Thursday, October 7, 2010

You WILL accept display names! DX

So, what really is in a name in SL?  Mine?  It's a sentence.  Some people have real sounding or culturally specific names.  Others have AOLish atrocities.  Then there's the people who try to get a 'message' across with their account name... Like... xxx69lickyoudry Felicity. (O.o)

Of course, now we're going to be getting DISPLAY names.  Our account name will be locked to whatever we signed up with, but, with a 7 day minimum we can have any bloody name at all... Well... Unless it's a curse word, on the ban list, or "Linden". (=_=)

But, why Linden?  Eventually that gets dug up at the end of the meeting. (=_=)

[2010/10/07 11:57]  Jack Linden: Drongle, Linden is a real world company with real world brand and protections of that brand. So yes, we will protect that inworld

But, what does that mean? (O.o)

Here's how the crowd understood it. (^_^)

[2010/10/07 11:58]  Ciaran Laval: Linden is also a real name Jack
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Master Kane: Oh and we qare just pissants jack?
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Zoha Boa: ZoHA Islands is a RL company paying +400 K US$ in tier to LL. Why can't you protect us ?
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Cummere Mayo: jack, many of the designers here are real world companies with bradings too
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Cummere Mayo: *brandings
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Imnotgoing Sideways: So, what about Linden St. San Francisco? (^_^)
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Marianne McCann: Hmn. I suspect Voyager might be a company's name out there, maybe others...
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Drongle McMahon: SA are hundreds of other names.
[2010/10/07 11:58]  Aargle Zymurgy: and I'm legally incorporated as well.
[2010/10/07 11:59]  Rigrunner Rang: so again i repeat a person can take no action until they see someone using their TM? There's no protective measures in place for anyone except Linden?

So, yeah, something is inconsistent... I mean...

[2010/10/07 12:00]  Imnotgoing Sideways: But, we get to use our RL names, right... What about when a Frank Linden signs up to SL... It's now everyone but him. (^_^)
[2010/10/07 12:00]  Imnotgoing Sideways: If there's nothing to be afraid of.... There's nothing to be afraid of. (^_^)
[2010/10/07 12:00]  Lamorna Proctor: yeah, you can have any name you like, as long as it's not Linden. What's sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander

So far, the way I'm reading this is that anyone can have anyone else's name at any time, we can use our real life names, we can make up character names, but our display name can NOT contain "Linden". (=_=)

Stepping back in time...

[2010/10/07 11:38]  Imnotgoing Sideways: Linden Lab was only called Linden Lab because the initial office was on Linden St. in San Francisco. Surely, the name has a history that predates SL. (^_^)
[2010/10/07 11:38]  Lamorna Proctor: Unter den Linde was a street in Berlin years before :)
[2010/10/07 11:38]  Lamorna Proctor: *Linden

So, Linden Research Inc. (Remember when they made that change?) feels the need to protect the "Linden" name.  Why?  It wasn't theirs to begin with.  There are people, places, and streets that use Linden as a name.  Surely, there may theoretically be a genuine reason for someone to name their avatar "Linden" at some point in time.  But, that's blocked? (=_=)

To say they're protecting a trademark means... what? (O.o)

[2010/10/07 11:52]  Cummere Mayo: i asked what procedure you have for takedown notices of trademakred or copyrighted names?
[2010/10/07 11:53]  Cummere Mayo: saying talk to us isnt a procedure

Oh, true that.  Residents have trademarked their names due to business interests and such.  But, its not just that.  We'll be stepping into this with zero knowledge of the grief that will come from mistaken identity, fraud, misdirected Abuse Reports, among many other potential issues.  But, the Lindens aren't choosing to protect their resi... CUSTOMERS!  Paying customers, at that. (=_=)

Personally, I can say that I don't completely mind display names, but, I despise the current method being used to implement it.  Add to that, Linden Lab keeps telling us that there won't be a need for protections over our names.  But... They protect their own?  So, if there's no need, why do THEY need it?  That's the whole sticky point for me. (=_=)

I think I have a solution... Opt out. =^-^=

[2010/10/07 11:17]  Imnotgoing Sideways: I'd still love to have an option in my profile that says "Add my account name to the display name blacklist". It can be a tickbox right next to "Hide me In search". (^_^)

People like the idea.  But, will it be implemented.  Heck, it's not even getting acknowledged. (=_=)

I dunno.  I'm seeing a lot of frustrated people who are currently putting a lot of money into SL.  Linden Lab seems to strictly target who they can get far more than who they can keep.  It just smells.  (>_<)

The question is...

[2010/10/07 11:20]  Molly Montale: If being fooled is not a real concern then why will the sur name Linden not be available?

Anyone got an answer?  Anyone?  Bueller?  =^-^=

9 comments:

Ghosty said...

I'll never use their third-party viewer anyway, so I'll never see it.

Anonymous said...

1. It's their service and their server system: They can set it up however they wish.

2. Any "company" whose content exists exclusively within Second Life and which deals only in Second Life data is NOT a Real World company, trademark, copyright and legal incorporation aside.

3. All users are used to seeing the last name "Linden: only on Linden Lab employees.

Dale Innis said...

If they had any sense, they would say "since we will make it very clear to all Residents that display names are under the control of the user, we don't expect a significant amount of confusion or fraud using display names; the one exception to this is the name 'Linden', which is so tied in current Residents minds to LL employees that, although we think the potential for confusion or fraud there is still small, we've chosen to forbid it in display names; we regret the limits that this will put on people whose real-life name is 'Linden', and we will periodically revisit this limitation going forward".

But because they don't have anyone as smart as me working on this :) they instead just let Jack say whatever damnfool thing pops into his head, and we get these wincingly dumb comments like "our trademarks matter (whereas by implication yours don't)".

I doubt display names will actually be a big deal, myself. But as usual they're managing to squeeze a PR disaster out of it by being snooty.

(@Atra: I can't imagine why you think your (2) is correct; if they are providing value for value to real people, they are a real company, no matter how virtual their products are.)

Wol said...

Presumably Atra thinks that TV production companies aren't real either, because their product exists only as electrons on a screen :)

And yes, display names is a potentially good idea badly and hastily implemented. How often have we had to say that recently? (sighs)

Anonymous said...

@Dale: They do not deal in any physical goods, nor do they hinge around anything except Second Life. If Linden Lab closed Second Life down tomorrow these SL "companies" would simply cease to exist.

The "Value" they provide to the users of Second Life is irrelevant.

@Wol: Kindly refrain from making such idiotic statements in the future and actually use your brain.

Doktor J said...

@Atra: "trademark, copyright and legal incorporation aside" -- then what defines a company in your eyes? Is not a "company" simply an incorporated person or group of people? These people exist in the real world, and their company names are on legal documents that exist in the real world, therefore their companies exist in the real world.

"The "Value" they provide to the users of Second Life is irrelevant." -- is it? Is the value any given website -- say, a major site like yahoo.com -- provides to the users of your ISP (namely, you) irrelevant? Do their trade names not deserve any sort of protection?

It really seems like you're drawing arbitrary lines that exist only in your head, and are mainly just being contrary out of spite.

Udge said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lenoirre said...

The whole display name deal seems pointless. I use Phoenix so I won't have the option to change my display name. But why change it every week? It seems dumb.

I think LL should cancel the whole idea.

Imnotgoing Sideways said...

I'm also a bit munched over display names because I enjoyed the challenge of getting a really slick name using the existing method... My own AV name, for example. (^_^)

And, yesterday, I registered Tenten Tenenbaum for the heck of it. =^-^=