Imo, some people fail to see the TPVp for what it is. To wit: A) Any and all developers who develop a client for connecting to the second life grid must adhere to a basic set of rules. To reiterate, the TPV policy does not just apply to devs extending the lab's code base. To wit:
"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 Viewer Directory." (http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php , paragraph two) In other words, should I decide to write a "from scratch" viewer to access the grid, then I must code my viewer such that it adheres to their TPV policy. B) Any developer who develops and/or distributes their viewer is "responsible" (please note the operative word, responsible) for whatever code they've implemented. In other words, it is up to them to a) debug their own code, b) write their own EULA, and c) define & implement a user support model. Should they choose to do none of the above, that is their choice, as well. Otherwise put, responsible and smart coders will *always* include a EULA with their binary distribution (regardless of whether or not it was designed to connect to the grid). Why? Because it sets end user expectation. It ensures you, as devs, will not end up in a infinite "support for free" loop, and importantly, it provides legal protection should your code have a bug that you did not catch. As for the GPL argument. That is moot. Or rather, as Joe so noted, "The TPV is orthogonal to the GPL." That being said and all things considered, imo, the lab has been quite magnanimous when it comes to third party viewer devs. After all, they are not required to provide "free advertising" via TPV directory that is designed to set a bar for inclusion, which in turn reduces the chance that the neils of this world will be able to include their viewer, while at the same time, increases consumer confidence in the viewers listed in that directory. Nor is the lab required to "pardon" people who had been previously banned such that same said may participate in the viewer directory program. Angela Talamasca (in-world) MA Forensic Psychology ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VR Hacks Blog: http://bit.ly/VRHacksBlog VR Hacks Twitter: http://bit.ly/VRHacksTwitter VR Hacks YouTube: http://bit.ly/VRHacksYouTube Digital DNA in SL: http://bit.ly/VRHacksSLmap Digital DNA in Blue Mars: http://bit.ly/BMclient -- "Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." - Oscar Wilde _______________________________________________ Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/OpenSource-Dev Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges
