Second Life Friends and Calling Cards

It’s amazing the number of people in SL that just don’t get the concept of the Calling Card. The problem with the Friend section that you are either a friend, or unknown. There’s no ‘accquaintance’ level visible. This is provided by the calling card feature, and it’s prominent on the right click menu when you click on someone (more… give calling card). Whenever you have anyone calling card, they are placed in teh same place in your inventory, and you can see when people are online here.

I use it mainly for people that want to get back in touch with me for business or pleasure. It means they can still quickly see when I am on or offline, but doesn’t clutter up nmy friends list with people who are, honestly, not yet my friends. What would be nice is if this could be integrated with the friends list as well, maybe on a second tab, so it’s more obvious to new players.

So, to sum up. My calling card is available for anyone and everyone, just ask me. Making the friends connection is going to take a bit more than bumping into me in the street.

And Nobody Is Going To Stone Anybody… Even if they do say Casino

So Linden Lab will not be allowing anyone to publicise anything that appear to relate to simulated casino activities.

Why? Well legally Linden Lab are in a lovely grey zone. The US Government has outlawed any company from aiding and abetting US citizens in using online gambling. of course, the argument goes that the Linden Dollar isn;t a real currency – they’re much liek the steel balls in pachinko, so when you ‘gamble’ in SL, you;re not gambling with anything that has value. Pity that casino chips in the US (Atlantic City, Las Vegas, etc) are regarded as having value. Where the Linden Dolalr stands in teh whole currency/token/variable in a server is a tricky one, so Linden are (i presume) trying to show intent here just in case a test case comes at them from teh FBI.

When you have ‘lucky number’ machines offering 10:1 payout odds on bets up to 100,000 L$ (around $400 US) that’s a lot of cash being thrown around. Linden Lab know gambling happens, on servers based in California, so they are, IMO, legally stuffed if it comes to court.

But what worries me isn;t this, but it’s the fact that online gambling in the UK is legal (hey our Culture Secretary is trying to make the UK a gold standar country to attract 888.com et al to these shores), yet we’re getting locked out, slowly, of anything that is against the law in the US. Ageplay has already been shut down quietly (don’t ask don’t tell is not a defence in court, Phillip). Online Gambling is happening now. How long until they turn their sites on the ‘physical’ entertainment area?

I rather jokingly put up an 18 USC 2257 statement when I started this site, but now? Who knows what I’ll need to write in the future jsut in case one person in one territory is offended by my pixels.

A Little Housekeeping in SL

So I’ve had the itch to re-decorate the downstairs part of my store / chill / hanging out space. Following the rules of Leonardo, I’ve ripped out the shopping wall that was on the ground floor of my store space previously and slammed in a Coffee Bar.

Yes a Coffee Bar, I’m sorry. But Iit’s a much better place to sit down with you guys; my friends, visitors and members of the website, over a nice cup of coffee (I found a great latte machine). I’ll post some fixed meeting times next week, but in the meantime if you want to come along and try the new diner tables, the coffee machine, or even the little stage (see, everything a coffee shop needs), and just watch the world go by and the woman made river outside the window, what’s stopping you?

UK Set To Ban Second Life?

Well, not in as many words, but the knock-on effect of the current consulation on the child pornography laws is worrying for SL users…

The Home Office is considering changing child pornography laws to include cartoon or computer-created pictures. It is currently an offence to possess indecent photographs or “pseudo-photographs” of children, but indecent cartoons, computer-animated scenes, and drawings are legal. The Home Office note announcing the consultation says: “Evidence from police and children’s organisations is that the availability of such images is growing.” The document states such images could be used to “groom” children for acts of abuse.

The consultation will consider whether to amend the Child Protection Act, create a new offence, or do nothing. The consultation covers England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The government’s preferred option is to create a new offence with punishment of an unlimited fine and up to three years in prison.
The Register

I’ve already touched on this area before, but if this law goes though (and which consultation from the Labour Governmnet hasn’t gone through unchanged?). The argument that you could have put forward – that SL screens are a cartoon, or cgi, and not pseudo-pictures, would be removed from any defense in the United Kingdom. Play SL, have an avatar which appear to be a child perform something that could be percieved to be indecent (say, hugging someone who appears to look older) and bingo – you’ve broken the indecency laws, created the image on your computer, and you can be charged with the delights of HMP Holloway.

Been At Parents The Last Week

Yep, I’ve had to scurry away again last week to keep an eye on my Mum and Dad – they’re not in the best of health. BUt I’m back now, so normal service should resume!

The Weakest Link in Second Life is… Second Life Itself

So this weekend I did try to get into SL, and it pretty much wouldn’t let me. Or when it did, I was unable to move. Once I did get some traction, although asking even a basic hug animation to play was beyond the system. Keep that in mind over the next paragraph or two.

Without a grid that lets me move around and run animations or poses, it makes it a touch difficult to do my twice weekly photo shoots – I’ll try again later tonight. It’s one of the reasons that the Open Source project to make your own Second Life Server got me a touch excited – of course it’s far from being ready, which is a shame because having a little private oasis for shoots and meetings would be perfect. I guess that it’s going to blow Linden Lab’s income stream out the water if and when it is available to anyone. Why would you pay $1600 setup fee and $300 a month to Linden’s server cluster when you can get your own generic server for $300 for a year?

The other little snippet I noticed was that Google’s Gmail opened its doors to anyone who wants an account. Now this caught me out for a moemnt, before I realised that up until this announcement, Gmail was still invite only – you needed to know someone already on Gmail and ask them to send you an invite before you could sign up (The same is happening with the TV streaming service from the people behnd Skype). So even the high volume of Google had to throttle the signups till very late in the game.

Perhaps Linden Lab might want to switch to an invite only model to slow the signups while the sort out the basics?

Age Play, Second Life, and the Jurisdiction of Pornography Laws

Quick question for you, in regards the image below,is it illegal? Do you think that it is enough to put me in jail? If so, for how long?

So the last week saw myself hang out with some friends and we all regressed back to our teenage years, and of course in Second Life it’s a simple matter of tweaking the avatar back to when I was younger. And for the benefit of anyone reading, my regular body is on th eleft, while how I looked when I was 18 is on the right (I used some of my pictures from University to guide my ). The problem is the UK has this (ahem) handy little law called The Protection of Children Act, amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. In short, it makes it an offence to produce distribute , show or promote pseudo-pictures (ie computer graphics that appear to be pictures).

By creating an avatar that appears under 18 in Second Life, you’re sailing close to the wind if you’re in the UK, simply because using the client, you are aking the picture. Maybe you run a hug or a kiss animation from Abranimations on another Avatar. Congratulations you’ve jsut broken the Child Pornogrpahy laws in the UK, and you

If I were a US citizen, simulated child pornography is allowed under the First Amendment.

So here’s the rub. It’s illegal in the UK, and my PC is in the UK, so I could be looking at jail time.. But it’s on an American server, by an American company, and the people that I’m cuddling will carry on with their lives. It may well be hypothetical (for the moment), but as Second Life (and virtual worlds in general) continue to grow, there are going to be some sticky legal cases…

[Gallery Update] Beachhouse Gazebo

High up on a cliff, in the warmer climes of the Second Life continet, there’s a lounge, with a roaring fire, that’s jsut perfect to relax around. Care to join me?

The full version of this set, with 28 pictures, is now available in the members section of my website. Why not take the free tour of the site before you join and get instant access to this and all the archived galleries for $15.

Second Life in the Slow Lane

That ’s full twenty four hours were Seconmd Life has been unusable for me. The lag in hitting a key in moving s really killing, especially when I need to try and get into place for the camera besude a table or a car bonnet. It’s also putting a real cramp on private conversation (stop sniggering) and any sort of human to human interaction.

But I’ve got Duran duran playing on my iPod, so at least I have Simon to keep me ticking over. “Her name is Rio…“

[Gallery Update] The Cheery Cheerleader

The result of course went to the Colts.. or to England (lets not think about that game, okay?) but that didn’t make a huge amount of difference to me. I was on the sidelines, with the wireless relaying the scores, a coke machine to keep me going, and a megaphone and pom-poms to get you going!

The full version of this set, with 30 pictures, is now available in the members section of my website. Why not take the free tour of the site before you join and get instant access to this and all the archived galleries for $15.