Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Second Life Terms of Service -December 15, 2010 Update

SL TOS updated today and appears this is primarily to included needed regulations with the inclusion of youth as young as 13 years of age and the various allowances, restrictions and maturity ratings. I did however see some additional wordage changes in other areas when having to review it to sign in today. For full TOS updates check here: http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php or direct link here: SLTOSHere.

The SL teen grid will be closing and youth ages 13 through 17 will additionally be allowed into the SL main grid January 1, 2011. When logging into SL today the new TOS agreement is displayed for all to review and agree to before being allowed in SL. It seems there have been a lot of these TOS updates lately, but I certainly understand their necessity especially with youth as young as 13 entering the grid.

Of special interest to me is the snapshot and machinima section. I didn't see any surprising changes but we will be needing to pay close attention to covenants, land owners, and featured avatars as usual. I've clipped a part of this section here, but there is a lot more info.

"(a) Land Owner Consent for Snapshots and Machinima.
If you wish to take a snapshot or capture machinima of content on another Resident’s land, then:
For Snapshots, check whether the covenant for the land prohibits snapshots. If it does, then you need special permission from the land owner to take the snapshot. If it allows snapshots or doesn’t address them, then you do not need special permission from the land owner as long as you comply with any terms that may be in the covenant.
For Machinima, check whether the covenant for the land allows machinima. If it does not or doesn’t address machinima, then you need special permission from the land owner to capture machinima. If it allows machinima, then you do not need special permission from the land owner as long as you comply with any terms that may be in the covenant.
For Mainland or Linden Homes parcels where Linden Lab is the estate owner, you do not need land owner consent to take snapshots, but you do need special permission from the land owner to capture machinima. The “land owner” is not the estate owner, but the Resident identified as the land owner in the “General” tab under “About Land.” For private islands where Residents are estate owners, you must check the covenant for the private island as provided above.
(b) Avatar Consent for Machinima.
For machinima, you must have the consent of all Residents whose avatars or Second Life names are featured or recognizable in the machinima. This includes avatars who are featured in a shot, avatars whose names are legible, and avatars whose appearance is sufficiently distinctive that they are recognizable by members of the Second Life community. Consent is not required if an avatar is not recognizable and is merely part of a crowd scene or shown in a fleeting background. Consent is not required for any snapshots." SL Snapshop and machinima policy, see link above

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