Hypergrid Business reports that Islandz, Beth Reischl’s attempt to replace the failed InWorldz grid, is shutting down:
Islandz, the official successor to the InWorldz grid, is shutting down, owner Beth Reischl announced today on the grid’s Discord channel. Residents will have ten days to wrap up any current projects.
Reischl, who is also known as Elenia Llewellyn in-world, cited financial difficulties.
“I’m not working for free for another month, period,” she wrote. “I’ve done that for 8 months now and I have to consider my family.”
She said that she will not be making filtered OAR region export files available to members. “I’m not going to spend the next 3 months working for free to filter out stuff.”
Instead, she said, she will simply mail full OAR files to members.
Many creators chose InWorldz as their primary OpenSim home because it was a closed grid. That means that the content could not be exported to other grids via hypergrid teleports, or via OAR exports. According to some creators on the Islandz Discord channel, releasing full OAR files would violate the grid’s original license terms.
“Knowing and willing taking IP like that is not a good legal position to be in,” wrote one group member.
“There are people out there who would take advantage of the full [perm] content,” wrote another.
OAR files are full exports of regions — including the terrain and all the objects rezzed on that terrain. They can be uploaded to any other grid that allows OAR imports, as well as to grid that people have on their personal computers via easy OpenSim installers like DreamWorld. This is particularly troubling with creators who have high-end scripts or animations in their content, which can’t be stolen with regular copybot hacking tools. Competitors will be able to copy those scripts and use them in their own creations, for example.
InWorldz was OpenSim’s most popular closed grid for many years, and was the most popular of any grid for a good portion of that time as well. The decision to release OARs will affect a very large number of creators who came to OpenSim becaase of their trust that InWorldz would keep their stuff safe.
The decision to release the content is extremely controversial.
“Doing that could ruin some creators with all their stuff out in the wild,” wrote one group member.
Most OpenSim grids today either have a fully open policy, allowing all content to travel freely, or have filters in place to keep proprietary content from leaving the grid and taken to places where the scripts can be exposed. Kitely, for example, has a very robust permissions system in place that allows content creators to determine whether their creations can be taken elsewhere.
The important thing is that creators know up front what the rules are, so they can decide whether to bring their content over and how to manage the permissions.
“Quite honestly, I don’t really care if content creators like it or not,” Reischl wrote. “We went through all of this because of them, trying to make everyone happy. Fortunately, I do have all the OARs on my computer.”
As several commentators pointed out, releasing the content without the permission of the original copyright holders is a violation of copyright law.
“What are they going to do? Sue me?” Reischl asked. “Good luck, there’s nothing to sue over.”
It’s been a difficult period for Reischl. InWorldz shut down last summer after financial problems, bureaucratic mistakes and communication issues caused the grid to go down.
I hardly find this news surprising; many of the comments I received on my blogpost about the launch of Islandz were from people who felt they had been burned by the InWorldz shut-down and were never coming back to any project with Beth at the helm. Snoots Dwagon commented:
“The even bigger question is: will the content creators come back? Some of them, upset at the handling of (and communication about) the sudden shut-down of InWorldz, have since moved to other OpenSim grids and will likely not be coming back to set up shop in Islandz Virtual World.”
That’s the question of the day– and it affects everything. If content creators don’t “opt in” (and many have already said they want nothing more to do with Inworldz/Islandz)… their content will be filtered out of OAR files. So even if some ex-Inworldz members return, they may very likely find their lands largely barren even after pulling back in the OARs.
As you say in the article, many members have moved on. Elf Clan is now centered on OSgrid with a 75-region fantasy continent. Elf Clan members are scattered throughout the Hypergrid– on 3rd Rock, Discovery, DigiWorldz, Kitely, OSgrid and other grids– and after some 4 months we’re pretty much settled in our new homes.
After spending a TON of money with Inworldz over 8 years only to lose it all due to extreme mismanagement, we’d have to be out of our minds to support Islandz at $75 a region. Beth has decided to not honor her original agreement with our group, claiming this is a “new company”.
Well, I haz news for Beth: it’s a new age. We’re running our own lands now on three different servers. Our expenses have dropped to the cost of electricity. We’ve found OSgrid runs just as well as Inworldz and offers the added benefits of VARs (super-size regions), Hypergrid access, and full 100% control over our assets and inventory.
Beth has given Inworldz members zero reason to support or even respect Islandz at this point. Our lands and assets were destroyed. It’s unlikely the OARs are going to restore with any degree of success due to the simple fact of so many creators refusing to give Islandz permission to use their creations. Inworldz originally started with six founders, who left one by one because of frustration with how the company was operated. Now Islandz is down to one founder– the same person in charge when Inworldz tanked.
The question is: how many creators trust that one person with their creations? Considering the highly questionable destruction of Inworldz, the fact that no one was told with sufficient notice there was any problems (not even their main Dev was told), considering the way the GoFundMe donations were handled, and that Beth has stated her word and agreements to Inworldz members are no longer valid because this is a “new company”… who will trust their creations to a new grid run by the same person?
And, in the end, Beth Reischl was unable to get enough people to trust her and come back. It’s sad, but it happens. But what makes me so angry about this, is that Beth has (without advance warning) shut down the official Islandz Discord server, leaving Islandz users unable to communicate with each other unless they meet up somewhere in-world before Islandz is shut down. (There is still an unofficial InWorldz Diaspora Discord server, though.) Beth may have done this to avoid the outrage that is no doubt being directed at her, but frankly, she is doing a terrible disservice to those who supported the replacement grid. I’m not impressed.
Some content creators who did not give permission for their items to be saved in the OAR files saved from the InWorldz regions are going to be furious with Beth over her decision to simply give the unfiltered files back to InWorldz users, but there’s not much they can do about the situation, unless they want to involve a lawyer, which will result in expensive legal fees for the plaintiff. One commenter on the Hypergrid Business article stated:
I am disturbed people are going to receive unfiltered OARs. It means the company failed ultimately to protect the IP licenses of the makers of the products. Permissions will be cracked, proprietary graphic art, assemblies, and programming will be exposed. This is the ultimate insult to the protections that closed grid offered.
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