parramatta City Council is giving filmmakers, Machinima makers and animators 30 days to write, shoot, edit, produce and upload a 3-10min short film with $5,500 (Australian Dollars) in cash prizes. 
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All films that enter into this years Project SciFi will be screened at Riverside Theatres.  Teams must register by 3rd October 2014 and nominate 2 scifi subjects that they would like to make their film about. For registrations visit ... 

Subjects for Machinima makers, 2014 Project SciFi Competition

  • Sci-Romance – Love between Aliens, Robots and more! (Can be Happy, Sad or Tragedy) 
  • Sci-Comedy – Science fiction that is humorous in nature. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a good example of SciFi Comedy. 
  • Save the Environment – A theme focuses on saving the dying planet and/or ecosystem 
  • Zombie / Disease – A theme focuses on the effect of a disease in the future. 
  • Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic SciFi – Stories about the extinction or near extinction of humankind either by forces of nature or by our own means. Post- focuses on telling the tale of the survivors of an apocalypse. 
  • Spy-Fy – Science fiction about futuristic spies and espionage, and the effects of technological advancement on their professions. 
  • Super Hero – Stories related to super heroes who get their powers from technology or because they are from another world. Often focuses on futuristic superheroes. 
  • Robots / AI – Fiction in which the science of Artificial Intelligence and robotics is a central theme, typically relating to Robot stories. 
  • First Contact / Alien – This sub genre imagines the various scenarios in which humanity makes contact with other civilizations. 
  • Social Science Fiction - Fiction in which future societies are extrapolated, explained and often criticized, usually for the purpose of social satire. The social sciences are the overriding theme in this type of fiction; however, science and technology will usually play a central role in the structure of the extrapolated society.
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National Agenda 2014 focuses on the battle for control of congress midway through the Obama second term, with some of the biggest and most experienced names in American politics
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Midtown Arts Museum is launching its first participation storybuild on Monday, 9.1.2014, Wear Your Goggles to the Goldrush. All elements are ready for visitors, explorers and amateur sleuths to plunder. A storybuild mystery is not an event that is attended. Rather clues and story are collected, assembled and written by the participants who journey through it. It is writing via pictures and conversation - - the natural, entertaining and effortless way. Oakes Valley blog
Hypergrid address:  grid.kitely.com:8002:Oakes Valley  
Kitely World page:  http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Ruby-ODegee-2/Oakes-Valley
Companion websites:  http://oakesvalley.blogspot.co.uk/http://immersivestorybuilder.blogspot.co.uk/
Longer summary and pictures on HG Destinations website:  http://destinations.virtual-memoirs.co.uk/kitely-oakes-valley/
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    The theme is 'TRANSCENDING BORDERS.' Artists & filmmakers can interpret the theme as they see fit. Whether transcending borders between time and space, past and present, one nation and another, one language and another, a culture or civilization or any other of the innumerable borders that present themselves as we navigate our lives. You the artist... You the machinimatographer...You decide.
    Entries Close at Midnight SLT 31st October 2014. Winners will be announced in December 2014.   
    UWA Art & Film Challenges 2014 with L$1.03 Mil in Prizes, early entries 
    And don't forget the many imagined borders, walls, that we make for ourselves.   Those are the worst kind.--TKR

    Newcomer Help in Virtual Worlds


    Education

    Entrepreneurs call

    Entrepreneurs of the virtual worlds unite: Think Avatar Land! The Disney park

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    Video-Machinima in virtual worlds
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