Thanks Joe, this could have been published here or on your blog instead of
secretly updating such an important policy.
I also think it would have been better for the outcome *for everybody* to spend
a bit more time on reading comments, suggestions, ideas, and perhaps work a bit
closer with the lawyers LL supposedly hired to accomplish a workable third
party viewer policy. Unfortunately the attempt do do so completely failed, for
a second time.
Firstly and this is the thing most people are understandably very concerened
about, it is not understandable why LL requires RL details you already have. LL
has shown in the past, and not only once, that such details are not properly
protected and occasionalyl published. There was the incident with distributing
everyones email addresses and names in the concierge list, and most recently
the publication of complete details of 2 third party viewer developers for an
extended amount of time. Not excusable.
But worse than this, the updated TPV policy does not allow *anyone* to comply
with that policy.The policy is legally and technically flawed. It's impossible
to comply and not violate either LL's policy itself or licensing terms (GPL).
As a developer I can also not be compliant as LL forces me to carry a legal
burden LL themselves disclaimed, and which the GPL explicitly excludes as "no
warranty" and "limited liability". You can read that in every source code file.
Just a couple of paragraphs that are in direct conflict with each other:
"You [the developer] are in full compliance with the terms of the GNU General
Public License ("GPL"), if your application uses the source code of the
official Second Life viewer, which we have made available under the GPL."
"You [the developer] are responsible for all features, functionality, code, and
content of Third-Party Viewers that you develop or distribute."
"You [the developer] assume all risks, expenses, and defects of any Third-Party
Viewers that you use, develop, or distribute"
"You [the developer] acknowledge and agree that we may require you to stop
using or distributing a Third-Party Viewer"
Regardless how one turns and reads this policy, it is impossible to comply
without violation of one or the other term by making any third party viewer.
Leaving alone the malicious ones which do not care about any policy anyway;
laughing all their way to their next rip.
If that policy stays as it is, it would mean the end of all legal 3rd party
viewer developments for SecondLife. But perhaps that's exactly what LL tries to
achieve after all. Sadly.
Boy
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Linden
To: Boy Lane
Cc: opensource-dev@lists.secondlife.com
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 12:21 AM
Subject: Re: [opensource-dev] Third party viewer policy: commencement date
The updated version of the Third Party Viewer Policy was posted here about a
week ago:
http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php
As stated in the FAQ, the policy will be in full force and effect on April
30, 2010.
-- Joe
On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Boy Lane <boy.l...@yahoo.com> wrote:
We are approacing one month after the initial 3rd party viewer policy has
been announced. Nobody from Linden Lab has answered the question I've raised
2 weeks ago. So let me repeat it one more time:
What is the status of the Third Party Viewer Policy? Do we have to assume
that the current version is binding and/or when will an updated version be
available?
Thanks for your kind attention. Hopefully...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Boy Lane" <boy.l...@yahoo.com>
To: <opensource-dev@lists.secondlife.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 10:11 PM
Subject: Third party viewer policy: commencement date
> It has been 14 days since the initial draft of the 3PVP was published and
> we were told it will be reworked to include comments, concerns and
> suggestions. Two weeks have passed since and besides a FAQ that also says
> the policy is being worked on there have been no news.
>
> As this is a mission critical question for everybody involved in client
> development:
> What is the status of the Third Party Viewer Policy? Do we have to assume
> that the current version is binding and/or when will an updated version be
> available?
>
> Thanks!
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