Entire CopyBot Sim taken Down

With the help of ARs and a DCMA an entire sim of stolen items was removed over the weekend.

Read more on the blog then feel free to join the group.

www.ASOUnited.com

group: ASO United

The group is not just about copy bots, but about helping bring about change inside SL. There are powers in numbers. This weekend is an example of that power.

I read the post in the link and while enlightening to some degree, I did not find anything about a Sim being taken down. Elaborate please- where was that part? Sounds interesting.

You're a bit out of date. Read this forum.

Interesting read... I've never paid any attention to copybots and all that stuff going on. Now I'm wondering... how would i even know if I was buying something that is copybotted? The consumer loses out just as much as the creator as far as I can see - especially as copybotted stuff is removed from the assets servers when discovered (at least thats theimpression i got)

I'd like to know what steps are being taken to make this sort of item and texture duplication impossible to begin with. That would be a complete solution to the problem.

Yup... power in numbers, alright. And power in stupidity. Like the Lindens removing everything by E.C. and not just the infringing stuff.

This then refers to the same thing as the other threads about the poses and such? OK- got it now - thanks for the updates ...

Simply put... you can't. The textures have to come to your computer for you to be able to see them. If they're displayed on your computer, there will be a way to lift/steal/copy them. Likewise prims, because the data on them (size, position, etc.) has to be sent to your viewer to be rendered.

Never say "can't". What about some form of encryption, where the texture and prim data only makes sense in the viewer, and not to a bot or another external application? There might be other solutions too. Just because the data is sent to your PC, doesnt mean it cannot be protected as much as possible.

If it's displayed on your viewer, it has been decrypted. If it's been decrypted, it can be captured in the decrypted state. Bottom line, that's it.

There is nothing stupid about it.

If you are involved in, or complicit, in any way with anything having to do with copyright infringement, AKA stolen IP rights property, then you deserve to have your things removed from the Second Life world.

Being innocently involved is not an excuse. Being a responsible person and running a responsible business involves doing a little research and making sure that all entities you do business with are legitimate and law abiding.

And if by chance you are found to be involved, even if vicariously, in nefarious activity, then accept the fact that your products will be removed.

No questions asked.

Period.

Fini.

Are we talking about that "Aloha"-somethingorother place? The whole sim is gone? Sweet!

The way LL went about it most certainly IS stupid.

They removed all scripts and notecards with E.C. as the author from in-world items.

Many of these scripts and notecards contained NO infringing material.

LL blanket removed EVERYTHING by that person, instead of just the infringing items by that person.

THAT is stupid, and I simply can't see it any other way.

Normally I agree with that sentiment, but in this particular case "can't" might well be replaced with "simply not worth the trouble of trying". It's just not feasible in the long run.

.

Makes perfect sense .

Now try convincing everyone in this thread you are legitimate and law abiding. A thief can use words, pictures, reputation, etc just as well as you can so none of those are meaningful.

The only business in SL that I'd believe is legitimate is Stroker/Eros and then only because of the trademark registration, the court cases and all the other paperwork and even that isn't conclusive but it's enough to make me reasonably convinced I'd be safe buying something from him.

Everyone else is just an anonymous person claiming they created something with no actual proof of that claim.

so someone buys a 100 position bed or AO with many uses for different things and in one pose out of all those poses and animations sits a script that has this eva girls name on it hidden deep inside of the whole product they deserve to lose the whole thing even if it was a legitimate fully legal item? even the eva script?
the point is not all her things were illegal and to just say by to all of her things puts everyone in a mess and without a warning of it about to happen to try and change things before they push this button..

Yes you could claim anyone didnt make a thing they said they did, even registering copyright on an item does not get 10 independant witnesses to go back in time to watch you creating it, there have been cases where people have copyrighted things that were later found to be not their work.

Many people in SL are not anonymous, I know Im not, its pretty easy to find out who I am in real life.

Yes whilst its true that its becoming very hard in SL to tell what is legit and what is not, I would have thought that a person selling a "full perms business in a box", containing multiple animations with multiple "creator" names, none of which are the name of the seller, it would arouse suspicion, at least enough to contact those creators.

EDIT: that was a bit unfair as many people DID exactly this, which is how I found out about this item and filed a DMCA report when it first appeared

Hiya Craig.. So, as one of the big names in SL, are you saying that you want folks to drop you an IM & LM when they find something that lists you as the creator and is being resold against the terms of the notecard you send out with your full perm stuff?

Have you (and, if not, would you) put something in your profile picks that tells people your preference when they find somebody reselling your stuff?

People drop such LMs on me all the time, and Im very grateful to them, I would have thought it went without saying, I also inform creators if I suspect foul play.

We sometimes focus on the negatives of SL, or the bad things that people do, the truth is that the vast majority here are good people.

The very same.

"Receiving Stolen Property" is a law that gets a lot of people in the real world. Innocent ones get the stuff confiscated, guilty ones go to jail.

I am all for protecting those who spend hours/days/weeks making their creations. Exceptions are so difficult to implement, that loopholes get created and everything ends up back where it started.

My day will come...I learned after its too late that I have some furniture with some sitting anims that were not authorized, i figure soon they'll stop working. My solution will be to buy some legitimate new anims to replace. I think i'll survive.

I wasn't talking about a middleman though, but a consumer all the way at the bottom .

If I see a piece of furniture with your animations in it, how would I know if that person bought them from you? Even if you issued a "Licensed Bits and Bobs" sign someone could buy have bought one animation and gotten another one from another unlicensed source.

Anyone at the bottom of the chain has no way to verify much of anything, yet it seems the shift of responsibilty is away from infringers onto the consumers because they're the ones who got hurt the most by making the wrong choice in trusting a seller to be legitimate.

you know..people come into sl new that have never been here before..then are pounded with freebie lm's..it's like a candy store to them..then they stumble over these full perm places and see a world of omg i can do this for a living or that for a living ..omg SL is awsome..free things and businesses in a box..whats next around the corner..this place is great!!1 and it's only my first week here..now i can see why people come here..

i can see how someone may not even know to look at who created something since some may not even know where to look to see it when they first come into sl..

i know this is not every case but i just remember when i was new and clogged my inventory with freebies thinking how great it was..
a lot don't realize players make everything in sl.. they think wow this game has more stuff than i ever seen in a game in my whole life lol

And that's something I wish was stressed so much more strongly to new people entering the game. I knew this upon entering - but that's because I had been reading up on SL long before I finally joined. I'm dead certain this fact is lost on most new folks altogether.

People keep mixing two issues up in this and other threads. Let's be clear:

1. Items rezzed in-world containing content listing Eva Capalini as creator were removed en masse by Linden Labs.

2. Some of the content was stolen, some was not.

3. The biggest issue affecting residents were the use of MLP scripts by Miffy Fluffy. These were originally released by Miffy Fluffy under GPL and were free to copy, use, etc. as long as the copyright notice inside the script code itself stayed intact.

4. Eva Capalini uploaded the scripts to SL and they ended up in a number of in-world products including sex furniture and AOs. They properly carried the original copyright and, under terms of the GPL, she had the right to do so. Those scripts were the same that Miffy Fluffy also released in-world except they carried Eva Capalini as the "creator".

5. A lot of builders have used Miffy's scripts (in either Eva tagged or Miffy tagged form) in their products. Again, all legally. (Note that some builds contain animations used illegally but this applies to both Miffy & Eva MLP scripts.)

6. It appears that LL made no distinction in the removal of totally legal items and those that were stolen. They simply removed content that listed Eva Capalini as creator. Objects that had been completely created by their owners from scratch but used Eva's tagged versions of the MLP scripts were deleted. LL gave no notice of its intentions and seemingly, little or no thought as to the consequences of what it did.

IMHO, what LL did while admirable in many respects, was completely overreaching. A little research and prior notice to residents would have gone a long way. There was no rush to delete the in-world items -- especially since a lot of them were perfectly legal.

@Court -- receiving stolen property applies when the property is in fact stolen. In this case, some was, but much wasn't.

@Kitty -- Believe me, as a designer, I am very sensitive to content theft. I've read a lot about digital and rl copyrights. I make and upload all my own clothing textures (some of the fabrics in them are mine and some are GPL or public domain). But if you want a total guarantee of virgin origins, you will never get it. Honestly, some of the things you are looking for would drive small designers like me out of business.

AFAIK, "registering" a trademark or copyright only gives you additional damages SHOULD YOU WIN IN COURT. It confers NO additional rights to the trademark or copyright holder. The trademark holder has rights by commercial usage and origination. The copyright holder has rights by it being an original published work.

@Cheyenne -- Simply being associated with someone nefarious doesn't automatically make items you got from them "stolen" property. If the law EVER starts holding that, we'll be in a police state. 1 degree of separation will turn into 6.