Prevent automated land buying!

Where, exactly, do you draw the line of inpropriety regarding the use of the code that LL has intentionally made available to anyone who wants to modify it?

(or maybe rezzing a 10x10x.01 cube is more appropriate since we can't draw lines in SL)

Where, exactly, do you draw the line of inpropriety regarding the use of the code that LL has intentionally made available to anyone who wants to modify it?

It shifts the terms of competition entirely to the whim of the talented software developer, as opposed to say.. the talented real estate proprieter.

It would have to be a little clever, tho - just saying "no more than 1 search/minute" wouldn't work well. Maybe something similar to the LSL energy stuff..

This is why the old business model of a talented real estate propieter or dealer, working alone, will no longer work. Welcome to the future

Instead of proposing modification to the TOS and policy changes for LL, which would seem to me to be rather difficult, why not change you business model in the light of the enormous change LL has induced by releasing the source code? <teasing>Did you get the memo?</teasing>

Hey guys, I'm the one running the land bot..

Okay, lets say a skilled Open Source programmer or team of programmers released a "Real Estate Helper" version of the client. Ostensibly, this new client fits your definition of an improvement to the product and benefits the broader community. At what point exactly would this improved client cross the line into the realm of an obscenely unfair advantage aka cheating?

Suppose the client had an improved search tool that let you filter by < and > L/m2 instead of just by < $L asking price. Would that be unfair?

Suppose the client had an improved search tool that automatically reloaded the search results every 20 seconds. Would that be cheating? Would you use such as feature?

Suppose the client had a one-click buy feature, where you simply clicked a button on the search results, and you'd automatically tp to the parcel, and the about land window would automatically pop up. This might give you a 5 second advantage over someone who doesn't have this tool. Would that be cheating?

What if the one-click buying button also executed the purchase?

What if instead of displaying the results on the screen, the new client could dump the results to a text file or database, which you could then open in Excel and manipulate?

What if this new client had offline alert features, where you didn't necessarily have to be staring at the screen in order to be aware of good land offers? Would that be an inpropriety?

What if the client had all of these features? Would you use it? Would you be mad if others did?

Where, exactly, do you draw the line of inpropriety regarding the use of the code that LL has intentionally made available to anyone who wants to modify it?

The only properties the land bot is snapping up are properties that are significantly underpriced.

None of that I have a problem with. The modified client offering the tools would be freely available to ANYONE.
What we have here is someone who created a private bot that he has no intention of releasing to the public in any form.

Because the new business model only benefits a handful of people with a specific skill set. A game like this is supposed to benefit the greatest number of people possible. If people wanted to live and work in a world where limited monopolies dominate every aspect of life and most people work at lousy paying jobs they dislike or hate, why do they need to log into a video game? You can get that living in the real world. It's because of those realities that people escape to SL. When those realities follow, what's the point of being here. What SL will become or what the Lindens see as their idealized future amounts to a hill of beans at this point. Right now, most residence are here to play, to have fun, to hold jobs that are nicer and more entertaining than their day jobs, to shop and gamble and have lots of kinky, noncommited sex. This realm is for fantasy. Unfair competition and oligarchies are not most people's fantasy, and fantasy is LL's true business.

No you are quite right, so long as the project remains only in house then you do not have to release the source code.

I should also mention that the GPL does not mean that if I release a product based on GPL software that I have to give it to every tom, dick, and harry that asks for it.

If I only give it to fred, jane, and tony, then I am only required to give the code to fred, jane, and tony. You might come and ask for a copy and I would be within my rights to say no. However I could not stop fred, jane, or tony from giving you a copy. If they give you a copy of the binary, then to comply with the license I would have to give you a copy of the source if you asked for it.

A lot of people don't understand the way the GPL works, so there is a lot of confusion about it.
Geeky

this topic makes me think about a water carrying guy complaining about piped water being unfair competition.

But... life IS unfair.

the plumber replaced the water carrier, the jackhammer replaced the pickaxe.

this topic makes me think about a water carrying guy complaining about piped water being unfair competition.

But... life IS unfair.

Because the new business model only benefits a handful of people with a specific skill set. A game like this is supposed to benefit the greatest number of people possible.

the ones that will follow, may be forcing land prices up for everybody in the world..

What do you guys think open source means? What do you think LL's continued support of libSL means? It means that people are given tools to programmatically solve problems in SL.

Elanthius, do you plan on releasing your modifications back upstream? Where can I take a look at your code?

Why on earth would he do that

In other words, if you are a land trader that feels threatened by this, then your best bet is to either license this bot from the guy, or hire someone to write a similar one for you. That is adapting to a market changing in the face of technology. Successful companies do it, the ones that don't, suffer.

In other words, Scorched Earth Policy.

The long and the short of the issue is, only one person will succeed. Sure, someone will put Elanthius out of business, but the end result will be just another person with a monopoly. The search server will have the shit hammered out of it by every poorly written bot, and for what? It's already on it's last legs.

The usage of these resources by a single entity is disproportionate, particularily by the fees they pay, which essentially is nothing. Meanwhile, LL will be falling over themselves to keep the database online, so one person can reap all of the benefits.

Monopolies do not benefit the community, under any circumstances.