Rainbow Viewers for Virtual Worlds

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Linden Lab's final 3rd Party Viewer Policy (TPV)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:15:03 AM

A lot of things are changing, I've voiced my opinion several times, and I want to summarize here what I think about Linden Lab's 3rd Party Viewer Policy (TVP) that can be found here: http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php

Under assumption of common sense LL produced guidelines that should regulate and control the way people can connect to their service, that is the SecondLife grid. Guidelines which would be correct under the aspect of common sense and I believe LL came from that perspective by initially creating that guidelines in form of the 3rd Party Viewer Policy.

What went wrong? They gave it in the hands of JohnDoe Linden lawyers who obviously missed the subject completley and overstepped ridiculously. But let's get down to the roots.

Basically there are 2 core things very wrong with it. Initially LL requires everyone to comply to the GPL licensing. Which is fine as that sets the context. The GPL clearly states a developer has no warranty or liability for the code whatsover, even if that means ones viewer starts a nuclear war against former Soviet Russia or China or both. That clause is included in every single file of sourcecode (not the part about the Russians or Chinese wink). LL explicitely disclaims any liability themselves for the resulting world war but then puts exactly that liability back on the shoulders of anyone developing a viewer.

Not only that, by complying to their TPV a developer would also accept universal responsibility for all and everything "viewer". To be exact, as a developer "You assume all risks, expenses, and defects of any Third-Party Viewers that you use, develop, or distribute." A viewer does not even need to be able or connect to SL for that.

In this regard it does not matter if a JohnDoe Linden comments on a mailing list or if a legally not binding FAQ tells us that this would be only for usage by connecting to the SL grid. It is not. TPV in it's current form says "I'm responsible (read: guilty) for using, developing or distributing any 3rd party viewer".

Already by simply developing I'm assuming full responsibility for everything. I could take the official LL sources and compile and distribute a sourcewise identical "official" viewer, without changing a single line of code; but with all the bugs and vulnerabilities *made by LL*. Guilty by TPV. It's really ridiculous.

This is a clear violation of the in the first place by LL required GPL licensing. It puts further restrictions on developers GPL explicitly prohibits.

Another point of concern, putting up the RL details (which is pointless as LL has them already and require them by ToS) is required for a listing in the viewer directory. The details of the two guinea pigs who registered (Kirsten's, Metabolt) were promptly published for a day before someone in LL pressed the emergency button. But that was not the first time that LL distributed private details.

In summary, the policy is legal-technical flawed and not acceptable by any dev in their right mind. What it will achieve is the destruction of any *legal* 3rd party viewer; which probably is the (by some welcomed) goal of LL to close-source the viewer. It will not do anything to stop malicious clients to flourish, the Neils give a shit on policies or licenses.

The consequence is that no 3rd party developer that uses LL's GPLed sources (including already registered KLee or famed Emerald) can produce a legitimate viewer that is either compliant to GPL and/or violates TPV (which says it must be GPL compliant). Both are mutually exclusive and LL created a nice legal chicken and egg scenario.

In my opinion there are only 3 possible solutions:
1) use LL's code and violate TPV
2) create a viewer from scratch using BSD or another license and comply to TPV
3) stop developing 3rd party viewers

Linden Lab already said they do not plan to update their policy again. Therefore only option 3 remains.

Luv,
Boy

Related discussions:
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/42075-3rd-party-viewer-policy-updated.html
http://www.massively.com/2010/03/22/second-life-third-party-viewer-policies-get-an-update-but-still
http://imprudenceviewer.org/2010/03/26/an-important-announcement-regarding-the-third-party-viewer-policy/

Driver warning: Latest nVidia ForceWare (v196.75) overheating cards!Rainbow Viewer - Endgame - Release 5, the Final

Comments

Anonymous Tuesday, March 23, 2010 12:46:21 PM

JGS writes: Nooooo! Don't stop, I can't make it without your near-perfect Rainbow Viewer. There's one legal aspect you forget when coming up with the three alternatives. Should you comply with the compulsory GPL - as stated in the TPV - there is no legal need to comply with legally contradictionary paragraphs stated in the same policy. In the LL TPV-Policy, the mandatory full GPL compliance takes precedence over the other regulations stated therein. Therefor, you will need to comply with the GPL policies and any other, contradicting policy, is clearly void. There is no judge on earth (or maybe in Russia and China ;-) ) that in his right mind will convict anyone not abiding the contradictionary rulings of the TPV if you fully comply to the mandatory GPL. Any legally binding document that first states you have to be "Red" and then tells you to be solely "Green", is legally not binding as it is impossible to comply and thus legally void. A judge will most likely rule that you have to be Red though, becasue you have to be something and Red was mentioned first and makes sense... That leaves option 1 open for you: Take LL code, comply fully to the GPL and "violate" the TPV although it's not violating it actually ;-)

Boy Laneboylane Tuesday, March 23, 2010 1:13:59 PM

Nope, that does not leave option 1 for me. I'm in a small country where LL has a legal presence and that would make me directly vulnerable. It's simply not worth it anymore.

Nicholaz BeresfordNicholazBeresford Tuesday, March 23, 2010 1:47:29 PM

I was about to write something to the opensource-dev yesterday, but decided pressed cancel instead of send because it's pointless to discuss with the Lindens.

My bottom line however is, to *not* register yourself under the TPV. If you explicitely agree to it (sign it), you take a lot of liability you would not have otherwise. GPL grants you rights and freedoms, but of course you can hand these back by means of a a different agreement and the TPV is that, a different agreement (and it matter not what the Lindens say that they think it means, it does burden you with extra liability). A signature under it does weaken your position, even if the whole thing does contradict the GPL.

On the other hand, I don't see a need to stop the viewer development. You have the right to continue and develop it under the old terms under which you aquired your source. As long as you don't sign something else, you keep those rights. And just because the Lindens put a document into the backyard of their webserver, it does not mean that it construes an agreement with you. An agreement requires *your* consent. And the fact that Lindens say that logging on to their server does create a new agreement is plain wrong. The TOS to which you agreed governs login to their servers, not an obscure document published at some later point.

I doubt that the Lindens will sue anyone anyway. If you don't sign up the TPV and if your viewer causes trouble, the Lindens will eventually just block your viewer from accessing the grid, but IMO that's all they can and will do.

If they update their TOS with a new clause referring to the TPV policy and force everyone who logs in to accept it, that may change the situation slightly. But at the moment it's just some weird one-sided intent that is published on their webservers, not an agreement with anyone (except of course for those who signed it).

In any case, I'll leave my viewers on my servers and keep distributing them (not that this has any big impact). I won't sign them on to the Linden list though (god forbid), I'm not suicidal enough to do that.

Nicholaz BeresfordNicholazBeresford Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:00:25 PM

Btw, you're IMO right with the opinion that they started with common sense and the lawyers messed it up. But then, lawyers like to mess up things because it creates billable hours. The sensible approach would have been to update the TOS to tell users they can get banned or viewers blocked if the viewer is known to have features which help to violate copyright and disrupt server operations. This would have been a practical and entirely sufficient action.

Anonymous Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:51:11 PM

JGS writes: Having read the GPL once more, I do believe that article 12 clearly states that the exposure under the LL TPV (art. 7d) is excluded explicitly. Meaning: If LL continues to distribute the SL source under the GPL, you comply with it and redistribute your viewer under the GPL, you are bound to the GPL and not the TPV 7d burden. The legal intent of art. 7d is to free LL explicitly from any liability your derivative work could cause, reverting the liability to you. However, the GPL states the liability is with the end-user. Oops.... I suddenly see where this argument goes wrong... Article 12 of the GPL states "IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY (...)". By signing up to the LL TPV, you will have agreed in writing that you will be liable indeed... Bummer! But I'm curious what the Free Software Foundation thinks of this LL TPV though..

Boy Laneboylane Tuesday, March 23, 2010 3:21:47 PM

Originally posted by NicholazBeresford:

On the other hand, I don't see a need to stop the viewer development. You have the right to continue and develop it under the old terms under which you aquired your source. As long as you don't sign something else, you keep those rights.

Now that's an interesting argument. I did not think about that in the first place but it certainly makes sense. That would legally eliminate the universal responsibility in the TPV. It would still not allow to connect to the SL grid but at least it would mean the viewer code can be used as one wishes, regardless if it can connect to SL or not.

I x-posted that in http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/42075-3rd-party-viewer-policy-updated.html

Boy Laneboylane Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:40:34 PM

Originally posted by anonymous:

By signing up to the LL TPV, you will have agreed in writing that you will be liable indeed...

Did I say anything different? It is impossible to comply to TPV and only option 3 remains, to stop opensource development for SecondLife.

Nicholaz BeresfordNicholazBeresford Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:37:32 PM

Originally posted by boylane:

Did I say anything different? It is impossible to comply to TPV and only option 3 remains, to stop opensource development for SecondLife.



Well, as I said. As long as you don't agree to it (in writing or through a dialog pushed into your face), there is no agreement and the thing is irrelevant. It's like if I would bury an agreement somewhere on my website, saying that visiting users agree to pay me $100. I'd be a nice but futil try, nothing else. If it would work, the internet would be full people making money that way. But it doesn't.

You have the right under GPL to make binaries and distribute them. This alone (until you sign something else) governs your relationship to LL as a developer.

If you log on to SL, you become a user like anybody else. SL can through the TOS change your agreement as a user (all users) and they have some leverage through the account, but like people wrote on opensource-dev, they can already close/delete your account at a whim. This has happened before, so it's nothing new.

They will probably (maybe not) extend the TOS in some way, saying that they will close accounts and block viewers which they don't like. But then the account is all the leverage they have. And I'm rather sure they won't do this lightly, because by blocking a viewer with no good reason, they will piss off a lot of normal end users. And they will probably be very busy playing cat and mouse with makers of truly questionable viewers.

Bottom line is ...
1) relax
2) don't sign the TPV and let others jump into the Linden's bed (the Lindes are lously loves anyway).
3) as long as there is no TOS update at login, *nothing* with any legal effect has happened beside the fact that the Lindens posted some irrelevant blurp on their website
4) if there is a TOS update, see what it says exactly
5) keep up the good work as long as it's fun. if it's not fun, resign. (life goes on without making viewers and without going to SL often, I know what I'm talking about :-))

Anonymous Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:00:52 AM

Philbert Susa writes: Contracts, never do *anything* with them without consulting a lawyer.

NakitaKaul Wednesday, March 24, 2010 3:16:58 PM

Todays viewers are distributed under GPL. I suppose this is because the viewer originally was not a development by LL - or at least not fully developed by LL.

As long as todays viewers are based on that sources the original GPL can not be removed or restricted.

Let LL publish any number of TVS - none will constitute a right that is stronger than the original GPL.

I do feel completely easy with Nicholaz bottom lines. That is exactly the way to go.

Anonymous Friday, March 26, 2010 9:06:20 AM

Anonymous writes: The third party viewer policy is incompatible with the GPL, because it adds a liability. Perhaps you can put pressure on LL by treating this as a GPL violation. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-violation.html

Anonymous Tuesday, March 30, 2010 5:29:52 AM

Candy writes: uhh, they released the code under GPL, you can't put the egg back into the chicken. Once it is GPLed you can do with it what you like.. However, it is still legal to LIE in this country, and lawyers are paid to do so everyday. Connecting to their service using a 3rd party client the most they could do is ban that user, and then sue the developer into oblivion, even though they would technically not have a case. It is illegal to start harassment suits, but it happens constantly.

Anonymous Wednesday, March 31, 2010 5:59:40 AM

Anonymous writes: "I do feel completely easy with Nicholaz bottom lines. That is exactly the way to go. " Seconded. A consequence might be one like the Imprudence viewer team adheres to (http://imprudenceviewer.org/2010/03/26/an-important-announcement-regarding-the-third-party-viewer-policy/): Stop developing a viewer for Second Life but continue developing it for other grids that do not have this TPV. This puts the liability on the user, not on the developer of a viewer, which I think is what Nicholaz is basically saying. :) I would be very disappointed if you did not continue to develop your viewers, Boy. Please keep up the good work.

Anonymous Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:03:05 AM

Marck Kjeller writes: The previous comment was by me. It turned out anonymous because I had trouble with the Captcha, sorry.

Anonymous Wednesday, March 31, 2010 7:08:20 AM

elmanytas Ferrentino writes: You forgot an option: 4) Develop in a realy free world without restrictions (http://osgrid.org) with a realy open project (http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page).

Anonymous Thursday, April 1, 2010 6:17:35 AM

Laura Ess writes: I shall miss your viewers. They were good value and more stable than some others.

Anonymous Monday, April 19, 2010 9:43:52 PM

Anonymous writes: I doubt the Lindens will actually enforce this TPV policy very well. Heck look at how they enforce any other policy not good is all I have to say. Take for instance traffic bots LL has policy against them but still they flourish. Honestly, the new TPV policy is nothing but Legalise to save face for LL after being sued by Stroker Serpentine over their lack of policing and enforcing the DMCA within SL and for allowing copybot viewers to run rampant. So in my opinion this TPV policy is nothing more then a legal defense for LL in the event of another lawsuit regarding copybot viewers and DMCA as they can say we have a policy banning those viewers from accessing the SL grid.

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