Mistaken for a copybot?

When I was brand new in SL I went to one of the stores recommended for newbies... you would all know the name. I went around, picking up freebies. I didn't overdo it, I'm sure. Maybe I got five or six outfits at most, and I stopped to look at a lot of the not-free items.

Suddenly I found myself outside the store, on the edge of the sim. The owner/designer was shouting at me, telling me she that saw what I was doing and who did I think I was and so on....

She not only told me that I was banned, but also that she would AR me.

A number of customers in the store applauded, shouting "well done" and other things.

I went over in my mind what exactly had happened and had no idea what I'd done to offend.

At the time, I had IM'd her asking politely for an explanation, but she didn't respond.

I'd kind of forgotten about this incident, until someone was talking about being threatened for no apparent reason with an AR.

I told her my story. Someone who overheard me said, "She probably thought you were a copybot."

Everyone agreed, but I wasn't able to get an explanation.

Does this make sense? And if so, what did I do that made me seem like one?

Copybots normally use brand new throw-away accounts.
Copybots normally target items for sale, not freebies.
Copybots normally stand around for periods of time (I've heard they can't move at all).
Idiot store owners like to ban people based on rampant paranoia, not facts or common sense.

You are quite correct. Copybots typically cannot move or interact at all. Banning them also does not work, unless you can ban them from the whole region - if they can do the equivalent of camming into your build, they can copy things.

Argent Koskinen is my NPIU/NPIOF test alt, and I've had him occasionally spammed with "push this button within 10s or get ejected" or "type /1 4673 or get ejected" or had him accused of being a copybot because I was sitting around waiting for a shop to rez, or because I was focussing on one vendor after another to get the textures to load faster.

There's a lot of really bloody stupid people out there.

I always have ten things going on at once in my room. When I am on Second Life, my computer is not the only thing running.

When I do shopping in SL, I am usually doing it between commercial breaks of whatever is on television. (Teleport to shop before end of commercial break; shop rezzes while I watch television; at next commercial break I start SL shopping.) Sometimes I forget that I was in SL shopping, and my avatar may stay logged in for hours at a shop.

I also do shopping in conjuction with XStreetSl. I look up products on XStreetSl, then visit the in-world shop. Sometimes I may wait around a long time in a shop while I'm searching XStreetSl for the next place to go (during commercial breaks on television, of course).

I've seen an avatar- fairly new one- park in one place at a sim and not seem to move for several days. I mean, I couldn't watch all the time, but every time I logged in and looked, the avatar was there, same place. Could that have been a copybot? Maybe, but I would think that it wouldn't take days for copybot to finish copying. Maybe I'm wrong.

I guess I can understand the paranoia about copybot. The theft it can cause is damaging, and I guess most sellers must feel powerless to stop it- leading to paranoia and overreaction.

There's a gap in the market you've just highlighted: RL TV adverts for SL products!!!

I thought copybot is able to copy prims and textures on the prim. It CAN'T copy the contents inside prims such as scripts or a vendor at a shop. Has this changed?

Nope, works the same as ever. Contents are safe. (Waits for someone to accuse me of using copybot.)

i had seen a thread in here a couple years ago about people saying to kick people if they are clicking on items and not moving around..

i came in the thread saying..do that to me and you just lost a good sale..
i click items to rez items faster and i use my cam to look at the whole store because why walk in lag when a cam doesn't..

it's their loss if they do that to people that shop like that because of silly grapevine rumors.. most of the people i shop with do that..so they end up hurting themselves and losing out on big one time sells later..

i've never had it happen to me but if it would have back then..they would have lost more than just me as a customer..450 dancers would have got the word the second it happened..

now imagine them doing that every time someone stood around..
silly wabbits

Copybots probably don't IM people, do they? Your innocent IM probably did more toward making the shop owner eat crow than a more confronational position would have. Also there are plenty of other store owners who I'm sure appreciated your business instead.

This has never happened to me fortunately, but for a long time I was a beagle puppy and no one suspects our kind of anything except the occasional peeing.

lol wow, I stand in one place to shop by cam also and click on things to get the prices, that seems to rezz slowly for me also. Sometimes I stand there with an item clicked for along time since it takes forever for the buy to show up for me. Guess that keeps my spending in check lol

I think I do all the wrong things according to the paranoid shopkeepers!

I often leave my av standing/sitting there while I sort/unpack/rename the items I just bought.

I go afk leaving my av in the store sitting (out of the way or outside usually) while I do so. No more than a few minutes but if the phone rings I am not going to run back to the other room to take my av out of a virtual shopping mall due to someone's paranoia...ANd the real life person on the line would think I'd lost my mind if I said I had to.

I net surf and read other things (including this forum at times) while shopping or looking around a shop.

Sometimes especially on my old machine it took ages to rez, so I'd do any or all of the above while waiting - which meant my av was just standing there. If too tired I didn't reply to people talking to me - or if I was afk of course.

If I really like a shop's product I often will just buy everything I like at once - sometimes one of each style and sometimes in more than one color. (Oh no!! How awful!!) I can't be bothered to remember where to return later, so why not do it all at once. It is like I shop in RL, why not in SL. And I never knew customers' spending a lot was a BAD thing for a shop owner.

I often cam around - small stores it is almost necessary and in large stores especially those which disable flying or are slow rezzing/prim heavy, it cuts down on time greatly.

Too bad the stupid shop owner kicked you out, OP, I know of one freebie mall that will do that for mentioning another freebie mall, another group, or Bloodlines. Maybe that is what happened?

I know it's upsetting to be copybotted but it shouldn't be taken out on customers who actually like the shop and pay for what they buy. Those are the people who keep the shops afloat.

When I was fairly new, I wanted an avatar-sized figure or statue or mannikin to stand in the windows of a shop I'd built. So I used Search for Mannikin and teleported to a likely-looking shop on the results list.

When I walked over to where the item was, it wasn't what I'd hoped (it was more like a dressmaker's dummy, with no head). So I stood there for a while, looking at the other Search listings. Then I thought to check for other words (statue, figure, etc.) as well.

I'd been motionless for maybe 6 or 8 minutes, I suppose, when an avatar winked in, in my line of sight. I could see that the avatar had the same name as was on the shop. The person said nothing.

I felt uncomfortable and walked out the shop door, standing by a little lake just outside while I decided which Search listing to check out next. The shop owner stayed in place, as I could see from my mini-Map when I thought to check.

On the whole, that shop owner was a person with restraint---I'd say from the 'materialize but say nothing' that the person did suspect me of being a copybot, but wasn't sure, and so didn't ban me. Which I appreciated.

(I do sympathize with those who get a bit trigger-happy [or ban-happy] at the prospect of having their work stolen. If only SL would place a higher priority on solving the problem technically, not that I have any idea how that might be accomplished....)

I know, off-topic, but oh well. I'm bored, and need something to write.

Mannikin is the most rarely used spelling of the word, and is technically incorrect, though increasingly accepted, referring to a type of bird, instead. Manikin (With one 'n') is correct, though still a little less used in most countries, having 'mannequin' chosen instead. I believe the use of 'mannequin' is more common because it's the direct French spelling, while 'manikin' is a derivative of the Dutch 'maneken' (The original dutch may, or may not, have two 'n's. I'm unsure.).

You may have found more results for 'mannequin', rather than mannikin, considering this.

That (the French-derived version) is probably what I did input, being normally fairly a.r. about checking spelling. Note, however, that the Dutch version you mention is usually considered to be the source of the French derivation, which probably gained prominence over its predecessor because French fashion has historically held higher status among English speakers than has Dutch fashion, little boys in wooden shoes notwithstanding.

Unsurprisingly, 'mannikin' has appeared in English usage in places beyond the SL Forums, possibly due to the not entirely uncommon "---ikin" suffix. But as you write, the French version is seen more often.


Interesting about the 'bird' connection; that's one I hadn't come across before.

the first idiot that bans me for standing around and camming a store or using focus or inspect to prioritize texture loads is gonna get an earful from me.

(actually inspect is great for multi-part builds, click the first prim in the list, hit the down arrow key to run through all of them, and poof super prioritization that even picks up hidden textures that are used to pre-load some vendors)

Just to clear some facts (for shopkeepers):

1. "Copybots" doesn't need to go to your shop for copying items. Copying of items / clothes is happening when information of them is sended for client (viewer). For example: when someone is wearing clothes, rezzing object to world or just wandering around in SIM. In fact, everytime when you are wandering around in SL, server will send for you perfect copies of object and clothes around you. It is technologically impossible/impractical to avoid this copying. (There is coming some changes for texture baking that is going to improve situation bit, but not much.)

2. Those "lowspam copybot protectors", popup dialogs and other methods - don't provide any protection - or very little protection. Copybot doesn't need to stand still, look differently or behave differently from normal avatars. In fact, for copying you just need slightly modified viewer.

3. Those copybot users are lazy. Add logos and watermarks to your textures. If some face of object is not shown for user, consider adding your logo texture there. Make sure that you have stored your work version of your texture's with different layers and maybe higher resolution. Remember to save also your sculpts work models. Consider documenting your object creation with screenshots and such.

4. Design your business such way that your business model can work under pressure of copybots. Fashion trends? Theme days? Higher prices for new items? Don't expect that you hold your monopoly to your creations forever (even if it is your right).

5. Scripts can't be copied, because they are never sended to client. However, don't start spamming scripts to every prim of your creations. You are going to just shoot your own leg - your customers will sooner or later release that your creations are causing bad frame rates, sim lag and failed teleportation attempts.