Have you closed your store because of CopyBot?

When news of GLIntercept first broke... it was presumed to be the end of the clothing texture and skin industries.
Now we're months down the road and all those businesses are still thriving...


the reason?


...probably because most people are honest.


I'd suggest that months down the road, this will be forgotten by most, just like GLIntercept

I don't understand... I created it once... I can create it again! I for one, rather do something all over (and much better and faster may I add) than watch some dick scurry along with a weapon/article of clothing/vehicle/building or anything else that took me time to figure out and prepare, now that I have a cookbook of recepies all I have to do is cook another batch up! Mind you, It will take time as it it did previously but not as much, and it will not happen prior to a resolution of this Copybot plauge.

If greed were my motivating factor then I wouldn't be closing up shop! Again it's the principle of the matter, if merchants don't voice and express their opinions, just stand on the sidelines watching Coach Linden run the show, they risk losing the entire game (money/content/reputation) it's a team effort I'm sure everyone will agree, players communicate with coaches to result in a better game, so far all I've seen thus far is players calling FOUL FOUL and coach Linden doing nothing to enforce.

Once these serious issues we are having are rectified, I'll be comfortable knowing I can play a "fair game until then I will sit the remaining games out, I mean whats the point if the rules only apply to some.

Isn't it futile to close shop now when the items you sold prior to closing can still be copied?

The damage is done. Might as well keep your shops open and continue earning $L for as long as it lasts?

Isn't it futile to close shop now when the items you sold prior to closing can still be copied?

The damage is done. Might as well keep your shops open and continue earning $L for as long as it lasts?

When news of GLIntercept first broke... it was presumed to be the end of the clothing texture and skin industries.
Now we're months down the road and all those businesses are still thriving...


the reason?


...probably because most people are honest.


I'd suggest that months down the road, this will be forgotten by most, just like GLIntercept

There are a few of us that are ever optimsitic, the thing that irks me is the way it was introduced to SL, LLs need better PR imho and the fact some jerk is selling it when its clearly available for free.

Also Hawk Splash posted a note to the blog after testing it out (Quoted Blog Entry below)

"hawk Splash Says:

November 14th, 2006 at 4:49 am
ok ive read all your blog listings comments and stuff and got pretty concernd myself about this thing as im a builder in sl so i decided to go waste 3000 lindens on this thing to put your minds at ease firstly to use the program you have to have an alternate account secondly when you do get online with it and you clone an avatar or object that avatar is wearing it does clone an exact copy of the av i tried this with my alt but the one priority id like to adress here is the fact it does clone all attachments that your wearing it wont take or theif anything thats been made by another user even if it isnt no copy no mod and no transfer because it wont allow the copy of the uuid number of the object you try to copy to be copied from the inventory
also the avatars shape height settings and skin are not left in your alts inventory when you log back in to sl with that name you used to be the copy bot all scripted objects that you had on the alt become invalid the scripts are automatically invalid and removed on copying and this also results in the objects being called object yes it does make the persons name the creator but no the objects can not be claimed as that persons because it says unknown creator which is greyed out so your concerns about anyone stealing your work are not neccesary because they can not be used they all become invalid i also tried to copy an object just basic box with a bling script in it gave my alt av my mod rights everything possible i could edit the object on my alt unlink it but the big no no is when going to contents to your suprise those that think they get an exact replica that will work and can be sold think again because all scripts are removed regardless of the settings all objects that are named are called object in the inventory
Hair skin and clothing revert back to the hair skin and clothing and shape you originally had on that av to start with the only thing funny about that program is it clones anyones av while on the program but when logged out of the alt and back into sl on that alt yes your minds are thinking OH NO they got my work errrrr stop the tape there because nope they didnt why? because 1 the object they copied is now called object they dont know which is which 2nd the objects scripts are missing so for those of you that wana go wasting money on this program good luck because you aint gona get nowhere trying to copy skins hair and attachments that dont belong to ya so people as a person that has just wasted lindens take my advice you have nothing at all to worry about it doesnt even copy textures lol so thumbs up to you all and bad luck the creator of this program in my words IT SUCKS!!!!!! "

So in the words of Hawk Splash as posted "IT SUCKS"

I hope more people go & test it themselves to see the results if they are worried. One final point is SL wants to head to an open source 3D web and as in all things change is inevitable and we move with it or die, they (LL) have made some silly choices lately but i see SL as a child and children often make mistakes as they grow and learn.

It happened in the late 80s and early 90s as we moved from usenet, AOL, CIS etc. to browsers and the net as we know it now, people said it would be the death of it but im still around having fun in this new enviroment which is a new platform full of teething problems and i always remember to never invest more than i can afford to lose in this new area of communications

Ever the optimist

Peace

I'm leaving my vendors up for now, but I have removed my prim statues; I can't stop copying of the ones that are already out there, but I can stop copying of the ones in my shop. For the time being, any other products I was thinking of building are on hold.

And, I hate having to do it, but until this exploit is stopped, my custom avatar with the cool-looking horns is history. I will not allow someone to steal my identity.

I'm really losing faith in LL; I hope they decide to do the right thing and put a stop to this.

Hmmm... its looking like much ado over nothing from this..

Im with ya! I have taken a default shape and wear that when I log in.

Finally a post by someone who tried it.


Thank you.

Im going to IM this guy or *maybe* try it myself.

If I knew where to get it, I'd try it.

Bluntness aside, I'd rather trust the words if they came from a Linden, or someone very familiar and "openly known" to the community. Such as Crystalshard Foo, Cubey Terra, or Travis Lambert.....

Well, here we are... another big change is upon us, and the masses are screaming again. This time, it's not exactly LL that's at the heart of the issue, though they certainly seem to be going along with it.


That said, here's the bottom line, right upfront:

If all you sell in SL is piles of prims and textures, fear CopyBot.

However, if you have other things about your products, this, too, shall pass.


A Detailed Look:

So, I finally unearth some info on CopyBot with my Google shovel, and as luck would have it, one of the bots is online. I IMed the bot, and was presented with its menu as a response. Seeing it instantly accepted teleports, I fired off the limo, and as advertised, he came right over.

I moved him into a neighboring parcel, as my own little slice of real estate was insufficient for testing.

The first thing, I thought, would be to make myself a back-up of a piece of expensive furniture, and so I dutifully scanned for the UUID, and had it copy that ID. Now, keep in mind, I'd lost a pair of blocks that had cost me about L$10,000 due to an asset server failure way the hell back in March, and with the asset servers being duct tape and paperclips anymore, wanted to protect my investment.

Well, in just a few moments, I had a bed floating over the bot's head.

"Sweet," I thought, looking at it. "How good a job did it do?" So I looked at the contents, expecting to find everything that was there. No such luck.


"Ah well," I thought, and remembered something that had been bugging me for awhile. An av head I had done some modding on had gone completely no-mod (Luskwood avs.. you know how they are) on me during the permissions 'fix' LL deployed, and it annoyed the bejeezus outta me.

So, I rezzed the 100-prim+ head and instructed the bot to do his thing. Took awhile, but he delivered: a complete copy of my head, sans scripts, animations and texture in the Contents tab. Figuring I'd not need the old one anymore, I pulled the contents and stuck 'em in the new head. Mission accomplished.


By this time, I wondered just HOW I could get it to copy scripts, as I wanted to look one over to confirm or dispel something fishy in an object some of you may remember me mentioning awhile back. I couldn't do it. Nothing at all would happen.

By the time I'd remembered an item I had (unavailable now) that I had wished was +mod that I wanted to copy, the bot had been logged off.



After a bit of searching, I happened upon a place where it was being 'sold' in-world, where a crowd had gathered, jeering the seller from SLX, who was in attendance.

After having the contents of the notecard the L$2900 buys one read out into open chat, I downloaded the application itself (hey... if you're making things free for all, why charge for the methodology, right?). Got it running, and loaded up an alt I'd had sitting around doing nothing.

In speaking with a friend about it, I had her put on a freebie av that differed from what the alt had at the time, making sure she had nothing else on (after all, I was gonna have the bot clone her... she knew this going in, as I was demonstrating it to her).

So, I fired the command. This time, it took quite awhile, as it was a fairly detailed furry av, with lots of attachments (VERY nice for a freebie). After it did, though, I noticed the bot completely mimicked her, as it went into the typing animation as she did, and even tried to walk in place. She noted it was quite creepy, to which I concurred.

At that time, I showed her the 'prims-only' way it copied, and had her check a head (from the freebie av again, as I'd given it to her) against the original. At this time, I was needed elsewhere, and so ended the testing.



So, I guess the best way to defeat this is to make sure your avs and items actually DO something or can verify their authenticity somehow and report the knock-offs.




The bottom line: SL WILL weather this.

Please, content creators, don't close down your stores over this.