That is one of the bad parts about content creation on SL.
You own the IP rights to everything you create, but LL disclaims any responsibility to preserving your access to it. If their inventory server goes belly up and all the backups are eaten by moths, the TOS says LL isn't liable for anything.
There has been some talk of a system where you could make local backup copies of in world objects, but that's hard to work with the internal DRM that all objects in-world have.
He didn't circumvent a copy-control, there's no DMCA violation.
They could try to get him on unauthorized use a computer system, but the precedent there would be bad.
Do you really want to go to jail because you guessed a URL? I know I often have tried to get around sites with bad navigation by crafting the URL, I don't consider that hacking.
The issue at hand is whether crafting a URL is "hacking" or if the subsequent results of typing a hand crafted URL that the creator didn't intend you to type can form the basis of a binding contract or not.
(BTW- Second life isn't a MMORPG, it's a 3D development platform in the form of an interactive social world)
You could find land in-world that was marked for auction but hadn't gone up for auction yet. It had the auction ID on the parcel info.
You could then go to the auction web site and change the GET variable in an auction URL to point to the not-yet-existing auction, which would come up with a minimum bid of $0, rather than the normal $1000.
His case hinges on one you hand typed this crafted URL, it says "Be the first to bid in this auction, bid at least $1"... he claims that this formed a binding offer of sale.
The "exploit" was trivial, but it was obviously not the intent of Linden Lab to sell the land for a minimum bid of $0.
When you write a program, your compiler or interperter will tell you when you fuck up. When you write a website, your browser tries its best not to tell you when a page is fucked up.
It's a supremely bad idea to rely on whether a browser can display your site to determine whether it is designed correctly or not. Even the next version of the same browser might do something unpredictably different with your tag soup.
They can't revoke my right to use my hardware on a whim. Sun, however, can disable every installation of the JVM in every device world-wide for whatever reason they want to. It has a phone-home clause in the license remember?
Aggregation on the same medium is not a determining factor. The FSF has said that being on the same medium isn't important, the "mere aggregation" clause.
To be honest, no one knows where the line is, not even the FSF.
"What constitutes combining two parts into one program? This is a legal question, which ultimately judges will decide." --From the FSF
Until Sun gets bought by some "we sue people for a living" company, like SCO did. Then they'll be a big scramble to make a third party JVM (and libraries) that doesn't suck and is clean of Sun IP.
Will they pull it off in time? Who knows. It's still a huge risk to have invested years into an application that can have the rug pulled out from under it at any time.
Heh speaking of this... Our local news did "live web polls" for a while.
They would present the poll at 11:05 and then read the results on the air at 11:25.
But their web software had absolutely no protection against multiple votes.
Their questions were so stupid and leading too.
Anyway so one night was something like "Should convicted murders be punished" or something equally retarded. I voted about 1500 times for "No"... it was funny to see the anchorwoman read that poll result on the air.
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A guy a know did a Duke3D map for our highschool. These days he'd probably get suspended for doing such a thing.
Did anyone really expect them to continue supporting a game from 1991??
This is the silliest story I've ever read.
Doesn't anyonre remember the last portal wars?
They were won by a company that didn't provide a portal, just a simple search service that let people find what they want.
People don't want a "portal"... they just want to find what they are looking for quickly.
Do you think satellite links use light?
In the case we are talking about, where the GPL is found invalid somehow, you no longer have a way to comply with it, since it's invalid.
Nothing else gives you permission to use the software, so you must discontinue using it until the copyright holder grants you a new license.
Deleting a counterstrike character doesn't destroy thousands of US dollars in intellectual property licenses.
Deleting a Second Life character generally does. I know I have at least $2000 USD in assets, and my account is only a few months old.
That is one of the bad parts about content creation on SL.
You own the IP rights to everything you create, but LL disclaims any responsibility to preserving your access to it. If their inventory server goes belly up and all the backups are eaten by moths, the TOS says LL isn't liable for anything.
There has been some talk of a system where you could make local backup copies of in world objects, but that's hard to work with the internal DRM that all objects in-world have.
He didn't circumvent a copy-control, there's no DMCA violation.
They could try to get him on unauthorized use a computer system, but the precedent there would be bad.
Do you really want to go to jail because you guessed a URL? I know I often have tried to get around sites with bad navigation by crafting the URL, I don't consider that hacking.
That ignores the real issues.
The issue at hand is whether crafting a URL is "hacking" or if the subsequent results of typing a hand crafted URL that the creator didn't intend you to type can form the basis of a binding contract or not.
(BTW- Second life isn't a MMORPG, it's a 3D development platform in the form of an interactive social world)
Here's how it worked.
You could find land in-world that was marked for auction but hadn't gone up for auction yet. It had the auction ID on the parcel info.
You could then go to the auction web site and change the GET variable in an auction URL to point to the not-yet-existing auction, which would come up with a minimum bid of $0, rather than the normal $1000.
His case hinges on one you hand typed this crafted URL, it says "Be the first to bid in this auction, bid at least $1"... he claims that this formed a binding offer of sale.
The "exploit" was trivial, but it was obviously not the intent of Linden Lab to sell the land for a minimum bid of $0.
Yes, I had a customer with a catchall. We turned it off a year ago, and he still gets about 10,000 spams a day, phonebook style.
I didn't write it.
The sites I write look fine with the font whatever size you want.
The site renders nothing like that in my copy of Firefox 1.5.0.3.
I mean, is your PC safe from abduction by aliens?
Yes, my tinfoil hat prevents that.
I validate every page.
When you write a program, your compiler or interperter will tell you when you fuck up. When you write a website, your browser tries its best not to tell you when a page is fucked up.
It's a supremely bad idea to rely on whether a browser can display your site to determine whether it is designed correctly or not. Even the next version of the same browser might do something unpredictably different with your tag soup.
They can't revoke my right to use my hardware on a whim. Sun, however, can disable every installation of the JVM in every device world-wide for whatever reason they want to. It has a phone-home clause in the license remember?
They would, I don't doubt it. But what are you going to do in the meantime?
Have you ever even read those 50 pages of legalese every time you install the JVM?
Summary:
Sun can fuck you any time they want to for any reason they want to.
Isn't that the point?
So if OpenOffice were GPL, then all Word documents are subject to the GPL?
I think you are seriously reaching here.
Aggregation on the same medium is not a determining factor. The FSF has said that being on the same medium isn't important, the "mere aggregation" clause.
To be honest, no one knows where the line is, not even the FSF.
"What constitutes combining two parts into one program? This is a legal question, which ultimately judges will decide." --From the FSF
Or simply go back to the biggest market for their products.
That's good advice. Companies in the late 70s and early 80s often followed that advice, and stuck to their biggest market, mainframes.
The widespread success of mainframe computers today is a testament to the soundness of that advice. Those "personal computers" will never catch on.
Until Sun gets bought by some "we sue people for a living" company, like SCO did. Then they'll be a big scramble to make a third party JVM (and libraries) that doesn't suck and is clean of Sun IP.
Will they pull it off in time? Who knows. It's still a huge risk to have invested years into an application that can have the rug pulled out from under it at any time.
I do have to use it if one of the sites I use decides to gratuitously implement this crap.
At least it's better than ActiveX.
Heh speaking of this... Our local news did "live web polls" for a while.
They would present the poll at 11:05 and then read the results on the air at 11:25.
But their web software had absolutely no protection against multiple votes.
Their questions were so stupid and leading too.
Anyway so one night was something like "Should convicted murders be punished" or something equally retarded. I voted about 1500 times for "No"... it was funny to see the anchorwoman read that poll result on the air.