User
Here’s a new idea: Put the authors of this blog together on skype and make them read blogposts to each other, then post it on the site again. Today, let’s talk about piracy.
Dwell On It – Piracy (Read it at: Dwell on it – Piracy is a real problem)
in connection with this, an older, quite famous piece about the musicians view on thie kind of piracy:
Albini – Music (Read it at: Steve Albini – The problem with music)
And finally, another blogpost about Second Life piracy:
Salome – Piracy (Read it at: Salome Says – Content Theft, Still…?)
24
Jul
Yes, it’s there. Look harder. It’s on the second level in the pie menu, and in the General tab in Edit. And it’s the difference between open grids and closed ones. The difference between OpenSim and Second Life.
Everything digital revolves around copying, and copies are not a technical question, but a legal one: Copyright. Laws, unlike technical processes, are not universal, nor are they always safe and clear. Legal definitions are, by default, vague enough to cover several different cases, but at the same time should be precise enough to give some understanding about what they cover, and what not. This is especially complicated with copyright, as it tries to cover a myriad of things, with a multitude of uses, some of which have not even been invented yet. (Who would have thought about whether or not a couple of prims are copyrightable 10 years ago?)
If you’ve never seen it, then you probably have not been outside of Second Life, or a comparable service. It is the first thing that struck me when I entered OSGrid: Most things could just be copied. I made it a habit to fly around or walk through sims and right-click on anything nice I saw to see if I could take a copy. Most of the times, I could.
The question about whether or not you are allowed to copy something is not easily answered. Not only would you have to know the laws and jurisdiction of your country on these matters, but also (quite often) the details of the terms of service of whatever site or service you’re currently on, which in turn are connected to the laws of the country the hosts of these reside in. Not complicated enough? Well, maybe there’s some special licenses involved which the creators themselves used to license their work, and which could override the terms of service, or not.
Usually, we just don’t care. If there’s a nice picture on the web, we just save it to our harddrives without giving it a second thought. If a friend sends us an mp3-file, we just keep it. If we blog about something we just read, we copy and paste parts of it into our blog post. And if we make something in Second Life, we use elements that are available as freebies or take textures off the net.
There are several answers. The safe one is: No, you can’t. If you want to be absolutely on the safe side, you must never copy. You can buy original copies, and you can consume them. That’s about all. The semi-safe answer is: Stick to content that’s open and free. Creative commons, open-source, free software, all these were founded with the goal to give everyone the legal ability to copy the creations thus licensed. It is only semi safe, because the free licensed stuff itself may contain material that is not freely distributable. Only because someone licenses their creations free doesn’t mean they have the legal right to do so.1 It’s a tangled mess, even with things that look relatively simple. Do you know if the musician publishing his songs under creative commons didn’t include someone elses melody in a song?2
Not caring – well, that’s a valid decision too. With most legal things, the risk of doing them is only partly in what’s written in laws; a large part of it also lies in the scope and extent of the action, if the violated party has any knowledge about and interest in the violation (and the capabilities to pursue it) and, finally, if judges will agree with them.
Copying, therefor, is risk assessment, and everyone needs to do their own. Can we copy things in Second Life? Well, the permissions may give you an idea about what the creator might have thought about that. Can we copy things out of Second Life? Not, according to Linden Lab’s Terms of Service. In most cases though, it might be relatively safe to copy things for personal use – to use them on your private standalone, for example.3 If you ask me about my things – feel free to copy.
- The Second Life Viewer code, for example, although open-sourced, contains libraries and code which are proprietary and closed. [↩]
- I even included someone elses words in a song, but that was in another country, and alas, the guy is dead – for more than 70 years. [↩]
- Things get worse – much worse – when you try to sell things you copied without permission. [↩]
18
Jul
Source:Pink Sculpt Outfit
This outfit is entirely made of prim attachments; the bra and panty are sculpted. Please see the tutorial on how to import this creation.
17
Jul
Ja. Ja, ich weiß.
Rosedale schreibt einen Blogpost, und natürlich wird kurz danach die ganze SL blogosphäre in Flammen stehen. Die Fanjungs werden darüber abgehen, wie toll alles jetzt sein wird1 , die Pseudoanalytiker werden darauf hinweisen (und sich unvermeidbar irren), wie dies und das zu diesem und jenem führt und die Kritiker werden darauf hinweisen, wie er die gleichen Sachen sagt, die er (und Kingdon, und andere) bisher wieder und wieder und wieder gesagt haben (“schneller, leichter und spaßiger”; “den Markt verbessern und wachsen lassen”; “Pläne offen diskutieren”) während sie wahrscheinlich genau das Gegenteil tun werden. Ich denke, nicht nur Linden Labs’ Postings sind vorhersehbar, sonder auch die Antworten der Gemeinschaft. Und ich hasse es, eine weitere Stimme im Chor zu sein, besonders da mein Fokus auf OpenSim liegt, aber es gibt etwas, das mir merkwürdig erscheint.
Es ist die Wortwahl. Als Kingdon Geschäftsführer war, habe ich einen enormen Anstieg an “Marktsprech” bemerkt, als jeder nur noch Vermarktungs-Schlagworte verwendete und so tat als würden sie was bedeuten, oder als ob man etwas besser macht, indem man es anders nennt. Und es ist nicht so, dass LL das nicht schon vorher getan hätte, aber ich bin sicher, dass ich vor Kingdon noch nie den Ausdruck “geteilte Erfahrung” gehört hatte. Außerdem hat die Verwendung des Wortes “Inhalt” alle anderen Synonyme für in-world-Kreationen verdrängt. Ich bin überrascht, dass Rosedale diese Sprache beibehalten hat; nicht, weil ich glaube das dies weit von seiner Denkweise entfernt ist, sondern weil ich dachte, dass es “Erfindungen” seines Nachfolgers, und nun Vorgängers waren, und ich zumindest hoffte, dass er seine “eigene” Stimme hätte.
Ich mache Sachen. Ich mache Animationen, Tragbares, Objekte, Terrains; ich schreibe Geschichten, Artikel, Gedichte und Lieder; ich spiele Musik. Ich hasse es, dafür das Wort “Kunst” zu verwenden, weil es zu oft von zu vielen Leuten verwendet wird, deren Schöpfungen nichts besonderes sind, und weil ich auch glaube, dass es keine “Kunst” ist, was ich mache (was “Kunst” auch immer sein mag). Es war einfacher als ich nur Musik gemacht habe; Ich konnte mich dann Musiker nennen und jeder wusste, was es bedeutet. Jetzt kämpfe ich damit, die richtige Bezeichnung zu finden, aber ein Wort wie “Inhalt” dafür zu verwenden erwischt mich auf dem falschen Fuß. “Inhalt” ist ein Wort, welches ausschließlich die Perspektive des “Verlegers” zeigt.2 Für diese ist das, was wir machen, einfach Inhalt, der ihre Regale füllt, ob sie nun virtuell oder real sind. Sie schätzen es nicht für das, was es ist, sondern nur für das, was es für sie ist: Füllung ihrer ansonsten leeren Dienste; ein Goldesel zum Melken. Aber das ist nicht, wie ich mich selbst sehe, es ist auf keinen Fall, was ich sein möchte, und ich bin sehr überrascht, wie die Bezeichnung “Inhaltsschöpfer” Fuß gefasst hat und von den “Inhaltsschöpfern” selbst, für sie selbst, verwendet wird.
Ich bin nicht nur wegen der Bezeichnung überrascht, sonder auch aufgrund der Tatsache, dass viele Schöpfer nicht zu merken scheinen, dass bei einem Handel, in dem sie von einem Verleger für ihren “Inhalt” abhängig sind, immer den Kürzeren ziehen werden. Schöpfer, Schriftsteller, Künstler, Musiker, sogar Programmierer, sind immer von den Leuten, die ihre Schöpfungen und Fähigkeiten vermarktet haben, über den Tisch gezogen worden. Das ist nicht neu. Und es ist auch nicht so, dass wir noch von ihnen abhängig wären. Ich meine, diese Seite hier zu erstellen hat etwa 10 Minuten gedauert, in denen ich WordPress installiert habe, und kostet mich etwa 8 € pro Monat. Und ich versuche noch nichtmal, Geld zu verdienen.
Ich mache Sachen für Leute; nicht nur für Konsumenten, sondern auch für Mitschaffende, die vielleicht eine Inspiration daraus gewinnen (so wie ich Inspirationen von sehr vielen anderen gewonnen habe) oder ihre eigenen Dinge darauf aufbauend erschaffen können. Ich mache Dinge für jeden, der sie mag, und Spaß daran hat, sie zu verwenden. Ich mache Dinge, um einen Beitrag zur freien Zukunft des 3D-Netzes zu leisten. Ich mache keine Dinge für Linden Labs, oder für jeden anderen, der damit Geld verdient, sie zu verbreiten und sie als Anreiz für ihre ansonsten leeren Dienste vorzuhalten.
So sehr ich das Wort “Inhalt” meide, so sehr bin ich vorsichtig mit dem Wort “Erfahrung”. Ich bin mir noch nicht sicher, was Linden Labs meint, wenn sie es verwenden; ich bin mir nur sicher, dass sie nicht dasselbe meinen wie ich, wenn ich es verwende. Offenbar haben “geteilte Erfahrungen” nicht mit Teilen zu tun, oder damit, irgendwas zu erfahren. Es bedeutet wahrscheinlich nur, dass da andere Leute sind, und man mit ihnen in Kontakt treten kann. Man teilt nichts, in dem Sinn, dass man etwas, was man hat (oder einen Teil davon), jemand anderem gibt, und man teilt sicherlich nichts mit Linden Labs (außer Geld, aber das ist eher einseitig).3 Indem man das Wort “Erfahrung” für alles, was in Second Life passiert, verwendet, übertreibt man so sehr wie es untertrieben ist, Ihre Schöpfungen als “Inhalt” zu bezeichnen, und ich glaube, da gibt es einen Zusammenhang. Denn die “Erfahrung” hängt mit dem zusammen, was Linden Labs macht, sie ist ein Resultat ihrer Dienste. Doch einfach nur fähig zu sein, sich innerhalb einer 3D-Umgebung zu bewegen und anderer Leute Avatare zu sehen und mit ihnen zu chatten ist, so aufregend es auch sein mag, keine Erfahrung.
Erfahrungen haben einen Wert, und sie geben diesen Wert weiter. Einen großen Wert. Sie machen uns schließlich erfahrener. Eine neue Sprache zu lernen ist eine Erfahrung, oder ein gutes Buch zu lesen. Und auch wenn es möglich ist, Erfahrungen durch etwas, das in Second Life angeboten ist, zu gewinnen, so ist es doch ebenso übertrieben, den gesamten Dienst eine Erfahrung zu nennen, wie es übertrieben wäre, zu sagen, Leinwand und Pinsel seien Kunst.
Ich bin nicht wichtig in Second Life, und meine Worte haben sicherlich dort kein Gewicht, aber wenn ich Linden Labs, oder Rosedale wäre, würde ich von dem hohen Ross absteigen, auf dem ich sitze, bevor ich runterfalle. Denn es ist nicht der Anbieter, der mächtig und wertvoll ist. Wir sind es. Die Kunden, die Schöpfer, die Nutzer. Wir sind gehalten. Wir sind erfahren. Wir verleihen ihnen Wert.
Wir können das auch wieder wegnehmen. Seien Sie nett zu uns.
- Ohje, sie machen’s ja schon. Ich sollte wirklich aufhören, Blogkommentare zu lesen. [↩]
- Ich verwende Verleger in einem sehr weiten Sinn. Jeder, der Geld damit verdient, indem er die Schöpfungen von anderen zu den Konsumenten bringt, ist ein Verleger, was Musiklabels in den gleichen Topf wie Buchhändler, und auch Linden Labs wirft. [↩]
- Wann war das letzte Mal, dass Sie tatsächlich mit einen Linden eine Erfahrung geteilt haben? Ja, genau… [↩]
17
Jul
Content and experienced (Deutsche Version)
Yes. Yes, I know.
Rosedale’s writing a blog post, and sure enough soon thereafter all the SL blogosphere will be ablaze. The fanbois will go on about how great everything will be now1 , the pseudo-analytics will point out how this and that will influence thither and yonder (and will inevitably be wrong again) and the critics will point out how he is saying the same things he (and Kingdon, and others) have said over and over and over again (“faster, easier, and more fun”; “improve and grow (the) market”; “discuss plans in the open”) while they will probably do the exact opposite. I guess, not only Linden Lab’s postings are predictable, but the communities’ responses as well. And I hate becoming one more voice in that choir, especially as my focus is on OpenSim, but there’s something that struck me as curious.
It’s the use of words. When Kingdon was CEO, I saw an enormous increase in “Corpspeak”, when everyone was just using marketing buzzwords and acted like they meant something or like wording something different would make it better. It’s not that LL had not done that before, but I’m certain I had not heard the term “shared experience” before Kingdon. Also, the use of the word “content” replaced all other synonyms for in-world creations. I am surprised at Rosedale continuing that speak; not because I would think it being far from his thinking, but because I had thought they were ‘inventions’ of his suc- and now predecessor, and at least would’ve hoped him to have his “own” voice.
I create things. I make animations, wearables, objects, terrains; I write stories, articles, poems and songs; I play music. I hate using the word “art” for all that, because it’s being used too much by too many people whose creations are really nothing special, and also because I don’t think it is “art” what I’m doing (whatever “art” is). It was easier when I was just making music; I could call myself a musician then and everyone would know what that means. Now, I’m struggling with finding the right word, but using a term like “content” for it, somehow gets me on the wrong foot. “Content” is a word which exclusively shows the perspective of the “publisher”.2 To them, what we make is simply content to fill up their shelves, be they virtual or real. They do not appreciate it for what it is, just for what it is to them: Filling to their otherwise empty services; a cash-cow to milk. But that’s not how I see myself, it’s not what I want to be at all, and I’m very surprised at how the wording “content creator” caught on and is being used by the “content creators” themselves, for themselves.
I’m surprised, not only because of the wording, but because of the fact that many creators don’t seem to realize that they will always be on the short end in a bargain where they depend on a publisher for their “content”. Creators, writers, artists, musicians, even coders, have always been screwed over by the people who marketed their skills and creations. It’s nothing new. And also, it’s not like we would actually depend on them anymore. I mean, making this site took me about 10 minutes to install WordPress, and costs me about 10 $ per month. And I’m not even trying to make money.
I create things for people; not just for consumers, but for fellow creators who might get an inspiration from them (just as I got inspirations from a great many others myself) or make their own things based on what I did. I create things for anyone who likes what I make and has fun using it. I create things to contribute to the free future of the 3D web. I do not create things for Linden Labs, or anyone making money by simply publishing them, and keeping them as an incentive to their empty services.
As much as I loathe the word “content”, I am also wary of the word “experience”. I am not yet sure what Linden Labs means when they use it; I’m just certain they do not mean the same as I do when I use it. Clearly, “shared experience” has nothing to do with sharing, or experiencing anything. It probably just means there are other people and you can get in contact with them. You don’t share anything, in the way that you give something (or part of something) you have away to someone else, and you certainly don’t share anything with Linden Labs (other than your money, of course, but that’s rather one-sided).3 Using the word “experience” for everything happening to you in Second Life is as overrated as calling your creations “content” is an understatement, and I think there’s a correlation there. Because the “experience” is contributive to what Linden Labs made, it’s a result of their service. But simply being able to move around in a 3D-environment and see and chat with other people’s avatars, as exciting as it is, is no experience.
Experiences have value, and they transfer value. Great value. They make you, eventually, more experienced. Learning a new language is an experience, or reading a good book. While it is possible to gain experience through things offered in Second Life, calling the service itself an experience is as overrated as calling a brush and canvas art.
I’m not important to Second Life, and my words certainly don’t have any weight to them, but if I was Linden Labs, or Rosedale, I would get off that high horse I’m sitting on, before I fall off. Because it’s not the provider who’s powerful and valuable. It’s us. The customers, the creators, the users. We are content. We are experienced. We give you value.
We can take it away again. You better be nice.
- Oh well, they already are. I really should stop reading blog comments. [↩]
- I use publisher in a broad sense. Anyone who makes money from bringing the creations of others to consumers is a publisher, putting record labels into the same pot as booksellers and, also, Linden Labs. [↩]
- When was the last time you actually shared an experience with a Linden? Yeah… [↩]
16
Jul
Source: Art Deco Bathroom
Please see the tutorial on how to import this creation.
16
Jul
Source: Art Deco Great Bed
Please see the tutorial on how to import this creation.
[Edit 17th July 2010: Added an optional sculpted curtain to the bed.]
16
Jul
Source: Art Deco Bed
Please see the tutorial on how to import this creation.
The road to Open Simulator is a rocky, long and winded one, verily. Probably most, if not all people interested in OpenSim have started with Second Life and then heard about it and, for whatever reason, wanted to give it a try. This post (or rather, series of posts) wants to describe my personal approach to OpenSim and therefor aims not to be a comprehensive guide to anything OpenSim-related. My approach is unique, and might or might not work for you, depending on your own needs, technical ability and personal engagement.
The first thing you need to understand, before getting into anything technical about OpenSim, is the mindset. There’s a lot of confusion on words and concepts, so I’ll go off on a tangent here a little:
First, OpenSim is not a ‘place’. It is not even a ‘service’, as Linden Labs likes to call Second Life. Rather, it is a software project, which aims at producing an open sourced server software for running a second-life alike environment. Therefor, keep in mind that you’re talking about a lot of places, when you’re talking about “going to Opensim”.1 However, OpenSim also goes beyond what Second Life does or can provide and incorporates several new technologies that are unknown to Second Life users: Hypergrid, megaregions, Realxtend, Lightshare, Meshmerizer, etc. The list goes on. The basic rule is: Everything can, nothing must. To avoid confusion and frustration, though, let’s clear up a few words before we start:
Open Simulator, as already mentioned, is the name of the software project, as well as the software itself, that’s neccessary to run an SL-environment on your own machine. The project is open sourced and anyone can contribute.
An Avatar is a virtual representation of a computer being logged into an OpenSimulator installation. Avatars do not neccessarily need to be operated by a human user. To distinguish “real” avatars from computer operated ones, the latter are usually called Bots. A user can have several avatars, as they can usually create as many accounts as they want on an OpenSim installation.
Viewers are the software neccessary to log into an OpenSim installation and experience it with your avatar. There is a great number of viewers publicly available, and they are usually open sourced and free. Personally, I am using the Imprudence viewer for almost all tasks.
In-world means anything happening ‘inside’ an OpenSim installation when logged in, experienced through a viewer.
A Simulator, or sim for short, is one instance of Open Simulator running on a machine. Open Simulator can be configured to run in different modes, thus the sims vary greatly. For example: A standard diva distro standalone with 4 regions is a sim, as well as a grid such as 3rd Rock Grid, running hundreds of regions and hosting thousands of users. A sim is not the same as a region, or a grid!
A grid is an OpenSim installation that handles assets separate from regions. Running OpenSim in grid mode enables others to connect their regions to someone elses grid.
A standalone is an OpenSim installation that handles assets and regions simultaneously. Standalones are easier to maintain than grids, and are usually sufficient for a personal installation of OpenSim.
A region is one square of virtual land, covering an area of 256×256 meters. A sim can (and usually does) run several regions. Megaregions are an expansion on the standard region. They are ‘constructed’ out of standard regions, their size therefor is always a magnitude of 256×256 meters. The advantage of megaregions over regular regions is, you don’t experience the usual lag when crossing from one region to another. There are some drawbacks, as megaregions technology is still in development.
A parcel is a fraction of a region (created with the land edit tool). Parcels can have individual settings within a region regarding media, access, security and such.
Assets are virtual things. Actually, they are the sum of virtual things on a given simulator. Assets can be textures, prims, objects, animations, sounds, gestures, wearables, and basically anything users can hold in their inventories.
Prims are the building bricks anything inside the world is constructed of. They can be created and edited in-world with the tools built into the viewer (with the exception of sculpties).
Sculpted prims, or sculpties for short, are a special kind of prim that uses a graphic file (called the sculpt map) as reference to how it is supposed to look. The thought behind this is that every pixel in a graphics file does store at least three informations, which are the numbers for the red, green and blue channel, which mix to the desired colour. These numbers, taken individually, are interpreted as the vectors on the X, Y and Z axis of the sculptie. Creating sculpties requires the use of a 3D-modelling software. (I’m using blender for them.) They are imported into OpenSim by uploading the sculpt map and applying it to a prim.
A teleport is a jump from one place within a sim to another.
Hypergrid is a technology that enables users to teleport between separate sims, be they standalones or grids. A hypergrid teleport requires the user not to have an account on the destination sim they’re hypergridding to, and enables them to take their assets with them.
- Much like americans talk about “going to Europe” when they mean they’re going on vacation to Cornwall. [↩]
14
Jul
Okay, this is obviously not mine. Everyone in Second Life must know The Far Away by AM Radio. Not many, though, do know or do notice it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license. Therefor, I’m sharing an export of it here for anyone interested. Note: The installation comes in its individual pieces, and I couldn’t get the texture for the train (probably due to its size, as it’s 1024×2048) and thus replaced it with one of my own textures. For the light above the train, you might use our angel pose. Please see the tutorial on how to import this creation.
Source: The Far Away
Please note: Unlike our own creations, this creation is licensed under a different creative commons license:
