Sadly it appears that there are a good chunk of you who are completely fucking retarded. So, I apparently need to dust off my rocking chair, fire up the learning stick, and tell you exactly how it is.
Archive for the 'Op/Ed' Category
“And so with withered hand Mark Kingdon reached for the communicator and spoke into it…”
“Execute Order 7.8″
Now, what is Order 7.8 you ask? It is Section 7.8 of the new Second Life Terms of Service. It reads for those of you too lazy to look it up as the following.
7.8 You agree to respect the Intellectual Property Rights of other users, Linden Lab, and third parties.
You agree that you will not upload, publish, or submit to any part of the Service any Content that is protected by Intellectual Property Rights or otherwise subject to proprietary rights, including trade secret or privacy rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from the rightful owner to upload, publish, or submit the Content and to grant Linden Lab and users of the Service all of the license rights granted in these Terms of Service.
You acknowledge that the Content of the Service is provided or made available to you under license from Linden Lab and independent Content providers, including other users of the Service (“Content Providers”). You acknowledge and agree that except as expressly provided in this Agreement, the Intellectual Property Rights of Linden Lab and other Content Providers in their respective Content are not licensed to you by your mere use of the Service. You must obtain from the applicable Content Providers any necessary license rights in Content that you desire to use or access.
Linden Lab and other Content Providers may use the normal functionality of the Service, including the permissions system and the copy, modify, and transfer settings, to indicate how you may use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, or perform their respective Content solely In-World. You acknowledge and agree that the permissions system and other functionality of the Service do not grant you any license, consent, or permission to copy, modify, transfer, or use in any manner any Content outside the Service.
You agree that you will not copy, transfer, or distribute outside the Service any Content that contains any Linden In-World Content, in whole or in part or in modified or unmodified form, except as allowed by the Snapshot and Machinima Policy, or that infringes or violates any Intellectual Property Rights of Linden Lab, other Content Providers, or any third parties.
Linden Lab reserves the right, but is not obligated to use technological measures designed to prohibit the copying, transfer, or distribution of Content outside the Service when we in good faith believe that such copying, transfer, or distribution would or might violate the Intellectual Property Rights of our users, Linden Lab, or third parties.
You copy and use Content at your own risk. You are solely responsible and liable for your use, reproduction, distribution, modification, display, or performance of any Content in violation of any Intellectual Property Rights. You agree that Linden Lab will have no liability for, and you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Linden Lab harmless for, any claims, losses or damages arising out of or in connection with your use, reproduction, distribution, modification, display, or performance of any Content.
These are interesting times in our digital playground my friends. It seems that the Lindens in their as always infinite wisdom wish to tighten down on how we show the world Second Life, and more importantly they wish to control how we use the things we have purchased with our money. In this little rant I will be breaking down 7.8 and will be sharing with you why it is the worse idea since 2.0.
You agree that you will not upload, publish, or submit to any part of the Service any Content that is protected by Intellectual Property Rights or otherwise subject to proprietary rights, including trade secret or privacy rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from the rightful owner to upload, publish, or submit the Content and to grant Linden Lab and users of the Service all of the license rights granted in these Terms of Service.
You see the Avatar above in the picture? That is the Storm Trooper avatar from Furious store. According to Section 7.8 of the ToS I am not allowed to take a picture of it. Why am I not allowed to take a picture of it? Because in the folder that came with the purchase there was no mention whatsoever of being allowed to photograph this avatar. Under 7.8 content creators will have to include a notecard in their items allowing for permission for their items/clothing/skin/hair to be photographed and then published for other people to look at.
You acknowledge that the Content of the Service is provided or made available to you under license from Linden Lab and independent Content providers, including other users of the Service (“Content Providers”). You acknowledge and agree that except as expressly provided in this Agreement, the Intellectual Property Rights of Linden Lab and other Content Providers in their respective Content are not licensed to you by your mere use of the Service. You must obtain from the applicable Content Providers any necessary license rights in Content that you desire to use or access.
Now, copying content and redistributing it is bad. We all know this. But what about backing it up? Should that not be my call since I am the one who purchased it? Are you next going to tell me I can not watch Football on my RL TV that I purchased? We as users of Second Life should be able to back up the things we have purchased. Real money went into these purchases, and let us all be honest here. Second Life’s inventory system has a well documented history of eating everything and anything it wants to whenever it wants to. Also, what about moving an item over to an alt? In theory, since the same PERSON bought the item should I not be allowed to move an item from one of my avatars to another avatar that I still own?
Linden Lab and other Content Providers may use the normal functionality of the Service, including the permissions system and the copy, modify, and transfer settings, to indicate how you may use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, or perform their respective Content solely In-World. You acknowledge and agree that the permissions system and other functionality of the Service do not grant you any license, consent, or permission to copy, modify, transfer, or use in any manner any Content outside the Service.
This is pretty simple. Basically what Linden Lab is saying here is that everything you’ve ever made in Second Life, is now property of sorts of Linden Lab. You may not under any circumstance bring it to another grid. I am curious though if this includes items that you have made. The wording is a bit fuzzy on that subject. But, Linden Lab does that. They love you, you know? They love you so much it will hurt you.
You agree that you will not copy, transfer, or distribute outside the Service any Content that contains any Linden In-World Content, in whole or in part or in modified or unmodified form, except as allowed by the Snapshot and Machinima Policy, or that infringes or violates any Intellectual Property Rights of Linden Lab, other Content Providers, or any third parties.
You bloggers paying attention to this one? Basically we will now need permission to photograph anywhere, anything, anytime. That will be fun won’t it? I am sure that sim owners, content creators, and everybody else involved in this process is just going to love the time taken up by countless people asking for permission. Jesus, can you imagine the notecards that are going to be pouring in back and forth on Second Life’s already fragile databases?
Linden Lab reserves the right, but is not obligated to use technological measures designed to prohibit the copying, transfer, or distribution of Content outside the Service when we in good faith believe that such copying, transfer, or distribution would or might violate the Intellectual Property Rights of our users, Linden Lab, or third parties.
HAH! That is right fuckers, I said HAH! This is Linden Lab covering their very exposed asses saying they’ll now be guarding and watching for content theft. You know, maybe they’ll increase the time it takes a copybotter to get banned from 4 days to 2 days. (Not that I am holding a grudge you fucking dicks (the lindens, not you kids). Won’t that be lovely? We’ll translate this. “Hey we said in our ToS we’re going to help content creators prevent theft, but in actuality…no”
You copy and use Content at your own risk. You are solely responsible and liable for your use, reproduction, distribution, modification, display, or performance of any Content in violation of any Intellectual Property Rights. You agree that Linden Lab will have no liability for, and you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Linden Lab harmless for, any claims, losses or damages arising out of or in connection with your use, reproduction, distribution, modification, display, or performance of any Content.
And there it is everybody, the other shoe. While Linden Lab promises to help protect their users from Content theft they are in no way legally, morally, ethically, or financially responsible for your loses if they fail. If they fail….seems like that is every day in Second Life that Linden Lab continuously fails their users. Tell you what Lindens, instead of giving us false promises of content protection…go ahead and fix teleports, sim crossings, inventory loss, your servers, and the almost infinite list of issues you’ve had since the beginning. You know stuff you in theory should be competent enough to fix. Also, next time you come up with a content protection policy you may want to hire somebody who makes stuff in Second Life and not a lawyer who has probably never logged in. You have once again clearly shown how completely out of touch you are with your user base. Way to go kids!
Dimitri Out.
I’ve been around Second Life since 2006. During that time, I have followed your precious Terms of Service. I have not griefed, abused, or any of the many 5 dollar words you like to throw out there in an attempt to sound better than you actually are. To date not a single avatar of mine has been warned, suspended or banned. I have purchased a large number of your funny money every month. I have been a premium account holder for lord knows how long. I have basically put a roof over your heads and food on your table. That ended today. Why did that end? Because of this asshole:
Everyone, meet Jacob Janitor. Jacob is an eloquent fellow. Let’s look at his profile shall we?
yeah im white from the states with a funny middle name, but im always pretty quick to keep a thick black bitch bouncing on my white dick
SORRY. I ONLY LIKE TO HANG OUT WITH FOXY LADIES
Simply riveting. Now, I was chilling out at Casa De La Doom Cookie when my friend Moonbeam IM’d me at informed me she had a problem with a tool at her club. She asked me to come down. Because this is what Jacob had been spewing.
So, I had come down and Jacob was hanging out in the corner of the club. I put 2 prims around him.
I like to call the two prims I created on the spot…the penalty box. It matched the color of his prim dick. He left, and that was that. (Note the time stamp)
So around 11am SLT I get the pop up that I’ve been logged out by an administrator. “Okay that’s weird” I thought as I had never seen that before. And then I check my email.
Dear Dimitri Rizooto,
This email is notification of action regarding your Second Life account,
Dimitri Rizooto, for violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or
Community Standards. The violation in question occurred on April 16, 2010
in the region of Osato.Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Impeding Movement
Creating objects or content with the explicit purpose of
impeding or interfering with the free movement of another
Resident in a Safe Areas.
Well isn’t that interesting. So I pop onto Second Life’s website and hit live chat since I am a PREMIUM member. This is the fun and games that followed:
Roberto: Hello Dimitri Rizooto,my name is Roberto. Thank you for contacting Linden Lab Support. How may I help you? Dimitri Rizooto: Hello Roberto, I just got logged out by an administrator and an email was sent saying I was warning or suspended from Second Life for TOS violation. Dimitri Rizooto: Now, it says it was for impeding movement. But I was on my friend's land and she asked me too. Dimitri Rizooto: Now, I was never warned about anything and the email does not state how long I was suspended for Roberto: Just a second please Dimitri please. Roberto: Can I ask you some security questions please? Dimitri Rizooto: Oh sure thing Roberto: What's your real name? What's your date of birth please? What's your email address?What city were you born in? Dimitri Rizooto: PErsonal Info Dimitri Rizooto: I don't remember if I added the Balboa naval hospital part in the question Roberto: Thank you Dimitri.Your account will be suspended till 2010-04-16 at 11:35:40. Is an administration act . Dimitri Rizooto: 11:35PM SLT? Dimitri Rizooto: That is pretty much the whole day. The incident in which I got suspended for happened at the request of the land owner Roberto: I don't know the issue Dimitri , but I advice you to submit a support ticket as an abuse appeal. Dimitri Rizooto: Will it take longer than my suspension? Roberto: I think so Dimitri. Dimitri Rizooto: Okay.
Well holy shit. You mean to tell me that it will take longer for the appeal process to work than the actual suspension? Well with that level of competence surely I can expect you do very well once you become publicly traded.
So just so we’re clear here. You suspended a premium account holder with no previous suspensions, bans, or warnings for putting two prims around a resident who had been harassing another resident at HER FUCKING CLUB and she asked me there? Does that sound about right? Well, I will tell you what. I’m going to go ahead and give you till…let’s say…5pm SL time to fix this. If you don’t, that’s cool too. I will happily cancel my premium account and never purchase another L$ again. I’ll advise my Real Life friends to do the same, hell I have nothing better to do. I will actively advertise against anybody showing up on your bleeding edge (circa 2003) playground. Now grant it, I’ll still play your game as I am addicted to it much like some time of sadist crack cocaine.
Also, let’s address your customer service. I was thinking of a nice way to put it but I can’t. So it goes like this. It sucks, it sucks on so many levels I can’t even begin to describe it. What kind of company doesn’t send out an actual warning first? Instead you just go ahead and suspend? That makes perfect sense because the person who was suspended is just going to totally want to come back and spend a lot more money on you assholes. But as we’ve seen with your excellent track record of protecting content creators from theft and your awesome track record of stopping pedophiles. And with your always sound policies of completely ignoring what your customer base wants, I am sure you will be quite successful in the future.
And I am going to close now, using the ever so wise words of Sarah Nerd
Fuck you Linden Lab
No Love,
Dimitri.
And before you begin to get mad about me copy pasting chat logs and emails…I live in Texas. In Texas as long as I have my own permission since I am a party of the conversation I can go ahead and tape, post, copy, whatever else I want to with it.
So April 14th is Pink Shirt day. Basically it’s a day where people can wear pink and a good lot of them can jump on the bandwagon and say “Hey, Stop Bullying”. You can usually tell when Pink Shirt day is coming because people start getting sensitive about everything. I am waiting for wear all black, with sunglasses and be surly day.
I had that term used on me today. I’ve said it to people before admittedly and when I started dancing again I immediately apologized because I realized what a douche thing it was to say.
You hear it from time to time as a dancer. You’ll be having a conversation with somebody and they’ll find out your a dancer and that is when the tone changes. Like somehow what we do is so incredibly dirty we’re second class SL citizens. And for the most part we’re going to be okay with that? Now, why would be okay with that? Allow me to tell you.
I am going to be honest. When I first saw the preview ad for the new Daniel Skin from Laqroki I was hesitant at first. I thought the nipples looked crooked, the skin was too shiny, and there was something wrong with the chin. On the rare occasion, I enjoy being wrong.
So the Daniel skin comes in LAQ’s standard skin tones. Milk, Fair, Peach, Nougat, Cocoa, Ebony. I wish they had something in between Nougat and Cocoa as Nougat is just barely tan enough and Cocoa sits in the little too dark section.
So, there I was on Zombie Egg Jesus Day, sipping my cup of coffee, perusing ye olde fashion feeds and see what was shaking on plurk when something caught my eye. Now, keep in mind I was a touch cranky before seeing this, as I went to pose fair and found a small selection of male poses and one person charging more for male poses than female ones..But this, this kind of grated on my nerves.
PSYKE!!
Vive9 announced on their blog on March 16th that due to mysterious RL (that is Real Life for you slow kids) issues they would be closing up shop. So they decided to have a sale. They decided to sell their skins for cheap, fatpacks going at around1k. The store flooded, people were crying about not getting in. Money was poured into their coffers as the vultures of SL Fashion circled over head, aiming at prize peaces of meat.
Fast forward to today. March 29th.
Word comes to us from our embedded correspondent in the Mean Girls Fashion Emergency Group (I made up the Mean Girls part…..or did I? Maybe Hot Tranny Mess Fashion Emergency Group who knows…) that the sale is off! Vive9 is staying in Second Life!
What happened Vive9? Did you make enough money off the fake leaving sale?
So, with my return to Second Life I arrived just in time for Linden Homes to be announced. And I thought to myself “Self, it would be good to have a place to unpack shit and take horrible photographs for your blog of doom and hey, it’s only 10 dollars a month. You spend more than that on way sillier things”. And so I stared at the menu to select one and explored the several different options. In the end I chose the Skylight model in the Meadowbrook theme. And things were good…or so I thought.
The Author Standing In front of His Small Abode.
As some of you may have noticed, it’s been a long time between posts here on Atomic Valley. For various reasons (the least of which the incredible amount of stupid floating around in the Second Life Community) I kind of lost steam. The desire to even take pictures and go “Hey this is the shit I am wearing” was gone as well. After a time away I have decided to pick up the keyboard once again and administer textual (that may not be a word and if it isn’t I just claimed rights to it) beatings to those who so desperately deserve it. And with all that being said there are going to be a few changes to Atomic Valley Policy.
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