All Quiet on the Linden Front

As anyone who follows my blog knows, I haven't been posting much lately. Life has a way of sucking my attention away from great and interesting topics to write about, and focusing me on day-to-day concerns I wouldn't care to read about on anyone else's blog, so I won't bore you with the details of. Alas, I haven't been following the blogosphere much either, so I was surprised to learn today that there's a strike going on about the latest Linden Labs controversy. Now, normally LL can't say anything without legions of self-styled critics going out of their way to bend every possible word in the worst possible way to make it sound like something bad is occurring, and acting all alarmist to see who they can get fired up about nothing much. It is the path of the drama queen, and I got sick of it while I was still in high school, so I tend to just ignore it. But I must say, I think these people silencing themselves is a positive development. Makes it even easier to ignore them when they just self-censor themselves out of the noise of the blogosphere. I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish this way, but it does make them easier to ignore, which is a win for the rest of us.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. :p

As usual, the latest controversy revolves around those who interpret the word of LL in the worst possible light, and point out all the horrible things it could mean and the over-reaching things LL could conceivably do, vs. those who point out the company uses a great deal of common sense and good judgement in its actions in these cases (if not necessarily expressing itself as best as possible in its words).

This most recent dust-up involves LL's recent attempts to clarify what is and isn't permitted with regards to use of their trademarks.  It's being widely reported as a change, despite the fact that it's largely nothing more than a clarification of exactly what the law is and what their policy always has been AFAIK -- certainly there isn't anything there, except for the new logo they made, that I wasn't aware of over a year ago when I was picking domain names to register (and carefully avoiding the temptation to pick trademark-infringing ones).  So either I'm a really good precog, or this is just clarification.  I suppose if you weren't clear on the relevant law and policy before, you might regard this as a change, which only highlights the necessity and wisdom of them clarifying the issue now.

Well, regardless of whether it's clarification or change, the response has been nothing short of ludicrous, given that this is the same company that, in response to the Get A First Life website, not only failed to send a cease-and-desist order, but actually sent a "proceed and permitted" letter.  Just how out of touch with reality do you have to be to think you need to replace "Second Life" with "You-Know-Who" everywhere on your website in order to avoid being sued?  That's beyond silly.  You don't convince reasonable people who understand the purpose of trademarks by deliberately misinterpreting it.  There's a difference between talking about Second Life and misrepresenting yourself as an official agent of LL.  Doing the latter will get you warned and eventually banned and sued, whereas doing the former won't, and you're doing nothing but spinning wild hyperbole by insisting otherwise.  One of the reasons I haven't commented on the issue until now was I was loving how well the alarmists were engaging in self-parody with their absurd actions, but I just had to comment on the whole strike idea, and well, now that I'm here posting, I might as well let loose.

Anyhow, contrary to popular belief, I don't have a lot of faith in LL. You see, it's not "faith" when you're the one sitting on a mountain of evidence in favor of your views, and your opponents are just spinning wild, baseless speculation.  As usual, I'll refuse to make mountains out of molehills, and be considered Pollyanna because of it.  I admit it, I'm a cheerful optimist, and I assume good intentions unless presented with evidence of bad intentions.  Wild speculation doesn't cut it, especially when it flies directly in the face of the demonstrated actions of the company in the past!  Don't tell me what LL could conceivably do if they interpreted everything in the most evil way possible.  Show me where they've done so.  Heck, just show me one good reason to think they might!  I've got some pretty powerful, convincing actions on their part in the past suggesting they won't, and actions speak louder than words.  Who have they sued?  Who have they sent cease-and-desist letters to?  Can you point one instance where it was unjust?  Not even one?

Then don't be surprised when I'm unconcerned.  Enjoy the latest drama-fest.  Wake me up if anything actually happens...