The recent blog on "Keeping SL Safe" (http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/31/keeping-second-life-safe-together/)posted by Linden Labs has set a foolish precedent -- legally, morally, and from a business perspective.
The original decision by Linden Labs to leave content creation to the residents was nothing short of brilliant, for many reasons. They created an architecture which would let this new world evolve, and in the process legally separated themselves from responsibility for the content which is created. Much like the the web iteself, a hosting provider is not responsible for the content which is created by those who rent space on the provider's servers. It is only once the hosting party begins to edit or censor the content on their servers, that they become liable. Why? Because they have now placed themselves in the role of Editor of the content. THEY determine which content is legally or morally unacceptable...which in turn makes them just as liable as those who posted the content in the first place. What's next? An approval process for every item or texture created or uploaded onto the servers?
Anyone who thinks the Lindens have the manpower to respond to every resident who screams "offensive content!" is fooling themselves. Anyone who has ever moderated a forum or an rp sim will realize that they will be overwhelmed with reports...false reports, griefing reports, reports from the moral majority...and even some "valid" reports, somewhere in there. If the Lindens are unable to handle the current volume of calls and emails, how much more overwhelmed will they become now that they've opened the floodgates to claims of "inappropriate behavior?" And, once reported and investigated, who will set the bar for what is considered unacceptable on a Mature, adult-only sim? Lets face it...most of what goes on in SL is NOT illegal between consenting adults, in most countries. Even the depictions of underage avatars -- assuming the players are actually over the age of 18 -- is not illegal in the USA...abhorrant though some may find it. Pornography and violence is big business -- on television, in our stores, in our reading material, on the Web. Separating what is over the top is a job for our governments, and even they have difficulty at times.
No, the Lindens would have been far better served by their attorneys if they had been told to stay OUT of the censorship arena. Far more appropriate would have been an intelligent system which allowed residents to self-rate their own content within Mature sims. Then LL could continue to develop their hosting platform without culpability, leaving residents to fight their own court battles should the question arise. Now, like it or not, the Lindens will be forced to develop the equivalent of a code of laws and the means to enforce it -- something they have flat out resisted in the past when asked.
It seems to me that their time would be far better spent finding ways to monitor and put a stop to the REAL crimes which will kill SL -- the ever-growing number of scammers and thieves who are stealing the equivalent of Real Dollars in the form of Lindens. THAT is the thing which will prevent Second Life from evolving into the Web of the future.
- Rachel Darling