Naali policy regarding SL (re: LL's Third Party Viewer Policy)
Ryan McDougall
http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php
There a number of onerous requirements that will be problematic for
Naali, such as (emph mine):
* "[TPV] must use a protocol that is compatible with the protocol of
[LL]’s viewers **as it is documented in our source code**"
* "You must not use or provide any functionality that [LL]’s viewers
do not have for exporting content"
* "You agree to update or delete at our request any data that you have
received from [SL] or our servers and systems"
* "[Developers] are responsible for all features, functionality, code,
and content of [TPV] that you develop or distribute." (!!)
* "[You must not] expose [SL] users, [LL], or third parties to legal
liability or harm as determined by us in **our sole discretion**."
* "You assume all risks, expenses, and defects of any [TPV] that you
use, develop, or distribute."
* "If we believe that your [TPV] is not in compliance, we may request
that you add, modify, or remove features, functionality, code or
content, and you agree to comply with the request within a reasonable
timeframe specified by [LL]."
* "[LL] reserve the right [...] to pursue any and all legal and
equitable remedies."
* Plus a number of requirements that while more sensible, create a
burden of supporting SL's quality of service that is beyond the scope
of our project given our resources.
* Problems surrounding our modularity; where anyone can use naali to
load any sort of module.
(Definitions:
* [TPV is] any third-party software client on any device that logs
into our servers
* [Developer is] any person or entity who develops or distributes a [TPV])
A careful reading of the policy makes it appear as is merely
implementing the SL protocols makes one instantly liable the second
anyone ever logs into SL. However, a LL employee (Joe Linden)
clarifies further here:
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/opensource-dev/2010-March/001298.html
"If a developer of a TPV never uses it to connect to SL, there is
nothing in that document that applies to them. Period. By the same
token, if that viewer is designed and intended to be used to access
the Second Life grid(s) there are responsibilities that follow, both
for users of those viewers and for developers."
Which means we as developer can avoid the above TPV policy so long as:
* none of us use Naali to log into SL ourselves
* declare that Naali is not designed and intended to access SL; ie. if
Naali can connect and use SL, it is an incidental result of connecting
and using OpenSim ('s LLClientStack)
While the TPV policy seems like one huge own-goal to me, Joe gives us
a way to keep Naali safe from potential future legal action from LL.
I would like to ask if we can make this policy of the project.
PS. I don't believe that this policy would have any negative effect on
OpenSim's SL-based feature support in Naali. On the contrary, my hope
is that Naali can be used with the many popular OpenSim grids using SL
protocols. Only the services hosted by LL are problematic.
Cheers,
Ryan McDougall
PPS. Nor does this stop Naali **users** from connecting to SL using
Naali -- it only means that you as a **user** agree to the TPV policy
-- you haven't shifted liability on the developers in any way.