Monday, August 25, 2008

New BETA abuse categories - some cause for concern?

On the right you can see the screen print of the AR form, but it a little difficult to read so I will paste the new categories here for you to be able to read, highlighting ones I believe of special note:
Age > Age play
Age > Adult resident on Teen Second Life
Age > Underage resident on Adult Second Life
Assault > Combat sandbox / unsafe area
Assault > Safe area
Assault > Weapons testing sandbox
Copyright or intellectual property violation
Commerce > Failure to deliver product or service
Disclosure > First life information
Disclosure > Remotely monitoring chat
Disclosure > Second Life information/chat/IMs
Disturbing the peace > Unfair use of region resources
Disturbing the peace > Excessive scripted objects
Disturbing the peace > Object littering
Disturbing the peace > Repetitive spam
Disturbing the peace > Unwanted advert spam
Fraud > L$
Fraud > Land
Fraud > Pyramid scheme or chain letter
Fraud > US$
Harassment > Advert farms / visual spam
Harassment > Defaming individuals or groups
Harassment > Impeding movement
Harassment > Sexual harassment
Harassment > Soliciting/inciting others to violate ToS
Harassment > Verbal abuse
Indecency > Broadly offensive content or conduct
Indecency > Broadly visible mature content
Indecency > Inappropriate avatar name
Indecency > Mature content in PG region
Intolerance
Land > Abuse of sandbox resources
Land > Encroachment > Object/textures
Land > Encroachment > Particles
Land > Encroachment > Trees/plants
Trademark violation
Wagering/gambling
Other

All of this, including a full discussion, can be found on the forums HERE after SuezanneC Baskerville found this list and posted it.
The highlighted catagories are cause for concern to many and it is to be hoped this list will be reworded or reviewed before going live.
It is great to see a catagory for 'Copyright or intellectual property violation' but since Linden Lab have always maintained Residents should file a DMCA I wonder what use this catagory actually is?
Trademark violation - Do they mean the SL trademark or the consumers? This seems to mean nothing at all without further explanation.
The main one of concern here is Commerce > Failure to deliver product or service - I would love to know how this one will work, quite apart from increasing AR's to an unworkable level, most failures are due to grid problems. Are customers now going to AR content creators simply because of grid hiccups? It would be confusing, to say the least, and those creators could find themselves punished for something they have no control over. Anyone that has sold through a vendor is SL knows these hiccups occur and the majority are happy to put it right if a vendor fails - but how can they do that if the first they know of a problem with a vendor is a warning from LL? Think again Lindens.
Age > Age play - Since when has been against the ToS to age play? This is going to cause an uproar simply by the wording - what I think is actually meant here is SEXUAL age play but this is not made clear, and it should be. Any child avatar could be Abuse Reported under this category as it stands right now.

Join in the discussion HERE and thank you Suzanne for bringing it to every ones attention.

Dana Vanmoer

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