How we can fight Copybot

I agree with you, Joshbear.

As for witchhunts and segregation, I believed that is what Philip Linden suggested in the Town Hall - that we take our own measures by banning people (which they plan to improve), forming groups, banning people, exerting social sanction, and oh yes, banning people.

coco

I was being sarcastic. One of the things people keep saying will fix everything is to get rid of free accounts (my segregation reference, although probably not the best word choice). You know, because killing off certain types of people/accounts will solve all our problems...

MM

I still think you are giving copybot too much credit IMO.

Try reading the whole thread, its not even a long one yet, and maybe you will see beyond your own nose. After reading it carefuly, come back and answer the question :"Why would removing of unverified accounts help against IP theft?". If you give the right answer ill give you a box full of colored fishes.

In fact removing unverifieds would not solve, but help against a LOT of problem we have currently. I did see SL as there was no unverifieds and it was doing fine.

Oh! Oh! I know this one, I know this one!

Cutting unverified accounts would dramatically and drastically reduce the number of people in Second Life, thereby cutting the population numbers to something the investors would find unacceptable, thus ending Second Life.

(If you'll remember, when we had no unverified accounts, the population was also less than a tenth of what it is now.)

No Second Life, no IP theft within Second Life.

Very very simple.

No wonder, all got 9 free alts now. If you are going to say that 1,5 millions registered users are a lot more then the people we had before freeloaders, then mister, you are a math genius.

Who are you to say I didn't read the whole thread? You might as well say that removing ALL accounts would help against IP theft - in fact it would eliminate it altogether.

I don't have any unverified accounts and I have no personal interest in the matter. What I object to is the principle of taking action against a whole group of people because you think that some of them are guilty of some offense.

The thread starter.

And now for reading lazy people a quote of the first post:



So its actually not "blame the free accounts" but just "remove free accounts so people dont abuse them like they probably do now". So nobody here is accusing a group of people, just a kind of account that can be abused, if you did read carefully you didnt have to bother bringing the muslims example.

And keep in mind a lot of free accounters you see walking around are just alts.

Moreover, what about under age people in the main grid? That happens mostly BECAUSE we have unverified accounts. If teens would need a credit card to enter the main grid, there would not be that many, if any. I did read recently in this forum about a 13 years old teen earning Linden Dollars with prostitution, still thinking unverifieds are ok?

It's very easy to make the comparison, just by looking at the current online statistics and comparing them to past statistics. Back when we had 160,000 registered users, we had about 3,500 users on line at once. It is now quite common to see four times that number on line at one time. Yes, there are a lot of alts, but no, your protests simply do not hold up under even casual inspection, nor do they invalidate my points.

There are many many more active accounts than before we had freeloaders, and it's the current online numbers that are the telling ones. If these numbers were to drop like a stone suddenly due to some rash act on the part of Linden Labs (such as suddenly turning off all unverified accounts), Second Life would implode, taking investors moneys with it. The investors, in turn, would have law suits on the table within a week, charging Linden Labs with dirilection and gross negligence, and they'd have a good strong chance of winning, because Linden Labs would have been chasing away their customer base.

Your suggestions fly in the face of logic, reason, and the simple economics of the situation.

By the vague term 'a lot' I'm infer you mean 'many' perhaps even 'a majority'.

The majority of unverifieds that I encounter are still stumbling about, "how do I get this box off my hand" newbies trying to figure out how to use SL.

SL is a tourist rich environment where people show up, explore, figure out if SL is 'for them' or not, and like many free online destinations... 'a lot' never return after the first visit.

It's been well established that CC's have explicitly stated their services are not to be used as 'age verification' tools... and that it is trivially easy for 'kids' to obtain parents CC#'s if they don't already have a debit/credit card of their own.

--
This resident does not stand with your 'union'.

What I don't understand from the whole verifiend/unverified debate is why it is looked as a class or caste system. Seems to me that a better analogy is to look at SL as a country. Prior to the unverifieds, everyone enterying the nation of SL had to provide some sort of documentation as to who they were. As it stands now, anybody can enter, and at thier option, identify who they are.

Now before the unverifieds get all pissy, (US pissy, not UK), I actually don't mind having unverifieds and think they are good for SL as a whole, provided they don't suck up too much bandwith that the verifieds are paying for. On the other hand, most low level griefers are unverifieds, and its now something we have to deal with.

Perhaps some unverifeds could post thier views too. Oh wait, they can't. Seems LL won't let them in what is left of the forums for some unstated reason.

I have stressed this a few times before. Denying access to unverified accounts MIGHT look like a nice plan but it hurts people who live in non US countires, since LL does not accept a lot of foreign credit cards. I would love to do this if not for that fact. On a good hand it would force people to get verified to participate in better activities. Sorta like THERE.com has their subscriptions set. A Basic account on THERE cannot do much of anything, their like a tourist are in active worlds. However i believe LL needs to get a better payment system. Sony Online Entertainment accepts any card from anywhere from what i've seen. Whatever SOE is using LL mneeds to try it out. Then maybee they can KILL THE UNVERIFIED STATUS!

I guess I've come to think of SL more like an institution... like libraries or hospitals, universities, ...

1. Public areas are open to everyone, no one is ID'd.
   
2. Non-Public sub-areas have their own rules and restrictions.
   
3. Most goods&services require payment and/or identification.
   

*moves to feature suggestions*

This also seems to be a reason that nothing should ever be expensive and you should never attempt to make anything "exclusive" or "luxury" that only a select few can afford. There can be no couture in SL.

Think about it... if someone really wants your wares but can't buy them from your shop because you are literally selling items for US$50 to US$500 each, that would practically force that person to steal what he can't buy.

So price everything at L$10 each, because no honest person is going to be willing to pay more than that.


And besides, we all know commercialism is an evil, evil thing, to be stomped out wherever it appears. It is unacceptable that content creators should have an opportunity to control how their intellectual property is used, or be compensated for the use of their material.

Why are people still paranoid of copybot... the only part of a object this reallly effects is the physical appearance and the textures.... which for a clothing designer is a real kick in the butt but for general object builders is more of an annoyance cuz SCRIPTS are where the functionality is

IT CANT TAKE SCRIPTS!

-JOHN

I try to price my products fairly, but some of them are complicated and take a LOT of time and effort so must be priced accordingly to be worth the time making them! Even products that were fun to make involve a lot of effort on my part and as a content creator I want something back for that.
Price everything at L$10 and there will be people who will still steal it because they're unwilling to pay L$10 (ignoring the fact the L$ value would probably rocket if you could pull that off). If someone doesn't see my product as being worth the price I charge for it, then I'll happily listen to why they think this, but if they just can't afford it then while I sympaphise, I can't just give my work, my effort and my time away for free.

Especially people who own land, I'm trying to help support a group with my profits, if I sold everything cheap or gave it away for free we'd have no land.

I would hope that people AREN'T still afraid of the copybot, since it was essentially broken a couple updates ago.