The Story of the Random AV Profile Projector

[Debbie Trilling]

The Random AV Profile Projector was a little gadget I dreamt up and scripted one cold, rainy UK Sunday morning in November 2007, wearing only my dressing gown and sipping hot tea. Little did I know the controversy this thing was going to cause over the following months...but, if I had known....I’d would still have scripted and published it…..

The Random AV Profile Projector scans an area, selects an avatar at random and then displays their profile picture as a ‘holographic’ image and/or textures a prim with their profile picture. Pretty innocuous, you would have thought. I did anyway, and published the code Open Source on the LLab Forums and LLab wiki.

From Day One I was calling it a “toy”; I never expected it to change the world. The initial feedback was very positive, and people were having fun with it. Several times I was asked to make certain enhancements to it, or add little extras and interest in the toy was enough to make these changes worthwhile doing. Before long I had taken it from v1.0 to v5.0. The script had evolved from intermediate level to advanced/experienced level scripting. Indeed, the script is now used in a number of classes given in Advanced LSL, and the NMC Campus asked for a Special Edition version of the Profile Projector for the entrance area of their main sim.

So, why the controversy? I first heard that something was amiss from a forum post saying that their copy of the Random AV Profile Projector had been confiscated by LLab…and then another…and another. LLab were saying that the toy violated the permissions system. Their reasoning goes something like this: “A profile picture is a texture. A texture is an Inventory item. It should not be possible to remove a texture from an Inventory without first having the necessary permissions from the texture Owner. The Random AV Profile Projector does not ask for permission to use the texture, therefore it violates the permissions system”.

Now, I actually think that is a pretty fair argument, but, it took months for a concise summary (like that given above) of the argument to emerge. Mixed in with this argument, and not emanating from LLab but from other residents, were some of the following:

1) When I saw my picture on a prim, it frightened me (“Will it steal my Soul?”)
2) It violates my privacy (it is a profile picture, for gawd’s sake, that *you* have put on *your* profile page!!)
3) It is a breach of copyright (one person was ridiculous enough to threaten to contact their RL lawyers)
4) If it can get my profile information, what else can it get? My financial info?
5) Other pseudo-legal arguments put forward by lawyer-wannabes and other self-appointed “experts and authorities”
6) Ad nauseam

And arguments raged. Literally raged! SL Exchange had to lock a seven page forum thread because it was getting so heated and personal; the normally highbrow and conservative (but always informative and knowledgeable) secondlifescripters group were sending emails aplenty, dripping in emotion and opinion about the rights and wrongs of the toy. The issue was eventually taken up by Robin Linden at the Governance Team meeting, where one of her team demonstrated the toy. There was discussion of changing the Second Life Terms of Service due to the toy.

For the most part, I tried to keep out of the controversy. I’d address technical issues but otherwise attempted to keep well away. When I offered an opinion it was usually of the type “the lawyer and the bureaucratic mind have always been frightened of those things that have not yet been legislated for”. Not particularily helpful, I know, but it made me laugh.

Only once did I get involved really, and this was when two experienced scripters (whom I have a lot of respect for; one of whom has helped me in many ways) started to take a “Holier Than Thou” attitude, looking down on the toy with (what I perceived as) a false sense-of-superiority “What *purpose* does it have anyway?”, they asked, their scorn dripping off of their tongues as they looked down on the little people below.

My fury was quick and fierce, It is a *toy*, for gawd’s sake, it isn’t *meant* to have a *purpose*. It was like criticizing a holo-hoop for being unsuitable as a component in the Large Hadron Collider. It all got a bit silly really, but calmed down quickly enough.

So, what is the current situation? Well, LLab appear to have stopped confiscating them, unless a specific Abuse Report is received on a specific object. People no longer seem to be scared of it, as far as I know. It is widely considered that this script has introduced more people to LSL than most any other script. It is one of the most viewed private pages on the LLab wiki (over 10,400 views to date, and rising at a few hundred views per week). The script is Open Source and the toy is Full Perms. It is estimated that there are 10,000 or so in-world.

Regardless of any “controversy”, the Random AV Profile Projector has proven to be immensely popular, and its core technology is now used in numerous products.

And so, next time you are in a mall, store or club and you see your profile picture being mysteriously projected or shown on a big screen…you know the story behind it.

You can get the script at: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Random_AV_Profile_Projector