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Second Life Mogul Challenges Press Freedom
An anonymous reader tipped us to a post on ZDNet about some disturbing freedom of the press issues in Second Life. Content mogul Anshe Chung is filing DMCA complaints with organizations that post screenshots of her content, citing an infringement of copyright. From the article: "The issue has surfaced after the avatar Anshe Chung (real name Ailin Graef) was attacked by animated flying penises during a virtual interview with CNET news, conducted in their Second Life bureau last month. A video of the attack surfaced on YouTube, and was then taken town after Anshe Chung Studios filed a DMCA complaint. The Sydney Morning Herald and the blog BoingBoing have also received similar notices."
This is something that SL users have been bitching about for a while - That their stuff shouldn't be screenshotted for the sole reason that it's their intellectual property, even if it's not being claimed to be otherwise. An example is SomethingAwful's Second Life Safari, where one such SL user went ape shit over the posting of "intellectual property" (read: Screen shot).
No. If your shit can be seen simply by logging into SL (which is free to roam around in), it can be posted anywhere. It's like clipping a Slashdotter's post and popping it on a site as a quote.
Now, I couldn't actually figure out what TFA was talking about, whether it was the SL staff involved, or SL users, but all the same, if it's the SL staff, people have no right to complain; It's their servers, and if they don't want you doing something, they have every right in the world to take you off, especially if you're one of those "free" users. People don't seem to realize that freedom of speech is restricted to political views and religion, and are rescinded while in private property. Censorship is wholly allowed in private.
Such a horrible "game" with a terribly whiny community, and this Anshe Chung person has had more press coverage than should be allowed.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
I don't know anything about Second Live but I have found the WIKI article about her http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshe_Chung and after reading I think she might have deserved it.
Too bad we can't spawn massive dicks in real live. This would come in useful when our officials make an ass out of us on TV.
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
We all take for granted that the tools used to create a work aren't included as part of a copyrightable work. And when we use bits and pieces of existing works to create a new and original work, that is called fair use.
And when someone uses the DMCA take-down as a means to suppress others, especially in a creative or speech effort, there is certainly a cause for suit against the initiator.
I say that all people involved in the creation of the "attack scene" need to file suit against the people responsible for the initial abusive DMCA take-down.
One thing that's interesting about this is that the very strong DRM in SL (at least inside the game context... it's not particularly effective outside the game) gives people an expectation of being able to absolutely control the distribution of stuff they make, because SL lets them control the distribution of stuff they make to an extreme degree (and, yet, a lot of people still argue they don't have enough control). The idea that a 512x512 pixel image (which is what a dress in SL is, basically) should get this kind of protection is typical of the game. SL clothing designers will argue with a straight face that it's a violation of their artistic expression for you to be able to let out or cut off the sleeves on a shirt you bought!
The thing is, if the people who are pushing for ever-stronger DRM get their way, this is the kind of future we're heading for, over the long term. As soon as they come up with a mechanism that would make your shirt disintegrate if you tried to change the tailoring, you're going to have people arguing that it's their right to control how you wear your clothes. Disintegrating DVDs are just the tip of the iceberg... and the changes won't come in big obvious jumps, just a gradual erosion of our rights as IP laws and DRM become stronger and stronger.
..did these griefers make all those things fly at her? Did they break the game in some way, or is it part of the standard model?
No, it's not ironic at all. Even if your posts are moderated down to -3, slashdot users can still read what you have to say. Your post is not deleted. You are free to say what you like on slashdot, and others are free to mod you up or down. Total freedom.
This is a lot better than most forums, where posts get deleted if they don't agree with a moderator's sensibilities. Even if slashdot DID delete your posts, there's nothing wrong with that - because slashdot is a privately-owned forum. You still have your freedom to say what you want, but slashdot is under no obligation to publish it. Slashdot is not preventing you from saying the same thing in a letter to your local newspaper - or to say it while walking down the street.
However, you seem to be arguing for legal restrictions on what can be published - and using the threat of law to remove such speech from people's own private or public forums. Now that is a restriction on freedom of the press. Being modded down on slashdot is not.
... and then they built the supercollider.
She's also harmful to Second Life's culture. At one time, I "rented" land in a nice little forest with a bunch of other folk. She eventually came in, bought up most of the land, established some wild west thing, and made it very unpleasant to be there. At the same time, she did her best to get the rest of us to leave. I think the community would be better off without her. She ruins everything she touches.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
There are some constraints you need to be aware of concerning the second life building tools. The main one that is relevant in this case is that when using flexprims, as was witnessed here by the umm.. flexing of the members.. only one end can appear to be solidly attached to any other prim. I say appear to be, because any prim attached to the flexible end will stay in it's inert position while the flexprim does it's own little dance in the wind. This would result, in this case, in the base of the member wagging about, while the testicles would remain solidly in place. You can use your imagination to see how this would not quite have the desired effect :).
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?
I was present back when Anshe pulled some nasty underhandedness with some a group of "furries" and removed all their content from an area they rented from her for disagreeing with her. This sparked a full on second life riot in the said area.
Hillarity ensued."
You know Anshe wouldn't get this treatment is she wasn't such a stuck up shark who abuses her position. No one has a problem with her being a business woman. The real problem is her attitude and her bad business practices.
I'd highly recommend that people simply stop renting from her, because the true cost (her attitude and DMCA crap like this) is really not worth it.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
No kidding. I mean really who cares? That and from what I understand she lives in GERMANY, not the US. Isn't invoking the DMCA, a US law as a German citizen a little, well, useless? Or is it because the Second Life servers are in the US?
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Thanks.
I think the funniest thing is that no one--Slashdot, CNET, BoingBoing, Reuters, etc--no one but Warren Ellis has mentioned that it originally came from SA. Steve Hutcheon emailed me but he recused himself from writing a story.