The petition
Right now, on the JIRA, a proposal -- and a coded, ready patch -- is being proposed that will undermine copyright and intellectual property -- the heart of Second Life and the secret of success to its burgeoning economy. Already more than 100 people have signed this petition and are also voting on the JIRA:
http://www.ipetitions.com/peti...
We must work together to stop this blatant imposition of the non-choice of opensource extremism on our world.
Right now, a small group of coders with the "copyleftist" anti-copyright point of view want to weld into the tools of Second Life something completely new: a default to NO PERMISSIONS for all creators -- and imposition of their worldview on you.
If you are a content creator, and if you are a consumer who values your favourite content creators' right to uphold their IP and make a living in SL, you need to pay attention to what is happening with the latest opensource coders' campaign to undermine private property and IP.
By invoking a fake "community" and claiming that "what we want" is "everything can instantly be copied and transferred," these people will succeed in both overthrowing the viewer with Linden minority support under the guise of "choice".
But it is definitely NOT a choice when you have to opt OUT in order to protect your copyright.
These tekkies want every prim to work as follows the minute you rez it inworld:
1. Anyone can copy
2. Next owner can copy
3. Next owner can modify
4. Next owner can resell/transfer
Currently, the way this ingenious system works is as follows -- and we need to keep it this way!:
1. No one can copy -- unless the creator choses to flag it to "anyone can copy".
2. Next owner cannot copy -- unless the creator choses to flag it to "next owner can transfer"
3. Next owner cannot modify -- unless the creator choses to flag it to "next owner can modify"
4. Next owner cannot transfer -- unless the creator choses to flag it to "next owner can transfer".
It's about creators' CHOICE, and most creators CHOSE to control permissions, not give them away.
Naturally, any of us can see that newbies will be the first harmed by such a default to copyleftism instead of copyright, as they will inevitably put out objects set to sale that will not have their permissions protected.
But it's not just newbies, who are a minority of the SL population, but any of us, who can inadvertently lose our creations or the creations of others which we have licensed, by accidently not consciously toggling all the check-offs to "no".
Just as land is not automatically set to automatically sell when you parcel it, but requires multiple check-ups, over and over, four times, before you can set it to sale "for anyone," so objects need to default to protection before rezzing and before sale.
This campaign is predicated on three utterly false notions:
o That everyone in SL wants to share all their creations
o That everyone in SL wants all goods to be free
o That people can somehow make a living by giving everything away for free without permissions
These three concepts are not true of everybody; they are only partly true for a small minority of people.
Please sign this petition with your SL user name and vote in favour of LEAVING PERMISSIONS EXACTLY AS THEY ARE and AGAINST the "4freedom" petition.
We already have enough problems with exploits, hacks, and inaction by Linden Lab. Don't let a sectarian tekkie agenda smuggled into the JIRA to a few willing Lindens overthrow our economy and our world.
Prokofy Neva
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