Copybot Witch Hunt

I haven't been with the Seller's Guild long, and honestly am not seeing alot of activity here in the forums. However, I was dismayed to find the makings of a witch hunt happening right under my nose.

I'm not an 18 year old bright eyed ingenue, I grew up in the 60's and have seen alot of civil unrest in my time. I've seen the effects of witch hunts, prejudice, misinformation and many other social inequities. I've spent a good deal of my life trying to fight the right fight, trying to protect the underdog and the last few years of my life trying to champion the cause to allow people to die with dignity. So what brings me here tonight, to a forum that I don't really know...that I haven't read, that I didn't know existed?

I logged on this evening after a long day at work, sitting holding the hand of a dying 50 year old man, and trying to quiet some of his fears...and even share the tears of his loving family. I came on like I do most nights, to create, to chit chat, and just to be away from 'it all'. The last few days, SL hasn't been much of an escape. It has bounced from fear of the unknown, to hysteria, to 'broadcasting' of the names of those who are suspected copybot terrorists. I'm waiting for someone to hand me a torch so I can help light the fire.

Answer me one thing, in a grid of supposedly mature adults who live world wide, who collectively have some supposed wealth of knowledge and experiences... How can we sanction the sharing of even ONE name of a person who is not known to be a threat?
I'm sickened to see people take the typed out name of people as being suspected copybot users, and SLlib members as being of malicious intent. I can tell you of at least 5 people that I know of that purchased Copybot to actually see, experience what it could and could not do rather than jumping on the hysteria band wagon. Each of these people are content creators, considerate thoughtful people as well as responsible mature adults.

Tonight one of these people approached the author of one of the lists publised in our Seller's Guild and was informed that they were going to be reported to LL by this person. There was no discussion just an immediate reaction some what like "WITCH WITCH WITCH, BURN THEM NOW!"

Now, I'm a little voice here. I'm not a big dog here. I make a meager profit on my little goods and I'm no danger to those who are amassing great wealth and profit. But I do have a brain, and I do have a moral and ethical responsibility to speak up when i see things that are not okay.

Stop the Witch Hunts now.

Daequix Scarborough, you can pen me as known associate of someone who has actually ever touched a copybot.

AHMEN Daequix!!! I second that and third and fourth it with my alts Oh no he has alts burn him at the stake!!! The fact that the use of copybot is a TOS violation, thats hypocracy at its finest. This was being developed with LL support as is all LibSL stuff, thats right people its open source here. I would love to have a copybot, not to steal anything but to pick it a part and kick the tires.

I have been in this game for a long time much long than MOST of you that are screaming LL needs to support us on this cause as Money makers in game WE make SL what it is. Sorry but the people that make SL what it is are EVERYONE in the game. I have paid LL way more US than any normal person should for a GAME and I create things and script things and you know what, I will give them to anyone and even show you how to make them. WHY, you may ask, because THATS what SL is about. Dont cry to me that copybot is stealing and taking away your living when all you did was change the name of a RL store from CC to KK and then cry your being stolen from. Dont cry to me that you are loosing your living. ITS A GAME. UNPLUG GO OUT LIKE AN ADULT AND GET A REAL JOB. The only ones who should be making a LIVING off of sl are LL. Now if this is some nice side cash as you do something you enjoy as a hobby, good on ya more power to you. Dont complain to me about stealing when a LARGE portion, not all mind you, steal their creations from RL. Now whos stealing. For those few who actually create original content I can understand that you might be upset and you have your right to say what you think as much as the next avie. I hear a lot of talk but thats all it is. How much L has actually been lost to this and how much of it happened after the Sky is falling Chicken little rampage?

So sign me up for pro copybot club. Is there one? *makes note start new club* Ill give anyone a free pro copybot shirt just IM me in game,while supplies last. Maybe I can get a copybot and they never run out Is it a TOS violation to copy myself?

Let the flaming beging!!!

No, things are not okay... neither with us (Sellers Guild) or LL. I made a blog post earlier, copied below. Our world (SL) has changed some... and it is up to us to make it a great place or a virtual hell. I prefer a great place. Yes, the witch hunts have got to stop. Yes we do need some type of law and order and Phillip said VERY clearly that LL was NOT going to provide that. That is totally up to us, and I would like to see us, the residents of SL, try to create that. And NO, don't be electing me for nothing, LOL. Just forget copybot a second and reread what Phillip actually said. Also, the blog post on education. They want US to pick up the reigns on all this social stuff and leave them to play with the techie stuff. I just hope they will give us adequate tools to do it with.


Sam Brodie Says:

November 16th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Maybe I am wrong, but as I see it, Phillip said something much bigger here. They (LL) are turning the world over to us. They are going to concentrate on techie stuff, the social stuff is up to us to fix and take care of. If we want controls and “government/police”… we have to create that, and be responsible for that. Not LL.

Is not the basket of goods they sold us, but, it has some real possibilities when you think about it. We just have to re-think what we thought we knew. And start again.

Just some thoughts

Sam

Wow... SL isnt much of an escape anymore is it?
Damn bro... You made me realize something I didnt want to know.
I knew it.. but didnt want to.... Sadness.

I guess its like that movie "The Beach" the deeper you get into it... the less its an extraordinary paradise and the more its a lagged out server filled with crappy shopping malls.

Jesus christ I think my avatar just slit his wrists....

Linden Labs has made it very clear that they will not protect a Content Creators copyrighted materials. Further, they have created, and seem to support, an environment that allows virtual thieves to thrive.

While I am sympathetic to your plea, SL merchants must rely on internal 'merchant-to-merchant' communication and the 'ban' tool as their only affective means of defense.

I'm sorry, but hand-holding and wishing away the problem doesn’t work. We've tried the touchy-feely approach with thieves in the past and were met with arrogance, hostility and IM's like, "Go ahead report me LL won't do a thing and you can't do SH!T about me stealing your stuff." That isn't a paraphrase, it's a quote and unfortunately dead accurate.

If you want the witch-hunt to stop, convince Philip Linden to start being proactive in the affairs of SL Merchants. Until such a time, we are forced to use totalitarian tactics simply to protect ourselves.

It's far from prefect and doesn't make me happy, but it's our reality.

If the witch hunt continues, this SL world will be divided by those that mock and ban carelessly.

Some of the actions of witch hunters are so routine that their motives do not seem rooted with content protection (or in fear of CopyBot). Instead, they seem more to uphold tatics of business that are directly inline with anti-trust practices. At this point if true, a witch-hunt it is no longer; instead, it has transposed into a cartel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_hunt

witch hunt - motivated by superstitious fear, uncertanty, and doubt (FUD)

cartel - motivated, independantly and formally, by means of restrictive practices


Is SL about to meet a new era of cartels?

Much truth in what the OP says.

It seems to me that the actual threat that copybot brings is not to centent or its creator or to the economy, but to the community of SL.

Well...the future will show if thecummunity is strong enough to deal with it, I surely hope so.

So many things to say so little time.

Firstly, computers can copy anything they see. No practice will stop the copying of digital items.

Second, there is no in game tool to stop copying, the most effective tool the mass of the Seller's Guild has seen so far has been public pressure AKA witch hunts.

Third, LL has never lied to us about how much they control the social sphere of SL. They have always said they don't want to police SL. They obey DMCA and TM law because they have to legally.

LL is an ISP, your land is a web page. It's your job to protect it.

Some interesting points. CopyBot doesn't copy clothing it copies the composite single texture covering your avatar which your PC makes from all the clothing/skin etc you have on. It doesn't save this texture and it's lost when the bot logs out. It can copy other objects shape and textures.

The biggest threat to SL is not CopyBot. It's the other hacking software such as slice.exe and GLIntercept. Both of these are also in the wild and can't be tracked by LL ever. And yes slice.exe was made by libsecondlife too.

There is no copy protection in SL except for scripts. And scripts only because scripts run on the sim rather than get sent to your PC.

When the user is the enemy, then all data sent to the user is compromised.