Chat Recording.

Today, i was informed that recording chat in a area and having that chat emailed to an email account (the owners) is against the TOS when i asked what part i was give this section

Disclosure
Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident --including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident's privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.

Ive read thru it and the only part that seems to apply is this part "Remotely monitoring conversations" And if thats true thats fine. But then i was told if i sell and object capable of doing this and another breaks the rule (uses it without evertone involveds consent) I can also be "AR" not sure what ar is but it sounds bad. I am not using the object i simply made it ive also included a limit of liability, Id like to know what the fine people who read this forum think of this subject thanks for your imput.

Couple observations on my own part....

1) If the only purpose of the object is remote chat logging, then the object by its very nature could not be used without being a TOS violation. Encouraging (or enabling by selling) others to perform TOS violations is definately a no-no. Now if the device could have even a single legitimate use, well....that's a different story.

2) The TOS supercedes all disclaimers in SL. Once can't waive responsiblity that's not theirs to waive. If the TOS says you can be held responsible, then neither yourself nor any other member can override that.

Just my $0.02.


- Newfie

Well, since the TOS says "without consent", it's perfectly legal to sell it - though possibly unethical. There are some decent uses for it though, such as having someone partake in an in world meeting when they can't log in.

I wouldn't sell one myself Parsalin, but if you're prepared to take the risk of getting AR'd then go ahead. BTW, there is a way you can limit the chance of that happening while still selling the product, but I'll leave that for you to figure out.

Well im happy to say ive removed it or at the least halted it untill im happy im not in trouble for it but my dilema is that its been up for sale for some time and ive sold a great many so the problem isnt can i get in trouble for selling it its can i get in trouble if i sold it...

I make plenty in other venues this one inst needed i dont wanna make waves if i can avoid it...

I wouldn't worry about being in violation of ToS for selling chatloggers. Really. They can be extremely useful things, and people sell all sorts of devices far more damaging.

I can't figure out what good uses a person would have for a chatlogger except for getting a transcript of a meeting, and your Ctrl H will do that. Presumably most people who want these have some enemy or business rival they want to spy on.

Most of the people i know of either place them int here homes to spy on there partner or in there home just to see who goes in there i admit id rather not know whos usen my anim balls but some are weird about it...

This has also been discussed in the scripting tips forum - one useful feature for recording meetings is the ability of a logger to automatically add in the colour codes and vb/html codes for web page and/or forum posting.

I was going to revise my own chat-logger to only record speech of av's who touch and then agree to logging by dialog selection. It then emails script ready for forum posting to owner.

Its bottom of my priority list right now though, but if there is interest Ill get back to it.
Of course, there are also some web pages which do the colouring already - the only advantage of the object here is that it would guarantee TOS compliance.

It was also pointed out in script forum that recording chat without permission breaks not only TOS but US federal wiretap laws - and who knows what other national laws around the globe.

Is in not true if posted in your profile that you run a chat logger then that is letting those you interact with know you are running said programme therefore not breaking an laws or TOS?

And as to reasons for this I can only speak for myself why I might use one an thats is simply to keep an eye on my partner, which we both would consent to as previous online experiences have shown such thing's can prove useful to those whom rely on others to watch over them 'shrug...

The answer is most likely 'no'.

If you want to record your own speech, that would be OK, but recording the speech of others would not. General principle is you need to get consent. Hiding such information in your profile - even if readable - is NOT the same as getting consent.

ps Eloise Pasteur sells TOS compliant chat loggers. Find on slexchange or in world.

AR is "abuse-reported", or reported to LL for abuse or breaking the TOS.

Let's see, are you the nitwit that created the spyscript that follows people and records every word they say, and are selling it so that stalkers and griefers can act like a**holes in SL, just the way they do in RL?

As far as I'm concerned, you're a witless, inconsiderate moron who is aiding and abetting harassing behavior in SL. I don't care if they perma-ban your butt.

Chat loggers that announce their presense and active status, used for the purpose of recording a meeting, or training session, etc. are just dandy fine. If the thing tells you it's there, and that it is active, I see no issue.

Other than that... it's crap.