Copybot copybot -- no copy !

As posted earlier today on NNW blog.

I purchased the copybot - well i paid 1500L got given a notecard with a url. I downloaded the software , created an alt at $10 expense and then got a coding buddy and we went to work on the program to see what all the fuss was about.

The software just allows you to copy the prims - so yer it can copy a table or another static object. but it cant copy anything within an object so scripts are safe as are objects within objects.

Upon seeing its ACTUAL functions ie clone of prims, anyone can do this by just studying how somethings made and replicating it with the create tool.

I went to the person selling the bot and asked for a refund. ( i got banned )

I then reflected on what all the fuss was about and found myself actually agreeing with the principle of copybot. So i did a short counter protest stating we should support FREE content. I then got banned from the protest land!

I believe we should be allowed to copy anything we buy in SL. I'm not saying copy and sell im saying just copy! I look at it as buying a CD and making a copy for MY OWN car. Thats all.

I think what this copybot showed was not an increase in IP theft but in the amount of corporate wailing of developers.

I think SL should be about creating unique content for other users not about creating yet another clothing line for lindens.

lets not use SL for money lets make SL a tool for creation.

I vote LindenLabs should remove the copy disabled option.


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There is a fundamental difference.

Even if an item is moddable and you have the data allowing you to make a by numbers copy, this can take hours or even days. Even then, your object isn't textured unless you use another illegal tool (well known about and available for a long time) to rip them.

Content creators were already aware of this and prepared to take the gamble that very few people are foolish enough to spend so long creating a usually inferior copy when they could buy the original in seconds for a tiny RL sum of money.

But even that tiny RL sum of money is removed from the equation when something like Copybot can copy a complex textured build in a matter of seconds with full permissions.

Granted, you don't get the texture and I can see why certain types of business are choosing to close for now (builders of prefabs for example), but not others. Clothing and skin designers have little to worry about IMO because just changing one item of clothing will revert every other item of copybot cloned clothing back to its default untextured state. It's not a proper rip, and from what I've seen, the textured state of the clothing is temporary because it's not technically applied.

I'm new but I think it should be fair to copy items you bought. I bought an item and the creator allows copying (no transfer). That's great, I can now copy the item to an AV folder edit it's position and stuff so that it fits and leave it there, I can then make another copy and fit the object to a different AV so all my AV's have their own fitted copy.

What are you, some kind of drug addled hippy?

Sorry, but if I spend 3 weeks creating a product, and hire several other people to work on it to help me complete the project to a high standard, I am providing employment for creative people and creating something really good that enriches the environment and experience of Secondlife's users. I can then price it at a fair level, that will make me back my expenses in making it over a period of time, and then start leaving me profit for my trouble.

I'm sorry - but myself and many of the top content creators in secondlife ARE making stuff for the money. Most of the best stuff you see in secondlife is created, for the money. That doesnt mean its overpriced, it just means that as is fair, people who spend months or years developing a skill, are rewarded for it.

It would be nice to believe that people could/would spend hours on end making stuff just to give it away for free. But many things that are patently unfeasable are "nice".

If copybot is a dis-incentive for people to learn to make things, to spend hours and hours working on a prefab or a piece of furnature, jewelwry or countless other things, then what'll happen is as simple as it is clear = Secondlife's USP, its thriving cottage industry of creators and user created content simply dies. We are then left with a marketplace of crappy, shoddy items, because who will spend a month working on a fantastic house with custom textures when everyone will copy it? There will be one or two, but nothing like the selection now - following on from this, population decrease will be massive, as people realise that without its usp the secondlife client is actually worse than its rivals (slower framerate, worse physics, more downtime, etc) and finally all the larger level companies like reuters and nike that have been coming into SL and powering its thundering expansion will cease to be interested in an outdated, buggy online world, where there is no money to be made and where IP abuse is the standard order of the day. Secondlife dies, There.com is crowned king. Ibm and intel rejoice and marry.


Copybot is a very, very bad thing. I'm disgusted by LibSL for releasing it, not only have they threatened an entire community of social networking that was unique in the way it drew people from different walks of life and all across the world, mixing them together like no other current social networking does, but they have dropped into mud the name of other high level programmers who are capable of doing this sort of stuff. Its like the old adage about hackers, that most of them arent looking to cause damage to a system or steal your data, they treat locked computers like a crossword puzzle, desiring only access, but then one 12 year old tries to hack nasa with some cDc scripts and suddenly all hackers are evil. LibSL have shamelessly deficated all over the community they have spent a long time as part of, for no aparant reason other than they wanted to see if they were capable.

Pre-fabs: it can copy the build, but considering my house rezzed in 30-40 pieces I honestly don't see anyone bothering to line those all up without a rez-foo just to cheap out of a few $. Plenty of pieces in most houses (door, windows) are scripted as well

Furniture: it can copy the piece, but not the anims or the poseball scripts, or any other added value so it seems rather limited to cabinets and tables

Clothing/skin/tattoos: it can't copy that in any realistic sense of the word

Prim-skirts: not really worth a whole lot without the matching underlayer or the rest of the outfit

Shoes/accessories/jewelry: if it's not scripted (bling, texture changes) it's prone to copying

Hair: would fall under the above category except that most of us can instantly tell whether a hair came from our favourite designer or not. I know when a hair is ETD, I have a slight feel for Panache and Adam 'n Eve hair. The point here isn't that it can't be copied, but that it's so branded anyone is going to instantly know something's up if someone tried to pass it off as their own

This isn't saying that copybot is harmless, but rather that is has a very small and in a few months from now, small insignificant impact. Everyone's current rush to close and refusing customers, and cashing out L$ thereby sending the exchange rate crashing is doing far more damage than copybot which noone has reported to have actually been used to steal anything yet.
The person who was selling it yesterday probably made more money off of it than anyone using it to steal will ever see.

Also, how would anyone take advantage of any profits they got from this? They can't cash out easily, because they'd need to hand over their identity to LL at which point you have an actual RL person to sue for copyright infringement.

No, I don't think you should be able to copy things that are set no-copy. Only things that I sell that are set no copy are my eyes, the rest are copy/mod and no trans, so what would be the point of copying them, unless you simply don't want pay for the work put into them?

Once you buy them, you can leave them in the box and copy/mod them to your hearts content. You just can't sell them. The reason behind this isn't greed. I simply want people to be able to create their outfits, modify the prim items and not worry about breaking the things. I felt it was fair to disable to the no-trans.

I was very glad that someone finally figured out what exactly copy bot could and couldn't do. But to be honest, it wasn't Copy Bot itself that had me upset (after all, it's not the only ripping program out there, just the latest); it was Linden Lab's first response to it that had me very upset as a content creator.

Now, I'm going back to work on a project, once the weather induced headache goes bye-bye.

I'm saying if i buy something i should be able to copy it.

Im NOT repeat NOT saying I should be able to transfer it to another avatar.

The copybot does not prevent any current store from selling items.

What copybot has done and clearly shown is that many people within Secondlife are driven by economic means and NOT by creativity.

to restrict someones ability to copy an item they own ie purchased is to restrict their rights.

Making yet another flexi skirt or another sex couch doesnt do secondlife justice we should be attracting more text on a prim or libsim developemt with secondlife to truely make SL the web 2.0

And believe it or not there are people making high quality items for free. because they are driven by creativity not by the power of the linden $.

First, there's nothing wrong with producing content for money. The creators of the open source software GIMP chose to produce a freebie, Adobe chose to distribute Photoshop as a commercial software. If you take a close look at both applications and at Adobe's customer support, you'll realize why. In SL, just as in RL, you can get almost everything as a freebie, and quality content costs money for a reason.

Now an example: a few days ago I went and bought palm trees for a corner of my island. I have enough prims to spend, so I wanted good looking prim trees that make a nice impression from the distance, not only close up. Trees are usually sold without copy permission, for a good reason. A good design takes quite some time, and when every customer only buys a single tree for L$200, the creator will earn near to nothing (large competition, free Linden trees etc.). In RL, I'd have to pay for every single plant in a garden store as well. But since those trees are a digital product, it comes closer to software where the user pays for every single license. It's a fair pricing - a small parcel owner needing 5 trees will pay 1k, an island owner who needs to cover a larger area will need more.

If I were to copy the tree despite the copy protection, I'd rip off the creator. Since the copy instantly appears inworld, I'd already use two licenses at once, similar to buying QuarkXPress, a dongle-protected layout software, removing the copy protection with a crack and installing it on two computers. Your music CD is a different example, since the license doesn't restrict you to a single copy. By checking the "no copy" button, the content creator decided for a licensing model that allows just one copy, no matter what.

Of course, the tree could be copied manually just as well. As an untextured plywood tree. The textures are the major part of the design here, making the difference between a good design and a mediocre one. Someone using the GL Int. tool could now probably rip the textures too somehow. This would not only be clearly illegal and not tolerated by LL, but also requires a huge time effort and some skill to get the texture mapping right. It's simply too much effort and risk when another legal copy costs L$200 only.

The CopyBot software makes a huge difference here, since it reduces the effort to a few mouseclicks and completely eliminates the need to have building and texturing skills yourself. If copying content is that easy, everyone will treat it just as in RL where commercial software, music and movies are duplicated without much thought. SL is a new world where things are supposed to be a bit better. There wouldn't be many content creators if LL didn't promise a secure digital rights management for SL content.

I know I am going to be ostracized over this, but here goes:

As a former amateur radio broadcaster via the Internet, I am rather familiar with the Copyright, DMCA and the spin the RIAA puts on things. I see alot of whimsical, to frankly, dismal outcry and outrage from folks over this whole matter. Most of it cause by the current illusion projected onto copyright law *by* the DMCA and other vested corporations over the years. I have ghost written local law on a state level in cooperation with my representatives and house members on Digital copyright issues, so I am a little versed in the matter - but hardly an expert....so here's my take on the situation:

I *didn’t* purchase my copy of CopyBot. It's free on the Internet....so you're just that much sillier than I if you paid out hard earned Linden/U.S. $ to satisfy your curious urges. I *did* use copybot on items that *I* bought and paid for, in addition to one of a kind items I made for *MYSELF*. All this gadget does is what any other mirroring script could do. I keep several in my inventory to aid my builds where symmetrical proportions are simply needed. (Body parts to bridges - a simple mirror is mandatory IMO)

I have since discovered that after CopyBot does indeed copy prims and the textures on them, which is all it does. It's a hollow reproduction. So it's easy to spot the "fakes" from the "Goods" especially if the item is scripted. It just speeds what any competent builder can do in a few hours of work if they are so inclined. *Utilizing* this tool to implement copies of materials you do not personally own, or without the explicit consent of the individual's items you are copying is a FLAGRANT disregard of copyright laws, DMCA (insert favorite acronym or name in here since law is so easily bought and sold these days) etc. etc.

However, there is a teeeeeeeny little clause in copyright law that hasn't been successfully circumvented by any other law yet - but they are working on it. Simply put, it's called "Fair Use." Fair Use entitles the rightful owner's RIGHT via the ritual of PURCHASE to DUPLICATE and Reverse engineer for one's *personal* edification. (Note that is PERSONAL - the moment you do this for a "friend, even at no charge, you're way off the radar of fair use, especially if you resell. You're then a "pirate".) I *use* copybot to duplicate the items that SL seems hell-bent on swallowing up and making disappear on me. Vehicles to body parts - vanish in this volatile world. But I am not caught out because I have duplicates. And anything I have that is scripted, I tuck back in an archived, salvaged script from the item I have already PURCHASED - I can simply slip them back into the item and reactivate. CopyBot DOES not duplicate embedded scripts in objects. CopyBot DOES NOT steal items from people's inventories. It does NOTHING to transfer or copy/steal scripts at all, despite what the rumormongers say. SL handles the functionality of scripts explicity on the server side of the equation. Hence CopyBot is totally blind to them.

*Use of CopyBot (or any prim mirror/copy script - which there are far more of out there than your realize - One such tool is a script that can be found in our own SL Forum!) in the venue of backup/archival purposes that I myself use for items that I legally own and or purchased is sanctioned under US Copyright Law.* LL, the DMCA, RIAA, ASCAP, BMI, Clearchannel et. al would like to make you think you can't do this, but the truth is you can. But the rules change dramatically if your copy with intent to sell, in which you now understand LL's stance on the 'bot. Read below very carefully....

There is NOTHING in that law that entitles the would be copy-cat counterfeiters any protection at *ALL* from law, or your peers if you are found to be a bootlegger. To those, shame, shame on you - sell your PC now, because there are ways for even a "non-god" Non-Linden individual just like myself to spot a fakery dead on in a moment of examination. And you'll be lucky if we don't turn your plagiaristic little asses in to be ground into hamburger. The unscrupulous use of CopyBot to duplicate items that you do not own through gift or purchase, without the explicit (And get that permission in WRITING) written consent of the original copyright holder will get your tail kicked by LL, DMCA and Copyright....especially if caught out. LL provides the tools, but doesn't get the ball rolling per-se. If you have a legit gripe under DMCA, file it. The system works if you're dead right.

Second Life should be a happy land where people just create things just out of creativity. Never mind that they have to pay for uploading textures, and pay to rent land, pay for a vendor, pay in HOURS/DAYS of time developing. All things should be free! Except for the creators who have to actually pay with their credit cards or paypal because there is no way to make money anymore. Yes we should all be able to freeload and enjoy this game! Your hair you worked so hard on got stolen? Well hair maker just sell it for 1L$ and make a newer better one! Use your creativity! By stealing that hair I have allowed you to be more creative! Whoopeee! Let me climb on your back too and could you take me across the water? Over there to that garden where you crushed stones to make soil and where you watered the vegetables with your blood and tears. Whoopeeee! Free veggies! Copybot has opened my eyes! It's stolen them too but they are open!

A bit extreme, Bree, but close to the mark.

Do you make anything, CJ? I know you don't make prim skirts...you've been very vocal about your distaste for prim skirts today.

I disagree. I am sure there's some folks out there who are strictly economically driven. I am equally sure that a majority is not. I make things because I enjoy it, and the rewards beyond economy that come from it. (Believe me, I'll never make a bundle off of SL). After 2 years I continue to be complimented whenever anyone buys something I have made. It's a matter of the work that goes into something. Creativity, pride in what you do, etc. It's good to know the Copybot has its limits. Still, knowing that someone can take your design and cheapen it by making it seem to be theirs, or make it free and glut the world with it, is disturbing. Nothing is in place to stop unscrupulous Copybot users from transferring anything they like, at least not that I'm aware of. I disagree with the statement of someone's rights being violated as well if they can't copy anything they buy. I can't copy the painting in my RL living room, for example, so that I can have one in every room. I don't feel violated because of that. Mostly, I feel bad for anyone affected by this, because a lot of the enjoyment of SL comes from the ability to create unique objects. I spent 2 years in TSO, so I really, really appreciate that. I don't want the ability to copy other peoples' work. If I see something I like, I want to show that person I appreciate their creativity, by my investment, by my patronage. I'm willing to bet the majority of them are inspired by it in a creative and not economic sense. Call me an optimist.

I want whatever she's smoking.

I sell no-copy objects. Antiques, 19th century stuff. If anyone doesn't like my no-copy policy, well, they can choose not to buy from me.

It would take just *one* person to create an alt, full-mod all my West Trade stuff and pass out copies to several hundred folk in the Welcome Area.

If I'm copied unlawfully, the 100,000+ new folk a month who know nothing of me will think I'm selling freebies when I sell my own work!

I'll be factoring in 'loss of my entire digital content income' risk when pricing anything new.

I agree, partially.

I think that if I buy something, I should have the right to make a backup copy in case I do something stupid by accident to my main copy.

However, some products have value only if you can't make an unlimited amount of copies.

Take hair, for example. You don't like the color, but the hair is moddable. So you mod the hair, and now it's the color you like. But if it's copyable too, you can make an unlimited number of wigs (all for your personal use, because it's still no transfer) and you've paid the same base price as if you'd just bought one. There's an economic imbalance there.

And sculpture is another example. What if you want to ensure that an object is one of a kind? In the case of works of art, I can see where the artist would want to enforce the uniqueness of their work. Part of what makes it special is that there is only one of them.

So while I agree that people should be able to make backup copies of things they buy, I also agree that uniqueness adds value, and that the creators of the content should have control over that.

Which, funnily enough, happens to describe the current set of usage permission settings we currently have. I imagine this very same discussion has happened at Linden Labs many times, and the same points brought up.

A valid concern and addressable by current SL permission structure. Create your object with no copy, no mod, no transfer. Lock it and then set the unique flag. Set it for sale at your asking price. Anything that *looks* like a work of art you created without the unique/no/no/no flags set and no set buying price is a fake and suspect. I would then start asking questions like "Nice work of art! Where'd you get it?" and take it from there. ;> The onus is still unfortunately on you to figure out what to do and what actions to take but once you examine the object and trace it's "creator" (in fact it would be either the 'bot or the brazen fool that copied your object d' art) you can then start your personal witch hunt.

I am completely and 100% FOR the use of CopyBot for the duplication of items one has already purchased!


My reasoning for ths is is because I had an issue with losing content, and not just recently.

I lost, way the hell back in March, a pair of objects that were a result of about L$10,000 in purchases. Obviously, the objects were no-copy.

I spoke with the creators of both the prims, and the contents I added to those prims. NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE could be bothered to provide replacements for what a LL screwup cost me, instead wanting me to hand them even MORE money just to get back what I had. So shame on you, Jesse, 'P.M.', and Steve... you all know who you are, and I haven't forgotten.

In fact, I say BRING ON THE CONTENTS DUPLICATOR! I don't want to lose ANYTHING I've paid my money for ever again!

A sale involves two people... a buyer and a seller. If the seller places restrictions like NO COPY on an item, the buyer has the right to say "I still want that" or "No way am I paying for something I can't copy." If you don't like the policy of no copy items, then stop buying stuff that has that restriction. And if you have the balls, let the seller know why they lost the sale. Eventually the message might get through and you could affect change. Or you might come to realize that your only power is in who you give your money to.

I made a post a while back about making no-transfer and no-copy items. After just the first reply from a fellow resident, they convinced me that I shouldn't do it. But you know what, if that's how I want to sell my stuff, and someone wants to buy it like that... it's none of your business.

As for losing something because of data loss, that is unfortunate. But it does not mean a seller has to take it up the rear and give away rights he/she does not want to by making everything copyable. If you bought something at a store in RL and someone stole it, destroyed it, or whatever, are you telling me you would go back to THE STORE and expect THEM to give you another item for free? No, you would seek compensation from the person that destroyed the object. And guess what... YOU MIGHT NOT GET IT! But don't put the responsibility on to an inncoent shopkeeper to keep tabs on YOUR purchases and veryify that you had some bad luck. Own your own liability.

The bottom line is... copying without permission is wrong. When you bought an item you agreed to the terms.

Like man, dude dig it, see? Some things are like gifts man - you want to be able to like give them to your ol' lady, or your main squeeze man. The cat that made the groovy object would make it transferrable man. If it was, like, copyable too, you'd be able to, like, give away copies to every freak in chi-town man! Woah! It would be like passing a never-ending bong around, which would be groovy man, but, like, you'd be depriving the guy you copped it from his moolah, er profit, man.

Dig?

/yeah, I'm a narc man. Shootin' uppers and poppin' weed is no way to go through life kids.

If the content creator made their product no copy then it should STAY that way.

Since LL refuses to do anything, and puts it all into our hands to deal with, we control the final decision aparently. Our ideas might not be fair but they work. Take our banlink network for instance. Thats how WE as a community deal with griefers. Don't like it? don't f*ck with us!!! Wana copy our stuff? You suffer the penalties for it.

This could be different if LL would just do the civil thing and enforce their TOS!!! Banning from SL? thats nothing as long as they can make a new account FOR FREE! Hash Ban? i got 3 computers on 2 IPs. Doesn't effect me that much, considering i have a 4th computer at a family members house. too bad i'm not a griefer...

Gentle's post... (#9 on this thread) should be required reading.

Heck... require everyone to pass a comprehension test to show that they read it before they can post anything with either of the words "CopyBot" or "LibSL".

I agree that this CopyBot is wrong, I might be missing the point as well but like I said in an earlier post I think for personal use if I bought an object and messed around fitting it to one shape and outfit I think it would be nice to leave it that way and do the same on a copy of it for another outfit.

But at the end of the day these people worked hard to make their creations and the permissions they set on them should be respected, after all you can't copy your car in real life can you?

Show me a car that is composed of digital data, or like a person said in another post about - messing up your IRL digital jeans and loosing them and requesting another pair from the store? IRL PHYSICAL items being compared to in world digital items is sheer madness. It's like pointing at an apple IRL and declaring that it's an orange. Doesn't apply at all to those that share a sane reality. ;>

You *cannot* compare IRL, physical materials to that of the digital realm. Different rules, diferent game, though people have the same *feelings* about things. If you do not want to take the "risk" of anyone copying your hard work for their own, personal, non-distribution edification - then you do not belong in SL. Or anywhere in the digital realm where the general public can *view* your work. The moment it hits the screen, it *IS* copied. Depending how many people are in the room, it's duplicated at least that many times. SL is NOT in the least comparable as a digital medium to IRL in any manner. Reality check people. :> And to those that sit here and still scream bloody murder that this cannot be right, this has to be stopped, this is a bug/exploit - re-read post #9 in this thread. Then - take a deeeeep breath and read below and repeat to yourself:

CopyBot CAN mimmic your avatar - but can it save that "look"? No. When the alt account re-logs, all CopyBot copied material disappears into the ether.
Copybot does not steal the content of items, worn seen or otherwise - scripts are safe and involatile because they run in the realm of the server side. Your PC is not involved in thier execution, merely displaying the results of the script/physics engine on the server.
Copybot's use for personal backup of items you have personally purchased or own is *NOT* Illegal under DMCA,TOS, and Federal Copyright law. LL cannot stop the legitimate use of this product.
CopyBot is not an exploit or a hack. It merely diverts what's already copied to your PC and is visible on your screen as a function of SL itself. This cannot be "patched" "fixed" and demands of the Lindens to shut down the grid until it's "fixed" is utter lunacy and the prattling of individuals that are simply not "in the know". Learn how SL WORKS before you start making demands of the Lindens, please - this is simply not their problem. Nor is it a "flaw" or security loophole. It's just how SL works.
CopyBot is not a hack, exploit, nor sanctioned under DMCA law and clauses governing "reverse engineering". People need to stop yelling about how this is so "evil" because of these baseless arguments. DMCA law's clauses on reverse engineering clearly state that one must circumvent security protocols/encryption/proprietary data sent between systems for there to be a claim. The data on prim based objects and textures are in NO WAY encrypted, encapsulated nor packaged up in neat packets that are securely sent between SL server and the viewer. If they WERE, then those beating the reverse engineering drum have a claim. They in this case do certainly NOT.

IF you can PROVE that an individual has indeed stolen your hard work, AR them on the SPOT and file a DMCA report. People that WOULD use this program/alternate client to illegaly obtain materials that they have not bought, recieved as a gift or otherwise gained through a mutual agreement between buyer-seller need to have their asses handed to them with a side of napalm.

Copybot is a gloriously useful tool, and if used as such for your own work - invaluable. I dare say it may replace my prim-copy scripts I use for my builds on a regular basis if not having to need a second client fired up and having it be a little cranky to set up.

Used for evil, indeed - it should be squelched immediately, but it's no different than several tools and utilities available IN world via LSL script or previous LibSL projects....and has the sky fallen yet because of those? Relax people - this will pass. No sense in running around like little hysterical children with skinned knees over this. I too have media, content and custom made things on myself and I have created for others that are at "risk" but that just stimulates me to get off my fluffy arse to go and make something new and better. *giggle*

EDIT: Added a few points to try and act as a voice of clear reasoning to all those that doubt. And please folks, enough with the emotional arguments? Let's stick to the letter of the law and what is currently the situation at hand. Just because your guts tell you what's right or wrong makes no difference in the eyes of the law as it stands. I.E. Vigilanteism: Someone did something horrible, say, murdered my mate. And say they got away scott free. Though it may feel right to go and strap on my pistols and hunt the killer down like a dog in the streets, am I right in what I did? It would feel so, I would feel justified, but in the eyes of the law, I still face charges of murder and first degree manslaughter. An extreme, but I hope it helps people understand.

For those looking for examples of legitimate use, here's one - about a month ago I and some of my friends built a large structure. When it came time to move it, we discovered that one of the builders had contributed parts, and then left SL completely! What to do, what to do?

In my case, I wound up having to completely recreate the structure because taking a moddable copy was impossible. If I'd had CopyBot at the time, the problem could have been dealt with in an hour or two rather than the weeks it actually took.

Here's another example, which also actually happened to me. I created an object, and forgot to set copy and mod permissions before giving it to somebody else to work on. I then deleted my original and flushed my trashbin.

Okay, yes, stupid thing to do, but now I had given my work to somebody else (who couldn't modify it) and even when he gave it back, I didn't have mod permissions on my own work. CopyBot could have allowed me to quickly rebuild a moddable copy of my own work.

You can use CopyBot to get around the permissions locks for your own stuff, in the event that you do the SL equivalent of locking your keys in your car.

Now imagine someone would create a hack that steals from other people's inventories. That would have come handy in this case, wouldn't it? You could have asked your friend: may I take my object back from your inventory, with full permissions, and after he agreed you wouldn't have done anything wrong. But would you approve of the stealing tool, just because there's a possible legal and consensual use?