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SLCC creeps ever closer

Just eight days from now, SLers from all over the world congregate at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center to meet each other face-to-face for the first time, and drink their faces off discuss important SL themes and issues. I spent a while perusing Google maps of SL last night — SF is kind of big, isn’t it? Fortunately, my hotel is only a short distance from Fort Mason and assorted other touristy places, so I’m hoping to explore the place on foot. See the sights. Point at things and go oooh. You know — tourist stuff.

One worrisome issue is all over the news today. The good news is that apparently police foiled a terrorist plot to blow up UK flight. The bad news — or maybe inconvenient news — is that liquids and gels (including toothpaste and shampoo) are banned from all carry-ons. As well, a CNN.com article says that “Terrorists planned to use MP3 players and sports drinks to blow up as many as 10 jetliners“. So no toiletries, no music, no liquid refreshments (“Who the f— brought this motherf—ing beverage on this motherf—ing plane?”).

While I’m sure this is a boon for airport convenience stores, it not only means that we go without brushing our teeth and washing our hair until we buy more, but it also means that security checks are going to take a whole… lot… longer. CBC News reports that “At Vancouver International Airport in the morning, a long line snaked longer than a city block from the United Airlines check-in for flights to several U.S. cities.”

So if I manage to get to my flight on time, I’ll see you at SLCC. Just don’t stand too near me, because for the sake of security I will not be brushing my teeth.

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Why aren’t SL vehicles resellable?

Alright… picture this. Shortly after waking up this morning, before even my first sip life-giving coffee, I stumble to my desk, still blinking in the morning light. I crank up the computer (hand-crank computers are very rare these days), and open my mail client. Oh, I see a message from Second Life — from a customer! Let’s see what they — Aaaa!

Bleh I hate No trans dealers.. Above all its egotistical and self rigious to put so much value on a something so insignificant that you seem fit to make it exslusive and Monogramic
I personally enjoy yhr frredoms of being able to pass down used goods to new players or even paw it if i am In a bind, to deem it that you are so important that some primitives… which are tiny lights on a screen are so imporant that you feel the need
to make them exlusive.. is just selfish and pathedic
I No longer have the will to do bussiness with you, and I have given you my 3 cents

Ouch. Somehow I’d lost a debate and a customer during the night.

The heated debate over permissions is usually driven by ignorance and fear on both sides. In the Second Life forums it’s not uncommon to see an angry consumer demanding to know why greedy content makers try to rip people off by removing the right to resell items. Content makers fire back and then it degenerates into the usual poo-flinging forum drama shortly before the thread is locked by moderators.

As Yoda says, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” And “The path to the dark side, fear is.” Backwards-talking, Yoda always is. Wise, it makes him sound, I think.

The truth is, it’s not about greed at all. (Greed, it is not at all about.) It’s about a goofy permission system that doesn’t do an adequate job of protecting both the seller and the buyer.

SL permissions have two checkboxes: Copy and Resell/Give Away. These checkboxes allow sellers to remove the buyer’s ability to either copy or transfer an item. Why not sell with both the Copy and Transfer permissions enabled? It’s like MP3s: Joe Musician sells one hit MP3 and suddenly everyone’s sharing copies. Joe’s earnings in this scenario amount to approximately… one pittance. Plus or minus a cent or two.

Permissions are the Digital Rights Management (DRM) of Second Life. If you acknowledge that content makers have the right to prevent rampant copying and sharing of their work, then you’ll understand why SL products need to be set to either No-Copy/Transfer or Copy/No-Transfer. Because either setting adequately protects content makers, the seller needs to choose which permission is best for the customer.

Here’s a forum post from December in which I attempted to explain my choice of permission settings:

Buy the permissions that best fit the item

It doesn’t make sense to refuse to buy any no-transfer items, because no-transfer is often not a good idea for you as the buyer.

Here are examples from items I sell…

Vehicles – Copy, No-Transfer.
Never ever buy a no-copy vehicle, because vehicles go missing so easily in Second Life. Cross a sim border too quickly, and that L$500 helicopter you bought could unexpectedly become a L$500 hole in your inventory.

Attachments – No-Copy, Transfer.
Whenever it’s reasonable safe to assume that items won’t go missing (like vehicles do), I want my customers to be able to give away or resell items. Not only is this helpful for gift shopping, but it’s also good for entrepreneurs who want to set up shop.

Regarding reselling items…

There’s only two kinds of reselling that I dislike:

1.) Buying items and reselling them at a massive markup. Don’t be greedy, don’t cheat people. Take a modest markup to cover the efforts of distribution, but don’t gouge.

2.) Collecting full-permission freebies, and reselling them at a high price as no-copy items. That’s just scummy, and deserves at the very least the frowning of a lifetime. The customer hurts by paying unnecessarily for a crippled item, and the item freebie creator (you know, the person who supplied you with the nice goodies to sell?) wrongfully gets a bad reputation for distributing crappy, overpriced items.

Finally, how do you buy a no-transfer item as a gift?

The web shops (www.SLExchange.com, www.SecondServer.com, and www.SLBoutique.com) all have an option for delivering your purchase to another avatar. That’s the best way to buy a no-transfer item for a friend.

Why not get the creator to change the permissions? Your friend probably won’t appreciate losing their brand-new no-copy helicopter on the first flight, would they? (LINK)

So to protect the buyer, all SL vehicle makers — at least the ones who care about their customers — should set vehicle permissions to Copy/No-Transfer.

While it’s a confusing issue that’s difficult to explain clearly — especially before my morning coffee — permissions are not about greed or ego or mean-hearted content creators who just want to block people’s right to resell. (“Always with you what cannot be done,” Yoda says.) Yes, DRM exists principally to protect the seller, but the specific choice of permission is driven by customer needs.

And now, I’m going to stumble over to the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. A Jedi’s strength flows from the coffee.

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SL segment on CBS evening news

As most SLers know, SL was featured in a segment on CBS evening news on July 31. It was the usual superficial coverage of how you can escape real life that completely missed the point of SL. That’s alright though. The best part of the news coverage came after the report, when news anchor, Bob Shieffer, gave his reaction in closing:

I… I… (chortle) I wanna become a wild animal… myself. That’s the news, I’m Bob Shieffer, CBS News in New York. We’ll see you tomorrow. (silent chortle)
(click here (WMV, ~2MB))

So there you have it. Second Life has turned Bob Shieffer into a furry. That’s the news, I’m Cubey Terra, Cubey Terra’s blog in Vancouver. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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Relay for Life update

It’s done! The relay is over and while we await the final numbers from Jade and her crew, I’d just like to thank everyone who jumped off the Eiffel Tower. Altogether, the Eiffel Tower BASE jumpers donated L$18,376 to the SL Relay for Life. So pick up your splattered avatars off the ground and give yourselves a pat on the back.

Congratulations and thanks to Jade Lily for creating such an amazing track and successful event. Rumour has it that the event raised over $38,000 US(!) in total. Excuse me for a moment while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

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B.A.S.E jumping for charity

“AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa– *SPLAT*!” That’s the sound of someone raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Saturday and Sunday, for the second year, Jade Lily and her team bring the the Relay for Life back to Second Life. Just like its real-world equivalent, the SL Relay for Life raises money by making people — uh… avatars, I mean — walk enormous distances for a good cause.

This year, Jade’s team has booked 12 regions just for the event, and have terraformed it to look at least somewhat not unlike a world map. The relay route winds through each of the continents, in which residents have replicated the sights and sounds of some representative countries.

Walk through the Americas and see the rainforests of Brazil, a pyramid in Mexico, a New York streetcorner in the United States, and assorted trees, rocks, water, and a CN Tower in Canada. If you’ve ever been to Canada, you’ll know that there isn’t much else there.

The European continent starts in Ireland, with a replica of a street, complete with an Irish pub. In the UK, the southern portion of the island is dominated by Big Ben and the Millennium Wheel, while — just like in real life — everything else is sheep, stone huts, and henges.

From there, you can meander through the Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, and Italy, before winding up at a stunning vision of the Taj Mahal, which, as everyone knows, is right next to a major Chinese city. It’s a short jaunt from China over to the islands of Japan, from whose green hills you can virtually leap off and land in South Africa.

Ok, so the scale, proportion, and occasionally location are maybe imprecise, but it’s a remarkable build, and one that’s well worth visiting.

For my small contribution, I build an airship terminal in Germany, from which you can take an automated airship sight-seeing tour around 11 of the 12 regions. As well, I set up BASE jumping from Kyra’s recreation of the Eiffel Tower.

That’s right. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to jump off the Eiffel Tower, now is your chance to find out. Strap on a parachute, teleport to the top, and throw yourself into the wind. Oh, don’t forget the part where you turn on your auto-deploy altimeter, or the last thing you’ll hear is “SPLAT!”