Massive Copybot Thread

Okay this was on a few other forums tracked down the orginal post they were talking about won't post it all there people will just scream spam spam so here is the thread

Pffft just wow

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/35930-thieves-motherload.html

/me points!

Nods thanks Sindy

( Lock it down people nothing to see here then )

Just a little informative bump.

"Copybot" (in any kind of incarnation) takes advantage of the fact that the viewer needs the texture/prim/animation/shape data to render things which means that it can *recreate* what amounts to a perfect copy (even though copy isn't a good word to use). "Counterfeiting" is probably a better word since it implies that even though the original and "knock off" are 'identical' you can spot the "knock off" (ie it'll - usually - have a different creator name and definitely a different creation time).

You can play hide-and-seek games but as long as the viewer runs client-side it's always possible. On the flip side since the "copy" is distinct from the original it can be blacklisted.

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"Exploits" on the other hand are about permissions bypassing or simply creating a copy of an asset (as long as you know its UUID) out of thin air.

Up to a point exploits are unavoidable (LL can and should do as much testing as possible but realistically things are going to slip past) and ideally the amount of time between it being discovered (which may or may not be the time LL knows about it) and it being fixed should be as short as possible.

Copies that were created by using an exploit are far more damaging than anything copybot does because the copy is a true copy in the sense that it is indistinguishable from the original it since in essence it *is* exactly that.

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In that thread very little was actually copybotted and most was the result of the notecard exploit.

The difference is rather important because it seems LL is alledgedly taking a very relaxed attitude towards fixing permissions exploits (the notecard one was supposidly known about for many months) and if people don't make the distinction and attribute everything to "copybot" then any "do this" and "do that" is completely missing the point.

Copybot is the new frisbee. Or kleenex.

The important thing to remember, while it is not good, is that anything you do can not stop this.
It is unfortunate.

But do remember not to make things hard for your real customers. Silly DRM scripts, ridiculous perms, these things will not help and only hurts your valued customers.

/me walks away from this post disappointed.

From the title I thought someone had created some gianormous copybot. Now that would have been something to see.