Profile picture greeters

[ariana2011]

okay someone told me that profile picture greeters that do not ask permission violate the terms off service. Upon review of the Privacy Policy and the Community standards Policy I have found nothing to collaborate this. Is this true?

[Charolotte Caxton]

The Profile Picture displayers are displaying public information, so they are not violating any privacy.

Information Displayed to or Collected By Other Users
Certain account information is displayed to other users in your Second Life profile, and may be available through automated script calls and application program interfaces. This information includes your account name, account type, the date your account was established, whether or not you are currently online, user rating information, group and partner information, and whether or not you have established a payment account or transaction history with Linden Lab. Further, you agree and understand that Linden Lab does not control and is not responsible for information, privacy or security practices concerning data that you provide to, or that may otherwise be collected by, Second Life users other than Linden Lab. For instance, some services operated by Second Life users may provide content that is accessed through and located on third party (non-Linden Lab) servers that may log IP addresses.

https://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php

It may be considered bad manners by some though, but public information is public information.

[Innula Zenovka]

The ToS that have been quoted in the past by Lindens when such items have been removed are those concerning IP rights and also privacy.   See Zuba Zenovka's post  midway down this page in the old, old forums and also Mambajamba Rearwin's post at the end of the page.

How strictly these are still enforced, I have no idea, but that's the basis for the statement that they violate ToS when they have been removed by LL, and it's the reason it's a good idea to include something in your greeter script that asks permission to use the profile image first.

[Rolig Loon]

As Innula says, there was discussion about this point several tears ago, when Deborah Trilling posted one of the earliest versions of the profile pic script in the LSL wiki library.  AFAIK, there was never a legal test, and Linden Lab never made a rule, but the concern was for (a) privacy and (b) Intellectual property rights.  As a result, the version in the library was modified to include a short bit of code that asks a person's permission before posting their pic.  That script has been modified many times, of course, and I suspect that most people who are using it didn't get their version from the script library. So, do they violate TOS if those versions omit the permission snippet? I don't think anyone knows.  Given the thousands of copies in world, though, I doubt that LL has the time, energy, or staff to press the issue.

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't think the machinima or snapshot policies apply to a profile picture, which is neither.  However, you do have rights under copyright law in your "likeness and image".  By extension, it could be argued that you have copyright to your profile image.  Using it without your permission would be (arguably) a copyright violation.

To avoid this sort of thing, most profile picture greeters ask your permission to use your likeness.

The opposite argument would be that profile pictures are meant to be publicly available, and therefore no one has any right to kvetch when someone grabs one and uses it.  I don't agree with that...yes, profile pics are publicly viewable.  But putting one on a big display prim in world is a different, and possibly unwanted, use of that image.  Those who don't want their picture up on the wall should be able to say "no."

Of course, vain person that I am, I always say "yes" to the things.