Maria wrote a post about Linda Kellie becoming a PR coup for SpotON3D and it brought on a huge flurry of comments. unfortunately, her comments are now closed and it was a bummer that her blog allowed me to write one and then notified me afterward that it won’t post it. i type so slowly that i hate to waste effort like that
one of the beauties of the web is that it is mostly open and free and allows many to express their opinions
keeping the web open and free isn’t a given
remember back in january how the US Congress was going to pass the SOPA legislation lobbied for by the American Film something or other?
the world spoke out and many signatures were collected and that legislation was postponed
it takes a lot of work and diligence to maintain freedom and it is no different for OpenSim and virtual worlds. people were correct to be alarmed when the CEO for SpotON3D gloated about the patents he had filed. people’s reactions did not magically occur for no reason – the CEO clearly stated what he was patenting and that he would pursue protecting those patents
OpenSim is an open source and wonderful platform. however, it’s a very delicate one because there are only a small number of developers working on it. it would not take much for that effort to stop
this post is not about Linda, who like you and me is free to make choices, but about the OpenSim community and its future
please read Crista Lopes’ A Personal Plea on Patents – it’s concise and well written
Dr. Lopes is a core OpenSim developer, a professor at UC Irvine, was a Research Scientist with Xerox, and has her doctorate in Computer Science (her bio). Dr. Lopes’ sweat, tears, and talents have been poured into OpenSim for years and she also creates the D2 Distro (used in SoaS) and also works on a project to help city developers visualise sustainable urban planning
i stress her expertise and contributions because she is not expressing a casual opinion and has the expert background to speak on the topic of patents with full authority
we can’t take the freedom of OpenSim with a laissez faire attitude
your actions and who you support do determine the future of OpenSim
please read her post and help keep OpenSim free with your day-to-day actions =)
In other news, Linda Kellie eats at Chick-fil-A, “Who cares if they are against equal right for gays, I like chicken”.
Some Bloke
3 Aug 12 at 8:33 pm
I’m afraid the people that should listen to Christa’s plea, won’t.
Micheil Merlin
3 Aug 12 at 8:47 pm
I remember Diva Canto’s article on Patents. It was back in the summer of 2010 and I wrote a blog item about it too…
http://metaverse-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/i-re-publish-rant-i-made-about-people.html
In fact it lead to a heated debate between myself and Elania of Inworldz in which she said she couldn’t say Inworldz would not patent anything. To their credit though they never did patent anything that would stifle Opensim development to my knowledge, and more credit is due to Tranquility of Inworldz for offering to submit patches to core (I read his exchange with Justine on Twitter). I use to be quite antagonistic to Inworldz because of the patent’s issue but I have long since changed my position due to the fact Inworldz has built a fantastic community, Tranquility has been open and friendly to me despite the way I felt. It’s all about respect and it goes both ways. I came to believe Inworldz, regardless of being a closed commercial grid, really supported the rest of the Open Metaverse community – something I can’t say for Linden Labs who now I learn are shutting off their viewer to Opensim!
SpotON3D, on the other hand, not only patented an open source invention that was important to the development of Opensim but they actually threatened the community with legal action if anyone used it without buying a license from them. Not just that but they have never contributed a single patch to Opensim core or even offered when recently it was made easier for doing that. SO3D have no respect for the Opensim community when judged on their actions so it is hardly surprising they have come in for a lot of bad press. Moreover, it is clear their stated aim was to create not just a closed grid but an entire closed Metaverse and, it would seem to me, so determined are they to achieve it that they are taking the patent route to shut down the competition.
Opensim is a wonderful VR platform that brings virtual worlds to the ordinary person, none-profits and commercial interests at relatively low cost and learning curve. I for one would fight tooth and nail to preserve and support that.
Gaga
3 Aug 12 at 8:52 pm
nicely put Gaga and Tranquility is above board in my books
i am okay with them doing their own thing but i was disappointed at first when they split off from OpenSim – mainly because OpenSim has such a small development team
but Tranquility is a part of the community and a very generous part of it. his actions speak loudly and they are always helpful and non-judgmental – Tranquility is a mature and caring person and i am thankful to him and InWorldz
SpotON3D has been aggressive about their stance and has been confrontational and abrupt. they are not caring about the OpenSim community – only about themselves
i suppose i could patent Sim-on-a-Stick even though it’s really the product of Diva and Roger Stack but i could be a ahole and only self-interested. i have had a few people say i should crage for it! lol, if i did that irt would be antithetical to its entire purpose!
i equate SpotON3D with the tuba fishing industry in the late 1970. – a total boycott changed their senseless killing of thousands of dolphins
i can’t support SpotON3D in any way and it made me sad to rmove Lind’s “ad” from my freebie site
we can only control our own actions and offer information to help others decide for themselves
yes Micheil, you are correct – those people will proceed in the egotistical and selfish ways – regardless of the outcome. the ego is a difficult thing to keep in check!
lol Some Bloke! – Chick-fil-A is a great analogy and simply proves that there are a lot of narrow minded and ignorant people out there. there is nothing wrong with ignorance in itsefl, i am deeply ignorant in many things, but acting badly from a place of ignorance is not acceptable
Ener Hax
4 Aug 12 at 8:59 am
Ener, I like your comment about the “tuba” fishing industry. Is that where you eat the can instead of the fish? :-) Seriously, though, you make a compelling point.
Joey1058
4 Aug 12 at 10:28 am
i wont go into IP protection. i have already written enough stuff in the past. but i will tell what a xerox lawyer once told me (as well as i can remember it):
in IP, you pick the fight where you are likely to win.
thats why i would find a partner with ibm, intel, xerox (PARC), sun, oracle, microsoft or some other company and develop under their protection. or use the olivetti way and make all of them partners.
if i were part of opensim development, that where i would go. and i would use the intel/microsoft/olivetti way to do it. who is the leader of opensim anyway?
bristle
4 Aug 12 at 12:42 pm
the little known tuba industry in a critical one! talking about tubas Joey, theyt are commeonly stolen instruments from high schools – one town in California had 22 of them stolen last year. they can sell for up to $8,000 on the black market!
hmm, the leader of OpenSim is probably Justin Clark-Casey since he is president of Overte. but Overte is yet to be fully formed
he has done work with Intel and Intel is pretty active with OpenSim development i believe
Ener Hax
4 Aug 12 at 5:50 pm
yes, i think Justin Clark-Casey is the lead of opensim. i know that they are busy with opensim in bug fixes. i really dislike not have a web addon. every other game engine does that now.
i recently look at a live video of tomorrowland. immediately i said,”that what i want for opensim”. in-house camera control but not viewer-control. you get to watch it, thats all. or maybe have more then one feed. of course i would like more but right now that would be a start.
maybe all i need is a cam follower on the server side. feed the stream to some other thing and then have it stream live video so that youtube can pick it up. its not interactive but not watching anything is less so.
bristle
5 Aug 12 at 3:17 am