The differance between amusing annoyances and actionable damages...

I leave work, come home for a spot of time on SL, and what appears before me but news that some...

Special person...

Has decided that it would be a good idea to utterly infest the grid with his depravity.


I am NOT amused.


In fact. I'm rather annoyed that this has happened. This is not a game, friends. This is an obvious hacking attempt. This is actionable in a court of law, against an individual, for monitary renumeration, by Linden Labs.

While I cannot say this has been more than a minor annoyance for me, I believe that LL needs to finally put their foot down. Presumably in the middle of someone's spleen, metaphorically speaking. This is costing LL in multiple ways, and I for one have always believed that examples should be made of in-'duh'-viduals that step over the line from amusing annoyances into the realm of actual damage.

Please, feel free to disagree as you may want.

I agree 100%.

Then after justice is done, find the assholes responsible and rip their balls off, like all civilised society should do to criminals...

Pratyeka, you are presupposing that they have some to rip off.

They're griefers. Griefing appeals to people who lack the balls to be bullies and thugs in real life (or the strength to back it up, or both).

Ergo, they lack balls.

This is grief elevated to the level of a full-scale DOS attack. Actionable? Heck yeah.

If a person cut my phone line and I was unable to use said phone it would be a criminal offense.

If a person cut my cable line and I was unable to use said cable it would be a criminal offense.

If a person cut my breakline and I was unable to use said breakline...........well OK FINE...that would be attempted murder.....but U get the picture.

No, no, the problem is they have too many balls. WAY too many balls.

LL won't do anything, it would be too expensive. Do a little research and figure out how much it would cost to take someone to court over something like this. It may be many times more than you think.

They are trying to compensate for their inadequacy.

Unfortunately for them, those balls are purely virtual. In the real world, they have no reality and therefore none of the advantages of real balls. Yet they still retain the drawback of getting you into trouble.

Actually LL may not have to... I think this could be considered actionable under the homeland security act. Terroist type attacks on computer systems..

just my 2 pennies

KDL

Homeland security isn't a new idea.

Please. If they get arrested under TERRORISM charges, then it's time to change the fucking law.

Are they juveniles? Sure.

But terrorists? Not bloody likely.

LF

Glad you mentioned that KDL. This is more than just a "griefing" act. While "terrorist" may be too strong a term.. this definitely falls under computer sabotage and hacking. That carries with it a potential pentalty of up to 20 years in Federal prison. And all Linden Lab has to do is report it to the FBI along with the name of the user who perpetrated it. Just that simple.

Yes, it's just that simple. Ol is found, thrown into the Gulag, and we never see him again.

A more likely scenario:

Linden Labs finds the guy, attempts to charge him with something. He plea bargains down to a misdemeanor, gets six months probation and a stern warning by a bored judge. It makes three headlines in the newspapers, and then is forgotten.

this is assuming that he's an adult, of course. If he's a kid, he's off scott free.

This is ALSO assuming it ever gets to trial. Which it most likely won't.

LF

Or, on the other hand:

Because of the current lessening tolerance of computer/ security crimes, the judge determines whether this is a repetitive activity or not (does the guy have prior charges perhaps?). And at the least, he gives the offender a 1-year shock treatment to wake him up.

We could banter such stuff all day. That and 50 cents might barely buy coffee.

I agree with you 110%

I agree that using any statutes regard terrorism would be ridiculous, but I do think the idea of prosecution as a computer crime holds merit, and is worthy of pursuit. I imagine if LL feels they have cause, they will do so, and I don't blame them.

Are you people seriously trying to equate real life law to Second Life? Good luck with that.

Aledor, consider this:

Linden Lab finally decides they've had enough of this kind of moronic behavior (they likely won't, but let's just say "maybe".

So they make a call to the FBI and they say, "Hi, we're Linden Lab. We run a multi-million dollar, 50,000 member computer network and our entire grid was just taken down by a hacker."

Think they'd get any attention?

It's time people start realizing Aledor: there ARE real life laws that apply to SL. And the more SL becomes a business-based environment, the more virtual online activities begin to be a part of society-- the more those RL laws are going to start being applied.

If SL lasts that long. LOL

Similar situation to the hacking fiasco not too long ago.

Way I see it, it's expensive court action in one of these major issues against folks running amok in the future. They shouldn't get sue-happy, but LL does need to, and should, put their legal foot down to make a point that they won't tolerate this sort of activity. Ever.

Otherwise, this scale of griefing will continue unabated. And that's not good for all of us.

I would be interested in seeing lost investment figures stacked against court action fees, though both would be very speculative.

Perhaps, in Wayfinder Wishbringer-land. But as soon as you put a "maybe" in there, you indicated that you have left the real world, so pretty much everything after that is pure speculation.

I am sorry, are you confusing SL with the real word?

There are ways of diong this without court action. Such as *gasp* banning.

Well after all Aledor... that's pretty much what you've been doing all along. What, only you get to have fun?

But court action would be so much..yummier..and teach a much better lesson.

Aledor, you ban people for breaking TOS rules. You JAIL people for taking down multi-million dollar computer grids. That's how the real world works.