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Arrington is all about aquiring power and influence and making money. So he grasps that the way he and his industry can acquire power and influence and make money is not by having lots of sandboxing widgeteers be able to grab at technology other people made for free, and modify it in ways that may hack up the whole system. No, something like iPhones makes money precisely because it is closed.
Everything that LL has achieved so far it has achieved by being closed, not open, and none of the Stallmanites grasp that this is in fact the real openness. By having a regime that at least respected display of creators’ intent and discouraged facile copying, by having a world where you could establish an independent name and reputation in business or culture, a rich and vibrant world is made.
Open systems, pulling down walls, making big sandboxes — they are often antithetical to civilization, and aren’t the same thing as the open society that must be protected from its enemies who wish to close it. To the extent the the Lindens chased after open sandboxes, letting in free accounts, running after interoperability with OpenSim, etc. they are in fact closing off the opportunities for people to protect their intellectual property, which means frankly protecting their intellectual freedom.
You mention casually that you want to go to other grids with your inventory. But in that inventory are people’s IP. Why should your need to travel trump their inability to display the intent of their creation and have it be bought and sold in other worlds, too, rather than stolen?
Zittrain and others who constantly talk about “generative” this and that are spouting nonsense. They are professors whose salaries are paid at universities, supported by kids whose parents support them or big IT guys whose big companies support them. They have a vision for hippie commune hobby sandbox to play with technology. But somebody always has to pay for this. They have people to pay for them to play. We don’t. The rest of us want a normal economy with buying and selling and property.