Is invisibility legal?

I'm not asking if you think it should be. I'm sure many of you do. I personally do not. What I'm asking is, if anybody knows for SURE that it is now. Here is why...

Originally, you had the capability to make your AV covered with transparent textures. They removed this capability immediately due to the obvious number of problems it would cause.

The "cloaking" textures are not new at all, I saw the first one at least a year and a half ago, and they pop up now and then in many 3d environments. As I originally understood it, this capability was considered a rendering exploit; if you do your reading you can find out how it works particular to the technology used to build the environment. Your avatar was simply not allowed to be invisible and they removed capability from the game that enabled this.

So, I'm wondering now that this all seems popular, if any of this has changed? Can we all run around invis wherever we want now, and continue to develop objects that hide avatars?

Poll please.

I've wondered this myself. Can it be reported it as a violation of the TOS?

This is a "yes or no" question for the Lindens to answer. There is no need for a poll since, based on the clear tendency SL players have to allow anything at all that can give them an edge over another player no matter what the potential for griefing may be, the answer would overwhelmingly be in favor. As if often the case nowadays I'm just getting too disillusioned with being proven right in this regard.

Well if they remove it at this point, the whole prim shoe market is screwed

What's the potential for griefing? You can see green dots on the map, detect people with sensors, ban them from your land. Have you actually been a victim of anything invisibility related?
Some of the most creative items I have ever seen were based on this. A skeleton avatar, for sim horror. Neat stuff.
If LL manages to close all the invisibility loopholes they MUST give us a legal alternative.

The closest thing I could find is the CS is:

"Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums."

If you are invisible and eavesdropping on a conversation I think you may be able to slide by on a technicality by not being "remote". However my suspition is that the first abuse report filed for this sort of thing may prompt the Lindens to update the CS.

Thanks Aimee!

Removing the ability to hide your avatar would destroy many legitimate uses for invisibility. I've seen dozens of amazing avatars that would never work without the ability to hide bits of your avatar, a jet with a functioning cloaking device, and, as mentioned by Cristiano, heaps of lovely prim shoes that all rely on the ability to hide portions of your avatar from view.

Personally, I have no problem at all with people wandering about invisibly. Eggy already mentioned a few techniques for dealing with anyone who tries to grief using invisibility. I could see it being a potential exploit if used in someone's av-versus-av combat game (like Tcoz's excellent Vorago game), but that's something that needs to be enforced by SL residents, not by Linden Labs.

Well compare it to using remote listening devices to eavesdrop on a conversation. This is against CS, however the Lindens have not removed the various scripting features that make it possible.

It's safe to say if this become a problem, the Lindens will simply punish bad behavior, not banish cool game features.

Speaking of which, has anybody made a Predator AV? Like when he goes all funky invisible in the movie? If not get to work! That would be so cool!

Actually there is a way to be invisiable without all that invisable stuff Tcoz and it will not go away because if you fix that you cripple an entire industry.

But anyway yes as was mentioned above the invisable aspect mentiond for Prim creations that attach to avatars depend on this. Some of those creations are truly Unique.

So by eliminating this your saying people have no right to make money off of uniquely created avatars. People have no right to make Stelleto Heels and sell them?

Im sorry I fully understand your premise of what your asking but at the same time that goes back to Griefers.

Why Punish all the good for the evil done by a few?

Lets look at some same mind sets of the 1950's

In the 1950's Microwaves were bad they were elements of destruction and people were told to stay away from them. Today a Microwave mini oven cost US$49 and thats a positive thing as it heats our food.

I fully understand why your concerned Tcoz but through the UI of SL you cannot ever truly hide an Avatar. Make it invisiable through cinamatic texturing yes.
But, that only makes it a camelion that blends with the environment.
If you know what to look for you can always find a hidden Avatar.. well except the one way I know of but its not a bug or anything and can be found easily as well you just have to know how..

Shadow..The Ancient with more ass than the forum has Teeth

Actually Aimee I have an avatar created that will soon be using that premise however, I am in the middle of updating all my vendors to practically a no lag script as it has no active running scripts/No listens/ and No timers but functions fully..

Shadow..The Ancient with more ass than the forums have Teeth

When I'm in doubt, I look for the green dots. If there was a way to circumvent this, I would be more concerned, but as it stands, I'm not that concerned about "invisibility in SL". In fact, it's funny to pretend to think you're oblivious to someone who's "not there" flying around you and gawking at you... and all the while, be in on it.

Just a follow up to Aimee's reply, since she seems to be the only one who actually answered the question instead of speculating on what the reamifications would be if they removed it or talking about why she likes or dislikes invisibility. The question was is it legal.

Well, everywhere in the real world anything and everything that has not yet been deemed illegal is legal, so the real question here becopmes is there anything in the TOS that speaks against invisibility. Technically, I would have to say no, it is not illegal to turn your av invisible, as there is no mention of invisibility in and of itself being against the rules.

However, there will always be unscrupulous people who will take advantage of any possible resource to facilitate illegal endavours. The actions of those people would certainly be illegal, but the resource itself can hardly be blamed for the actions of its user.

For a real world example, halloween masks are not illegal in the US. The act of wearing one is not a crime in any way, shape, or form. Even if I to use the mask to hide my identity while I commit an actual crime, say, rob a bank, the mask itself would still not be an illegal item. Wearing the mask was not my crime; robbing the bank was, mask or no mask.

In summary, there are certainly criminal applications for invisibility in SL, just as there are criminal applications for listeners, self-replicating objects, terraforming, vendors, even avatars. None of these items are inherently illegal though. The actions of their users are what count.

Very cool Shadow!

Actually looking for the green dots could be tricky if your spy is close to you. Then it could be hard to tell the intruder from your friends. Instead, my wings can detect AVs and list their names and distances within 75m.

Whoops, I missed this question the first time around. Squall Sojourner made one that worked by animating the av to drop underground when cloaked. The effect was great. I've been meaning to do one that uses a real invisibility shield, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I'll use this opportunity as a shameless plug for Sci Fi Supplies. Keep checking. I'll have it done sooner or later, and like all my avs, it will be guaranteed to be the best one of its kind in SL.

Yeah -- sensors sure help, Aimee.

For me tho, I'm constantly moving, LOL...

Well said and I completely agree.

Indeed. If anything, I'd suggest they use the method that NWN used...

Allow each of your parts (arms, hands, legs, etc) to have a full-transparency setting. But if you indeed set EVERYTHING to 100% transparency, it'll place a small unhideable cube at your chest level so that you cannot be 100% invis. :>

Great minds...

On the same note, is spying? Where can I find the terms of service? I could probably answer this question myself if I had it in front of me.

http://secondlife.com/tos.php
http://secondlife.com/comstandards.php

If you lose those links you can find them at the bottom of the SecondLife home page. If you quote them, be sure to read ALL of the section you are quoting. I have egg on my face in another thread right now for being too lazy to actually read the section I was quoting.

Go to secondlife.com and click the link that says Terms of Service. Oh, what the heck, i'll save you a couple clicks. Here it is: http://secondlife.com/tos.php

EDIT: Haha, great minds again, Aimee. Looks like you beat me to it.

Jinx. I owe you a coke.

sometimes i'm a rock. you can't even see my title if i'm just standing there focused on something so my waste doesn't move. i always make a point of letting people know i'm there just incase they don't notice.

of course sometimes they fly away screaming because the rocks have started talking; but there's nothing i can do about that.