"Fixed An Exploit" - whaaaaa?

He's not a theif. He didn't steal anything. Stealing is typically proven when you say, "Hey, I had something, but another person took it from me!" If we're going to play that card, then I think someone needs to charge the Lindens with theft by way of criminal neglect. After all, how many dollars worth of merchandise has been lost, nay, stolen because of the faulty asset server?

He's guilty of invasion of privacy, sure. He's a counterfeiter, if he created any Lindens and if the California legal system recognizes the Linden as hard currency, sure. He definitely violated the terms of service. However, I'm not even sure if what he did can be considered cracking. He found a hole and created a game exploit around it, this happens all the time in other MMOG's. Back in Asheron's Call, people completly devalued several items due to bugs, but no one ever called them theives.

Unless you can prove he (or she) has cost more loss than the asset server has, calling him (or her) a theif is rediculous.

It always disturbs me when the Midnights disagree.

The theft of intellectual property is a crime - this was source code that was stolen and published to a web site.

Others point out that the law itself treats these rights differently than those involving physical property. To give three examples from US law, copyright infringement is not punishable by laws against theft or trespass, but rather by an entirely different set of laws with different penalties. Patent infringement is not a criminal offense although it may subject the infringer to civil liability. Willfully possessing stolen physical goods is a criminal offense while mere possessing of goods which infringe on copyright is not. Furthermore, in the United States physical property laws are generally part of state law, while copyright law is in the main measure federal.

The modification of the SL software is also punishable by law.

It always disturbs me when the Midnights disagree.

Mostly, I want to know why this is such a big, criminal deal and asset server bugs aren't.

Err, thats like saying 7-11s are theifs because someone stole from them. And since when did crimes not become crimes because they weren't as great as others? "I'm innocent. I only killed 5 people, and he killed 10!"

How many times has the GOM been hacked now? A few- to many.

Forget the civil part of this. What about the criminal act of accessing portions of Second Life that Linden Lab has explicitly declared, via the permissions system, to be entirely off limits?

One word... intent.

All the issues I can remember with them were due to people reversing charges via paypal.

Cory Linden: "Nekokami Dragonfly: What happened to the permission overhaul and Creative Commons?"
Cory Linden: Right now we are more concerned with scaling and bug issues. There are also some tricky legal issues around using CC in a digital world that
unfortunately makes that harder than it should be.
Cory Linden: I would estimate that by 2.0 we'll be talking about this again as it is important that we continue to strike the right balances between creator and
owner rights.

But Tringo became an addictive hit in Second Life and now, in an unusual deal, it has a ticket out of virtual reality. Mr. Keir recently cut a deal with Donnerwood Media, a San Francisco startup that plans to publish versions of Tringo for mobile phones and the Web. Sean Ryan, Donnerwood's CEO, agreed to pay Mr. Keir a fee in the low five-figures as part of the deal, considerably more than he has earned from the game within Second Life. "They have rights [to publish Tringo] in the real world -- I have rights in Second Life," Mr. Keir said by phone from Brisbane, Australia.

Currently, Second Life members pay "Linden dollars" to host Tringo-playing events for groups in virtual homes, arenas and other locales. Linden dollars, the in-world currency of Second Life, can be translated into real cash through various online exchanges. At current exchange rates -- currently about $4 for every 1,000 Linden dollars -- the million Linden dollars Mr. Keir has earned from the game are valued at about $4,000. He says he hasn't cashed any of the currency out yet.

Change in Digital Ownership Rights

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning we have announced a change to our Terms of Service which allows Second Life residents to retain the intellectual property rights to their in-world creations. This change means that starting today, once you've agreed to the new TOS, you will have the same ownership rights to your Second Life creations that you have for any original creations you make in the real world.

Please take the time to read the new TOS carefully. You can find it at www.secondlife.com, linked from the bottom of every page.

If you have questions, check out the FAQ, or email [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email].

It's not monopoly money to people who are making hundreds of real dollars a week from SL. It's part of their livelihood.

Is that not a technical/code exploit?

When has GOM ever been hacked? All the issues I can remember with them were due to people reversing charges via paypal. Links please?

Is that not a technical/code exploit?

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/09/gom_hacked.html

I wouldn't say "hacked" - just scammed again. Same deal, different source IPs.

We're beefing up security, tweaking our limits and adding some new alerts. We'll survive.

Posted by: Jamie Hale | September 22, 2004 10:55 AM

Two words: criminal neglect.

Three words: breach of contract.

Four words: those are crimes too.

No, it's like saying, "I paid for a slurpee, the machine was out of syrup, but they kept my money anyway." If someone pays for SL, pays them to maintain their inventory -- many items therein being purchased for real money -- and then SL loses them, that's a breach of contract. It's like going to a bank, asking to look in your safety deposit box, and discovering that someone has made your jewelry disappear.

Yeah, but it's not "theft" perse. I just want that cleared up.

Mostly, I want to know why this is such a big, criminal deal and asset server bugs aren't. Asset server bugs, I know, have caused people to lose money, lose purchased items, and at times prevented people from logging in (which could cause a loss of wages). What this guy did was a crime, no doubt, but has anyone figured how it stacks up against the monetary loss inflicted by the asset server?

It's illegal for me to modify the SL client sitting on my harddrive?

SL is losing inventory items? I'll have to look around the forums I guess, because I haven't heard of this problem in a long time, much less the scale your making it to be. Last time I heard about this problem, it affected me and about 2 others {that were made known by stating their problem on the forums in one way or another}, and all items were returned in our inventorys. It just took a week or two for the items to reload in our inventorys.

But anyways, this thread is about a user who stole countless hours of work from who knows how many people that can potinitally cause the largest amount of damage in SLs history.

It doesn't matter if electronic cabbage was being traded. It's not legal to modify the content of another individual's computer system without permission, regardless of whatever naive rationalization you give this behavior.