Linden Lab invites reports of viewer license violations

by Tateru Nino Feb 21st 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: News items, Second Life, Legal, Virtual worlds

In the last several months, we've had numerous tips from readers that one or another of the available third-party Second Life viewers that are in distribution are in breach of the license agreements under which Linden Lab makes the source-code available. As the sole copyright holder (contributor's copyrights are assigned to Linden Lab via a contribution agreement), Linden Lab is the only party that can do more than apply limited verbal or social pressure for compliance [as it turns out, contributors remain full copyright holders - thanks for clearing that up, Gigs]. We've gotten quite a few readers asking how to report license violations, and if Linden Lab would seriously investigate those reports.

"We take copyright matters seriously," a Linden Lab spokesperson told us yesterday, "and people are welcome to report what they believe to be violations of the GPL terms under which we've made the viewer source code available."

Linden Lab says that it appreciates community action to spot potential violations of the licensing terms, but to in order to preserve the rights and privacies of others won't discuss the details of such reports or actions.

If you believe you have spotted a situation where variations or derivatives of the viewer source code are being made available without full and continuing compliance with the license terms, you should file a report to licensing@lindenlab.com. We, here at Massively, appreciate your sharp eyes and your zeal, but it isn't our place to report potential license violations on your behalf.

You may wish to consult with the GPL violation reporting guide from the Free Software Foundation in order to improve the quality of the reports that you provide to Linden Lab.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Tags: gpl, legal, license, linden-lab, open-source, second-life, virtual-worlds

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 9:10AM 2-22-2009

if I ever spot someone failing to comply with those guidelines, I would first try to talk with the person/organization to give them an opportunity to fix things before thinking about ratting them out, we need more people making third party clients, not less (IMO)

Dedric Mauriac said on 1:00AM 2-23-2009

I think part of the problem is that Linden Labs doesn't apply (or even look at) many of the patches that are sent to them to begin with. It drives people to try and fix the problems themselves, but ends up going into some legal territory.

Jay said on 8:05AM 2-23-2009

Many are submitted by Heny and the like who will not sign the release form for whatever reason.

Not speaking ill of Henry or the Lindens mind you. Just stating that unless you agree they own your work they will not publish the patch.

Balp Allen said on 5:13AM 2-24-2009

There is no problem at all making your own viewer and following the easy GPL licence. This is about the people that choose to make changes and keep them secret.

/ Balp

Gigs said on 10:31AM 3-19-2009

"Linden Lab is the only party that can do more than apply limited verbal or social pressure for compliance. "

Nope, any developer who has ever contributed code can sue. The contrib agreement leaves the contributor with the rights to enforce copyright violations.

Tateru Nino said on 9:13AM 3-19-2009

My mistake. I thought the contributor agreements assigned all copyrights to the Lab. But then, I've never actually seen one of them, myself.

Gigs said on 10:31AM 3-19-2009

Here you go, for reference:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Project:Contribution_Agreement

You hereby assign to Linden Lab joint ownership...

Both You and Linden Lab shall be able to do all such things in relation to Your Contribution as if each were respectively the sole owners of the copyright.