Slashdot Mirror

Second Life Blogs - Blogs about the Second Life virtual world. Usually I list these by avatar name.

• The Lexx's Second Life - Alexzandria Aeon ("Lexx") is my "SL daughter" and a businesswoman.
• Jacek Antonelli - An artist and commentator on various aspects of the world.
• Hamlet Au - New World Notes - The "big dog" in Second Life blogging. Hamlet Au used to work for Linden Lab, and wrote a book, The Making of Second Life.
• life|cubed - One of my friends, "Padre" Triste Bertrand, who is also a minister in RL.
• Cala - Transgender in Second Life - She writes about some interesting topics.
• Evans Avenue Exit - I write this one. :-) I post about current events, scripting, and whatever else suits my fancy.
• Vint Falken - One of the premier European SL bloggers (she's from Belgium).
• Grand Unified Linden Blog - Official news and information from Linden Lab.
• Torley Lives - Everybody in Second Life should know Torley Linden. Torley is unique, helpful, and watermelon-flavored.
• An Engine Fit For My Proceeding - Ordinal Malaprop is SL's own version of Ada Lovelace...a fine Victorian lady and a top-flight scripter.
• Massively (Second Life) - The latest news and information about Second Life. (Massively.com also covers other virtual worlds and MMOs.)
• Second Thoughts - Prokofy Neva is perhaps the most-hated person in SL, and is sort of the "official gadfly." He's well worth reading for an alternate perspective, though.
• Dwell On It - Tateru Nino is one of the smartest people I know. Her writing is part of what got me into SL in the first place.
• MeraTalk - Mera Pixel is insightful, witty, and very purple.
• Second Life Grid Status Reports - When there are problems with SL--an all-too-often occurrence these days, alas--Linden Lab posts here.

Political Blogs - This is stuff with a right-wing bent, and is the section that will probably be most responsible for this post being modded down. :-/

• The Smallest Minority - Kevin Baker is partly a gunblogger, partly an excellent commentator. He's had good posts recently about education.
• La Shawn Barber's Corner - A Christian blogger who only dabbles in politics these days, spending more time writing about music and digital technology.
• Leslie Carbone - A Virginia political blogger who I found via Twitter.
• Personal Effects - Connie du Toit is one of the clearest-minded writers you'll find on many subjects.
• Geopoliticus - Kim du Toit (yes, he and Connie are married) is the L33t Master of Firearms, and an insightfu

Actually it goes further then this:

Mono's .NET API implementations (WinForms etc) are to .NET what WINE is to Windows. (I.e. great for easy porting, but destined never to be perfect). Though WinForms is a much simpler and better documented API then the Win32 beast.

However Mono's VM is more comparable to x86. It is a published standard and Intel's initial development of it doesn't give them much intrinsic advantage over AMD. (And hopefully Mono's OSS nature will prove equivalent to Intel's fabrication advantage).

Mono's compilers can also be directly compared to GCC v Intel's compiler. No one would write off either, just because Intel also designed the architecture.

Then you come to Mono's own libraries GTK#, Tao, Gecko#.

See http://blog.secondlife.com/2005/08/01/second-life-in-mono/ for a clear example of Mono as the best tool for the job.

I know I posted roughly this comment in the last GSoC Slashdot announcement but I've been told the information is really useful and some people might have missed it.

On the note about how GSoC effects our project you should take a look at our web stats since we where announced as a GSoC mentor organisation. The increase has been massive!

Google has been very good to the Open Source gaming community again this year, there are a total of 7 game projects and 5 game related projects.

The following game projects have been accepted,

• Battle for Wesnoth (ideas), a very cool tu rn based strategy game in the theme of Heroes of Might and Magic.
• BZFlag (ideas), the cla ssic tank first person shooter game. One of the oldest open source games around!
• Linden Lab (ideas), the makers of Second Life the largest "almost game like" online universe.
• ScummVM (ideas), an engine whic h lets you play all the classic Lucas Arts games and many more!
• Thousand Parsec (ideas), a framework fo r building 4x empire building games. Been around since 2001 and growing quickly.
• Tux4Kids (ideas), a group of mul ti-platform open source educational games for children.
• WorldForge (ideas), one of the ori ginal open source MMORPG which has even been mentioned on Slashdot multiple times (original called Altima).

The Summer of Code had a huge impact my own project, Thousand Parsec and I hope that it will again have a significant positive impact. GSoC 2007 helped us develop a number of core utilities that the main developers just would not have time to do. These projects should substantially increase the productivity of new contributors and lower the barrier to entry into development. The huge amount of web traffic brought to our website from just being a mentor organisation can clearly be seen in our web statistics.

This year we are planning to concentrate on improving the player experience. The two ways for achieving this is to create more full and interesting games (rulesets) and making the game clients more attractive and easier to access (such as a web-based client and improving the desktop client).

Out of the three students that where selected last year, two passed their final evaluations. The code that the students produced was of both a high quality and quantity.

One of the students projects, the RFTS clone ruleset, is now one of the most complete and popular of our games (rulesets). The student has continued to help with its development and is now currently considering being a mentor this year.

The other successful student made over 220 commits and produced 28,824 lines of code, more than some of our other long term project members! He has developed a

Google has been very good to the Open Source gaming community again this year, there are a total of 7 game projects and 5 game related projects.

The following game projects have been accepted,

• Battle for Wesnoth (ideas), a very cool turn based strategy game in the theme of Heroes of Might and Magic.
• BZFlag (ideas), the classic tank first person shooter game. One of the oldest open source games around!
• Linden Lab (ideas), the makers of Second Life the largest "almost game like" online universe.
• ScummVM (ideas), an engine which lets you play all the classic Lucas Arts games and many more!
• Thousand Parsec (ideas), a framework for building 4x empire building games. Been around since 2001 and growing quickly.
• Tux4Kids (ideas), a group of multi-platform open source educational games for children.
• WorldForge (ideas), one of the original open source MMORPG which has even been mentioned on Slashdot multiple times (original called Altima).

The Summer of Code had a huge impact my own project, Thousand Parsec and I hope that it will again have a significant positive impact. GSoC 2007 helped us develop a number of core utilities that the main developers just would not have time to do. These projects should substantially increase the productivity of new contributors and lower the barrier to entry into development. The huge amount of web traffic brought to our website from just being a mentor organisation can clearly be seen in our web statistics.

This year we are planning to concentrate on improving the player experience. The two ways for achieving this is to create more full and interesting games (rulesets) and making the game clients more attractive and easier to access (such as a web-based client and improving the desktop client).

Out of the three students that where selected last year, two passed their final evaluations. The code that the students produced was of both a high quality and quantity.

One of the students projects, the RFTS clone ruleset, is now one of the most complete and popular of our games (rulesets). The student has continued to help with its development and is now currently considering being a mentor this year.

The other successful student made over 220 commits and produced 28,824 lines of code, more than some of our other long term project members! He has developed a ruleset editor which will make ruleset development significantly easier in the future.

As well, the Open Source Office funded one student in a Summer of Code style outside the program. The student successfully completed the project and we hope the code will soon be rolled out.

Because of the success of our GSoC, our project has actively started to engage with educational instit

"In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri." - HHGTTG

Social Logic will help mitigate obstacles. Technology Logic as infrastructure is a partial solution. Business logic only, will fail.

A community (Social Logic) is always sharing implicit content to sustain the social relationships (work, pay, play, safety ...). In the work environment infrastructure (significant, maybe complete) community implicit content can be collected, grown, and maintain then mined, recovered, and recycled for business logic purposes.

With internal VoIP, email, PIM+, web-browsing history, VTC/Social conferencing, BioPKI tokens/authentication ... data/content bulk collection and Biz and HR essential information ... it should be possible to initially chart the conceptual ideal core-biz processes to core-personnel, then to external B2B/B2C processes and their essential contact information. All along this flow/path the core data/content bulk can be used to convert internal into explicit codified knowledge publications. Then, you must maintain the data/content bulk/audit trail to discover innovative, transitional, and situational variations in new implicit activities for intelligently transition of explicit knowledge publications and future BizTransformation (why, because shit happens and things change, thank god).

Tools to consider as part of the solution:
CMS, Syntax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML
CMS, Syntax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax
CMS, Syntax: http://www.w3schools.com/
CMS, Syntax: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=XML
CMS, Syntax: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=Content+Management+System
CMS, Syntax: https://sourceforge.net/services/buy/service_providers.php?words=XML+schema+syntax+
KMS, Semantics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
KMS, Semantics: http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/swsig/
KMS, Semantics: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=Knowledge+management+system
BPM, Semantics: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=Bussiness+Process+management
BRM, Synergy: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=business+relationship+managemnt
RMM, Synergy: https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&type_of_search=soft&words=relationship+managment+model
RMS, Synergy: http://nwn.blogs.com/
RMS, Synergy: http://secondlife.com/whatis/
TCM, Practical: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/isis/model-problems.htm
TCM, Practical: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/intro/documents/concept/
TCM, Practical:

I already have one!

The world is scriptable by the end user. That sets it apart from other graphical MMORPGs, and should make it of interest to a portion of the Slashdot community, particularly those that may have enjoyed the scripting aspect of text-based MUDs.
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal

Curiously, Linden Lab even posted a blog entry on their Official Blog about this issue. Notice how the word "criminal" is used there to describe the phishers and scammers.

I don't think that Linden Lab is under any obligation to set up a "safety net" for their customers. In fact, I think it would be an extraordinarily bad idea for Linden Lab to try and regulate or guarantee the banks (beyond kicking out people who have been caught actively defrauding residents or otherwise violating the ToS).

Why? Because in Second Life, banks simply aren't needed. I cannot see any reason to hand over your Linden dollars to a third party within SL for safekeeping except to take advantage of the unbelievable interest rates that the banks offer. If the banks stop offering unbelievable interest rates, then (please correct me if I'm wrong, but) there is no reason to use them. I have not heard of the banks providing loans for people; it would be unreasonable to expect them to offer insurance; and any functions that a (genuine, reliable, regulated) bank could reasonably cover in SL could in most cases just as easily be fulfilled by taking the money out of Second Life and putting it into a real (First Life) bank.

Linden Lab didn't mention banks or interest rates specifically in their recent post on fraud and third party sites, which dealt with third-party sites dealing in fraudulently-obtained Linden Dollars (although if people stop using those sites, it would certainly help decrease the incentive for banks to run away with Residents' money). I think that it might be good if they were to put out a general warning about these banks, but that's not something I think they are necessarily obligated to do.

So if you lose your money there, whether through a bug or through fraud, you're screwed. Also since the "country of second life" is not part any one country or the U.N., there are no federal or international laws applicable in the word of second life. This is the problem with virtual property.

Technically money is virtual as well since the little pieces of paper you carry around are technically worthless, but at least paper money is backed by the Government which has rules protecting you from theft. That's why First Life is better than Second Life.

I also see value in 3D chat environments based on rendered 3D landscapes and scenes, a visual 3D version of chat rooms. There was a similar system called WorldsAway on compuserve years ago, but was quite limited by the technology of the time. With todays hardware, the level of realness could be much more developed. An open source system could start an IRC-like community of visual environments.

The link to the article on Second Life is broken. You can access the article here.

Linden dollars don't do anything either outside the context of a game.

Current Economic Statistics http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

Latest Service Stats http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/29/september-2007-service-quality-metrics-posted/

Aggregate Economic Statistics http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/15/september-2007-economic-key-metrics/

You may notice that ~23% of all client sessions end uncleanly (crash), that's something to complain about.

Current Economic Statistics http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

Latest Service Stats http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/29/september-2007-service-quality-metrics-posted/

Aggregate Economic Statistics http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/15/september-2007-economic-key-metrics/

You may notice that ~23% of all client sessions end uncleanly (crash), that's something to complain about.

Current Economic Statistics http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

Latest Service Stats http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/29/september-2007-service-quality-metrics-posted/

Aggregate Economic Statistics http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/15/september-2007-economic-key-metrics/

You may notice that ~23% of all client sessions end uncleanly (crash), that's something to complain about.

Being some random griefer who sends flying phallic objects across the Metaverse doesn't make you an expert in anything except flying genitals. So let's step through your insolent propaganda point by point.

1. "...they're [sex and money] the only reasons anyone uses it [Second Life], despite claims to the contrary by media-whorish Linden Labs."
   Perhaps you're not aware of the number of corporate entities using Second Life, not even for direct profit, but simply as a platform to deliver product information, such as Sun Microsystems, or the educational institutions using it as part of a prototype distance learning initiative, such as Bowling Green State University. Maybe you're not aware of the high-profile full-time businesses in Second Life, or the many, many articles reputable business publications have written noting the unique opportunities that exist in SL. There's much more than just sex and money. As in real life, there is entertainment, education, experimentation and economy. You know little about these because you spend all your time making the experience inconvenient for others.
2. "A bank called "Ginko" that recently went insolvent sent shockwaves through the economy lately."
   This was no surprise to anyone not stupid.
3. "As the Linden (the currency of Second Life) is not based on anything, Linden Labs simply dumps currency into the market whenever they feel like it."
   A quick look through the SL Economy metrics and blogs shows you're full of it. There is an actual regulation to the currency in SL, you're just ignorant of it.
4. [Your last statements]
   Again, your ignorance shines through. Do you do any investing in the real world? Do you know what happens when you invest 100k in prime real estate in California and an earthquake devastates it? Unless you took out insurance of some kind with an organization who certainly makes more than they will ever put out (on a sidenote, there are investement insurers in SL), you are SOL. Linden is careful to use the terminology "unit of trade" for the Linden dollar, because the Metaverse is not a seperate governmental body, has no legal jurisdiction in the real world, and wants to avoid the IRS putting their grubby mitts any further in. If you are foolish enough to make an unwise investment in SL, then, just as in real life, you learn that a fool and his money are soon parted.

In conclusion, please know what the hell you're talking about before you respond. And stop griefing the Metaverse, it's obnoxious.

Being some random griefer who sends flying phallic objects across the Metaverse doesn't make you an expert in anything except flying genitals. So let's step through your insolent propaganda point by point.

1. "...they're [sex and money] the only reasons anyone uses it [Second Life], despite claims to the contrary by media-whorish Linden Labs."
   Perhaps you're not aware of the number of corporate entities using Second Life, not even for direct profit, but simply as a platform to deliver product information, such as Sun Microsystems, or the educational institutions using it as part of a prototype distance learning initiative, such as Bowling Green State University. Maybe you're not aware of the high-profile full-time businesses in Second Life, or the many, many articles reputable business publications have written noting the unique opportunities that exist in SL. There's much more than just sex and money. As in real life, there is entertainment, education, experimentation and economy. You know little about these because you spend all your time making the experience inconvenient for others.
2. "A bank called "Ginko" that recently went insolvent sent shockwaves through the economy lately."
   This was no surprise to anyone not stupid.
3. "As the Linden (the currency of Second Life) is not based on anything, Linden Labs simply dumps currency into the market whenever they feel like it."
   A quick look through the SL Economy metrics and blogs shows you're full of it. There is an actual regulation to the currency in SL, you're just ignorant of it.
4. [Your last statements]
   Again, your ignorance shines through. Do you do any investing in the real world? Do you know what happens when you invest 100k in prime real estate in California and an earthquake devastates it? Unless you took out insurance of some kind with an organization who certainly makes more than they will ever put out (on a sidenote, there are investement insurers in SL), you are SOL. Linden is careful to use the terminology "unit of trade" for the Linden dollar, because the Metaverse is not a seperate governmental body, has no legal jurisdiction in the real world, and wants to avoid the IRS putting their grubby mitts any further in. If you are foolish enough to make an unwise investment in SL, then, just as in real life, you learn that a fool and his money are soon parted.

In conclusion, please know what the hell you're talking about before you respond. And stop griefing the Metaverse, it's obnoxious.

You are probably thinking of:

http://www.getafirstlife.com/
http://secondlife.com/

I take it you haven't seen their new propsed architecture grid which allows people and other companies to have their own simulators? Whether they open themselves up or not, doesn't matter, someone will, and they *do* appear to be moving in that direction. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Proposed_Architecture

They are working on a better system. Check out: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group A comparison (with pictures!!) of the current setup and what they hope to transition to http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Proposed_Architecture Tao Takashi reported this info, but spent more time focusing on the fact that they are trying to develop the whole architecture openly. If done right, I think it could even help games like WOW and EVE perform better (imagine the performance improvement if everything in SL was pre-made and optimized by game professionals for people who just wanted to go there and play?)

They are working on a better system. Check out: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group A comparison (with pictures!!) of the current setup and what they hope to transition to http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Proposed_Architecture Tao Takashi reported this info, but spent more time focusing on the fact that they are trying to develop the whole architecture openly. If done right, I think it could even help games like WOW and EVE perform better (imagine the performance improvement if everything in SL was pre-made and optimized by game professionals for people who just wanted to go there and play?)

The goal should be though to also allow arbitrary region sizes and forms in the protocol while of course first the existing concept will be implemented. But the protocol should be extensible.

Moreover those Region Domains are more or less black boxes. This means that you can implement it as you will, with a cluster or on a laptop. There should also be support for complete disconnected use where agent and region domain both run on your laptop.

Look at the Proposed Architecture page on the wiki for more information: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Proposed_Architecture

Really?

So following the rules of the game, playing in character if that character happens to be an orc or dark elf or undead whatever or evil magic user, and having that character do something evil makes the person behind the character a socially disturbed wannabee? Instead, I'd say that makes them an involved and effective player who is adding to the fun of the in-game world.

If you're in an MMORPG, and it allows PVP, isn't this type of action exactly what people are paying and playing for?

In the case of the wedding, wouldn't really, fully, effectively playing the game involve, not only guests and decorations and deciding what tunic to wear and whatnot, but also arranging for a bunch of well armed guards? Wouldn't that also be part of the fun? After all, there are orcs and brigands about! Seems to me the wedding planners forgot what game they were playing.

If you ever want to see amusing, look at the idiots who post on the Second Life blog whenever their stuff goes down. You think "OMG My payments are 12 hours behind" is bad, try "OMG, I make a living selling virtual dildos and I cannot sell my product. It is the end!!!"

I follow Second Life for work (I'm supporting an educational institution that uses Second Life for gaming classes, among other things), so:

According to the last metrics (June 2007) at http://static.secondlife.com/economy/stats_200707. xls
(see the Key Metrics links on the right at http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php if you need other formats): in June there were 7,729,655 accounts total, with 5,224,865 individuals behind them. Meaning that there's an average of about 1.3 accounts per individual who signed up (some people have alts).

There were 94607 premium accounts still going in June (people paying a monthly fee on their account).
According to the Economic Stats, 444,595 accounts have been logged in over the past seven days and 1,646,830 people have been logged in over the past 30 days.

I think someone worked the "Countries by hours" stats and found out that even in the areas where people are logged in for the shortest amount of time, they're still averaging 30 minutes a day each.

No, it's not as high as the "Total Resident Number", but those are more significant numbers than concurrency, I think.

I follow Second Life for work (I'm supporting an educational institution that uses Second Life for gaming classes, among other things), so:

According to the last metrics (June 2007) at http://static.secondlife.com/economy/stats_200707. xls
(see the Key Metrics links on the right at http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php if you need other formats): in June there were 7,729,655 accounts total, with 5,224,865 individuals behind them. Meaning that there's an average of about 1.3 accounts per individual who signed up (some people have alts).

There were 94607 premium accounts still going in June (people paying a monthly fee on their account).
According to the Economic Stats, 444,595 accounts have been logged in over the past seven days and 1,646,830 people have been logged in over the past 30 days.

I think someone worked the "Countries by hours" stats and found out that even in the areas where people are logged in for the shortest amount of time, they're still averaging 30 minutes a day each.

No, it's not as high as the "Total Resident Number", but those are more significant numbers than concurrency, I think.

These guys have been reporting on SL numbers for months. They get their numbers from these guys, who run the game and provide raw economic numbers in handy spreadsheet format, and in periodic pretty reports.

Where is this coming from? The SecondLife Linden Exchange market shows no such trend. The L$ is still trading at the same amount it was before the gambling ban announcement, as shown here: https://secure-web3.secondlife.com/currency/market .php (login required). Neither volume nor rate has changed substantially. Sounds like FUD.

Shouldn't this put millions more LDs out into the "economy" daily, effectively generating SL inflation on the order of Zimbabwe's?

If you look at their Stats Page, you will see a number of sinks they have to remove money from the system. These include classified ads, group creation fees, land, directory fees, upload charges, etc. because of this, they can pay some of those linden dollars back, without causing inflation in the process.

Well, let's look at the stats, then.

There are 18,875 accounts. Right now there are 34,822 people logged in (see http://secondlife.com/ ). In the last 60 days, 1,646,830 people logged in. So the total Ginko userbase is not all that great compared to the amount of people who use SL.

Next, it's quite reasonable to assume that a good portion of those 18,875 are by people who put there L$1 (USD $.00370) as a test, then forgot about it.

Now, they say their deposits are L$94,441,798 = USD $349,784. But, Ginko's claims about the amount of deposits were cast into doubt by several people, and that number seems to include interest, that is money they would be expected to give, but which none of the users actually put there.

Average amount of money per account is $349,784 / 18,875 = $18.53

Looking at the SL statistics:
US$ Spent Last 24h: $1,433,039
LindeX Activity Last 24h: $223,005

You can see that even the claimed amount of money isn't all that huge, and after years of operation at the enormous interest they claimed, most of that cash must be accumulated interest anyway.

While I bet some people will lose something quite significant, I don't think it's nearly as big as the article says.

... so why be surprised the tax man gets interested?

Go check out their website. Front page there's a prominent fact box with 5 facts, and fact 4 is "US$ Spent Last 24h".

Come on, you don't need a PhD in media studies or textual analysis to see they are saying "come to Second Life because you can make money here" - whether you can or not is beside the point, they are trying to give the impression you can.

Having laid out their stall quite plainly, is it any wonder the tax authorities are going to wake up and say "oohh, so people are making money here? Well I guess we better tax it". It's a real no brainer surely - people shouting out how much money they are making in their virtual world and then getting upset because the taxman wants his cut. Income is income as far as tax man is concerned, whether you are a lumberjack chopping down trees and selling timber, a banker making money for shunting imaginary figures round on a screen or a second life trader selling enough flying pigs or worse to make real cash.

All money is virtual anyway, what's so special about this development?

First, I am not a lawyer.

Linden Lab, the company responsible for Second Life [SL] is physically located in California, therefore it seems that they would fall under that jurisdiction in taxation matters.

There are no California taxes collected on monies paid to Linden Lab, AFAIK, unless they are bundled into the cost. Neither the TOS nor the membership plan page nor the pricing plan page nor the billing policies make any reference to any included taxes.

The California Tax Service Center page says clearly that "Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax." However, software delivered over the net is *not* taxed by CA under Reg. 1502of the California State Board of Equalization. {From LinkScan(tm)}.

State of California

BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

SALES AND USE TAX REGULATIONS

Regulation 1502. COMPUTERS, PROGRAMS, AND DATA PROCESSING.

Reference: Sections 995.2, 6006, 6007, 6010, 6010.9, 6011, 6012, 6015, and 6016, Revenue and Taxation Code.

(b) DEFINITIONS OF TERMS.

Prewritten Program - A program held or existing for general or repeated sale or lease. The term also includes a program developed for in-house use which is subsequently offered for sale or lease as a product.

(f) COMPUTER PROGRAMS.

(D) The sale or lease of a prewritten program is not a taxable transaction if the program is transferred by remote telecommunications from the seller's place of business, to or through the purchaser's computer and the purchaser does not obtain possession of any tangible personal property, such as storage media, in the transaction.

-----

This is certainly the case with Second Life software. The server software remains in California while the client is downloaded to your computer. This is the general business model for most MMORGs. However, not all states support this model of software taxation. This non-uniformity between states is the wedge that will be seized upon by Congress (under its interstate regulation powers (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec.8) to tax virtual wealth.

Of course, they *could* just as easily apply the over-the-net exemption as the state of California does. Considering how godawful-friendly they are to the business community, and how much they scream about "new taxes", you'd think that they would. Unfortunately, their second loyalty is to themselves and the "public pocketbook" (citizens, of course, are dead last), and so they are likely to grab that pie with both hands and start stuffing their faces (after assuring their corporate overlords that it is an unfortunate "necessity".)

First, I am not a lawyer.

Linden Lab, the company responsible for Second Life [SL] is physically located in California, therefore it seems that they would fall under that jurisdiction in taxation matters.

There are no California taxes collected on monies paid to Linden Lab, AFAIK, unless they are bundled into the cost. Neither the TOS nor the membership plan page nor the pricing plan page nor the billing policies make any reference to any included taxes.

The California Tax Service Center page says clearly that "Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax." However, software delivered over the net is *not* taxed by CA under Reg. 1502of the California State Board of Equalization. {From LinkScan(tm)}.

State of California

BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

SALES AND USE TAX REGULATIONS

Regulation 1502. COMPUTERS, PROGRAMS, AND DATA PROCESSING.

Reference: Sections 995.2, 6006, 6007, 6010, 6010.9, 6011, 6012, 6015, and 6016, Revenue and Taxation Code.

(b) DEFINITIONS OF TERMS.

Prewritten Program - A program held or existing for general or repeated sale or lease. The term also includes a program developed for in-house use which is subsequently offered for sale or lease as a product.

(f) COMPUTER PROGRAMS.

(D) The sale or lease of a prewritten program is not a taxable transaction if the program is transferred by remote telecommunications from the seller's place of business, to or through the purchaser's computer and the purchaser does not obtain possession of any tangible personal property, such as storage media, in the transaction.

-----

This is certainly the case with Second Life software. The server software remains in California while the client is downloaded to your computer. This is the general business model for most MMORGs. However, not all states support this model of software taxation. This non-uniformity between states is the wedge that will be seized upon by Congress (under its interstate regulation powers (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec.8) to tax virtual wealth.

Of course, they *could* just as easily apply the over-the-net exemption as the state of California does. Considering how godawful-friendly they are to the business community, and how much they scream about "new taxes", you'd think that they would. Unfortunately, their second loyalty is to themselves and the "public pocketbook" (citizens, of course, are dead last), and so they are likely to grab that pie with both hands and start stuffing their faces (after assuring their corporate overlords that it is an unfortunate "necessity".)

First, I am not a lawyer.

Linden Lab, the company responsible for Second Life [SL] is physically located in California, therefore it seems that they would fall under that jurisdiction in taxation matters.

There are no California taxes collected on monies paid to Linden Lab, AFAIK, unless they are bundled into the cost. Neither the TOS nor the membership plan page nor the pricing plan page nor the billing policies make any reference to any included taxes.

The California Tax Service Center page says clearly that "Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax." However, software delivered over the net is *not* taxed by CA under Reg. 1502of the California State Board of Equalization. {From LinkScan(tm)}.

State of California

BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

SALES AND USE TAX REGULATIONS

Regulation 1502. COMPUTERS, PROGRAMS, AND DATA PROCESSING.

Reference: Sections 995.2, 6006, 6007, 6010, 6010.9, 6011, 6012, 6015, and 6016, Revenue and Taxation Code.

(b) DEFINITIONS OF TERMS.

Prewritten Program - A program held or existing for general or repeated sale or lease. The term also includes a program developed for in-house use which is subsequently offered for sale or lease as a product.

(f) COMPUTER PROGRAMS.

(D) The sale or lease of a prewritten program is not a taxable transaction if the program is transferred by remote telecommunications from the seller's place of business, to or through the purchaser's computer and the purchaser does not obtain possession of any tangible personal property, such as storage media, in the transaction.

-----

This is certainly the case with Second Life software. The server software remains in California while the client is downloaded to your computer. This is the general business model for most MMORGs. However, not all states support this model of software taxation. This non-uniformity between states is the wedge that will be seized upon by Congress (under its interstate regulation powers (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec.8) to tax virtual wealth.

Of course, they *could* just as easily apply the over-the-net exemption as the state of California does. Considering how godawful-friendly they are to the business community, and how much they scream about "new taxes", you'd think that they would. Unfortunately, their second loyalty is to themselves and the "public pocketbook" (citizens, of course, are dead last), and so they are likely to grab that pie with both hands and start stuffing their faces (after assuring their corporate overlords that it is an unfortunate "necessity".)

First, I am not a lawyer.

Linden Lab, the company responsible for Second Life [SL] is physically located in California, therefore it seems that they would fall under that jurisdiction in taxation matters.

There are no California taxes collected on monies paid to Linden Lab, AFAIK, unless they are bundled into the cost. Neither the TOS nor the membership plan page nor the pricing plan page nor the billing policies make any reference to any included taxes.

The California Tax Service Center page says clearly that "Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax." However, software delivered over the net is *not* taxed by CA under Reg. 1502of the California State Board of Equalization. {From LinkScan(tm)}.

State of California

BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

SALES AND USE TAX REGULATIONS

Regulation 1502. COMPUTERS, PROGRAMS, AND DATA PROCESSING.

Reference: Sections 995.2, 6006, 6007, 6010, 6010.9, 6011, 6012, 6015, and 6016, Revenue and Taxation Code.

(b) DEFINITIONS OF TERMS.

Prewritten Program - A program held or existing for general or repeated sale or lease. The term also includes a program developed for in-house use which is subsequently offered for sale or lease as a product.

(f) COMPUTER PROGRAMS.

(D) The sale or lease of a prewritten program is not a taxable transaction if the program is transferred by remote telecommunications from the seller's place of business, to or through the purchaser's computer and the purchaser does not obtain possession of any tangible personal property, such as storage media, in the transaction.

-----

This is certainly the case with Second Life software. The server software remains in California while the client is downloaded to your computer. This is the general business model for most MMORGs. However, not all states support this model of software taxation. This non-uniformity between states is the wedge that will be seized upon by Congress (under its interstate regulation powers (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec.8) to tax virtual wealth.

Of course, they *could* just as easily apply the over-the-net exemption as the state of California does. Considering how godawful-friendly they are to the business community, and how much they scream about "new taxes", you'd think that they would. Unfortunately, their second loyalty is to themselves and the "public pocketbook" (citizens, of course, are dead last), and so they are likely to grab that pie with both hands and start stuffing their faces (after assuring their corporate overlords that it is an unfortunate "necessity".)

Second Life has been snuffed out of existence. They were not accepting log-ins throughout the late afternoon and currently are only allowing employees to log-in.
Anybody want to estimate how many Linden$ are being lost because of this? ;^)
http://secondlife.com/status/



1/30 of a monthly subscription? Since people pay monthly a outage of one day will cost either 0 or what ever linden wishes to refund. a 1 day credit would be reasonable?

Anybody want to estimate how many Linden$ are being lost because of this? ;^)

http://secondlife.com/status/

Maybe LUGs should virtualize their meetings on Second Life or similar virtual spaces.

Maybe LUGs should virtualize their meetings on Second Life or similar virtual spaces.

Of course, Linden Lab has failed to provide some venue in which to "vote" on these issues, so I guess the BUG people are just taking the summer off.

A month or so ago, Linden Lab introduced a new enhancement called WINDLIGHT to the world. It's purpose was to make the worlds SKY more realistic and "prettier". Once the enhancement was added, people immediately started to complain. The lag was so horrendous that within 2 hours time, Linden Lab pulled WINDLIGHT and has YET to re-introduce it.

Quick breakdown: About half a million weekly users. About half a million more who logged on over the previous month. About another half million who log on bi-monthly. The last two are obviously going to represent a much larger chunk of people who showed up once or twice and then decided it wasn't for them, but it's not a bad measure all the same.

"invade" is a bit of a strong word and likely not even accurate. it's not as if second life was happy just humming along losing money providing this virtual world at their own cost and for no benefit.

My question is, isn't the whole 'government intrusiveness' issue a logical result of the nanny state?

I mean, to put it in more pedestrian terms: if I can't make my house payment (or food, or car lease, or whatever) and so I have to beg you for money to keep me going, don't you logically have a vested interest in my activities? If you're lending me $ so my kids can eat, but then you see me drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette (or having a satellite dish installed), aren't you justifiably going to be a little pissed off?

Every time we hand power over the daily conduct of our lives to the government, we EMPOWER them to surveil, intrude, and legislate our activities. If we ask the government to ban smoking, we SIMULTANEOUSLY are asking the government to keep an eye in every public space to make sure there's no smoking.

To extrapolate further (and onto thinner ice, I'm well aware), if we hand over the complete responsibility for our personal safety to the government (say, by banning personal firearms), aren't we simultaneously giving them a perfect justification for watching us at every moment, so as to keep us safe?

Since the New Deal, we've had a populace which has WELCOMED government involvement in everything: who you can hire, who you can fire, where you can smoke, what you can smoke ... many of the rules made for the best of reasons. But the Founding Fathers (whom I respect for their foresight more every year) anticipated this, and laid out a government whose powers were STRICTLY circumscribed to a fairly small number of responsibilities. Sadly, Roosevelt's "Good Intentions" paved right over those limits while building the road to the current situation.

Slashdotters love to quote the old saying "People who give up an essential liberty for a little security deserve neither" when talking about the Bush Administration's efforts against global terrorism. What they don't seem to realize is that SAME aphorism applies to their government-backed college loan, or the laws that prevent employers firing them because they're gay. Personally, I don't think many of the people 'demanding' liberty could really handle the consequences of liberty for everyone - read Second Life's "The War of the Jessie Wall" (http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_07_07_archive.ph p) (Parts 1-5) & http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_07_14_archive.php ) (Parts 6-10). It's an eye-opening illustration of what happens when utopian ideals of freedom are applied generally, unfortunately Linden Labs chose to play God instead of seeing how this would eventually resolve itself.

Simply put: We can't have our cake and eat it, too. If you want to get rid of the overreaching Federal government sticking its nose into everything, then you have to also get rid of the Federal government that requires handicapped access, enforces affirmative action, supplies welfare, medicaid, and (allegedly administers) social security, sets educational & medical standards, and whole host of other things that people consider beneficial because they are in fact two sides of the same coin.

Hate to be the pedantic one to ruin your humorous slant, but Linden Dollars have real world value, and it can be viewed here, https://secure-web6.secondlife.com/currency , but you need a (free) game account to view it. apologies for the inconvenience.

Daily Summary
Last Close Date 2007-07-03
Best buying rate: L$266 / US$1.00
Best selling rate: L$276 / US$1.00
Last trade: L$265 / US$1.00
Last close: L$265 / US$1.00
Change: L$0 / US$1.00
Today's volume: L$38,588,158
Today's open: L$266 / US$1.00
Today's high: L$276 / US$1.00
Today's low: L$265 / US$1.00
Today's average: L$268.1599 / US$1.00

These are the (shamelessly copied and pasted) numbers I snagged just now, to spare their server any senseless hammerings. My apologies to Linden Labs if I'm not allowed to do that.

Note, I'm not a lawyer. Contact one today.

1. Can I do it with Linux today (GPL2) and tomorrow (GPL3)?

YES. Nowhere in the GPL, ether version 2 nor 3, precludes you from running a closed source binary on a Linux system. If it did, we wouldn't be as far as we are now -- and I wouldn't be running Second Life on a Nvidia Geforce 7 series card.

2. Can I statically link the code with Linux libraries? (My own experience shows that dynamic linking is too much to bear.)

Yes, check the manual pages and info pages on GCC. To keep on the licence issue, the GPL does not transfer to code compiled by GCC, and the "Lesser GPL" that is used on libraries allows you to staticly link them into closed code.

3. Can I obfuscate my code (e.g. encode it)?

It would be useless. If you ship a binary only, the obfuscation would already be worked out by the compiler, and a decompiler could be used to steal the code. Since you're not licencing under the GPL, you must make a licence that prohibits decompilation and disassembly without permission.

4. Could I be forced to publish this code by some 3-d party?

No. Since you are not licensing it under the GPL, the BSD variant licenses, the Apache license, the Perl Artistic License, or any Open Source Foundation approved license, it would be under what you specify in your own license.

5. Am I correct that programming in and selling BSD-based boxes won't raise any of the above problems?

It is only a legal issue, not a technical issue. You really need to consult a lawyer who is willing to delve into the GPL, the Lesser GPL, and the BSD licenses.

One aspect of the virtual property rights issue is often confused in these discussions (and seems to be confused in the court ruling):

Ownership of the intellectual property related to content developed in a virtual environment is not the same as ownership of the virtual items.

Linden's TOS recognizes creators rights to the content created within SecondLife http://secondlife.com/whatis/ip_rights.php but that does not extend to ownership of the virtual items: