Socially|Mundane

Cultural quirks are magnified a bazillion times on-line.

And you wonder why Second Life has gone to pot over the last year or two? It's the internationalization of the population that is making Second Life - or parts of it - a miserable cesspool of garbage. And I don't mean the builds, but rather the people.

Have you noticed as you travel around the Grid how there are a lot of people who tend to stay to themselves? But once you get to actually speaking with someone new, (or they come to you,) that's when it becomes clear what culture they come from. Or rather the culture style. Unfortunately, many of those cultures are less than pleasant company.

I've had the opportunity to travel the real life world. My stint in the United States Army has given me the opportunity to meet people from many countries - and not just meet them, but to live and work with them and get to know them. And in these travels, I've discovered a few consistent traits among these peoples.

Now, to be sure, all the traits I'll describe apply to all people in a particular country or culture and the range of attitudes is complete from the lowest lowlife all the way up to the shining stars. However, when going into anonymous mode, ones true nature tends to come crawling (or running) out of the shadows into the limelight - that which they keep hidden in public seems to be let loose in the anonymous digital world.

So, I am going to generalize quite broadly here. When I reach your country - don't take it personally. It's a general thing based on my RL and SL experience. And also note that I am talking about people you've never met before in SL - not your friends or acquaintances, but those you come across for the first time. Introductions as it were. And I am only going to cover those I have actual Second Life and Real Life experience with.

Asians RL: Smart. Hard-working. Creative eye for shapes and colors and unusual things. Moxie and style in everything they do. Perfectionists.

Asians SL: Smart. Hard-working. Creative eye for shapes and colors and unusual things. Moxie and style in everything they do. Perfectionists.

I have to say, I have gone to a lot of Asian sim, met of lot of RL Asians in SL and they always are polite, seem to be 'quiet' and 'speak softly' - almost as if there is a slight shyness their, but it's really about manners. I am impressed with most Asian people I meet all the time. You can almost be able to tell when you meet an Asian in SL: If they are builder: perfection. Or it's not for sale. And prices are incredibly low, too. For them, it seems to be more about the art than the money. For example, I purchased a seven-story pagoda for L$350. And the workmanship, textures and prim-perfection rivals similar builds that easily would have had a price tag equalling $L2500 or more. I purchased all I needed to complete a 4096 sized Japanese garden for around L$1500 - total.

Germans RL: Friendly, fun-loving, Hard-working, fun-loving, hard-playing, fun-loving and outspoken. Did I mention fun-loving?

Germans SL: Drunk.

Okay - don't take the SL comment wrong. Germans in SL are often drunk. And I love it! Most are pretty serious and hard-working shen sober, but when a drunk German is an the keyboard in SL, his fun-loving nature comes out in full-force. They tend to be loud and boisterous. In fact, you could even be tempted to file an abuse report at times for griefing - except it is obvious they are (always) having a great time and want to bring you along.

Netherlands RL: Loose, Introverted, Promiscuous.

Netherlands SL: Introverted, Promiscuous.

Everyone I have ever met from the Netherlands is pretty introverted - they tend to keep to themselves. Now, once you get to know them, they will open up a bit. But until that time, it's like an inner circle they keep around them and you're on the outside. Fortunately, it's not hard to get in on the inside. Drop your pants and you're half way there. Sex to most of these people I have personally met: is not different that sleeping or eating or siting and watching TV: It's a given. Why get all uptight about it? 

But they also tend to be bleeding-heart, left-fringe, politically-correct wackos at the same time.

French RL: Stuck-up, never shave, some stink.

French in SL: Stuck-up, rude, full of himself, thinks he's God's gift to the universe.

The only problem with the French in SL is that they are French.

Okay - yes, a bit harsh. So, allow me to clarify: some of the French I have met have been tolerable. Practically all are in the category of "planet could do without". They are rude and crude and seem to think it's something special because they are French. Go to any freebie sex beach/joint/club/park/you-name-it and you'll see hordes of men running around asking the woman if they want to 'have some fun' and they always feel a need to include "and I'm French!"

So I like to toss-out to them "Is it important to you that you are French?" Most will come back with a simply "Yes, i am french, what r u?" To which my reply is simply "Then it's good you are French since being French is so important to you."

Canadians RL: Heh. Wow.

Canadians SL: Ditto.

I've been all over the world and lived only a couple hours from the Canadian border since 1991. Never been to Canada. Until now. I'm writing this from the Maritime Provinces - New Brunswick. beautiful country, wonderful people. The dialects ca take a little getting used to, though. I guess I've always seen how open and friendly Canadians are as a rule. But, being completely surrounded by them has finally opened my eyes and I am practically stunned at the friendliness and generosity of Canadian people. When they say and ask "hello, how are you" - they seem to really mean it. Every stranger I've spoken to had approached me first and a short conversation spins-up. Their interest is genuine.

I also am amazed at the pride of Canadians. It's the kind of pride Americans had during and shortly after World War II. I don't mean the whole patriotic thing - you know, singing the national anthem and all that. But just plain old pride. Proud to proclaim they are Canadians. The Maple Leaf icon is everywhere. There are Canadian versions of everything: The fast-food places, Ford and Chevy, and so many other things. When I say Canadian versions - I mean the Maple Leaf is part of the logo. That's not true on German or French McDonalds logos.

So, looking back on it, many of the friendliest people I've met in SL were often in or from Canada.

So, whatever coin the others tend to be on, Canadians are on the flip-side.

United Sates RL: All of the above.

United States SL: Ditto.

You tend to get all of the above from people in and from the United states and it's a pretty wide chasm in range. Most idiots you find in SL that run around begging you for L$10 so they can but a new shirt are U.S.; most griefers are U.S.; Most scammers are griefers; most people with absolutely horrendous tempers are U.S.; most idiots running around with their newbie primdicks hanging out are French. Er..., could be U.S., too. Well, you get the idea.

Lots of folks in the U.S. are friendly, caring people, too. Really, really good people. Oh, but those might be Canadian transplants, though.

So, makes me wonder if Cen's real name is Nedra as I suspect the Ce in CeNedra is really a truncation of "Canadian extraordinaire". And her blog should be called Cen's Toonie - it's worth more that pennies anyway.

Eh?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Kumbaya!"][/caption]

Well, I don't 'hate' Linden Lab at all. I do hate the way they tend to do some things, communicate other things and overall manage + communicate what they are managing and how. It's okay to do anything you want, Linden Lab, just please either do a better job at communicating it or don't communicate it at all. Too many Second Life residents get too confused and, of course, there will be those who scream 'bloody murder!'

As for the title question: Yes. Soon. I have said before that 99% of all Second Life residents haven't the faintest idea of the technical power of Second life. Rendering a 3D image thirty times a second, when a few years ago a single frame would have taken hours if not days. And now, not only a 3d virtual world, but soon a true development platform.

I always have said that in most situations, I stand with Linden Lab. No, I'm not a Linden apologist and I am certainly not in the tank for them. But I also am a realist. Linden Research is a for profit company. Their job is to make money. They even have a fascinating model for doing so without relying on after-market advertising. Even radio does that.

Linden Research can only make money by keep their customers as happy as possible. Unfortunately the old adage rings true, and we all know this one: "you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.'

Yes, I know, I have substituted the word "please" for the word 'fool'. But you get the point. So, when Linden Research®, and subsidiary Linden Lab® make decisions, it is what keeps the majority happy, at the expense of the minority. However, it is often the minority that is vocally the loudest.

To me, it also makes for absolutely wonderful entertainment to see most of these people whine and bitch over things that show themselves to be with a serious case of entitlement attitude where none is promised, given or deserved.

"The best way to show a fool is to let him have his way." But more to the point: "It is better to allow people to think you a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." These are among my favorite quotes and thy apply oh so often with so many residents. Obviously, Linden Lab tries hard to not fall under these categories. This also explains the vagueness of much of their communication with the outside world.

I always have been saying that I know Linden Lab and their employees are simply working to make Second Life better as a whole for the majority of users. Some of the massive usability enhancements in the new 1.20 viewer prove that. A lot of fantastic little user-targeted features that weren't even asked for, such as double-tapping the walk button to run, and being able to click any name that appears in chat history to instantly open their profile page.

This weeks release of the newest server code proves my point. It includes the Mono runtime engine. Something I have personally been anxiously waiting for.

Babbage Linden sez:
"As well as providing immediate benefits, the integration of the Mono virtual machine makes many future improvements possible: the use of mainstream languages to script Second Life alongside the existing LSL language; the removal of arbitrary per-script limits on script resource usage and the use of mainstream libraries and tools for scripting to name a few."

This is wonderful news because of the gargantuan improvements to the user experience, first in the way Second Life operates under the hood, but also because there are a lot of wonderful software developers who will be able to bring their desktop application into Second Life.

Additionally, the sheer power and flexibility of Mono will make things a lot more stable and faster.

From the Mono FAQ:
'...multiple copies of scripts with the same asset id will only take up as much room as one instance. Imagine some script that you use a dozen times on your land. If each of the objects containing the script is separately compiled from text source, you will use up a dozen times the script's size of memory. But if instead you simply drag a copy of the single, already compiled script into each of the dozen objects, then no matter how many copies exist they only take up the size of one script (plus data) in memory.'

I know a lot of what is said above may not make a whole bunch of sense to most people, but I can assure you: it's a good thing.

So, Linden Lab: There really are some of us out here who will chastise you often, but we also know, down inside, you hate the instabilities, resident extortion, bugs, resident-to-resident rip-offs, you-name-it about the software and what goes on in-world - just like the rest of us. We also understand you want to be open and transparent as possible. And we understand there are some things where you just can't do that, for many business-related, possibly even legal reasons.

However, we also know you are trying hard to make Second Life the best it can be with what you have and no-one can predict the future, so you simply rebuild the existing code.

Hello, look at what a horrible mess Microsoft Windows is!

So, from myself to Linden Lab: I know you work hard, are frustrated as much as I am and thank you for all your efforts and a great product, warts and all.

Source: Mono Launch « Official Second Life Blog

Second life on corporate computers? Absolutely, though nowhere near as many as anyone might think. It is not so easy to quickly 'hide' the SL viewer application when the boss walks by. However, there are cases where one can 'get away' with it. Is this what Information Technology professionals want? Highly unlikely.

It's a known fact that there is 'software creep' on corporate computers and it started a long time ago, even before the Internet was so prevailent. People who had computers at home tended to bring some software in and install it without asking first, but that was a rarity. Then, as the Internet increasingly became a part of the workplace, the war has been slowly prculatiing between the user and the I.T. department ever since.

It really kicked-in when Instant Message software became hugely popular. People were fired over the issue: not only for downloading an installing the software such as America Online Instant Messenger (AIM) or ICQ (I Seek You) onto their work systems, but for wasting so many hours on-the-clock in messaging friends and family. Now, think: what exactly is Second Life, but for glorified, beautiful-to-look-at 'instant messaging' software'?

It became such a productivity drain that companies outright banned the software. However, bad for I.T. departments everywhere, the software companies are making it harder to prevent new software being installed onto these systems with auto-updates and other payloads included with intended updates and other installed software.

Too many applications are beginning to actually require Internet access to properly function, and in that requirement - to have certain ports open to allow data to flow through corporate firewalls, etc. Then, there is the evil Linden Lab whom have created the evil Second Life client that connects to the Second Life virtual experience that has become so addictive to so many, even the Second Life viewer software is finding its way onto these computer systems.

InfoWorld has a pretty good article about software creep all by itself. The article isn't specifically about Second Life or Linden Lab, but does mention it.

InfoWorld sez:
"Apple iTunes, various media players such as RealPlayer and Adobe Flash, and virtual reality environment Second Life are rampant on corporate PCs. Take Flash, a player that Web pages download for users automatically when Flash content is on a page. Thanks to that automatic downloading, Adobe has found that new versions get widely adopted, even behind corporate firewalls, in a matter of months."

Source: IT heresy: Invite those unsanctioned applications in!

No, simply mentioning Second Life isn't the reason I chose to focus on this article at all. Rather, it more or less reminded me of the issue, and no doubt Second Life is installed on a lot of systems it probably shouldn't be installed on.

I have it on the corporate Macintosh I use - but I sorta, kinda have a slim excuse: It was installed to show it to the company owner as something to evaluate with regard to online training. Never did get a chance to pull him to my machine to see it yet. But, that also gives me reason to leave i there. Even though it's not really necessary as I rarely ever go in-world during RL productivity time.

So,I am really curious: do you have the SL viewer installed on your employer-owned computer workstation? And, if you do: do you actually login to Second Life while at work (even if on a break or lunch period)?

Tell me - I am really curious to know.

Second life on corporate computers? Absolutely, though nowhere near as many as anyone might think. It is not so easy to quickly 'hide' the SL viewer application when the boss walks by. However, there are cases where one can 'get away' with it. Is this what Information Technology professionals want? Highly unlikely.

It's a known fact that there is 'software creep' on corporate computers and it started a long time ago, even before the Internet was so prevailent. People who had computers at home tended to bring some software in and install it without asking first, but that was a rarity. Then, as the Internet increasingly became a part of the workplace, the war has been slowly prculatiing between the user and the I.T. department ever since.

It really kicked-in when Instant Message software became hugely popular. People were fired over the issue: not only for downloading an installing the software such as America Online Instant Messenger (AIM) or ICQ (I Seek You) onto their work systems, but for wasting so many hours on-the-clock in messaging friends and family. Now, think: what exactly is Second Life, but for glorified, beautiful-to-look-at 'instant messaging' software'?

It became such a productivity drain that companies outright banned the software. However, bad for I.T. departments everywhere, the software companies are making it harder to prevent new software being installed onto these systems with auto-updates and other payloads included with intended updates and other installed software.

Too many applications are beginning to actually require Internet access to properly function, and in that requirement - to have certain ports open to allow data to flow through corporate firewalls, etc. Then, there is the evil Linden Lab whom have created the evil Second Life client that connects to the Second Life virtual experience that has become so addictive to so many, even the Second Life viewer software is finding its way onto these computer systems.

InfoWorld has a pretty good article about software creep all by itself. The article isn't specifically about Second Life or Linden Lab, but does mention it. 

InfoWorld sez:
"Apple iTunes, various media players such as RealPlayer and Adobe Flash, and virtual reality environment Second Life are rampant on corporate PCs. Take Flash, a player that Web pages download for users automatically when Flash content is on a page. Thanks to that automatic downloading, Adobe has found that new versions get widely adopted, even behind corporate firewalls, in a matter of months."

Source: IT heresy: Invite those unsanctioned applications in!

No, simply mentioning Second Life isn't the reason I chose to focus on this article at all. Rather, it more or less reminded me of the issue, and no doubt Second Life is installed on a lot of systems it probably shouldn't be installed on.

I have it on the corporate Macintosh I use - but I sorta, kinda have a slim excuse: It was installed to show it to the company owner as something to evaluate with regard to online training. Never did get a chance to pull him to my machine to see it yet. But, that also gives me reason to leave i there. Even though it's not really necessary as I rarely ever go in-world during RL productivity time.

So,I am really curious: do you have the SL viewer installed on your employer-owned computer workstation? And, if you do: do you actually login to Second Life while at work (even if on a break or lunch period)?

Tell me - I am really curious to know.

We saw what happened with the SL5B (Second Life 5th Birthday) where organizers working hard for almost a year were quickly shot-down amidst the massive sanitation of the celebration by Linden Lab It's a pendulum that started with a complete hands-off approach by Linden Lab - refusing to 'interfere' with anything the residents did. So much so that 'ageplay', banking, stock exchanges and gambling began to flourish. Now the pendulum swings toward the sanitized, thumb-on-the-residents-back - and it's likely to never swing back to where it was. Linden Lab seems to take one extreme or the other. After some really nasty press, (not entirely accurate and rather alarmist and sensationalist and no, it wasn't the SL Herald,) Linden Lab began to pull up their bootstraps and jump through hoops with huge backpeddling. They introduced "Identity Verification", which later morphed into "age verification" (bullshit, I say - Second Life is for adults-only. Some 12 year old finds their way to some pr0n paradise - I say LET THEM.) That more or less floundered and hasn't been heard of since the controversies died down. Then there were the cries about the banking situation. And cries about land bots and things... and cries about ad-farms and and extortion and cries about... Be careful what you wish for. No one twisted anybody's arm to go running around to the pr0n clubs, or to put their money into these banks, or any of all that other crap, yet it was the shrill vocal minority that whined about it all. And remember, the alleged trading of RL photographs of child porn in the sensational news story that seemed to be the catalyst for all the bad press about Second Life is alleged. The last word from Linden Lab is that they have not been able to find these assets in the system, thus the media company fanning those flames may also have been blowing smoke up Linden Lab's ass - just to 'validate' the sensationalism of their so-called news story. Now Linden Lab is sanitizing everything. Some of the most ridiculous restrictions were placed on entries submitted to the SL5B celebration. The Burning Man celebration always has been a complete free-for-all. And the real life version is wilder than Marti-Gras - a lot more promiscuity and wild raving.

Everett Linden sez: "To celebrate the inspiration that enriched Second Life, over the past six years, Residents in Second Life have gotten together to build one of the largest, most unusual and most creative events found in the Metaverse— the annual Art, Fire and Community festival known as Burning Life."

So, are we in for more controversial hoopla coming out of Linden Lab regarding the Burning Man celebration? This is more important than SL5B ever could be, as it is the Burning Man tradition that Second Life is based-on and the was the inspiration for it's very concept. Well, Linden Lab is looking for your ideas. But it might be safer to suggest more conservative things like "Shirley Temples" and "Mister Rogers" and "sesame Street" and heaven forbid you suggest anything that has to do with any kind of nudity (even though PG movies show tits and ass all the time, at Linden Lab it means you'd better be an angel,) and certainly nothing to do with 'children'. Oh shit - scratch the Sesame Street stuff... OH! How about we suggest Linden lab not do a burning man as all? It's easier to punish everyone because of a few loud-mouths. Source

We saw what happened with the SL5B (Second Life 5th Birthday) where organizers working hard for almost a year were quickly shot-down amidst the massive sanitation of the celebration by Linden Lab

It's a pendulum that started with a complete hands-off approach by Linden Lab - refusing to 'interfere' with anything the residents did. So much so that 'ageplay', banking, stock exchanges and gambling began to flourish. Now the pendulum swings toward the sanitized, thumb-on-the-residents-back - and it's likely to never swing back to where it was. Linden Lab seems to take one extreme or the other.

After some really nasty press, (not entirely accurate and rather alarmist and sensationalist and no, it wasn't the SL Herald,) Linden Lab began to pull up their bootstraps and jump through hoops with huge backpeddling. They introduced "Identity Verification", which later morphed into "age verification" (bullshit, I say - Second Life is for adults-only. Some 12 year old finds their way to some pr0n paradise - I say LET THEM.)

That more or less floundered and hasn't been heard of since the controversies died down. Then there were the cries about the banking situation. And cries about land bots and things... and cries about ad-farms and and extortion and cries about...

Be careful what you wish for.

No one twisted anybody's arm to go running around to the pr0n clubs, or to put their money into these banks, or any of all that other crap, yet it was the shrill vocal minority that whined about it all. And remember, the alleged trading of RL photographs of child porn in the sensational news story that seemed to be the catalyst for all the bad press about Second Life is alleged. The last word from Linden Lab is that they have not been able to find these assets in the system, thus the media company fanning those flames may also have been blowing smoke up Linden Lab's ass - just to 'validate' the sensationalism of their so-called news story.

Now Linden Lab is sanitizing everything. Some of the most ridiculous restrictions were placed on entries submitted to the SL5B celebration. The Burning Man celebration always has been a complete free-for-all. And the real life version is wilder than Marti-Gras - a lot more promiscuity and wild raving.

Everett Linden sez: "To celebrate the inspiration that enriched Second Life, over the past six years, Residents in Second Life have gotten together to build one of the largest, most unusual and most creative events found in the Metaverse— the annual Art, Fire and Community festival known as Burning Life."

So, are we in for more controversial hoopla coming out of Linden Lab regarding the Burning Man celebration? This is more important than SL5B ever could be, as it is the Burning Man tradition that Second Life is based-on and the was the inspiration for it's very concept.

Well, Linden Lab is looking for your ideas. But it might be safer to suggest more conservative things like "Shirley Temples" and "Mister Rogers" and "sesame Street" and heaven forbid you suggest anything that has to do with any kind of nudity (even though PG movies show tits and ass all the time, at Linden Lab it means you'd better be an angel,) and certainly nothing to do with 'children'.

Oh shit - scratch the Sesame Street stuff... OH! How about we suggest Linden lab not do a burning man as all? It's easier to punish everyone because of a few loud-mouths.

Source: Burning Life: A call for volunteers « Official Second Life Blog

We saw what happened with the SL5B (Second Life 5th Birthday) where organizers working hard for almost a year were quickly shot-down amidst the massive sanitation of the celebration by Linden Lab

It's a pendulum that started with a complete hands-off approach by Linden Lab - refusing to 'interfere' with anything the residents did. So much so that 'ageplay', banking, stock exchanges and gambling began to flourish. Now the pendulum swings toward the sanitized, thumb-on-the-residents-back - and it's likely to never swing back to where it was. Linden Lab seems to take one extreme or the other.



After some really nasty press, (not entirely accurate and rather alarmist and sensationalist and no, it wasn't the SL Herald,) Linden Lab began to pull up their bootstraps and jump through hoops with huge backpeddling. They introduced "Identity Verification", which later morphed into "age verification" (bullshit, I say - Second Life is for adults-only. Some 12 year old finds their way to some pr0n paradise - I say LET THEM.)

That more or less floundered and hasn't been heard of since the controversies died down. Then there were the cries about the banking situation. And cries about land bots and things... and cries about ad-farms and and extortion and cries about...

Be careful what you wish for.

No one twisted anybody's arm to go running around to the pr0n clubs, or to put their money into these banks, or any of all that other crap, yet it was the shrill vocal minority that whined about it all. And remember, the alleged trading of RL photographs of child porn in the sensational news story that seemed to be the catalyst for all the bad press about Second Life is alleged. The last word from Linden Lab is that they have not been able to find these assets in the system, thus the media company fanning those flames may also have been blowing smoke up Linden Lab's ass - just to 'validate' the sensationalism of their so-called news story.

Now Linden Lab is sanitizing everything. Some of the most ridiculous restrictions were placed on entries submitted to the SL5B celebration. The Burning Man celebration always has been a complete free-for-all. And the real life version is wilder than Marti-Gras - a lot more promiscuity and wild raving.

Everett Linden sez: "To celebrate the inspiration that enriched Second Life, over the past six years, Residents in Second Life have gotten together to build one of the largest, most unusual and most creative events found in the Metaverse— the annual Art, Fire and Community festival known as Burning Life."

So, are we in for more controversial hoopla coming out of Linden Lab regarding the Burning Man celebration? This is more important than SL5B ever could be, as it is the Burning Man tradition that Second Life is based-on and the was the inspiration for it's very concept.

Well, Linden Lab is looking for your ideas. But it might be safer to suggest more conservative things like "Shirley Temples" and "Mister Rogers" and "sesame Street" and heaven forbid you suggest anything that has to do with any kind of nudity (even though PG movies show tits and ass all the time, at Linden Lab it means you'd better be an angel,) and certainly nothing to do with 'children'.

Oh shit - scratch the Sesame Street stuff... OH! How about we suggest Linden lab not do a burning man as all? It's easier to punish everyone because of a few loud-mouths.

Source: Burning Life: A call for volunteers « Official Second Life Blog

Funny. American Apparel came in and flopped. Several political candidates came in and flopped. Coca-cola didn't bother coming in, and succeeded. Okay, yes Coca-cola did come in-world to Second Life. and they proclaim success. I don't know, I wasn't there. However, where I do know they are successful is in their brand name. The Coca-cola logo is all over SL. It's all over the real world, too. I know some people that actually collect Coca-cola collectibles. Well, to Coca-cola's credit, they said 'hey, go for it'. They have openly and publicly allowed the use of the Coca-cola logo to be used by the residents of Second Life as they choose, but without relinquishing any rights. This went over well with the residents of SL in a big way. Wise move, Coke. There are a lot of real word companies who have no idea their intellectual properties are being abused in Second Life through either misappropriation of their official logos, such as Apple, Inc. to the use of their products, such as the Deviant product line being (allegedly) completely mimicked and replicated based on real world products. (Last word I have is that another SL resident has acquired writen license and full rights for exclusive reproduction of these items inside SL, makes me wonder what Deviant will do, should a cease and desist come through.) So along comes Playboy. They buy and build a sim, (private region; a.k.a. Private Estate,) and build-up the buzz. Advertising throughout the blogosphere, likely also in their magazine, and through news stories in the decent SL News Blogs like New World Notes and SLNN. From what I read, it was a lackluster opening and then, as reported, deserted. And, like American Apparel, Nissan, NBC and so many others, they left it to sit. The whole "build it and they will come' idea has never, ever flown in Second Life. People need a reason to go there. and the first reason is that there are other people there already. So, events are a prerequisite in these things. So, it turns out mPlayboy's demise in Second Life has been greatly exaggerated. it turns out that even though the real world brand is struggling, the brand inside SL is thriving. And Playboy approchaed the whole logo intellectual property thing in SL properly. Rather than come in and demand a full take-down, leveraging Linden Lab's awesome takedown powers via DMCA, and unlike Coca-cola: simply releasing the logo into the creative commons within SL, they decided to approach all those creators in Second Life using the term and logo that is intellectually owned by the company. And what they did was to partner with these creators. Help standardize pricing; perhaps a little marketing... I don;t know the details. But in a nutshell, Playboy to creators using Playboy I.P.: Give us a cut and you can keep-on with the logo. It is my understanding 75% or more of those approached took the deal. So, what happens is Playboy now has and maintains control of your property, namely their logo and name, the creators get official endorsement and assistance, and Playboy now has a huge marketing reach with-in SL. Wow. This is apparently so successful that when Playboy released their financial numbers, eyebrows were popping up sudenly all over the place. Take a look at the article - it's fun read:

Playboy's Second Life sim buzzes, even as real-world brand falters "The company has not only found success driving a steady stream of in-world traffic, but also licensing its brand to other, Second-Life only brands. By pairing with successful Second Life designers, and pricing items at an affordable price (L$150 - L$300, which is about US$1), Playboy's experiment seems to be doing well. It's a situation that has eluded many other real-world companies which have set up shop in the virtual world."

Funny. American Apparel came in and flopped. Several political candidates came in and flopped. Coca-cola didn't bother coming in, and succeeded.

Okay, yes Coca-cola did come in-world to Second Life. and they proclaim success. I don't know, I wasn't there. However, where I do know they are successful is in their brand name. The Coca-cola logo is all over SL. It's all over the real world, too. I know some people that actually collect Coca-cola collectibles. Well, to Coca-cola's credit, they said 'hey, go for it'.

They have openly and publicly allowed the use of the Coca-cola logo to be used by the residents of Second Life as they choose, but without relinquishing any rights. This went over well with the residents of SL in a big way. Wise move, Coke.

There are a lot of real word companies who have no idea their intellectual properties are being abused in Second Life through either misappropriation of their official logos, such as Apple, Inc. to the use of their products, such as the Deviant product line being (allegedly) completely mimicked and replicated based on real world products. (Last word I have is that another SL resident has acquired writen license and full rights for exclusive reproduction of these items inside SL, makes me wonder what Deviant will do, should a cease and desist come through.)

So along comes Playboy.

They buy and build a sim, (private region; a.k.a. Private Estate,) and build-up the buzz. Advertising throughout the blogosphere, likely also in their magazine, and through news stories in the decent SL News Blogs like New World Notes and SLNN. From what I read, it was a lackluster opening and then, as reported, deserted. And, like American Apparel, Nissan, NBC and so many others, they left it to sit. The whole "build it and they will come' idea has never, ever flown in Second Life.

People need a reason to go there. and the first reason is that there are other people there already. So, events are a prerequisite in these things. So, it turns out mPlayboy's demise in Second Life has been greatly exaggerated. it turns out that even though the real world brand is struggling, the brand inside SL is thriving. And Playboy approchaed the whole logo intellectual property thing in SL properly.

Rather than come in and demand a full take-down, leveraging Linden Lab's awesome takedown powers via DMCA, and unlike Coca-cola: simply releasing the logo into the creative commons within SL, they decided to approach all those creators in Second Life using the term and logo that is intellectually owned by the company.

And what they did was to partner with these creators. Help standardize pricing; perhaps a little marketing... I don;t know the details. But in a nutshell, Playboy to creators using Playboy I.P.: Give us a cut and you can keep-on with the logo. It is my understanding 75% or more of those approached took the deal. So, what happens is Playboy now has and maintains control of your property, namely their logo and name, the creators get official endorsement and assistance, and Playboy now has a huge marketing reach with-in SL.

Wow. This is apparently so successful that when Playboy released their financial numbers, eyebrows were popping up sudenly all over the place. Take a look at the article - it's fun read:

Playboy's Second Life sim buzzes, even as real-world brand falters
"The company has not only found success driving a steady stream of in-world traffic, but also licensing its brand to other, Second-Life only brands. By pairing with successful Second Life designers, and pricing items at an affordable price (L$150 - L$300, which is about US$1), Playboy's experiment seems to be doing well. It's a situation that has eluded many other real-world companies which have set up shop in the virtual world."

Most of us have seen or heard of the GPL (General Public License). We all know there are such things as copyright laws and Intellectual Property (IP) rights and that those rights are pressed quite often against infringing parties. The key to all of this has to do with "copyright". Litterally 'copy rights' - or the right to copy, (official common definition here.) Well, the GPL, or Genral Public License is a pretty basic idea of creating something, and allowing it to be freely copiable and redistributable, but only under certain contitions. Modeled after the GPL are other "open source; a.k.a. 'free"' licensing schemes, some of which are wonderful ideas. A newer system called the Creative Commons, (CC) (official web site here,) is heaven-sent for me as a photographer. There are times when I just want some very simple, easy to understand rules of my works, otherwise, have-at-it. The main difference between the GPL and CC is that the GPL usually refers to software and other intangibles, whereas the CC applies to everything else, such as print, visual and audio works. Well, some professionals are a bit wary of the GPL (and to a lesser degree, the CC,) because a common requirement of the license is to allow the product (software, in this case) to remain copyable and redistributable, and often that original copyrights remain intact. The problem has to do with the legal definitions of these kind of licenses in the terms of just what kind of licenses they are... Are they copyright licenses? ...or are they contract licenses? The problem here comes down to what is called 'creative license', which is a contract licensing issue and the legal recourse of original creators is nowhere near as potent as what can be done under copyright law. This has to do with the definition of "significant derivitive works' from the original material, which also is why Tenshi Vielle was libelous in her original proclamation of theft, since (even though it already was shown to be otherwise,) the "creative license' law would have applied anyway, since the original from Renderosity is not under the CC license. The idea is that if you take an image or other Creative Commons or General Public License work and significantly change it, then creative license law (contract law) would apply and the original creator would have little recourse. So there was a lawsuit in which one software venbdor sued another software vender for ripping them off. The accused procliamed the original software, under the GPL license fell under contract law, and that they were selling a dirivitive work. The court found for the defendant and so the GPL and by extension, Creative Commons licenses basically became useless overnight. The decision was apealed. Now comes huge news. The Federal Appeals Court has overturned the lower court's ruling. In a nutshell, the GPL, CC and other 'public licenses' have new fangs. Nasty ones at that. The GPL, CC and other public licenses are found to fall under copyright law. It is copyright law that the DMCA, (Digital Millineum Copyright Act,) is based-on. So, this means the creators inside Second Life and many other virtual worlds, anyone allowed to hold on to Intellectual ownership of their creations now have bazooka bombshells to lob at infringers of their Intellectual Property. A very good story about this ruling here:

Groklaw - Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit Overturns Jacobsen v. Katzer "As the court put it, "Copyright holders who engage in open source licensing have the right to control the modification and distribution of copyrighted material." Now the case goes back to the lower court to reconsider, based on this ruling, the question of injunctive relief. So. "The heart of the argument on appeal concerns whether the terms of the Artistic License are conditions of, or merely covenants to, the copyright license," the court of appeals writes. And it finds that they are conditions, so relief is by means of copyright law, not contract. That matters a lot, because, as you've seen in the SCO saga, copyright law has teeth -- including injunctive relief -- that make policing infringements easier."

Has Linden Lab gone AWOL?