More Blue Mars – The official roll-out dates (and some musings)

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

I don’t think anyone expects it to be a Second Life® killer – hundreds of thousands of avatars have too much invested there in friendships, land, content and businesses already - but Blue Mars is the first solid contender to enter the skirmish for dominance in the user-generated content category of virtual worlds. And yes, I did just say user-generated content, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Jim Sink, vice president of Hawaii-based Avatar Reality, the company that owns Blue Mars, shared with me last night that they plan on rolling out their first registrations to the “many, many thousands of players” on their waiting list on Monday, August 3, and open Beta for all is scheduled for August 31st. So this is it.

I reported on most known aspects of the coming free-to-play platform in depth three months ago but I’ve been giving it a great deal of thought since then. It has already won me over on several counts:

• Gorgeous and photorealistic graphics thanks to the ultimate game engine available today: CryEngine 2.
• Serious control over what enters your City. Three little words: No Flying Penises. Likewise unwanted scripts, “prims,” and inappropriately (or offensively) dressed avatars. These safety features and checks are boons to businesses, educators, event organizers, Role-Playing Games and advertisers.
• Deep control over your content. Since every item that is imported into Blue Mars gets an encrypted and dated watermark, IP dangers to creators such as copybot dissipate dramatically.
• Scalable to thousands of simultaneous users per region. - Can’t attend that Coldplay concert that’s taking place 3,000 miles away? Why not hear and see them stream live into Blue Mars?
• Marketers will be keen on the fact that player activity can be tracked and reported on in real-time.
• Using a CAD program plus Blue Mars’ import tool, you can bring in your 3D assets… an intriguing opportunity for anyone who wants to demo objects, large or small.
• A simplified and easy-to-use interface in the universal language of symbols.

Musings and mumblings on USER GENERATED CONTENT

Blue Mars loses important points in areas that are critical to me, not the least of which is the fact that amateur content creators will have no place there. On the surface, quality control isn’t a bad thing, but when I consider that so many – MOST! - of the creators I most appreciate in Second Life came from non-artistic backgrounds only to discover that they could make marvelous things, I begin to mourn the loss of that particular magic. On the other hand, and to be fair, I wonder what professional artists will begin to work in virtual worlds (that I can inhabit) because of this environment.

And I’m unhappy that my Mac friends can’t join me there unless they are using Boot Camp, and I want to fly everywhere, thank you very much. No bloody waiting at virtual bus stops for me!

I’m “iffy” on what sounds like extreme homogenization. While the robust safety and marketing features appeal to me, the endless variety and idiosyncrasies that I mostly find charming in Second Life will have no place in Blue Mars. Or will they? The funny thing is, it turns out that what I dislike about Second Life is also what I like about it. The ugly content makes me value the beauty all the more. But you know what? I bet Blue Mars will have its share of yucky, or mundane and mediocre bleah stuff, too. After all, just cause it’s pro doesn’t make it pretty, does it?

And here is something I really want to share with you…

Jim spoke about user-generated content in Blue Mars last night in such a persuasive way. He asserted that ANYBODY can be a registered developer. He stressed that Blue Mars’ tools are free and so are 3D model creation tools like Blender and Google Sketchup.

Hmmm. Nowadays, many leading Second Life content creators are working off-world and importing their sculpties already. And what’s more, it’s been almost a year since I spoke with Aminom Marvin about the next big thing in virtual worlds that support content creation: 3D mesh objects. We’ve been speculating and hoping that Linden Lab will introduce them later this year. Well, it is almost “later this year” now. So how is all this different from people working off-world and importing their content into Blue Mars? And why would we moan and groan about an environment that actually protects creators’ intellectual property in ways that Second Life is technologically incapable of? I have so very much to think about.

I’m thinking… I just may have to have a foot in both worlds. THREE LIVES. Oh boy.

Proper attribution of images taken in virtual worlds

Who is the artist in this shot? The photographer? In this case, that would be me. Or is the creator of the Far Away, AM Radio, the artist? Or should both of us be credited?



In Real Life, when a photograph of a place is published... say, the Empire State building in New York, one is not expected - nor is there a legal requirement - to credit the building's architects, owners, the construction companies involved or the city of New York. So why is it different in virtual worlds?

Six weeks ago, the owner of a Flickr group featuring Real Life photography accused me with these words when I submitted a machinima I had created of my own sim (Chakryn) by saying, "videoing someone else's video doesn't really make it an original image / photo / capture now, does it?" I should add that I had credited and tagged the video with the names of the creator of the forest (Andrek Lowell) and the art (Glyph Graves).

This isn't the first time this has happened to me on Flickr. People who are unfamiliar with virtual content tend to think that I have either "painted" the art, or photographed someone else's "painting."

How about this shot?



Is it enough to credit the creator of my outfit (3star Tyne) and the creator of the Tunnel of Light (Spiral Walcher), or do I also need to mention that it sits on Rezzable Productions' land, that Ordinal Malaprop contributed with scripts... and oh! What about my hair, shape and skin? Do I need to list the creators of those things, too?

Where do we draw the line? What is the correct (and legal) way to attribute photography and video shot in virtual worlds?

Dusan Writer surveys NPIRL on content protection

Several weeks ago, I spoke up on behalf of the Not Possible IRL group and asked that Linden Lab add a Creative Commons tab in the object editor, as well as a Creative Commons option in the right click pie menu, so that everyone could see, with a simple right mouse click, what the rights were on an object.

An uproar ensued... Some misunderstood and thought that I was suggesting that the current system be replaced with only Creative Commons protections. Some felt that Creative Commons might not be the only way to go and that other systems, such as GNU, should be considered. Others accused me - and by association, my poor group, most of whom had very little to do with this suggestion - of being communists because Creative Commons empowers and protects open source creations.

The fact remains that the members of Not Possible IRL transform intellectual content into high-quality content, and have a great deal to lose unless the rights to that content are protected to the full extent possible.

Blogger and specialist in vertical integration of media content and experiences, Dusan Writer, stepped in. Here is a man who inhales and paraphrases raw data better than anyone I know in our virtual space. I welcome his first contributions to the group and to this blog. - Bettina Tizzy


by Dusan Writer

Content creators are looking for solutions to current frustrations according to a recent survey conducted of Not Possible in Real Life members.

But they remain passionate about content creation. When asked to describe the benefits of creating content in Second Life®, they were almost spiritual in how they described the feeling of creating art:

• "You can create your vision....You can create your own environment, clothing and style and share it with the virtual world"


• "Satisfaction...enjoyment, release...pure pleasure"


• "Become one with a dream - feel the pleasure of sharing your thoughts with others and their enjoyment of what you make"


• "Almost infinite way of expression"


• "Great options for creativity and a great audience to experience your work"


• "If a picture is worth a thousand words, a 3D environment must be in the millions."

But lately there has been a lot of discussions about interoperability, Creative Commons licenses and content protection. But sometimes as content creators we're too busy making things to be able to engage in the communities and meetings, the office hours and blogs where these decisions are being discussed and made - and we'd like a voice at the table.

So we set out to poll our membership - to find out where the concerns are with the goal being to share what we hope Linden Lab and the openSim communities recognize as a key stakeholder in keeping virtual worlds vibrant, and retaining the creative Residents who help to make the grids more beautiful.

Who We Are
The survey represented a cross-section of users. Most had over a year in-world (click to see enlarged image):



Respondents embrace the full spectrum of content creation:



Our Experiences
We wanted to first understand whether our experiences with content creation have been positive. 60% of us, however, have "experienced situations where you feel your content was or may have been stolen or inappropriately used" (although only 6% have filed a complaint through Linden Lab).

Examples of inappropriate use included (quoted directly):

• Use of works in revenue-producing machinima without credit


• We have a free sculpty set that is provided as a learning resource and have had to deal with people mangling the item and then selling it


• A creation was copied, changed very little, at times even the same textures were used


• Images of work used in Second Life photographs set for sale as unique items

Our Concerns

Our main concern is the current system. 63% of replies considered the lack of flexibility with the current object permission system to be very important, followed by enforcement and unattributed use of content:



Our Hopes

Through the survey we asked content creators what they love about the current system, and what they'd like to see changed. When asked what code, tools and policies they'd like to see changed, the permission system was a recurring theme:

• "I would like the ability to define the scope of a creation into the assets of the creation itself. This item is copy, transfer with attribution for commercial use, for example."


• "Better permission system with more options"


• The current (permission system) doesn't permit much flexibility and if you have a very complicated object with a great many scripts, sounds or animations, it can take hours to track them all down and make sure they have the correct permissions."


• "Revisit the entire permissions system."

Other ideas ranged from an "undo" button to building a better system for texturing to a plea for "cooperation over competition and vision over vanity."

These are just snippets from this extensive survey and is a starting point in a broader effort to solicit ideas, insight and opinion by the content creation community. Our goal is to use this data to help ensure that content creators are at the table, that we have a voice as policy and code changes are proposed. As the metaverse grows, it will do so because of the joy that great content creation can bring - providing experiences beyond what's possible in real life.

Ensuring that our voices are heard is as much a mission for better systems and protections as it is the wider acknowledgment that without content there are simply empty grids.

Dear M Linden - Please help content creators protect our Intellectual Property (and save LL a lot of time and trouble, too)

In an April 25, 2008 interview with Erica Naone in MIT's Technology Review, you agreed that content creation is "definitely the story of Second Life," and given your background in "user-centered design work," I believe you may be receptive to an idea that should be easy to implement and could save everyone a lot of, um... grief, and time.

The Not Possible in Real Life group hereby requests that Linden Lab add a Creative Commons tab in the object editor, as well as a Creative Commons option in the right click pie menu, so that everyone can see, with a simple right mouse click, what the rights are on an object.

While it would not be a panacea, offering this tool would help creators define how people can use their work, beyond the dictates of fair use, but without having to negotiate every single license. It would have no ill effect on the fair use of a work, and copyright law and any other applicable law, would still apply.

As AM Radio pointed out, the issue of copyright protection in Second Life®, "...is just getting goofy. The problems appear to stem from people's inability to comprehend intellectual property law and the fact that it is the responsibility of the infringer to seek and understand the copyright intentions of the creator. It is not the creator's burden to present a copyright declaration in all instances that the work is presented."

He added,"Giving creators the tools to make a copyright declaration in the object editor would relieve them of the burden of chasing down infringers, as well as give them a specific tool set to use in such circumstances. Violations would be clear, infringers would be outcast, and the community would self-police."


There are four conditions that you can choose to apply to a Creative Commons license:

Attribution: You can use the work but must give credit. This applies in all Creative Commons licenses.

Noncommercial: You can use the work only if you don't make any money from it.

No derivative works: You can use the work only without altering or transforming it beyond the provisions of fair use.

Share alike: You can transform a work as long as you make the resulting work available on the same terms as the original work.

You can use these terms in 6 different combinations.

"Creative Commons doesn't cover all situations, and often times there are violations which are unclear. I cannot copyright wheat as represented on a single cylinder any more than I could copyright the word "wheat." I could attempt a patent for such a thing though. I could, however, copyright a work which uses the idea, such as an entire field of cylinders, in much the same way I can use the word "wheat" in a copyrighted short story. So creators must be educated on the difference or people could chase one another for creating wooden box prims," shared AM.

Info for Residents
Copyright law protects any creative work whether the creator wants that protection or not. No one should use your work without a license, beyond fair use. The Creative Commons tool however, is especially useful if you want to share your work in some way. Would you mind if your work is photographed or filmed, for instance? Some creators object strongly to this, while others welcome the recognition and free promotion. Don't want your work to be shared? Not an issue. Under our proposed scenario, you just wouldn't select and use a Creative Commons license.


Want to learn more? The Creative Commons (CCA) - a non profit organization that "builds tools that help realize the full potential of the commons in the age of digital networks" - will hold its first Creative Commons Technology Summit at Google's offices in Mountain View, California on Wednesday, June 18th. Attendance is free, but space is limited, so register soon if you have an interest.