what exactly IS copybot?

Sorry that I'm a little behind but I've read about 50 messages on this copybot and I still don't understand its influence over SL... is this the end to the SL workforce?

CopyBot is a peice of software that can be used to automate the theft of content. It can also be used for other things. Content is no less secure now then it was before CopyBot.

It's nothing...and never was...believe me.

Anything that can do the same thing already exsited.

So then why the huge uproar?

People are scared of the unknown. They don't like it when a cloud passes in front of the sun, it might mean rain.

Many people wish their content was more secure. It can't be done without making SL very unfriendly (for the sake of sanity lets not start a discussion on this).

Because, someone made it one.

In other words...

Someone yelled "Fire!" in a crowded theater...where as someone was just only smoking a cigarette.

It was all just a dream...

CopyBot is an external application that mimics the SL client for the purpose of duplicating prims and their textures. It can be used to steal from SL content provider's by creating an exact copy of their product's prims and textures, with all copy permissions removed, and creator's name replaced by that of the thief on the stolen copy. Using CopyBot to steal someone else's content will get you banned from SL.

CopyBot can NOT steal scripts or the content of prims. It is worthless for making a valid backup copy of an item that you did not create. It's main purpose is a thief's tool.

Contrary to what the above people stated, prior to this it was NOT a trivial thing to create an exact duplicate of a complex prim object that you did not own, and did not have full permissions access to. Now, it is. It was NOT a trivial thing to remove a creator's name from a product, or remove their copy protection. Now, it is.

Seen the hundreds of closed stores and sims lately? CopyBot caused that reaction, because content providers now feel any individual with access to CopyBot can now rip off their content and make it into a full-perms freebie. Their copy protection settings and their creator name on their work can now easily be erased. And there are a lot of people who somehow don't see that as a problem. My bet is that those people have never tried making complex content themselves.

Most of those merchants haven't closed because they are 'afraid' - They closed because they felt it was the only way to make the Lindens take the threat of CopyBot seriously. Most would like to return, if they had at least some assurance that people who think this is all a big joke won't put them out of business.

It appears that some of the people earlier in this thread think this is funny, or harmless. But it's ruined the economic viability of SL for a LOT of content providers in SL. It's going to make a lot of good content creators quit making stuff, and maybe quit SL entirely.

Many of the people who make the nice avatars, clothes, jewelry, homes, vehicles, and other things that you might like to buy and use will not be able to remain in business, if even a mere handfull of thieves in SL who think this is 'harmless' use it to destroy the copy protections on other people's hard work, and give that work away for free. Merchants will be unable to pay for their stores, or their land, or their sims. Many will stop making nice things entirely.

Think I'm just being a 'gloom and doom' whiner? Wait and see what happens.

Will others take the place of those who leave? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Only time will tell.

{EDIT 11/17/06}

Last night I had a long conversation with a talented programmer who I trust, and who I know has a strong inquisitive streak. He had tested a copy of CopyBot, and we discussed precisely what it can and can not do.

At least for the version that he tested, it was incapable of stealing the textures on clothing. It could make a temporary copy of the baked composite textures, but that copy could not be seperated into it's component layers (shirt, skirt, pants, jacket, tec.), nor could even the baked composite texture be exported. He said it was also incapable of making a transferrable copy of the shape or skin texture of what it copied. So it appears that clothing designers are safe, except for those who make prim clothes. And as far as prim clothing goes, it appears flexi-prims can't be copied either. So at least in the version he tested, Clothes and skins and body shapes are safe.

You can still use CopyBot to very effectively steal the prims and textures for an item like a house or a furry avatar. You don't get the scripts or any contents, however. Also, unless the copybot is wearing the avatar in question, a complex avatar with lots of attachments has to be copied one linkset at a time. So, you can steal the artistic effort that went into forming the shape of a product, in itself quite a theft, but can't get everything as easily as some have feared.

The best defense for people who make homes, sculptures, and other complex prim and texture items is to de-link them. If the object consists of lots and lots of seperate linksets or individual prims, they might copy the house, but all they get, after a LOT of effort, is essentially a pile of raw bricks and boards. Probably the worst threat is to jewelry or furniture makers, where form and texture are the majority of the creative effort and value in the item, and they can't really sell de-linked versions.

CopyBot is certainly still a problem. There are people out there trying to make it even more of a problem, like the thief who coded and released a variant that the !quit command is ineffective against. But my friend's opinion was that for most people, using CopyBot to steal someone else's work is likely to be too much effort to be worthwhile, especially now that getting caught means getting banned for life from SL. {/EDIT}

I went to the show...and all I got was an anti un-establishment t-shirt...

A few reasons:

1) Some people were under the impression there was some sort of securiity for Intellectual property they created, despite the need for the client to have access to it to display.

2) Even for those that knew the theoretical risk there's a huge difference between knowing a locksmith could break into your home with a bit of effort and knowing everyone in the world has an automatic lockpick that opens your front door in seconds.

3) Members of LibSL have boasted about their intent to steal things with CopyBot. (They may now be former members, or they may now be in charge of LibSL. Rumors abound!)

4) It's called "CopyBot" How more obvious does it need to be that this isn't a Backup tool, especially since it can't (and never will be able to) backup scripts, a fact that keeps getting rolled out by LibSL apologists to indicate why this isn't such a threat.

5) Some people are unhappy that LL is still failing to provide any tools residents can use to police theft of IP, despite trying to push all resposability of IP theft enforcement to players.

6) It's not liek this is the only screwup from LL in the last few months.


Anyone want to add some more reasons? My cat demands attention, so I can no longer type.

Those people who are saying things like content being as secure as before are misleading people.

Copybot is an external tool that allows you to copy others work ignoring permissions.
Anything built from prims can be copied, so furniture, hair, furry avatars, prefabs houses, statues, prim skirts, jewellery etc can all be STOLEN.

The user of copybot gets a full perms version that doesn't say the original creator made it.

You could easily see full perms copies of your L$2000 house or L$ 6000 dragon av in freebie boxes due to this tool.

Scripts are safe from it so they will have to put in their own scripts.

True in the past a SKILLED builder could manually copy someone's work, perhaps taking days or even weeks to copy a complex item.
Copybot will do it automatically and even applies the original textures to it without having to pay to upload them.

In my opinion, this is very bad for SL.

Just to clarify a bit further, here's how CopyBot works:

It *doesn't* use any trick, bug, or exploit to carry out "copy" operation in SL regardless of the permissions flags.

What it does is: it connects to the server, pretending to be an avatar. Because the server thinks it's an avatar, the server begins trying to rez the world for it - sending it the information used to display prims, textures, and other data on the screen. However, instead of displaying the data on the screen, CopyBot records it and stores it in a database.

When it's told to copy an object, CopyBot looks through the database, finds the object the user asked for, and then sends to the Second Life server a series of messages that match those that would be sent if it was a real avatar who had clicked on the "build" button and then manually created each prim by typing all the settings into the boxes in the build window.

The only exception to this is setting the texture, which uses a setting system which can't be accessed by the ordinary client but which can be accessed by scripts in ordinary circumstances.

CopyBot is part of an alien army sent here to destroy our second and first lives, without a care for the concerns of the masses. LL endorses the new evil overlords.

Wait, that's what I read on the forums and blog comments. I guess things got blown out of proportion?

MM

Yes, I was wondering what the heck copybot was as well, but I noticed in my exploring of different places in SL, I would click on something (usually just to see what it would do.. if it had any scripts, etc.)

and I would get weird messages that would pop up saying something like

Copybot: [ignore this msg.] Quit!

? when I was brand new to SL I thought it was really weird....

now I'm just used to it....

No its those that own casinos and have alot of time on their hands

So what you are saying is, that there is an exploit used in SL, SL knows about it, and no one is doing anything to stop it, or protect content?

The CopyBot no longer works, so something has been done to stop it.

However, the underlying exploit that it used is something that's unavoidable. The details of the prims of any given built object, plus its texture, have to be sent to the client for it to be able to draw it on the screen. As long as the client has this information, it can do things with it, including copying it.

The only way to fix this would be to use a "trapdoor code" of some kind - that is, send details to the client which enable it to draw the prim, but which aren't the prim settings that SL is expecting to recieve back from the client in order to create the prim in world. But this would be very hard, given that a key point of prim building is to reduce network traffic.

Copybot was never an exploit because it doesn't touch the permissions system. Copybot doesn't copy what it sees, it simply recreates it.

If you have a DRM'ed e-book and break the DRM to obtain a redistributable copy, you used an exploit and the company that created the DRM could take action against you for breaking it, as well as the copyright owner - if you distribute - because you violated their IP.
If you instead just decide to type the book over word by word, or use an automated tool to do it for you, then you didn't break the DRM which leaves only the copyright owner as a party capable of action.