[Mesh tutorials - how about IP rights?]

So if you completely screw up the tutorial, you can do what you like with the mangled remains. Otherwise, no, you can't use a successful result.

[cannot upload mesh in main grid mesh sandbox]

You may need to make a purchase of L$ to activate the link to your payment info.

[IP Rights... how to know for sure?]

A bold new mesh world full of bold new mesh stuff!

[The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement.]

I sell full-perm sculpties with a similar terms of service notecard. If any customer objects to what is a very well-known practice in Second Life and raises that objection to me I would certainly return their money to them promptly, taking them at their word that they would delete my sculpties.

In four years, it has not been a problem. Some people have sold my sculpties as sculpties, but only a handful have done so maliciously. The majority have been new users who misunderstood the full-perm system.

[IP Rights... how to know for sure?]

How to be sure? Make your products from scratch yourself.

[Kettle Quest Part III is out]

Even when I know the material, I love watching these tutorials for the reassurance. Helps for the moments when I think mesh has driven me mad.

Mahalo!

[Happy]

Two questions:

1. Are there mesh sandboxes on the maingrid?

2. Are there any issues with uploading mesh using the new mesh maingrid viewer, even if you don't have access to a mesh maingrid sim and can't rez them? For example, if I just want to get some mesh into my inventory?

[Sigh.]

No, I've been crashing mesh sandboxes for over a year. I know what that looks like.

[LOD Ratios]

Yep, the prim count for my poor ol' lighthouse means it makes no sense to build it in mesh. Getting the count down would require LODs that look dreadful at even the slightest distance. Other than a couple of unusually-shaped parts, there's really no point to building something this size in mesh.

[Log File?]

It actually worked! I understood what it said and fixed it! Will wonders never cease...

[Log File?]

Thank you! Off to view my errors...

[Log File?]

When the uploader tells me to see the Log File for details of my latest Epic Fail, where do I find the Log File? Or is it just telling me my mesh is a giant log of, well, you know.

[Sigh.]

Did some building in Sandbox 28, went back a couple of hours later, and the last half-hour of work is gone. Mesh and prim. I won't be paying for any mesh on the maingrid until this sort of thing stops.

[Mesh Volunteers]

I'm not coming to your sim in my bunny avatar.

[LOD Ratios]

Now the problem I'm having is the realization I can just make 90% of the *$&@(#*$ thing out of regular prims that will look fine at a distance with less work and the same prim count. Hmmm...

[LOD Ratios]

Groovy. I remember a meeting long ago when it was 3:1 and it was a bit of a palaver. I'm happy to hear it's in my hands and on my account. That I can wrangle.

Mahalo!

[LOD Ratios]

Do we have a final required ratio between LOD levels? I'm fiddling with uploading an old structure, and I'd like to know what to shoot for before I make lower LOD models. Right now the automated system looks like

High : Medium — 4 : 1

Medium : Low — 3 : 1

Low : Lowest — 2 : 1

That first step is a doozy and the model looks like hell from a hundred meters. The temptation is to throw caution and cash to the winds and pay for an favorable error limit, which will certainly violate the goal of making mesh the more efficient option.

Maybe I'm just looking at the real cost of trying to make a large structure with even detailed pieces in mesh. I hope I don't turn into a jewelry maker out of frustration.

[a side effect...]

On the maingrid, the Search beta V2 has been a revolution. Lag has been cut but 90%. There's an odd problem with some textures coming into focus (passing your cursor over them fixes that). But overall my SL experience has been better with this new viewer than it has been in over a year. There's so little lag that I was able to finish #10 in lap count at the Relay for Life last weekend, and that's on a crappy Time Warner cable connection, over an AirPort, on a MacBook Pro, nine miles from the end of the last road in America. It just works.

[How are we supposed to market Mesh prim count?]

I'm still waiting for ARC for mesh. Mesh avatars are a real terra incognita at the moment.

[Mesh enablement tutorial]

If LL does not cut down on substantial stealing from a third-party source in the age of mesh, a court could issue an injunction that would shut down all of SL, so they are definitely casting about for answers. The real problem is that will eight gazillion mesh out there in the world available for Collada import, how will anyone spot the stolen merchandise?

And I must say, I've filed my share of DMCAs with LL, and they have always yanked the offending merchandise within twenty-four hours. I'm 100% satisfied with their response to my DMCAs. Of course, I am still waiting for the online DMCA-filing system that was promised eighteen months ago, because filing them is a *#&$*@ pain in the fundament.

They also serve who only sit and wait.

[Feeling better...]

Encouraging. Might be time to start experimenting again. Was this in one of the advanced sandboxes or just random beta grid?

[Mesh enablement tutorial]

LL's only option may be to shut down the account, the internet address, even regions if they had to. It's not up to them to prosecute the offense, but they can certainly shut off access.

[Mesh enablement tutorial]

The legal principle underlying trademark law in the U.S. is subtly different from copyright law. Copyright law, obviously, protects the expression of a creator's unique idea. Note that it does not protect the idea, just the expression of it. There is no protection for an idea.

Trademark attempts to define the source of a product or service, and eliminate confusion for the consumer. So, for instance, in RL you certainly could not invent a new soda and call it Pepsi, as the consumer would expect that they were buying genuine Pepsi from the Pepsi company. The same holds true in SL if you use Pepsi's name or can design or font on your SL beverage. Your SL customer would be misled into thinking they might be doing business with the Pepsi Company.

Note that copyright automatically takes effect when you complete a creative product, be it a novel or a movie or a mesh. Filing for formal copyright allows you to later file a claim of infringement relief in federal court and to recover certain costs, but basically when you create something, you hold copyright over it. The same is not true for trademarks. You must file your trademark and then you must conduct a trademark campaign to protect it. Which is why the Kleenex people have been taking out ads in writers' magazines for decades to remind writers that Kleenex is not a generic term. Same with Xerox , etc.

[Mesh enablement tutorial]

There is no way to fail, as the educational aspect is secondary. The primary function is to protect Linden Lab from charges of aiding an infringement. This isn't really a test, it's a "you were warned!" statement required by LL's invisible lawyers.

Now about the status of the SL avatar armature...

And the status of that Ferrari F-40 avatar...

[Mesh enablement tutorial]

Now that I passed the test, promise me that Linden Lab contacted Volkswagen, Ferrari, BMW, Fairchild and the rest concerning the new vehicle avatars you're offering. I forgot to ask at the Monday meeting and it's killing me.