Unofficial Licensing FAQ

This FAQ is not official Linden Lab Policy

This is a resident maintained FAQ. It may contain inaccuracies, and does not reflect the opinion or policy of Linden Lab. This FAQ is not legal advice, if you require advice for your specific situation or use of the OpenSL software, you should consult a lawyer.

Is the Second Life Viewer GPL-compatible?

Yes and no. The viewer is licensed under the GPLv2 with an additional FLOSS exception. This FLOSS exception allows linking to GPL-incompatible libraries. If you remove the GPL-incompatible libraries and strike the FLOSS exception from the license, then the client is fully GPL compatible, and may then be distributed with other GPLed works linked with it.

Notable GPL-incompatible components:

• Fmod
• Kakadu

Can Linden Lab accept GPLed contributions, or contributions that rely on a GPLed work?

No. All work submitted to Linden Lab must be subject to the contribution agreement, which grants Linden Lab full joint copyright powers over the work, and ensures that no patent can be enforced against the contribution by the submitter.

Linden Lab requires this for the following reasons:

1. The reason stated above, the client is not currently GPL-compatible
2. The binary client distribution may contain unreleased source changes
3. Linden Lab offers permissive commercial licensing terms to third parties

Because you retain full joint rights, you can license your contribution under the GPL to others, but as long as the viewer is encumbered with the FLOSS exception, no one could distribute your contribution as part of the GPL+FLOSS viewer. You could add a specific exception to your license allowing it specifically to be linked to the GPL+FLOSS licensed viewer, however.

Is the artwork that comes with the client GPLed?

No, it is released under a Creative Commons license, Creative Commons license Attribution-Share Alike 2.5. Be careful to heed the trademark policy if you plan on distributing this artwork.

What about the in-client LSL documentation?

Linden Lab has not made an official policy announcement in regard to this. Informally, however, they have said that they will allow it to be posted to this wiki, so one might assume it is under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 also.

Is the new Voice feature proprietary?

Yes, at least in part. Linden Lab seems to be trying to keep it in a separate process so that the viewer code will not need to be linked directly to any proprietary dependancy, avoiding further GPL incompatibility. The codec it uses is covered by patents, so it is doubtful it will ever be fully distributable. This is tenative information as of March 2007, and may change as this feature develops.

Does the contribution agreement make me give up all rights under any patents I might hold?

No. The agreement only requires you to grant a license on patents that cover your contribution, for that contribution. However one should carefully consider the ramifications. Because Linden Lab offers permissive licensing to third parties, they are also licensing your patents that cover your contribution to those third parties. This could affect the enforceability of your patents against those third parties. A consultation with a patent lawyer would be in order if you think this might affect you.