05.21.09

What’s real…

Posted in Musings, social at 4:42 pm by zhaewry

There has been a whole bunch of additional posting about pseudonymous identity and the limits (and implicit) benefits of keeping your real life separate from your virtual persona.  What follows are some additional thoughts based on the ongoing discussion.

Real and Trustworthy are not direct synonyms

Its easy to get carried away with notions that “real world” identity is inherently more trustworthy than a well established digital persona.  I see people say words like “in order to do business in virtual worlds, you must use your real life identity.”   A  real life name, phone number and picture don’t create trust on their own.

Trust has several parts.   Reputation, the “affirmative” or “positive” aspects of trust, requires a stable identity.  It does not, however, require that identity be tied to the real world.  Recourse, or what happens when trust is broken, a “negative” aspect of trust is more problematic.  Slightly ironically,  having recourse enhances trust.  A pseudonymous identity can limit or even totally prevent recourse. To the extent that this occurs, it clearly limits trust.

Informally agreements, and more formally contracts, are part of how we encode trust.  Agreements include notions of recourse while contracts often include specific penalty clauses for non performance.  Avatars,  not having a will or existence of their own, can’t sign a contract or make an agreement.  An avatar can be the agency of making the agreement, just as a phone can aid negotiation or a pen can be used to sign a contract.  Anyone who says “Oh, no, the phone agreed to that not me” would be reasonably laughed at, as would someone who claimed that their pen signed the contract and therefore should be sued.  An opaque pseudonymous identity gets in the way of a formal agreement or contract because it breaks the the tie to the actual person undertaking the agreement.

Its less the real life name that provides the trust and more the possibility of  recourse that matters.  Recourse ties to roles. You don’t sue people personally when they fail to deliver as an agent of a company.  Indeed, one of the major purposes of the corporation is to make it the legal separation between the individuals and the corporate entity clear. The recourse  is generally proportional to the harm done.  This offers possible avenues for pseudonymous people who wish to engage in business where recourse would be of value: interpose an agent who can sign a contract and manage recourse.

Virtual Worlds create magic effects, not actual magic

This is where I get blunt. There is tremendous power in the immersive effects of a virtual world. This immersive effect is not magic and doesn’t create digital people or disembodied moral actors. Very cool and powerful effects happen when we immerse in a virtual space. We can chose our appearance. We can role play, we can explore lots of facets of our life.  We do not, however, either create a separate unique person or disconnect our personal responsibility from our avatar(s).  You are welcome to be totally private and create a rich fantasy back-story for your avatar.  It does not change the fact that the human being is the actual motive power behind the avatar and remains responsible for the avatar’s actions.  I will happily accept your choice of avatar and behavior at face value.  I would hope you would reciprocate.  None of this creates a separate person.

Connecting people via computers doesn’t introduce anything that isn’t present when two people interact. Putting aside fundamental debates about the nature of self awareness and consciousness, avatars are projections of people. Excepting explicit role play, an avatar acts and speaks as an extension of the person controlling it.  Second Life isn’t a game, it’s a medium through which people interact. Calling avatars “characters” “playing” a “game” may sound cute but its a corner case.

Pseudonomity doesn’t change this fact.  For most people their avatar is not a “role” they take on, it is an expression of themselves.  I don’t think of myself as talking to a “role” or a “character.”  I am talking to a person.   I don’t think that “whizbang avatarname” is a role who could be “played” by someone.  I think it is an expression of what the real person behind the avatar is thinking.

I might be able to guess what some person might say in a certain situation. This doesn’t make me that person.  When the person who uses an avatar dies, the avatar dies.  Sure, someone could use it, possibly even act a lot like the original avatar.  It wouldn’t make them the person behind the avatar nor would it make a discussion with them the same as a discussion would have been, had the original person still been alive.

In closing

To recapitulate the point I made in my previous post — there is nothing wrong with pseudonomous identities, but they do impose limitations.  To make a new point — there is nothing within our experience of virtual worlds which introduces a magical new actor.  There are people and avatars and interactions. Thinking the magical power of the experience creates a new moral actor or person seems perilously close to delusional. Virtual worlds are magical, not magic.

05.15.09

Honesty, Trust and Privacy

Posted in social at 2:29 pm by zhaewry

There has been a lot of recent discussion about honesty, privacy, and pseudonymous people in virtual worlds. This is very well captured in Botgirl’s blog and many other blogs and comments.  I have a few thoughts I would like to add to this discussion.

The strongest thought is, that there is no single answer to how to manage your identity in the digital world.  For some people complete transparency works. For other people, a total seperation between identities meets their needs. Most people probably end up somewhere in between.  What matters is candor, honesty and clarity.  This is separate from choosing how to manage ones identity. A totally pseudonymous person can be deeply honest, or totally deceitful. Someone who is transparently linked to their real life self can still lie.  We chose in real life how much to share, this is no different on line or in a virtual world.

What does honesty and clarity mean? It does not require transparency of identity.  It does, I think, require honestly letting people know what you are doing. There is a right for each person to chose what they want to expose. Nobody has a right to demand real life facts that you don’t care to disclose.  I have friends in Second Life and on line where I know *nothing* about their off line life.  I have friends where I know a great deal. Those choices to share are personal and often evolve over time.

What I think is foundational is that there are real people behind each avatar. The keys are pressed by flesh and blood humans. The thoughts, the ideas, the emotions belong to the humans not to the avatars, not to the digital persona but to the human being. The clarity desired is not clarity from the avatar, but from the human being.  Be clear. If you are role playing, tell people. If you chose to separate your real life from your virtual persona, make that clear.  If you have multiple personas in the virtual world, I prefer to know when I am interacting with a single person behind the avatar. It is not my right, you may chose otherwise, but I think it common courtesy. No semantic games here.  The onus lies on the human, not the avatar. There is nobody else there.

Equally foundational is respecting people’s choices.  Respect people’s choice to be private. Respect people’s choice to be more open. Respect people’s chosen persona. The ability to chose one’s appearance and persona is one of the powers of virtual worlds, and of the Internet. When people chose to share their chosen persona they are sharing part of themselves. When we disrespect that, we disrespect the person, not some avatar, not some digital person, but a real human being.  Equally, when someone uses their digital persona as an excuse for bad behavior, that is disrespectful of everyone who does not.  Honestly saying “I have changed my mind” or “I am no longer comfortable with how I am managing my identity” is far more respectful than various forms of deceitful behavior, justified by pseudonimity.

I personally feel that, as botgirl has expressed, pseudonymous behavior impose limits in inter personal relationships.  Everyone has the right to make that choice and they have the right for it to be respected.  Choices have consequences, and one of the very real choices of deep pseudonomy may be being taken less seriously by some people and finding some people emotionally guarded.

05.05.09

Context Matters, Copyright and “full permissions”

Posted in Musings at 5:04 pm by zhaewry

Context matters

 

I am not a lawyer, and this verges on lawyerdom, so… please don’t take it as legal advice, but take it as a simple exercise in pointing out what, in many ways, should be obvious.

 Words and phrases rarely convey their full meaning without a context. “Full permissions” as used casually, by parts of the Second Life community is a painfully abused example. The phrase is often used as a perfectly reasonable short hand for an object which has Copy, Transfer and Modify permissions enabled. Such an object can be changed at will, handed to other users within Second Life, and generally shared freely. This phrase is, however, contextual. The context is very clear. It applies to behavior within Linden Lab’s Second Life world. The phrase has no meaning in the larger world. In particular, it has no meaning when it comes to taking content created and used within Second Life to other environments. Content created by Second Life users is not public domain, or free use material. Your use of *any* items within Second Life is governed by the Terms of Service. https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417  In particular pay attention to section 1.3:

 

You acknowledge that Linden Lab and other Content Providers have rights in their respective Content under copyright and other applicable laws and treaty provisions, and that except as described in this Agreement, such rights are not licensed or otherwise transferred by mere use of the Service. You accept full responsibility and liability for your use of any Content in violation of any such rights. You agree that your creation of Content is not in any way based upon any expectation of compensation from Linden Lab.

 

That’s pretty clear. Why can you use copyrighted material within second life?  Well that’s because of section 3.2

 3.2 You retain copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create in Second Life, to the extent that you have such rights under applicable law. However, you must make certain representations and warranties, and provide certain license rights, forbearances and indemnification, to Linden Lab and to other users of Second Life.

 

Users of the Service can create Content on Linden Lab’s servers in various forms. Linden Lab acknowledges and agrees that, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you will retain any and all applicable copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to any Content you create using the Service, to the extent you have such rights under applicable law.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the service, you automatically grant (and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant) to Linden Lab: (a) a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to (i) use, reproduce and distribute your Content within the Service as permitted by you through your interactions on the Service, and (ii) use and reproduce (and to authorize third parties to use and reproduce) any of your Content in any or all media for marketing and/or promotional purposes in connection with the Service, provided that in the event that your Content appears publicly in material under the control of Linden Lab, and you provide written notice to Linden Lab of your desire to discontinue the distribution of such Content in such material (with sufficient specificity to allow Linden Lab, in its sole discretion, to identify the relevant Content and materials), Linden Lab will make commercially reasonable efforts to cease its distribution of such Content following the receipt of such notice, although Linden Lab cannot provide any assurances regarding materials produced or distributed prior to the receipt of such notice; (b) the perpetual and irrevocable right to delete any or all of your Content from Linden Lab’s servers and from the Service, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and for any reason or no reason, without any liability of any kind to you or any other party; and (c) a royalty- free, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to copy, analyze and use any of your Content as Linden Lab may deem necessary or desirable for purposes of debugging, testing and/or providing support services in connection with the Service.

 

Further, you agree to grant to Linden Lab a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable right and license to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights you have in your account information, including any data or other information generated by your account activity, in any media now known or not currently known, in accordance with our privacy policy as set forth below, including the incorporation by reference of terms posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php.

 

You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service. You further agree that you will not make any claims against Linden Lab or against other users of the Service based on any allegations that any activities by either of the foregoing within the Service infringe your (or anyone else’s) patent rights.

You further understand and agree that: (i) you are solely responsible for understanding all copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property or other laws that may apply to your Content hereunder; (ii) you are solely responsible for, and Linden Lab will have no liability in connection with, the legal consequences of any actions or failures to act on your part while using the Service, including without limitation any legal consequences relating to your intellectual property rights; and (iii) Linden Lab’s acknowledgement hereunder of your intellectual property rights in your Content does not constitute a legal opinion or legal advice, but is intended solely as an expression of Linden Lab’s intention not to require users of the Service to forego certain intellectual property rights with respect to Content they create using the Service, subject to the terms of this Agreement.

 

If you’ve gotten here, the answer to my question above is “Because Linden Lab has secured that right, for the use of content in the context of the service.” Well and good. That grant, does not, extend outside of the service. The copyright holder retains their usual rights outside of the service. This means they have the right to grant you a license to use their material if they chose. They also have the right to deny you that use, and absent an explicit grant, you can’t use it. There probably some fair use clauses which apply, for things like photographs of content in a virtual world, but, on the whole, the content is not free to use. Linden lab has retained itself some additional rights, so, you can complain if a random user throws up your content on their web page, but you can’t complain if Linden uses it in their promotional or other material.

Briefly, because this also matters, its not just copyright that kicks in here. Trademark may apply, and, in general, is even more restrictive. You can’t use trademarked material without the permission of the trademark holder, full stop. A copy of a logo or other protected material close enough to be infringing by the usual RL rules which govern such, will be just as protected in a virtual environment. Just a tidbit to keep in mind.

If anyone says of an item in SecondLife  “Its full perm, I can take it and use it as I see fit,” they are basically wrong. If you want to use someone’s content outside of SecondLife, you need explicit permission. It’s that simple.