Since people wanted to see it here it is right from the Free Software Foundation.
Ron Festa Virtual Worlds Admin Division of Continuing Studies at Rutgers University PGP key: http://bit.ly/b1ZyhY Phone: 732-474-8583 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Brett Smith via RT <licens...@fsf.org> Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 1:00 PM Subject: [gnu.org #566095] Possible Licensing Conflict To: ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu > [ronfe...@docs.rutgers.edu - Thu Apr 15 12:02:18 2010]: > > Company name: Linden Research, Inc > Product: Second Life Viewer > Contact Info: http://lindenlab.com/contact > > <http://lindenlab.com/contact>Possible Violation: The Second Life Viewer is > released completely under the GPLv2 with exception to the commercial binary > blobs which have been replaced with opensource equivalents. Recently they > have released a Third Party Viewer Policy (TPVP) in regards to viewers made > from their source code that connect to their service. In this policy, > section 7a appears to be in conflict with sections 11 & 12 of the GPLv2 in > which their source code is licensed under. Ron, Thanks for getting in touch with us with your concerns. It's always good to know that people like you take the GPL seriously enough to ask these sorts of questions. My understanding is that Linden Labs' Third-Party Viewers Policy, despite the name, sets out policies for connecting to Second Life's own servers. Other services might call this kind of policy a Terms of Service. This statement from the policy's preamble explains their intent: "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 our Second Life service using a Third-Party Viewer, regardless of the viewer source code used, and for participating in our Viewer Directory." The freedoms granted by the GPL and other free software licenses are never absolute -- they are limited by law and other legal agreements. For example, just because the license allows you to use the software for any purpose does not mean you are allowed to use it to DoS a server, or undertake other illegal activities. Linden Labs has the right to set policies for clients connecting to its servers, and that is what it has done with this policy. They do not put direct limits on the freedoms you have under the GPL: viewers that don't follow the policies could be used to connect to alternative servers as they become available, to make an entirely new game, or in completely unrelated projects. I am sympathetic to concerns that some of these policies may have chilling effects on development of third party viewer applications, but the policies are not in any inherent, direct conflict with the GPL's terms. I hope this helps clear up our position on the matter for you. If you have other concerns, please feel free to contact us. Best regards, -- Brett Smith Licensing Compliance Engineer, Free Software Foundation
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