Next Meeting

Jon Seattle · Post by **Jon Seattle** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:24 am

Given the current controversy I've asked DNate to pause the new sim project (this is, of course up to him) and also to mention that we will be also be avoiding any discussion on the IP issue until Rose returns.

I have asked Moon Adamant to chair the next meeting of the Guild which will take place at the NFS school at 10 AM SL Time on Sunday.

Rose Springvale · Post by **Rose Springvale** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:40 am

Regardless of when they are discussed, there are three questions that must be answered before I or anyone else attempts to complete a draft of an IP agreement for CDS. Everyone keeps deflecting the real issues here with personality problems, so i'm going to set them out here and ask that the issues be addressed by the community without regard to WHO asked the question.

1. What mechanical institution is to be party to this agreement. Who can legally hold the rights on behalf of the community, and how? My public proposal was that it be the New Guild through Guilda. If it is to be the CDS, there must be a mechanism to do so.

2. SHOULD builders unwilling to transfer rights to NFS or CN be allowed to work on the new sim. If so, under what conditions? If not, are the reasons something the community is willing to risk?

3. This one is a non apologetic legal issue... in drafting an agreement... who am i representing? The builders? the guild? the community? Ideally, each would have their own representation as each has conflicting interests. The current draft was drafted solely on behalf of the New Guild as an entity. It should only be read as such. In an ideal world, the guild would have worked out its issues with the agreement before bringing it to a public forum, so that it, as an entity, knew what it wanted. Then when it was presented to the RA as a finished document, the RA would have its counsel review. Then when it was presented to individuals, to the extent they were concerned about issues, THEIR counsel would review it. Ultimately, changes would be made at each level of review.

In reality, this is a volunteer community and i'd have done my best to take those concerns into account as i presented the document at each phase. In each instance, i'd have taken any revisions back to MY CLIENT before submitting them again, so that the real parties in interest could discuss the problem. Only when there was a meeting of minds would the document be proposed as "the" Agreement.

That is why i didn't want it posted on the forums before discussion was complete.

If you reply to this post, please address the enumerated issues only. if you want to talk to me about how i personally handled issues, or my role in the future, or my choice of friends, or even, as happened in a private conversation with a former friend, call me names, my email address is [email protected]. Please use it.

Jon Seattle · Post by **Jon Seattle** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:54 am

This is really very helpful. I appreciate it.

1. I clearly think the CDS should hold the rights on behalf of the community. I hope the RA will create the framework to do this asap.

2. I don't think the community can take the risk of any artist making things as part of our community infrastructure and not providing use rights. This would preclude working on the new sim.

This gets much more complex if we have someone who has done work in the past, but is willing to assign rights only on future work. I hope we don't run in to this situation, but I think having the CDS be the rights holder will go far to solve this.

I offered my own work on Colonia Nova at no charge to the CDS and I would be very pleased to sign a version of your agreement that made that formal. Otherwise I really do think you have done an amazing job on the text of the agreement, and it was no easy task.

Dnate Mars · Post by **Dnate Mars** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:46 pm

I agree with Jon, we need to make sure that we get ownership of the sim right before we start. But also remember, the longer it takes to get the new sim running, the more it hurts the CDS.

Bromo Ivory · Post by **Bromo Ivory** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:29 am

On reflection - it is really important to figure out the way rights are to be held, and then stick to it.

We really need to get the SIM moving along - with minimum of "fuss and thunder"(well big "fuss and thunder") - and the debates and arguments should be in hashing out the details of the SIM!

From all the people I have talked to regarding this - it is clear everyone wants it done - so there is a lot of motivation.

Nice thing is that there will be a SOP for this sort of thing as the reward and it will make things easier in the future.