March 2, 2013
Well, March 1st was a good goal to aim for to launch Excelsior Station, and we almost made it. The files are uploaded and so its in the hands of hardware and server people at Zetamex. That means that things will launch any time now.
One of the things that a grid should have is a Terms of Service. For good or bad, it does define responsibilities and obligations. Its an agreement, a contract between you and the grid. A contract is an exchange of value between two or more parties. When it comes to a grid, well, they are providing a service and you are providing good will. Yes, even that has a value. If it makes a person feel good to see their sim being enjoyed, well, that’s a pretty valuable thing. That is only one exchange of value involved, as well, but that’s not the point here. The point is, that a ToS should be treated as an agreement between two parties, you and the grid, regarding an exchange of value.
A ToS does tend to be one sided. Though, when you consider that it is the grid that has the majority of liability and risk under the law, a ToS that is heavily weighted in favour of the grid is understandable. But that doesn’t mean that the user shouldn’t enjoy some of the benefits and protection that a ToS can give them.
Something that has become very clear to me in thinking on this is that it will take some time to create a good ToS. So, this is only a start.
The best place to start is to define what we are talking about. I like the way Firecaster put it about recognizing the Avatar as being an extension of ourselves. I prefer to look at it this way. Our Avatar in the Metaverse is to our Self what our Body is in the Universe. Yes, I used upper case to be clear that I am not just talking of the mundane aspects, but the whole of the concept that each embodies.
So, Avatar would be our digital Person, while avatar is our digital body, the vehicle for our Avatar/Person. Avatar would be used to refer to the person controlling the avatar. By according those recognitions, we can then be clear that we have similar rights and protections within that virtual world as we do in the physical one. Think of it this way. Just as nobody has the right to assault you in RL, nobody has the right to grief you in VW.
Now I said similar rights, not the same rights. That is because of how a grid is structured, just like a feudal government. So, no right to vote for a new leader. On the plus side, no election campaigning. And no matter what any of us might put in a ToS, there is no exemption from Real World Law.
The following is what I have in mind so far. I very much look forward to your contributions.
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Preamble
“The term ‘Avatar’, in the upper case, shall be understood to be referring to the person controlling a virtual world representation of themselves. Such virtual world representations shall be referred to as ‘avatars’, in lower case.”
“It is recognized that an avatar, being the digital representation of a Person, acts in the same fashion as that Person’s body does, it being the material representation of that Person.”
“In this regard, every Avatar shall be accorded similar rights and protections for their avatar as they do for they body.”
This next section would be about the legal necessities, including privacy and intellectual property rights.
Legal Needs
“Excelsior Station and every Avatar shall comply with the Legislation, Statutes and Regulations of the Province of British Columbia, Canada in so far as they pertain to the operation, maintenance, access and use of Excelsior Station and its services.”
”Information about any and all Avatars that is collected by Excelsior Station is held in trust by Excelsior Station. That information is not available to anyone without the expressed and informed consent of the Avatar or by lawful court order.”
”Excelsior Station provides the environment, tools and services to allow an Avatar to interact with and to modify that same environment. It is recognized that it is the Avatar that creates the content, not the tools or services. As such, content created by an Avatar, and the copyrights to that content, is owned by that Avatar.”
”Excelsior Station has no rights to copy content, except as part of necessary maintenance and security of data. Copies of content made by Excelsior Station are done so for the purpose of data recovery in the event of any data loss.”
Next would be terms that ensure that everyone has the right to speak their mind, to disagree with policies and decisions. Dispute resolution.
Well, like I said, its a lot of work. This is an opportunity to create an honest ToS, one that is community built. I hope to see lots of comments, good and bad, they are all worth it.
Wonderful Sarge, this is an excellent beginning. First of all I would just like to thank you for taking such a high value on the right for every individual to be able to represent themselves as they would wish in your grid. Avatar freedom is an essential right in any virtual world and it is awesome to see that you support it in your grid. When you open your doors to the public I shall have to pop in now myself! :D
Second of all, while avatar freedom is important it will also be important to recognize certain reasonable limitations as well. For example people should be allowed to dress as they please but if they are butt naked, wearing a collar and etc…etc…then there would need to be some line drawn. It is understandable that regions may go down and such individuals may be teleported there as a default location, so perhaps to avoid any issues like that before you open up you could set the landing point for people coming from a downed region to a different location than that of people logging in under normal circumstances or as a new user.
As for content…very well put. By you stating i your TOS that all content brought into the grid is owned and therefore the responsibility of the individual that brought it in you are not only protecting the rights of people to the content they create, but also covering yourself in the case of copybot instances. It should be stated in there somewhere however that in the event of a DMCA being filed you will comply with the proper DMCA procedures. This gives content creators peace of mind as well knowing that you will act at an official level to protect the rights of creators. All i all very good job sarge and a round of applause is deserved :D
Thank you, Korgi.
Good point about downed regions. I'll be sure to get that setup. As for any restrictions, I'm thinking along the lines of "if you know that your Avatar can be controversial, please don't wear it to official locations (Welcome Centre, Community Hall, etc)".
I have added some about the DMCA. I worked out what I think is a good community interactive setup to create a ToS that is flexible, understandable and reasonable. Something that can grow and change as the Metaverse changes.
It turns out that one or more of the archived files I sent to be uploaded is damaged, so there's a delay in getting launched. But any day now. In the meantime, I've been working on a website specifically for Excelsior Station the virtual world. http://sargemisfit.wix.com/excelsior-station
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