Making Your Mark in Second Life: Business, Land, and Money

Protecting What You Create

Business in Second Life has many facets, from unregulated banks and stock exchanges to "land baron" status. There are people who use their graphical skills to create textures or clothing; others use their skills as builders, and still others as scripters. There are people who integrate Second Life with the Internet as well, which we will discuss in a later chapter. In this section, we will deal only with specific items in Second Life.

Within all of this activity are inherent copy protection systems. Everything within Second Life has these, and the manner in which they are used are important.

Copy Protection Within Second Life

Copy protection falls into three categories that can be combined for different results. It should be noted that no matter what options the creator chooses—including no protection at all—the creator maintains full rights.

The categories of protection are:

• Modify: Whether users will be able to modify the item (but not necessarily the contents of the item).

• Copy: Whether users will be able to copy the item.

• Transfer: Whether users can resell or give away items after they have purchased them.

Copy and Transfer have an odd rule. If someone cannot copy an item, it must be transferable; if someone cannot transfer an item, it must be copyable. In other words, every item must at the least be either copyable or transferable. This rule appears to be forced in Second Life for reasons the author cannot explain, but it is apparent that someone thought ...