They should be pioneers in the development of the Metaverse continually innovating and pushing the envelope as to how far reaching the Metaverse is in the world that we know as the Internet. Instead we have had two major changes in the Terms of Service. The First Major change stated that everything that all avatars have bought and sold in world ultimately belongs to Linden Lab. And as of Yesterday,Late Adolescents have been allowed onto the Main Grid but in restricted areas but as any Adult with teenage children know, they will find ways into the Mature and Adult Sims, and access the Adult Content that resides in those areas which will open up a very nasty can of worms for the owners of Adult themed clubs and individuals as a whole and services that abound on the Grid.
The official Lab response can be found in the New TOS handed down Yesterday by The Powers that Be. What I would like to see from all these developments is that Linden Lab get back to the innovative spirit that had driven the grid since its activation in 2003 and not alienating long time residents and investors such as estate owners and content creators which whom Second Life depends on for the economic engine that keeps the grid profitable. With the first major change in the ownership rights to content in the TOS, Linden Lab is starting to drive the heart and soul of the economy into other grids such as Inworldz . If I sound like a disciple of Ayn Rand in this matter, that is because I believe that the content creators and landowners should not be shackled by the fact that what they create ultimately belongs to Linden Lab. What the individual creates in-world is theirs and and they have the right to market their products to the grid at large and their rights to their intellectual property must be respected as they would be in a real life marketplace and the legal protections of patent and copyright applied. The customers who buy the products and services in-world should have the ability to own and use them in any grid that he or she may travel to. With the growing ability of the Hypergrid to connect virtual worlds such as Reactiongrid and hopefully Second Life, individual Avatars should be able if they aren't already, to wear and use items that they purchased from different grids and they should have the final ownership of those items, not the operators of the grid where the item was purchased.
Let me know what you think on these matters because the discussion and debate over how Second Life and other grids is ongoing and many different opinions are welcome.
Your Correspondent in Second Life and the Metaverse.
Spruce Canning
