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Open source viewer: what impact to content creators?
By Celebrity Trollop | January 8, 2007
I suspect the vast majority of readers will greet this announcement of the viewer source code availability with a shrug and a yawn, but for content creators, there must be an eerily similar feeling about this announcement as the recent CopyBot furor. If anything, this is perhaps worse in some senses because now instead of reverse engineering the communication protocols, a clever (perhaps malicious) programmer can just remove the DRM protections in the viewer and go on his merry way.
Linden Lab attempted to pre-empt some of the furor that will inevitably result in this FAQ, but it seems to say basically that “We’re not the copyright police. Please consider using the DMCA.”
On a technical note I’m thrilled (I am a programmer by day, fashionista blogger by night), but as a content reviewer and consumer I am deeply concerned that many content creators will lose some portion of their sales to thieves. Perhaps more details about disincentives to steal content will be revealed during the technical town hall with Cory Linden tomorrow.
More thoughts here by Lordfly Digeridoo and at 3pointD.
Topics: Business of Fashion |
I saw this and I don’t want to rush to judgment. As an author I abhor copyright infringement. But I have also made good use of open source software and have a generally favorable opinion of it and the motivations behind it. If this means a less buggier game, faster improvements etc., that ’s great. And I can’t imagine why the Lindens would allow something that will drive a major segment of the community away. Right? Right?!
Sigh! We’ll see.
Posted by: Zillow Dejavu on January 8th, 2007 at 2:48 pmI think it’s only a matter of time - by which I mean days, rather than weeks - before a client goes into circulation that has a “save this texture to disk” function to the right-click pie menu (and a copybot-on-steroids a few weeks down the line)… and if you think LL will provide anything more insightful than telling content producers to rely on the DMCA to protect their livelihoods (ho-hum), then you’re a far more optimistic person than I am ;)
We’re in for a rough ride, that’s for sure. Right now, I’m feeling pretty bad for a lot of my content-producing friends who recently snapped up islands in the “price about to raise” hype frenzy. Interesting timing by LL on that one….
Posted by: Shep Korvin on January 8th, 2007 at 3:06 pmFor the people witht he spirit of adventure who want to develop Second Life to greater heights, this could be a wonderful thing. For content creators it could be the very sad end of Second Life as we know it. I think if it becomes open theft season on those of us who create graphically, you will find less incentive to create among designers.
I guess time will tell, but I view this with very mixed feelings and a lot of apprehension.
Posted by: sachi Vixen on January 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pmI think on one hand marvelous things could happen, more efficient code, different rendering engine’s and settings…
On the other more probable hand, the code (at a guess based on the lack lustre server issues and grid setup) is probably going to be exploited. After all its a browser right?
There is a good reason mmorpg’s keep the client code underwraps and provide modding / skinning plug ins.
Considering the amount of US$ currency activity, i would bet the trading interface becomes a target, certainly you would have to consider it as an exposure to phishing scams.
All in all, i think its a high risk strategy to download and use an alternate client. I also echo the issues of content providers who i think provide such an awesome job.
Zal
Posted by: Zal Chevalier on January 9th, 2007 at 6:44 amAll the techy stuff really confuses me, but when I was building with my close friend/SL designer who relies on SL income she brought it to my attention and I gave this blog, all those blogs alligning with this issue, and the SecondLife.com a finer look I was surprised to discover that this is a very big issue and a very big deal.
It appears LL *is* saying that they will take no responsibility for copyright issues between residents and their intellectual property. And quoting one of the blogs linked to this post, we ARE entering a new era of SL where something like copybot may only be an infant among giants. However, like LL says this is nothing new to RL businesses and designers must keep strong. This is from Secondlife.com, open Source FAQs:
“More sophisticated content creators respond by figuring out how to deepen the relationship with customers and create such value around their brands that customers will want to pay to ensure they get the “genuine article”. We hope, over time, that the Second Life community will become more sophisticated in dealing with the same issues that content creators in the real world have been dealing with for quite some time.
Posted by: Lucas Lameth on January 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pm“