Second Life Tries To Backpedal On the GPL 207
GigsVT writes "The Second Life viewer has been available under the GPL for three years. Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life, recently released a 'third party viewer' policy that all but erases the freedoms granted under the GPL. It includes such draconian measures as 'You agree to update or delete at our request any data that you have received from Second Life or our servers and systems using a Third-Party Viewer,' 'You must not mask IP or MAC addresses' (reported to the server), 'you must have a published privacy policy explaining your practices regarding user data,' and '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.'"
Another angle (Score:3, Interesting)
There is another angle to this that wasn't realized earlier.
This new policy makes Second Life incompatible with CC-SA and GPLed content within the world as well.
It places a new restriction on the export of content that is incompatible with the terms of CC-SA and GPL.
"You must not use or provide any functionality that Linden Lab’s viewers do not have for exporting content from Second Life unless the functionality verifies that the content to be exported was created by the Second Life user who is using the Third-Party Viewer."
So you can only export what you have uploaded, not what you have received from someone else. This makes Secondlife incompatible with GPL and CC-SA content within the world.
Re:Another angle (Score:3, Interesting)
Person A releases a picture under CC-SA-By
Person B uploads it to SL. Person B has now violated the copyright of person A, because the Second Life environment now places restrictions on further export of the picture.
Prior to the TPV policy there was no policy against exporting content as long as you didn't violate copyright law.
Secondlife is now incompatible with CC-SA and any kind of copyleft license.