Stroker and Munch sue LL.
:-(

Even if the suit doesn't hold up, there's a certain amount of reputation damage done by the nasty wording in the documents, as well as by the time and money suck of fighting in court or settling. The way things are currently set up it's very difficult to control IP. There are different ways to do it in different worlds, all with a huge cost so far (designated creators upload and wait for the high sign in There).

I stopped believing in the idea of protecting data a few years ago, rightly or wrongly. I feel the way things are set up at the moment the protections threaten to be uglier and more intrusive than the thefts. Maybe in the future there will be, say, rendering in the cloud which would supposedly solve some problems, and at that moment of switching LL will change the avatar mesh so that it will be like flushing all the old data away. Dunno. I just know I think this lawsuit is not very nice.

I did wonder how the XstreetSL buyout could do anything other than make LL a bit more liable for infringements, but what do I know.

Here we have had great freedom and ability to create, and I very much doubt anyone else will provide what we have here as it's both too much trouble and not profitable. I'm angry that two people would jeopardise it all not just for themselves but for everyone.

For me the thing of trumping importance is the ability for anyone to build. You could say their most important thing is that IP be protected, or you could equally look at this case and decide they are just interested in money, with a side of nobbling the development of competitors.

Update: Wow, the conspiracy theorists have come up with a big one. /me scuttles across the grassy knoll and ducks into an alley.