Eye on the Blog: Enforcing the New Third-Party Viewer Policy

On March 31, 2010, M Linden announced an updated Second Life Terms of Service (TOS) that becomes effective on Friday, April 30th. We have incorporated our new Policy on Third-Party Viewers into the updated TOS. This Policy governs access to Second Life and our technical platform that supports Second Life by any third-party viewer, by which we mean any third-party software client, regardless of its source code, that logs into our servers. This includes software for viewing Second Life, any chat clients, utilities, bots, and proxies as well as applications that may not be listed in our Third-Party Viewer Directory. This policy does not place any restriction on modification or use of our viewer source code that we make available under the GPL. Rather, the policy sets out requirements for connecting to the Second Life service using a Third-Party Viewer, regardless of the viewer source code used, and for participating in our Third-Party Viewer Directory.

On Friday, we will begin enforcing the new Policy on Third Party Viewers. The steps we will take may include blocking viewers that do not comply with the new conditions for access to Second Life. We know that there are many compliant viewers in use -- beyond the seven that are currently listed on the Third-Party Viewer Directory -- and we will not interrupt their access to Second Life. The Third-Party Viewer Directory is the best place to find out whether the developer of the viewer that you are using has self-certified that the software complies with the new Policy.

We hope that this step will provide a safer and more secure Second Life environment for all Residents.

And, if you haven't yet tried Second Life Viewer 2, the official Second Life Viewer, then we encourage you to try it, now updated with additional performance and stability enhancements.

To view the blog post, Click Here.

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Second Life Viewers and the Third-Party Viewer Directory

For the Official Experience from Linden Lab
The Official Second Life Viewer

We at Linden Lab have optimized this viewer to help you have a safe, stable, and enjoyable experience in Second Life supported by our Customer Relations team.

The Snowglobe Viewer

We also support the Snowglobe viewer, which typically has new features not yet available in the official Second Life viewer. Developed jointly by Linden Lab and the open source community, this viewer may be somewhat less stable than the official Second Life viewer.

For a More Experimental Experience with a Third-Party Viewer

You may connect to Second Life using software released by a third-party developer. We have a Policy on Third-Party Viewers to help promote a positive and predictable experience for all Second Life Residents. However, because third-party viewers are not our viewers, we cannot guarantee that they will follow our rules. You are responsible for evaluating whether you want to use and share information with them.

The Third-Party Viewer Directory

To be listed in the Viewer Directory, a software developer must self-certify that it complies with Linden Lab policies. Beware of third-party viewers that are not in the Viewer Directory – they have either declined to self-certify or been refused for noncompliance with our policies.

The Third-Party Viewer Directory

Viewer Name - Developer Name
Emerald Viewer - Modular Systems
Kirstens Viewer - KirstenLee Cinquetti
METAbolt - Legolas Luke
Mobile Grid Client - Kurz Socke
omvviewer project - Robin Cornelius
Pocket Metaverse - Pocket Metaverse
Sparkle IM - Genkii KK

For Developers: How To Apply for the Viewer Directory

1. Your Second Life accounts must be in good standing, must not be suspended, and must not have been permanently banned or terminated.
2. You must have valid payment information on file with us or have been age verified by us.
3. Review our Policy on Third-Party Viewers and the Second Life Terms of Service.
4. Make sure you and your third-party viewer are in compliance with our policies.
5. Complete the application form and certify your compliance.

Disclaimer: Linden Lab makes no representations or warranties regarding any of the listed viewers or developers. These third-party viewers are not affiliated with or overseen by Linden Lab. Please take reasonable precautions, including virus scanning, before installing and using any of the listed viewers.

To view the blog page: Click Here, page from a link at the bottom of the Download page.

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New Third Party Viewer Policy Runs Into Backlash

At the same time as the Beta of it’s new viewer, Linden Labs also announced a new policy concerning the use of “third-party viewers in general,” such as the Emerald viewer. The Lindens say they are willing to accept the use of these viewers, though a number are raising questions about the wording of the policy.

The policy was a long list of legalese that this blue collar worker in real-life found hard to understand. Going through the Linden blog, readers expressed similar confusion. Some thought things looked fishy.

Well, not one single instance or version of the 3rd-party clients that I have ever seen or used can meet a strict interpretation of the new rules for an "approved" client, So you have, despite all your noise to the contrary, effectively banned ALL 3rd party clients, as they exist today. At least, banned their use by anyone that plays by the rules. The thieves will still use fake tags and pretend to be an LL-approved copy of Snowglobe and have a field day.

And you know what? LL's OWN CLIENTS can't pass those restrictions!

One of my friends came to me. He thought that the Lindens were making the use of a third party viewer punishable by suspension or ban, and pointed out an entry in the “Boy Lane” blog. Boy Lane called herself one of the people behind one of the 3rd party viewers, and had this to say:

What happened now however is going way too far beyond a reasonable policy. Besides making some clear statements about content "backup" LL also introduced some funny terms they could not legally enforce previously. Such as not using the generic term "life" which one has to explicitly agree upon by signing LL's new policy.

But unfortunately not all can be labeled "funny". To come to the (at least in my opinion) main point. LL introduced one killer clause:

7. Your Responsibility for Third-Party Viewers
If you are a user or Developer of Third-Party Viewers:

a. You are responsible for all uses you make of Third-Party Viewers, and if you are a Developer, you are also responsible for all Third-Party Viewers that you develop or distribute.


What this means is that a viewer developer has to take (legal) responsibility for any action of any viewer user. That's something GPL specifically allows to exclude, now LL forces such responsibility back to software developers. It is pretty much impossible for anyone to take such a responsibility. Besides many other questionable points this clause renders the whole 3rd party viewer policy unacceptable.

Boy Lane stated she refused to comply with the new policy, and recommended others stop using third party viewers, saying they were risking being banned from Second Life.

Tateru Nino in “Massively” called the new policy, “the worst day's work that we've seen come out of the Lab to-date. TPV policies have a number of glaring flaws, chief among which are multiple incompatibilities with the existing source licenses, so that you can't actually build and distribute a viewer from the open source code-base while simultaneously being in compliance with the TPV policies. That's quite an astonishing oversight. In fact, not a single release of the source-code made by Linden Lab to date complies with the TPV policies. An unmodified build from the trunk code-base would be violate the policies as they presently stand.”

Why were the new policies so poorly written? The question was summed up between comments between Tateru and one of her readers. He thought the Lindens were too proud to admit that their viewer was inferior to that others could build. Tateru thought this wasn’t the case, but rather a blunder, wondering if, “someone on the legal team just phoned this in half-asleep.”

Word is, Soft Linden is writing up a more clear policy. Hopefully this will clear up a good deal of confusion and suspicion, and quiet fears the Lindens are trying to ban third-party viewers without saying so.

To go to the Linden Blog post, Click Here

To go to the comments, Click Here.

Other sources: Massively, Boy Lane

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Second Life Viewer 2.0 Beta Released

There’s been some talk about it in recent weeks, wondering what it might bring. Well, it’s finally arrived. The Beta for Second Life’s Viewer 2.0.

“Today, we're excited to announce the launch of Viewer 2 Beta, the next generation of Second Life viewers -- combining an easy browser-like experience with shared media capabilities -- providing what we believe is the best experience yet for accessing Second Life, and a new option to choose from among Viewer 1.23 and other Third Party Viewers. We looked carefully at the experience design of other successful social media and technology platforms--such as the web browser, Facebook, the iPhone, Twitter, etc.--and the key elements that enabled them to reach mass adoption. You'll see much of that thinking baked into new Viewer 2 experience design. Our primary goal was to create a more consumer-friendly viewer--an imperative to bring in a new wave of Second Life Residents. After all, more people in Second Life means that there will be more amazing content, more customers to purchase virtual goods, a thriving economy, more friends and communities, and we can do even more to improve the experience. All very good things for all of us.”

Taking a look, I saw they remembered Mac users, and downloaded the beta viewer. It was notable that the icon had a yellow bar with black stripes on the side, as if to signal “under construction.” It took a minute for the viewer to initially appear after double-clicking on the icon, though later on it came on normally. One friend when downloading it only got a string of binary code.

I managed to log on okay, but my friends list was a bit quirky, people listed as “waiting,” and I was cloudy. Eventually, the list appeared, though some were listed as offline whom later turned out were on. When I logged on later, there was no “waiting” period. My avatar remained a cloud, even on the second time I used the beta. So it looks like the beta needs improvement there.

Using the new viewer took some getting used to, and the side-to-side movement and crouch & jump buttons were missing from the movement toolbar. But there are interesting features. On the right of the screen are tabs, which can be clicked to open a window with information. Bringing up someone’s profile will reveal both their Second Life and real-life pictures (or what’s used in place of them), which can be useful for those who wish to better mix their virtual lives with their real ones. One’s teleport history is stored, so if you forgot to make a landmark at a place you visited the previous day, you can check the history to return.

One feature should be of great interest to non-human avatars, such as furries and tinies: Alpha Masks. Meant to be used in place of invisiprims, they can render parts of your avatar invisible. For digitgrade avatars, this means no “force field” effect around their shins.

Being cloudy the whole time, my impression the beta still needs a good deal of work. But it does have some cool features that show good potential for it.

For the complete Linden blog entry, Click Here. To go to continued comments, Click Here. To go to a Second Life Youtube about the Beta viewer, narrated by Epsy Linden, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

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Third Party Viewer Policy

"Linden Lab supports an open platform with opportunity for all. The flexibility of the content creation tools and open viewer allow for great creativity and innovation, but that openness also carries a responsibility for those developing on our platform and those using third party tools with our platform.
In our recent blog post Our Content Management Roadmap we addressed the responsibility Residents have to respect the intellectual property rights of others inside or outside of Second Life, and we urged developers of third party copying tools to adopt standard industry practices that protect intellectual property. Similarly, developers of third party Second Life viewers must act responsibly in how they develop and distribute their viewers. We are currently working on revisions to our policies regarding the use and management of third party viewers. To support those policy revisions, we will be implementing tools and programs to help us protect our Residents and their content, and enable them to have better, more predictable Second Life experiences."

 In recent months Secondlife has seen a rash of new viewers, some with great features others with some which could be used to spoil others use of secondlife like copybot-like features and phishing. Now Linden Lab are moving to create a registry of these third party viewers with the idea being to protect the secondlife user - what do you think?
You can read the full post HERE or join the discussion HERE

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Viewer 1.23 RC4 Now Available

Because we're very close to releasing the official 1.23 viewer, there are only a few changes in this Release Candidate. Most importantly are the reintroduction of the 'Groups...' option on the Avatar pie menu, and a fix for a problem with poseball hiding and texture mapping. Both of these fixes, and the number of votes each issue received in JIRA, are highlighted in the Key Fixes section of the Release Notes. At the top of the release notes are also a few important Known Issues. Please take the time to read through these, and the rest of the release notes, at:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Release_Candidate/1.23

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Well Its news to me - Making your SL better

Its come to my notice especially since the new iteration that most people do not know how to get the best of their SL experience and in fact, until recently, I had avoided using the later versions because I absolutely hated certain aspects, things like the tools button not being visible and certain other problems which I won't go into now.
What I can do is share a couple of tips to improve your own viewing experience and hopefully solve a couple of the common problems and niggles which are spoiling SL for a lot of people. The solutions are fairly simple and I hope with the screenshots you too can benefit.

One of the main issues I hear time and again is that with windlight your skin looks awful, the white is too bright, the colours just don't look right (I even spoke to one person who didn't realise she had been using windlight).
Go ahead and click the screenshot below it will open in a separate window so you can refer to it.
6 clicks to improve windlight settings to allow you to see colours better and without that awful glare on everything:
Click 'World' go to the very bottom and click on Environment settings another window will pop out click on environmental editor, this will pop up the environmental editor; Click on the center blue button which will open advanced sky settings; there are a lot of scary sliders and things here and these can be fun to play around with once you feel more confident, but for now look near the top you will see a pull down menu it will say 'DEFAULT' when you click it a long list will drop down.
NOW this is fun to play with - lots of presets for your environment from sunny day on the beach to funky green clouds - but for now we will concentrate on getting your avatar to look the way it should - look down and click 'MIDDAY 1' then close all the windows.
Thats it; 6 steps to getting the right colours and lighting, you may think "hey hang on I don't want it to be midday all the time" but with 'midday 1' set you can change it to sunset or midnight or sunrise you will keep the correct lighting levels and will immediately see a huge improvement.
The disadvantage at the moment is that you will need to do this everytime you log into SL.

Step 2 to a better experience, this one is also new to me and solved one of the biggest problems I have had with the newer clients and its just 4 little steps that do not have to be done again once you have set it. I am talking about the camera movement - you know that awful dizzying effect that seems to be new, you move your camera but it doesn't stop when you do - focusing on an object is very difficult and for those of us that build it is a nightmare quite apart from the nauseating feeling it gives you.
Again its a fairly simple problem to fix which, since I have found it, has made a huge difference and again apart from the tools button being gone has actually made me like the new client.
Click the screenshot below, its easier to see what I am talking about if you are not familiar with the functions:
Click the edit button on the top of your screen and go to preferences at the bottom to open the preferences main window. On this menu locate the 'input and camera' tab on the left - second one down and click it. Here look for 'CAMERA SMOOTHING' you don't need to worry about the other sliders they do not affect us for now but this little slider is the one responsible for the camera continuing to move even when you don't - simply slide it to 0.0 and that annoying, dizzying effect will stop once you click 'APPLY' and 'OK'

I know a lot of people will know about these fixes but I also know there are many that don't so I hope this will help.
Feel free to leave comments if you know a better way to do these fixes without actually avoiding the newer versions of Secondlife!
Dana

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Daden Navigator Web Browser

This may just be the first proper web browser in Second Life. Through simple chat commands it let you view almost any web site on the web, surfing from web page to web page following links just like a real web browser.

Whilst Daden Navigator is a great step forward it is still not a 100% capable web browser.

Its limitations come from two areas:- Second Life Web Page on a Prim: We use this feature of SL in order to display each web page. This means we cannot control how each individual web page will be rendered. For instance at the moment (July 08, V1.19) SL does not render Flash, YouTube or play media and cannot scroll up and down on a page, or fill out forms - so we can't do these with Daden Navigator.- To follow links we use our proxy to retrieve the web page you are looking at and parse the HTML to identity the links on the page. However if the links are embedded in Flash, or use complex Javascript, or are images without ALT tags then we cannot find them.

In fact Daden Navigator behaves very similarly to the talking browsers and screenreaders used by visually impaired users - so sites with good accessibility (eg WAI AAA) should work well, whereas those with poor accessibility will not (just note how many sites have lots of links called "more" or "click here" - they are a real pain for screenreader users - and now for you). We've always said that accessibility was important!

The simplest work-around to both of these is to use the "popout" command to put the displayed page into your SL client or desktop web browser.

Watch the movie and decide for yourself, seems like an improvement on the current inworld option. We can but dream of the day people can read sl-newspaper.com inworld!

Dana

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New Viewer Pixelation Quirk

The new Second Life viewer does offer some improvements.
When I first used it, I got a beautiful view of reflections in the water.
But it has a rather quirky effect on some avatars. When viewed from a distance, some avies begin to look blocky. Some just look a little pixelated, some quite heavily. As one guy put it, "makes you look like you're out of an early video game ... 8-bit SL." I was told this is how the new viewer acts with certain video cards, apparently including my own

My own avie, whether it's my usual foxboy avie or the gryphon one that I wore for these pictures, doesn't seem to be affected as much on my computer, though this doesn't seem to be the case with others on theirs. Hopefully, this pixelation effect will be corrected soon in a new update






By Bixyl Shuftan

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Secondlife on your mobile phone?

Samsung Electronics has introduced a wireless solution, which can help Samsung phone users receive services from the Second Life virtual world whenever they want to and wherever they are.

The world’s No. 2 handset manufacturer said Wednesday that it will offer demonstrations of the three dimensional world of Second Life through its mobile Softboard applications, in addition to in-home wireless synchronization solutions at the cellular telecommunication industry association (CTIA) annual U.S. wireless trade show in Las Vegas.

`We plan to commercialize phones equipped with the innovative wireless mobile solutions possibly from the second half of this year for U.S. consumers,' a Samsung spokesperson said.

source: Korean Times

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