Should Free Accounts Go

It has to be something that everyone who can get an account in SL in the first place can do. In which case, why not make it a requirement to get an account? There's lots of things people can do with anonymity other than rip content that is damaging to SL. The whole debate over anonymous unverified accounts originally wasn't about ripping content, it was about griefers.

Fair enough. My "IMVU" reference was originally to the suggestion that people have to go through XStreet or something to transfer goods.

But splitting the ability to create stuff up in other virtual worlds I've been in hasn't turned out all that well... and an enormous amount of effort has sometimes been expended to get around them. In one, where you had to be a special kind of person to script, someone wrote an interpreter that read and executed object descriptions to let your everyday joe create active objects, and opening that up produced a flowering of creativity.

How are they getting their money out through Yahoo? We're talking about following the money here... to get money out you need a PayPal account.

This will never happen as it will eliminate all tier form in-world shops, and from any business that relies on income from attached mall vendors for income to pay their tier.

Eliminate in-world storefronts and you can turn off the lights on your way out. It will kill SL immediately.

Oooh yeah, I never thought about that!. Dunno about the killing part though, maybe a sore leg and a slight limp for a few months?

So you care about your IP rights only in so far as you yourself don't have to make any effort to protect them?

If content creators were a bit more diligent in going after content theft then the entire hassle of finding ways to counter content theft would be dramatically simplified. Noone would only need RL information on file with LL (though it would certainly help) since it only takes a few subpoenas to get that anyway.

And yes, the cost would be prohibitive for a lot of content creators but there's nothing that says they can't band together and start an organization like the RIAA/MPAA that starts lawsuits on behalf of its client.

One of the reasons there's content theft is because there's no penalty for doing it. The worst possible thing that's likely to happen is that you might loose your account which only matters much to anyone in this thread debating the issue because we have something invested in SL (be it emotional, financial, etc).

People like to make the analogy to locks and how we still use them even though it won't keep thieves out. It's a good bet that if you raise the chance of someone finding themselves in a RL court over content theft that a great many people who might otherwise do it are going to stop and "it's not worth the risk", even if that risk is still rather low. It won't stop everyone, but it's going to give a good many pause, just like the proverbial lock would.

There *are* things LL can do, there *are* things that will inconvenience innocent people but could help and all of those deserve a chance. There are also things content creators can do and so far I really don't ever see anything that shows they feel their IP rights are important enough to them to bother with (Stroker and 2-3 others aside).

Agreed with you here. People seem to only want to make the barrier to entry into the marketplace higher, or to have someone else protect their precious IP. They don't want to protect it themselves.

There ways to protect your IP, US (and other countries) allow for this. Use those channels.

1) Register your copyrights. This changes what you can sue for, in the US. Also, then you have something you can go back to and point out to people when challenged on them.
2) Make the court case. After all, you DO have proof of infringement.
3) Money in SL can be traced, and money IRL even more so.

I care, but I will only go so far.

Sticking with your lock analogy - I will put a lock on my door. But if it takes a watchtower, barbedwire and several hungry German Shepherds to keep the criminals out then I'd rather move elsewhere.

Unless you have it that way no matter where you move. You can't create in WoW like you can in SL.

This is the way the system is designed. If I draw a picture, and a magazine publishes it without permission, the only recourse I have is to sue the magazine in court. Otherwise I have to live with it. You have the exact same choice, and the same rights and obligations under the law.

I think a lot of folks fervently wish unverified accounts didn't exist, for a lot of reasons. I'm supposing that the whole point of free totally unverified accounts is that "foot in the door" teaser experience. One approach might be to allow creation of unverified accounts with restrictions (such as content distribution), and limited duration. That way at least one could detect (by account age) and ban those accounts from parcels to combat (local) griefing, but still give the new user a taste of what they can do in Second Life once they verify.

All for some unspecified value of "verification". I guess if we thought PIOF was adequate and fair verification, we could restrict NPIOF accounts already... so, even if it's not payment info, whatever qualifies as "verification" could be made an access criterion. In which case maybe limiting the duration of unverified accounts isn't important after all; it's just that free for a limited duration is how I understand SL accounts worked at one time.

There are always options in the real world.

e.g. You could hit the magazine editor with a fish.

Linden Lab was quite clear on that. The point to non-verified accounts was this: they wanted SL to be the 3d internet, they wanted it to be world-wide, they didn't want to have to deal with the complexities of verifying people in scores of countries with different rules, and people weren't getting into the whole "having to get a US credit card or Paypal to get into SL" thing.

Now I am tempted to create a fish-hitting animation for SL. If only it wouldn't get me listed as a griefer. Or, if I could create animations, for that matter

But suing to protect content is an *enormous* barrier to entry. Only a handful of SL merchants make enough to justify that expense, never mind the cost of detecting the infringement in the first place. Those folks are *not* the ones suffering from content theft without any practical recourse. Increasingly, as copying gets ever easier, it's the little guys who really need the protections, not Eros-class businesses.

The point has to be to make it easier to detect infringement (so at least DMCA can be exercised quickly enough to matter), and to make it possible for LL to act on its own--not by court order--to deter content theft.

I think I agree that a money trace would be effective as one means of detecting content fraud, if LL were serious about it. I don't think that would be signal enough on its own, and that some means of associating accounts with RL identity (and hence, with each other) is also needed.

Well if you do then be careful somebody doesn't copy it.

To be honest? I wouldn't mind, and would probably give it away. I don't claim to be a good scripter, but the few I have written you are welcome to have. Most of them have been deleted, because I got bored of them, though. I am not in SL to make money, I am in it to enjoy it.

no, but the 9.95 payment when you already pay LL 500 a month certainly should.

I about 95% agree with you.

I do believe though that LL has a responsibility to act promptly and decisively when a DMCA is filed. They have not historically done this. I have heard far too many cases of LL not even giving 5 minutes worth of time to trying to find the infringing content listed in the DMCA. Simply saying we cant find it file again. So the whole sorry thing has to start all over meanwhile the creators content is still out there in pirated form. LL has got to step up thier actions.

I meant you may have to trail the money through dozens of alts while it is still in Lindens before you can get to where it's cashed out.

LL does have this ability, or should. if not, they cannot combat money laundering, and the couts will likely frown on it. Let them trace it for you.

This.

LL's enforcement is crazy. You have people getting suspended for trivia. You have people engaged in long-term griefing and fraud and staying active and on the grid. There's even been allegations of people getting suspended after reporting violations. LL needs to step up to the plate on enforcement, and on cleaning up the ToS and KB and community standards so they match reality.

Linden Labs has already claimed they do this to track fraud. They have an automated process (Risk API) to support it.

With all the cries of money laundering... give me one case of when it happened... just one...

True, but irrelevant.

When you rez a new instance of a no-mod object, it's just as much a new object as a moddable one. Even if you can't mod it yourself, scripts inside it can. It's not immutable the way textures or animations (for example) are, it's a completely separate asset. Mod vs no-mod is irrelevant to this.

My wild-ass guess is that you're completely wrong about this.

That's based on knowing a number of people who tried and failed at business, and spent real money in the process.

Interestingly, most are still in SL, still spend money, and many continue trying new businesses. Others just relax and enjoy.

Don't underestimate the value of failed businesses to SL's economy!

I was just responding to people saying money through SL can't be traced. I will take back the money laundering comments. Tracing money moving through SL should be relatively easy.