Contacting Second Life Owners for an inquiry!!!

[DutchmanStudios]

I have received approval to conduct research within the Second Life Community by my Human Research Ethics Committee (James Cook University Cairns Australia) as part of my honours thesis. This is on the condition that I provide The James Cook University Human Research Ethics Committee with written confirmation or other evidence that shows that I have permission from Second Life to conduct research within their community. Does anyone know how I can get such confrimation or evidence to say I can conduct research? I have tried contacting Linden Labs directly, but they have not responded. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I don't recall anyone asking about getting permission to conduct research ever before. Refreshing!

I'm not sure if there is a LL contact that you should direct your inquiry to. Suppose you could call or fax them.

I did find this in the Wiki:

Opinon surveys

Generally, you are allowed to collect information from other Residents via notecards, comment boxes asking for suggestions, or other means, as long as it doesn't violate the Community Standards or Terms of Service. This means, for example: You can't start dropping notecards on random Residents around you—that would be spam—but you can post a sign on your land that asks people to click it to take part in the survey. Or at least, ask someone personally if they're interested.

There are many ways to encourage other Residents to participate in sharing their opinions with you, and as long as any exchange of personal information is clearly voluntary and includes explicit consent of the person giving the information, there shouldn't be a problem.

Some resources that you may find useful:

Second Life Research Listserv

Academic Second Life Studies

SLed

Good luck.

[mikka Luik]

In addition to Griffin Ceawlin's answer and interesting links, I am curious why the first step is to contact Linden Labs. I thought it usually involved informing potential participants of such details and accreditation.

And will second that its refreshing to see this sort of thing approached in a  more formal fashion. Good luck.

[Maryanne Solo]

JCU is a higly reputable institution & fun place based in the paradise of Far North Queensland.

Permission has never been sought from LL before so maybe a document participants sign with avatar/inworld names would suffice? Idk.

I do miss FNQ.

Best of luck with your research and notecard me inworld if I could help with any advice

:smileywink:

 

 

[Drake1 Nightfire]

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mikka Luik wrote:

In addition to

Griffin Ceawlin

's answer and interesting links, I am curious why the first step is to contact Linden Labs. I thought it usually involved informing potential participants of such details and accreditation.

And will second that its refreshing to see this sort of thing approached in a  more formal fashion. Good luck.

---

Because they are the creators of this virtual world.. just like you would need Blizzards OK to contact people in their "games".

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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DutchmanStudios wrote:

I have received approval to conduct research within the Second Life Community by my Human Research Ethics Committee (James Cook University Cairns Australia) as part of my honours thesis. This is on the condition that I provide The James Cook University Human Research Ethics Committee with written confirmation or other evidence that shows that I have permission from Second Life to conduct research within their community. Does anyone know how I can get such confrimation or evidence to say I can conduct research? I have tried contacting Linden Labs directly, but they have not responded. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

---

Hey Dutch, the inmates run this asylum!  *maniacal laughter*   So, no need to contact the warden.

Seriously, though, LL won't give you permission,as they don't get involved with resident''s personal affairs.  

Anyone, can come into SL and do a study.  We get one or two researchers and/or students per week doing studies and surveys in SL.  We're autonomous adults here (expect for the teens, who are autonomous teens ; )  and as such, anyone can use us as guinea pigs,....errr...I mean research subjects. 

If you contact me inworld, I can give you information about some science talks that will be happening in SL this week. 

(one talk tomorrow, and one on Saturday)

There will be RL science educators and university professors there, (from US and Canadian research institutes) and you could see if one of them would be willing to vouch for you by contacting your Human Research Ethics Committee.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Dutch, you can just about do anything you want here as long as it's not against the Second Life Community Standards.

If people can live out their fantasies of cannibalism, rape, mutilation, wearing diapers, walking around with a pacifier in their mouths while making baby giggle sounds, then I think you'll be able to get away with a survey or two in here as well.

LL isn't going to respond to anything unless someone files an Abuse Report, anyway.

[Syo Emerald]

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Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

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mikka Luik wrote:

In addition to

Griffin Ceawlin

's answer and interesting links, I am curious why the first step is to contact Linden Labs. I thought it usually involved informing potential participants of such details and accreditation.

And will second that its refreshing to see this sort of thing approached in a  more formal fashion. Good luck.

---

Because they are the creators of this virtual world.. just like you would need Blizzards OK to contact people in their "games".

---

Nobody ever needed Blizzards permissions to contact people ingame (Blizzard is not the gamers mother...). Never heard about a case where a student got in trouble for asking is guildmates or other players for answering his survey.

But other than LL, Blizzard watches and cares a lot about their offical forum and posting surveys there wouldn't be allowed. Or at least someone with this kind of request would get information directly in the thread from an employee if surveys are allowed or not.....

I think LL doesn't care anyway and there wouldn't be a quick response from them.

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

---

Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I don't recall anyone asking about getting permission to conduct research ever before. Refreshing!

I'm not sure if there is a LL contact that you should direct your inquiry to. Suppose you could

call or fax them.

I did find this in the

Wiki:

Opinon surveys

 

Generally, you are allowed to collect information from other Residents via notecards, comment boxes asking for suggestions, or other means, as long as it doesn't violate the

Community Standards

or

Terms of Service

. This means, for example: You can't start dropping notecards on random Residents around you—that would be spam—but you can post a sign on your land that asks people to click it to take part in the survey. Or at least, ask someone personally if they're interested.

 

There are many ways to encourage other Residents to participate in sharing their opinions with you, and as long as any exchange of personal information is clearly voluntary and includes explicit consent of the person giving the information, there shouldn't be a problem.

Some resources that you may find useful:

Second Life Research Listserv

Academic Second Life Studies

SLed

Good luck.

---

Just a tiny bit of additional information:  The document referenced does contain the material quoted.  It also contains a prohibition against copying or distributing any of the documents content.  Which means you aren't allowed to copy the parts that are relevant and pass them on to anyone. (Who follows that prohibition? idk)  You are however allowed to provide a link to the document which may be helpful.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

Should LL elect to pursue legal action or otherwise seek to impose sanctions against me... for quoting from a page on their Wiki, on their Forum... that would be their prerogative.

Me, I'm claiming fair use.

[Perrie Juran]

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Qwalyphi Korpov wrote:

---

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Just a tiny bit of additional information:  The document referenced does contain the material quoted.  It also contains a prohibition against copying or distributing any of the documents content.  Which means you aren't allowed to copy the parts that are relevant and pass them on to anyone. (Who follows that prohibition? idk)  You are however allowed to provide a link to the document which may be helpful.

---

But note carefully, it does not say that the content is subject to "copyright laws" but to "the terms of service."

Copyright law does allow for the quotation of brief portions of copyrighted materials for the purpose of review and discussion.  Defining "brief" would be decided on a case by case basis.

So while LL may be exerting as much control as they can on the content of the Wiki, there are legal limits to how much control they can exert.  To the best of this lay person's knowledge (IANAL), legally speaking they can not stop you from quoting it.

Regardless, LL can ban or delete anyone for any reason at their discretion.  That is one thing they do have absolute control over.

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

---

Qwalyphi Korpov wrote:

---

---

Just a tiny bit of additional information:  The document referenced does contain the material quoted.  It also contains a prohibition against copying or distributing any of the documents content.  Which means you aren't allowed to copy the parts that are relevant and pass them on to anyone. (Who follows that prohibition? idk)  You are however allowed to provide a link to the document which may be helpful.

---

But note carefully, it does not say that the content is subject to "copyright laws" but to "the terms of service."

Copyright law does allow for the quotation of brief portions of copyrighted materials for the purpose of review and discussion.  Defining "brief" would be decided on a case by case basis.

So while LL may be exerting as much control as they can on the content of the Wiki, there are legal limits to how much control they can exert.  To the best of this lay person's knowledge (IANAL), legally speaking they can not stop you from quoting it.

Regardless, LL can ban or delete anyone for any reason at their discretion.  That is one thing they do have absolute control over.

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Naturally the area where the LL has the fullest control is here on their own turf.  Thus copying of the items content into a forum post is clearly against their rules and subject to ... they don't do nothing i suppose.

Re copyright - they state that the item is Copyright, all rights reserved.  Because I can't be bothered consulting a lawyer everytime I read sumptin I just quote and copy freely until a flag goes up.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I think all of the pages on the Wiki that are linked to on this page have that same notice. The strictest reading would mean that one could not quote a passage from the "Official Policies" or even from a previous version of the TOS.

I'm not so sure that that was/is LLs intent, particularly as regards activities on their own Forums.

If it was/is, I (and I'm sure everyone else who has ever copied/pasted anything from those pages here...) would welcome some guidance from them.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I think if LL objected to people quoting things on the forum from their policies in an effort to educate new users, the moderators would be all over it and be deleting threads.  After all we are doing LL a favor here and it isn't like its is going outside the SL realm.  The OP I am sure would need to give the link to his school so they can see the original source.

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I think all of the pages on the Wiki that are linked to on

this page

have that same notice. The strictest reading would mean that one could not quote a passage from the "Official Policies" or even from a previous version of the TOS.

I'm not so sure that that was/is LLs intent, particularly as regards activities on their own Forums.

If it was/is, I (and I'm sure everyone else who has ever copied/pasted anything from those pages here...) would welcome some guidance from them.

---

I suspect the LL wants to avoid having bits and pieces of Official Policy taken as policy rather than the entire documents.  Certainly there's potential to not see the five limiting caveats following some quoted piece.  Still it's really not practical to have a discussion that only pulls in the policy stuff via a link to the entire article.   I point it out mainly because it's so silly.

[VRprofessor]

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I don't recall anyone asking about getting permission to conduct research ever before. Refreshing!

I'm not sure if there is a LL contact that you should direct your inquiry to. Suppose you could

call or fax them

.

I did find this in the

Wiki

:

Opinon surveys

 

Generally, you are allowed to collect information from other Residents via notecards, comment boxes asking for suggestions, or other means, as long as it doesn't violate the

Community Standards

or

Terms of Service

. This means, for example: You can't start dropping notecards on random Residents around you—that would be spam—but you can post a sign on your land that asks people to click it to take part in the survey. Or at least, ask someone personally if they're interested.

 

There are many ways to encourage other Residents to participate in sharing their opinions with you, and as long as any exchange of personal information is clearly voluntary and includes explicit consent of the person giving the information, there shouldn't be a problem.

---

I suspect directing your IRB to the above and telling them which part is relevant, should satisfy them.  

I seriously doubt you will get a direct response from anyone at LL.  I cannot imagine that they would care as long as you don't annoy anyone to the point of griefing.

[Lindal Kidd]

A rather ridiculous side discussion, if you ask me.  Those of us active in Answers cut and paste from the Knowledgebase and other parts of the Official Linden Lab Word all the time...and it's encouraged, rather than the reverse.

[DutchmanStudios]

Thank you all for the advice!

The Human Research Ethnics Committee for JCU needs in written proof or likewise (from these proffessors) that it is not required to have any direct permission from the owners of Second Life. If you could do this for me or set me up with one of these proffessors either in Second Life or by e-mail, it will help me hugely for complete approval for this survey! My contact e-mail is: nillo@bigpond.net.au or just reply to this message.

Thank you agaon Celestiall

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I would think the link given for the wiki would be sufficient as it is an official source, in writing and specifically talks about surveys.  It says you are allowed to use notecards as long as the resident gives consent and also other means. I'd print that out plus the TOS and Community Standards, since they are referenced, and use that as your proof.

You could ask residents to participate and then give them a notecard with any disclosures required and links to an online survey.  You could even ask them in this forum as along as you don't restrict your research to only asking here.  The number of residents that read this forum is statistically small compared to total residents so would not yield statistically valid results on its own without also including in world research.

BTW, thank you for doing this professionally.  So many students come here doing research but never give the required information that is usually given to research subjects.  They simply want those of us on the fourm to do their work for them and never go in world.

[Perrie Juran]

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Lindal Kidd wrote:

A rather ridiculous side discussion, if you ask me.  Those of us active in Answers cut and paste from the Knowledgebase and other parts of the Official Linden Lab Word all the time...and it's encouraged, rather than the reverse.

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Encouraged by whom?

Also, if I recall correctly, it is only the pages that are labelled as "Linden Lab Official" that have the "no copy this please" disclaimer.

[Qie Niangao]

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The Human Research Ethnics Committee for JCU needs in written proof or likewise (from these proffessors) that it is not required to have any direct permission from the owners of Second Life.

---

You need written proof that it is not necessary to have permission.

I see.

There's somebody on this Committee with an unnatural fear of lawyers.

Tell them that the Second Life forums community is preparing a class-action lawsuit against them for mental anguish caused by a recursive Catch-22.

[Melita Magic]

LOL!!!