Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

The content that draws people to Second Life, the content that makes Linden Labs their income, the content advertised on their front page and splash screens, is not owned by Linden Labs. If Linden Labs were (for example - I'm not saying they're planning to do this) to evict the current residents from SL but retain the content and sell it themselves, even though the Terms of Service *says* they are entitled to do so, they may well lose the ensuing class action suit. There are limits to what they can do, Terms of Service notwithstanding.

In addition they have in the past accepted additional limitations imposed by content creators. When it was pointed out that the free jetpacks they were giving away were using the X-Flight script against the terms of the copyright notice inside the script. Their Terms of Service said they could do that, but they accepted that contract and pulled the jetpack.

Now I'm not saying that the arguments that LL can't toss out everyone who has naughty stuff for sale hold any water. My post was not intended to support those arguments at all. I'm just saying that the extreme opposite position... that there are no limitations on what LL can legally do with in-world content... is not supported by the facts.

Of course there are limits to what they can legally do with the content. I just do not see how that is relevant to any of this.

There are many things they cannot do legally that are completely irrelevant to this discussion, lol. Edit: Of course if that was what you were trying to say, then I agree.

one thing i dont see them doing legally is merging the teen grid.
there is way to much stuff old and new to have all the records of what is adult and what isnt. By allowing the Teens onto this grid they would mostl likely be found and held liable for contribity to the delecency of a minor, they is no way to delete all of the adult matiral to be sure that a minor wont get it in the form of a gift. an old store or walkng upon a full mod version and taking a copy.
they cant clean the whole grid of adult matiral its too late for that and theres to much of it. and by allow minors onto the same grid they would basicly be giving them free acsess to it. and i believe that is a violation of Californa law

I am certain you are right, and no matter how much they tried to clean it up, it would still be in violation.

Mostly because the Lindens have blown off the JIRA issues on this topic...

Age verification can't protect content that is more than 50 M above terrain
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3786
Reopened, Unassigned

Age Verification unusable at the Parcel level if access is controlled by "Buy Pass".
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3674
Closed by the Lindens as "won't fix", re-opened, closed again by the Lindens as "this would be fixed by VWR-3788" (which is still not implemented.)

Age Verification unusable at the Parcel level if access is controlled by a land group
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3673
This addressed the probem at the Parcel Level. Resolved as a "duplicate" of VWR-3671 by the Lindens, who edited the latter to include both parcel and sim level issues.

Age verification unusable if the group level access is used
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3671
Closed once by Steve Linden with a quip to the effect that "At this point in time, this is by design. If land owners are limiting access to select groups, it is their responsibility to ensure that these groups only contain adults." Re-opened because WE have no way to verify age, and THEY do! Tteve Linden AGAIN tried to close it, stating "This will be resolved by:VWR-3788 Allow restricting of group enrollment to age verified accounts ". Reopened AGAIN because VWR-3788 does not address the issue of one group that may have both Adult and non-adult group owned land. (RL example, Family Members of the Elks Club can all use the club bowling alley, but minors who are family members can't use the bar.) Still unresolved, and the Lindens are ignoring it.

Identity verified at website, but not showing as verified in Profile more than 2 hours later - also field is too small in profile.
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3665
Resolved by unidentified Lindens as "Won't Fix". They set up age verification, but won't allow individuals to check that ID for access. So what good is the ID, if it can't be checked???

Allow restricting of group enrollment to age verified accounts
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3788
Open, unassigned, Has remained unresolved for over 16 months!

There appears to be no doubt in anyones mind that the sterilisation of the mainland is a prerequisite for the merging of the teen and adult grids, despite any Linden's denials.

Really, if anyone wants to find out what it's like to have the teen grid merged with the adult grid, take a look at another virtual world somewhere over there: You'll find anims such as cuddle and kiss and not much more. But you'll be absolutely plagued by young American teenage girls who want to know your age, gender, where you're from and, oh yes you must give them your email address, AOL Screenname and MSN contact. What? You don't have an AOL Screenname?

But of course, just because you take away sex and nudity from the surface doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It may well exist in private!

By all means change SL, remove everything "adult" making it a sterile and "wholesome" place all ready for the merging of the grids. By all means invite the teenagers but at the same time you'll also be inviting the sickos who will prey on them! The only way out of that is to take away anonymity, verify identities and automatically put RL information such as age and gender into SL profiles! Exit stage right everyone who is not a kid!

No doubt in people's minds does not make it reality. How do you figure the Lindens will get past the legal barriers to merging the grids?

So does that mean that virtual worlds which accept members from age thirteen to adult do not exist? In your dreams perhaps! The way to accomplish it is exactly what they are doing now: Sterilize it!

All this fuzz about "verified" accounts only makes sense if the ultimate goal is to merge the grids.

If, as they pretend to, people (supposedly adults) are complaining for seeing unwanted things through the mature lands, the separation of Pornopolis would be sufficient. Who goes there can't complain that there are anything unexpected there. It would be a simple matter of choice by adults and capable to make make their own choices.

in other worlds that allow Teens do not allow giving or transfer of items. if you want to buy adult matiral or gift it, you youo have to be age verified allready and if your not you cant even see those objects; they were set up that way from the begining. so they can have adults and teens in the same place. SL wasnt. thats the differance
in those wolds Teens have no acsess to adult matiral, and there is no way to give adult matiral to teens, SL allows you to give anything to anyone, and also in those world theres a central catalog that they can control to remove items, SL doesnt have a central catalog to control.

But they cannot control human interaction. Really, if as a result of the changes made by LL to SL any young person comes under the influence of any sickening pervert and is abused because of it then LL must accept responsibility and also must accept the law suits. LL will be directly responsible because it is reasonable to say that if LL had not made the changes the abuse would not have happened.

Speaking personally, I as an adult person do not want to interact with non adults on the internet nor in any virtual world. If the laws of the U.K. are considered that in itself will be a very risky undertaking anyway! But if LL continues, I will have that thrust upon me as previously outlined in my original post in this thread!

Whats to say that LL won't put more restrictive practices in place on the residents over time? We have built and Beta tested SL for them helped develop the viewer etc. etc. we all know what good old Mitch thinks of the customers we have served our useful purpose and the sanitization begins slowly but surely so we don't readily notice it.

Well anything is possible with LL and none of us know what the long term plans for the grid are do we? we don't even know the honest reasons for this move so all we can do is make assumptions and forecast based on LL's track record.

Well it is food for thought and there are several Lindens much in favor of it

Will it become a reality? well who really knows.

Incorrect. Anyone who rents a privately owned space in good faith, virtually or physically has certain rights to free expression within that space. In lots of states in the US, if someone physically intrudes into your space, you have the right to do them grievous bodily harm or terminate their life in protection of your life and property. You get to hang up whatever you want to on its walls. You get to run around naked there. You get to do anything you want within the bounds of your own property, the law, and of course, your leasing agreement.

In Second Life, TOS aside, the offer was made on Second Life's part that we could 'Do anything or be anything without the limitations of real life.' . We in good faith took them up on that offer, paid the rental fees, and in some cases exposed ourselves to a threat of identity theft with age registration in an effort to be responsible adults.

What the Lindens are doing is more the equivalent of someone having rented a beach house, having been promised a lovely vacation there. As well as a venue to sell sunglasses, and perhaps some thing that may be considered by conservative thinking to be morally questionable, but certainly not illegal. You're not gonna be selling to kids or letting them in your home. And you've been assured that you won't have to deal with kids on your property anyway.

Then halfway through said vacation, you're told that what you're doing (non-destructively) in that beach house between consenting adults is morally unacceptable to the land owners, as well as what you're selling. And for that, you must now vacate that house and take your things to some seedy hotel down the strip in the red light district. The terms of your contract with the renter altered on the fly without any prior consultation to you, or agreement. Your income is affected by said alteration causing you to experience negative outcomes financially.

Yes, section 5.3 of the TOS explains that they may amend your rights to your intellectual property in SL as they please. But burying something like that, instead of proclaiming it right upfront on the main website is still a breach of good faith. It is, in effect, a poison pill in the contract as ridiculous as any monty python sketch. IE:



The idea that 'We spend money therefore we have rights" argument being invalid is at best, a subjective opinion, and at worst, a specious avoidance of the facts. The fact remains that we have entered into an agreement with Linden Labs. Paid our fees for a service. And now the terms of that service have been altered without our agreement or even consultation. We did this in good faith based on how they presented themselves. They are breaching that faith. In this, they're no better than the fabled person who advertises a ridiculously low price for tires, then you have to buy those 'optional' extras like 'Did you want them on the car?' It's a con commonly referred to as 'The Bait & Switch'

The property may not have any physical presence in the real world, but it's still data we've bought and sold. The businesses by which the buying and selling happen are still very real in the bank accounts of those concerns. The only difference here is that if it were happening in real life instead of on the Linden servers, the Lindens would either be living in the lobbies of the courts to deal with all the lawsuits they had to deal with, or serving time.

yeah, its a bad day.. I am looking at everything on my land and realize it was simply a dream. I bought into the dream. I bought land that wasn't even real but virtual. I really believed that what I just bought was mine. I looked at paying my tier as land taxes. Silly huh?

I look at the squirrel rocky that runs around freely and remember the beginning days of him becoming a pet. The tree swing, the little corners of cuddling, such sweet memories. All the fun times, the laughter here. Even the sad moments of losing a dear one. Yeah, Stamper on the mainlands is my home. A place I felt I really belonged.

Silly, childish perhaps but I never ever thought I would see the day it would all come tumbling down.

Reality is I never really owned anything. There was a higher power just allowing me to be there. Feeding me a belief that was a falsehood. Tell me, if I was told I was buying land for adults, that I could build what ever I wanted and did now has to end so abruptly? Why was I fed a lie? Why has LL's continued to make me believe it was mine when it obviously wasn't? What did I buy, and why did I pay hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for in tier payments? I didn't do it in believing that at any moment LL's would rob me of my dreams and all the time I put in here. My home away from the real life worries. A home I could be my creative self. A place that anything really could happen. A second chance in living.

Don't they understand that this is worse then watching your real life home burn to the ground. Or knowing a tornado is head right for you home.

For Linden Labs its no big deal. IT's not real! They can rebuild, they can make new dreams. How do I heal LL's, where do I find the power to rebuild what now feels like a great lose. How do I get rid of the bitterness of what you are doing? I know the answer to that to, it isn't real.

Linden Labs, you once gifted me hope in SL and like anything else the bubble had to break sometime. Nothing can really replace what I have now. The Adult land I will be swapped with would never be home, it will never have the excitement that I remember having when I first built all I have now. I'll just be making the steps because I have to.

yeah, its a bad day when you realize it's all false, its not real ...misplaced dreams. And no one really cares.

01. LL owns the leading virtual world platform

02. Opensim is not competition atm (and is unlikely to be for some time)

03. Linden Lab intends to sell the server software (boxed SL platform)

04. That means a constellation of robust virtual worlds coming on the market

05. XStreet can be the central content marketplace for all SL-platform worlds

06. LL and IBM develop interSL platform content transfer capability

07. LL wants the middle ground under the bell curve of the future constellation

08. Disneyfication helps position SLWorld for the middle ground

09. Entrepreneurs and content creators move to other worlds

10. New content flows back into SL from other worlds

11. LL future revenue comes from Smurfworld (formerly SL) + SL platform sales

It's worth remembering that country music outsells all the rest. Disney makes a ton of money. Smurfs, Care Bears and Barbie are MEGA cash cows. So, we freaks go off to Second Matrix or Metaspherica or Cyberotica. Nany is thrilled to pieces and lives happily ever after in Smurfworld. She and the vast middle ground then buy (nice) products that we freaks make in other worlds and sell into Smurfworld via XStreet. Linden Lab lives off Smurfworld forever and turns the SL platform into the new Windows. Thoughts?

I was just pointing out an error. You're the one who decided to turn it into a discussion.

It would give Blondin more to go on, that's all. Thanks for the list.

Not really. All property is a dream. It's just a useful one. So long as that's true in the real world, it will remain true in the virtual one as well.

... means banning adult stuff. I don't see adult stuff being banned in SL. IMHO creating a special area dedicated to adult stuff is quite the opposite of Disneyfication.

It may have already been referenced here - though I can't find it - but here's an interesting article regarding Aristotle from the NY Times in 2000 (for anyone wanting to know more about the company. I know I didn't know it was tied into voting and political affiliation data).

http://tiny.cc/qQUAy

Just interesting what you find when you start exploring

Totally stupid thing to just close forum threads, do you fear that it might get the biggest thread or is the forum software breaking down?

If you do not read the small print you cannot blame the company. TOS and EULA's should always be read before accepting them. If you as a purchaser of said software or services then want to complain about the terms, you do not have a leg to stand on in most cases as you should have read them and understood them first and before clicking accept. Harsh but true.



The fact i read that LL can change or stop my account at anytime was noted before i clicked accept then i entered into SL with that in mind. I see bad communication with its customers but i see no laws broken as i accepted the TOS when i started and on subsequent times when they have been altered. Not Bait and switch, more Buyer beware we are adults when all said and done and know how to read the small print.



Again and we accepted that LL could change the rules under the TOS. I make one rule in SL and that is never invest into it more than i can comfortably lose today.

Yes i am affected by all this as well and lost money on the OS farce but accept it as i accepted the rules when i joined.

Yes, perhaps, but by placing 'adult' content in one location, it is easier to Disnify all the rest. I wonder how long 'New Amsterdam' will last. I can see LL getting rid of it in, say, three years - presuming the residents have not emigrated to Cyberotica by then.

"Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the 'real' country, all of the 'real' America which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety; in its banal omnipresence which is carceral)." — Jean Baudrillard

What a great forecast