Via StepUp! blog

Did you know that today is the 5th of November? Of course you do. It’s the day that everyone quotes from that famous poem regarding Guy Fawkes Night. On the other hand, it could go down as the most epic November 5th in Second Life history, as two groups vie for your attention.

Stepping Up

The first group, Step Up!, was created around September 23rd, 2009, as a response to the growing content theft problem inside SL. Their methods include distributing awareness kiosks, blogging, creating machinima, and informing you about how you, as the greater community, can participate as well. Their main platform for November 5th is “no uploads,” which is entirely doable for most.

However, unless reach is global, the group will only end up with a small portion of the virtual population refusing to upload. While there is no personal damage done to the individuals unless they plan regular releases and don’t have them done ahead of time, it’s not exactly something that will be felt by Linden Lab.

What good is this?

How often does one upload that they’d be taking it away? It’s easy for someone to say they won’t upload since they never upload anyway. Or there might be the occasional content creator that just uploads another day. Yeah, you really showed them with that 20 cents they’ll get tomorrow anyway!

For that matter, how will Linden Lab know that you chose not to upload today? Do you plan on writing an email to them to let them know why you didn’t give them 50L? If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Can someone please explain this concept to me?

Final thoughts on Step Up!

You know, I think the seeds have been planted with Step Up! They have the enthusiasm and they have the talent to alert the community. As I told them before, a focus on the real life media, press packets and all, would be very effective. I look forward to seeing where they go after this initial effort.

What the Chancellor wants, the Chancellor gets

Via Artists Voice Blog

The second group, Artists Voice, plays a much more sinister role in the grand scheme of awareness. Born out of frustration for lack of action of other groups, a core set of content creators, led by Tenshi Vielle, sought to do much of the same thing that Step Up! had planned. As a matter of fact, they also planned to protest uploads on November 5th. However, after one of the co-founders was copybotted repeatedly, things took a darker turn. This sentence has nothing to do with Rebel Hope. Please don’t hurt me!

Without consulting members, Tenshi sent out a group notice encouraging group members and others to do the following for 48 hours, from early November 5th to late November 6th:

• No Uploads
• No Blogging
• No Selling
• No Buying
• No Buying of currency
• No Selling of currency

So to recap, here are the following steps on how you can participate:

• Log into Second Life
• Sit there and IM friends
• Think about when your virtual life had meaning
• Log off and watch TV

Honestly, this is just one of those things that you brush off and do something else with your time. It would have been nice if my questions were answered without getting nasty private plurks about how I was causing trouble, though. All I’d wanted to know was what would happen to the people that chose not to participate. Given the short time frame, Ms. Vielle either failed to notice (or just didn’t care) that the dates coincided with prior commitments that many of us had, including the opening day of WinterStock, a holiday themed sim, and a Skin Fair.

But wait, there’s more!

Other group members also had questions that they anxiously waited for answers to. Instead of addressing them, Tenshi conducted a private meeting with some of her council members, though just how many of the nine attended isn’t known at this time. At the end of the day, an announcement was made that they were sticking with the plan to protest for two days with the sit like a slug method.

When a concerned member questioned this plan, they were met with a very public bashing in the group chat. They were informed that the entire council conferred and agreed with her decision. Since then, they’ve gone full speed ahead with their protest plan, writing posts about how to sell-proof your store. In just five minutes, you too can prevent yourself from earning money for two days!

Final thoughts on Artists Voice

You know, I’ve seen rumblings of fairs and other events that would have been so much better to lead in with. You only get one chance to make a great first impression. Color me unimpressed.

If they want to salvage this in any way, their next event will be pro-active instead of self-destructive. In the meantime, I sincerely hope that this doesn’t end up being a witch hunt aimed at those that knowingly elected not to participate. I’ve already seen vocal non-support being equated to supporting content theft, though.

For the full context, there are many threads around the webisphere pertaining to the Artists Voice debacle. You can read about them on Atomic Valley, SL Universe, and Second Citizen.

Good girls gone bad

I’m electing not to participate in either event as I made a prior commitment to WinterStock and would lose my booth. That doesn’t mean that I support content theft. It just means I had some stuff to do.

Stop by and check out my booth at WinterStock if you’re so inclined. If you’re participating in either of these protests, feel free to look, but don’t touch. It’ll still be there until January 3rd …

However, I’ve done my part and informed you of the agendas of both parties. It’s up to you now to decide for yourselves how you’ll make your mark. Go forth and be productive!

moo Money