Comments on: Broken Toys: All Second Life, All The Time

By: Nicademus

Nicademus — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:00:52 +0000

I don’t really give a damn about SL and I copy the floppy whenever it suits me. But I’m always FASCINATED by these Frankenstein moments where corporations who have a vested interest in keeping down the libertarian horde release a tool in complete good faith only to see it almost instantly perverted into a tool for the “enemy”.

Gnutella comes to mind, but this case is even more egregious. I mean it’s one thing for wedges to be eventual inevitable, it’s another thing to hand dupers the majority of the code set they need.

By: Raph

Raph — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:48:21 +0000

"Unlike music, they control everything: the distribution, the player, the media, everything. So, there is a technical solution. A rather simple one, at that."

No, they don't control the client. You never control the client, remember?

In point of fact, the actual development of CopyBot happened because they allowed an open source project to create alternate clients to the data stream... but it would have happened anyway, just as wedges and the like have happened for every other VW client.

By: robusticus

robusticus — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:31:03 +0000

Unlike music, they control everything: the distribution, the player, the media, everything. So, there is a technical solution. A rather simple one, at that.

Player created content won’t go away no matter how hard you all wish.

Funny I was having a conversation a week or so ago with a normal (non-orc-slaying) friend of mine about 2nd life, and their questions all centered around exploitation… starting with, can people burn down your house, and ending with… copybot.

By: GuidoSarducci

GuidoSarducci — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:08:32 +0000

Did you ever notice how you never actually saw the “common folk” in Star Trek?

By: J.

J. — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:28:43 +0000

So what, Raph wants to be for Second Life what Lars Ulrich was for Napster?

Yes, of course they're doomed. So is MySpace. You don't want to be the guy pointing it out, because here's what it does: it just draws more attention to the target while people wait for it to die.

I mean, ferchrissakes, SomethingAwful now has a running feature devoted to the hoisting and petardedness of SecondLife. Did Raph really have to use this as an opportunity to remind the world of why our society isn't ready for a free-for-all Holodeck and that SL really ought to have seen this all coming?

Either some people are just way more considerate than I am and really want the best for all concerned, or some people really just like staring at trainwrecks more than I do.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:04:41 +0000

To really make the copyright case, they will basically have to prove the “this stuff has value and should be taxed” crowd’s case for them, wouldn’t they?

By: Aufero

Aufero — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 21:48:42 +0000

Damn. I don’t always agree with Raph Koster, but that’s by far the best summation of modern copyright issues I’ve seen.