I don't think Brett fully considered the implications of: "You acknowledge and agree that we may require you to stop using or distributing a Third-Party Viewer for accessing Second Life if we determine that there is a violation."
Which is clearly in conflict with the GPL. Ron Festa wrote: > Since people wanted to see it here it is right from the Free Software > Foundation. > > Ron Festa > Virtual Worlds Admin > Division of Continuing Studies at Rutgers University > PGP key: http://bit.ly/b1ZyhY > Phone: 732-474-8583 > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: *Brett Smith via RT* <licens...@fsf.org <mailto:licens...@fsf.org>> > Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 1:00 PM > Subject: [gnu.org <http://gnu.org> #566095] Possible Licensing Conflict > To: ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu <mailto:ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu> > > > > [ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu <mailto:ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu> - Thu > Apr 15 12:02:18 2010]: > > > > Company name: Linden Research, Inc > > Product: Second Life Viewer > > Contact Info: http://lindenlab.com/contact > > > > <http://lindenlab.com/contact>Possible Violation: The Second Life > Viewer is > > released completely under the GPLv2 with exception to the commercial > binary > > blobs which have been replaced with opensource equivalents. Recently they > > have released a Third Party Viewer Policy (TPVP) in regards to viewers > made > > from their source code that connect to their service. In this policy, > > section 7a appears to be in conflict with sections 11 & 12 of the > GPLv2 in > > which their source code is licensed under. > > Ron, > > Thanks for getting in touch with us with your concerns. It's always > good to know that people like you take the GPL seriously enough to ask > these sorts of questions. > > My understanding is that Linden Labs' Third-Party Viewers Policy, > despite the name, sets out policies for connecting to Second Life's own > servers. Other services might call this kind of policy a Terms of > Service. This statement from the policy's preamble explains their intent: > > "This Policy does not place any restriction on modification or use of > our viewer source code that we make available under the GPL. Rather, the > Policy sets out requirements for connecting to our Second Life service > using a Third-Party Viewer, regardless of the viewer source code used, > and for participating in our Viewer Directory." > > The freedoms granted by the GPL and other free software licenses are > never absolute -- they are limited by law and other legal agreements. > For example, just because the license allows you to use the software > for any purpose does not mean you are allowed to use it to DoS a > server, or undertake other illegal activities. > > Linden Labs has the right to set policies for clients connecting to its > servers, and that is what it has done with this policy. They do not put > direct limits on the freedoms you have under the GPL: viewers that don't > follow the policies could be used to connect to alternative servers as > they become available, to make an entirely new game, or in completely > unrelated projects. I am sympathetic to concerns that some of these > policies may have chilling effects on development of third party viewer > applications, but the policies are not in any inherent, direct conflict > with the GPL's terms. > > I hope this helps clear up our position on the matter for you. If you > have other concerns, please feel free to contact us. > > Best regards, > > -- > Brett Smith > Licensing Compliance Engineer, Free Software Foundation > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: > http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/OpenSource-Dev > Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges _______________________________________________ Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/OpenSource-Dev Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges
