The RL media is on the CopyBot story

not hardly

so far i have been attacked by this copybot crap and "owned" by to retards named apollo narcissis and cocaine avalache.

i dotn own a boutique, everythign i have i bought with linden dollars, yet these jackholes thinks its hilarious to to bomb my homes with this garbage. i for one will seek legal advice regarding this.

on a side note: since the lindens have proven themselves bold faced liars in the past, give them 30 days, before copy bot is the norm.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Originally Posted by Talarus Luan
Yes, and?
Copying stuff not necessarily BAD (unless you didn't own it).
Reselling/giving away said copied stuff IS BAD.
CopyBot is a tool. Punish the user.
Stop worrying that everyone is going to use it for BAD.
Next?


i and my partner dont own a shop, we rent land, and we bother no one. NEXT?

talarus if you have nothin constructive to say sit down and let the grownups talk.

Maggie I agree with you that LL will start to try to convince us that the copybot is okay.. and that the copybot really isn't stealing anything important....
I wanna hear what Phillip has to say at the town hall tomorrow.

Copybot and similar programs can copy anything that is a prim, plus the textures on it. (Though you will not have a copy of the textures separately.)

I think the prims have to be linked, otherwise the person ends up with a bunch of prims not "built."

I'm thinking I could put my houses out and unlink all of them, and that would at least slow the thieves down. Do you all think that could work?

And yes, it does deliver the goods to the thief with full permissions, to do as as he likes - copy, mod, transfer or sell.

And to add insult to injury, it also put his name (actually, his untraceable alt's name) on the product as the creator.

coco

P.S. For those of you who think that scripts and skins and whatnot are safe, well, I wouldn't be too sure of that.

After all, LL loves these guys because they break everything. Then LL shrugs and says, well we're all going to die anyway, so why not just shoot us now. Cory apparently likes everything to be free anyway.

So I wouldn't put it past LibSL to develop and release code to wreck everybody's everything, with LL's blessing and compliments.

That`s what im doing on my sims.




How does it deliver?

As far as I can understand, the thief has to be able to "recompile" it, but I could be totally wrong about that.

And here's another question: Of all I have read - which has been an IMMENSE amount - it would seem that once these copybots (or at least some of them) have copied your item, which is packaged in a box and sitting there, then they can get the contents out of the box just as if they had bought it.

Yet that doesn't seem intuitively correct to me.

Still, that's what credible people have said. Does anyone know? Cause there's no since setting out unlinked houses if someone can just copy the box and get the house out of it.

Also - can someone just copy a rex-faux, once they have taken it out of the box?

Those rez-fauxs are designed for one use only by those who didn't create the item to sell in the first place.

Does that no longer work?

coco

P.S. Why won't LL answer these questions? Why are we having to figure this out for ourselves? They know. We need to know these details in order to decide whether to set up our shops again, and how.

Do they just not want to start a panic? If that's the case, that horse has done left the barn.

What does that mean? "Attacked?" Verbally? Physically (well, in a virtual sense)? With spam? What? Do you mean they COPIED something of yours?



Still not clear on what you are talking about. Bombed your homes with what garbage? If you are being harassed, then AR the twinks; put them on ignore, do whatever you have to to get the griefing to end.



..and after 30 days passes and everything is pretty much the same? Give you another 30 days before it all goes to hell? ..then another 30 days? OK. I'll check back in with you in about a month.



Actually, I think I have been very mature in my posts, in multiple threads; even ones as condescending, snide, and vacuous as this one of yours. How else am I to respond when people post stupid personal attacks? Should I just hug you and squeeze you and call you George instead?

So, I ask again: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

*one confused Dragon*

*shrug* I assume nothing is "safe". I am not looking for "safety" or "security". If the DRM does the basic job it was intended to do, and policy and strict, quick enforcement provides enough disincentives, I am happy.



Sure, in the same way they love people who get onto the Preview Grid and break everything, because that means (hopefully; I know I know) that the stuff that they break will be fixed before it hits live. The DIFFERENCE is that the LibSL folks discover problems which CAN'T be detected via normal QA testing procedures. They find defects in stuff that the Lindens themselves couldn't find in the development process at all.



Personally, I HOPE SO. I really do. I would much rather they find it and get it into LL's hands rather than let some black hat hackers figure it out and milk it for all it is worth for months on end before the Lindens fix it. I have NO DOUBT that they are out there now, having used and profited from some of the very holes already discovered and plugged by LibSL's work.

Curse them, damn them, and blame them all you want, but I would rather have them than not.

CopyBot CANNOT copy the contents of prims. I've already explained it in other threads. It makes a build copy of whatever you tell it to, and leaves it sitting out. you have to log the bot out and log in as yourself again to pick up the build. CopyBot CANNOT interact with the world; it can't touch things, open them, or anything like that. It is simply a mindless prim copier. It sees the prim definitions come down from the server, and it essentially sends them back up to the server as a "Build prim" message.



Here's how to thwart CopyBot: Set your land to No-Rez or fill the parcel with prims. It acts just like someone manually copying a build by rezzing it one prim at a time. Now, if there is an adjacent parcel that is not No-Rez, and has available prims, then you're still vulnerable. If you see an avatar just standing there rezzing a bunch of prims near your objects, you probably have a copybot.



Well, I think the residents have taken care of that part. Mass hysteria is always such a sight to behold.

I will tell you. Philip will begin with some inspirational stuff about how he knows things have some "rough patches" right now, but the Lindens are hard at work and do feel our pain, and we will all pull together to ensure a better world. That will segue into his vision of the metaverse, and how that means some of these "hard decisions" are necessary, but these "growing pains" are necessary for "progress."

We'll all wait to hear about the copybot stuff. He will probably tackle that early on, though a few unrelated questions may preceed them.

Then he'll answer at a fair amount of length at least two questions on the topic, with follow-up with that person, as is his polite way (which I adore). Maybe five; I doubt many more. The answers will be things we have already heard on the blog; I would be surprised to hear anything new, but we might get lucky! They will focus at boring length on these things like floating text, followed by things we can do, stressing "file AR" and "file DMCA."

How lucky we get depends on how good the questions asked are.

Then he will take "other questions," which now consist of concerns that most of us haven't cared about since the copybot thing, and those will take up the rest of his time.

We'll wind up still frustrated, but perhaps feeling a bit inspired, that maybe this thing IS doable. A number of us will glom onto one part or another of his answers and pin our hopes on that. We'll conclude that maybe things aren't as gloomy as we thought, and we'll soldier on.

Thus is the magic of Philip Rosedale, and I'm as susceptible to it as anyone.

coco

OK, that's good advice. I don't have to worry about the things in boxes.

And I am well advised to set the land as no-rez.

(Though you still have the problem of them standing just outside your land and copying something, unless you have a fair amount of land and all your stuff huddled in the middle.)

Then if I put the houses out unlinked (which isn't hard to do at all), that should be even more protection.

I'm also bearing in mind that more versions of copybot come out, and they will become ever more sophisticated. I'm still thinking intuitively that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to copy the contents in the box, ever, no matter what. Do you think that's true?

Now, as for your last comment, nice to see you are so above "mass hysteria." I take it that you don't have a shop full of houses, furniture, hair, or shoes to worry about.

That's so nice for you. How about this wonderful shoe designer, who keeps each shoe on display? She has a small shop. She can't huddle her shoes to the center and get far enough away from the boundaries of her shop.

As far as I can tell from what you have said, she is going to have to remove her copies of shoes, and go with just pictures instead. I guess that wouldn't bother you much, but it represents an entire turnaround in the way she has presented her shop.

And I suppose you don't care about people going around "shopping" in people's homes on quiet sims. I guess that's nothing to get upset about, either.

In fact, people don't have any right to get upset about anything, do they? After all, you don't.

coco

You quite plainly describe the stripping of ownership perms from the original owner so that it is no longer owned only by the creator/owner. How is that not anything?


Which means that the answer to my question:


is quite simply:

Yes.


True, technically it's not much different... unless you count the amount of time, work, energy, creativity, pride, hope and money put into making the original.


Indeed it is.

In my first reply to your first reply I asked:

In a reply to someone else you said:

Of course not everyone will use it for bad. But it would only take a small percentage of people abusing it to bring the economy to a crawl. Why make and sell something that anyone can steal and give away for free, or resell to others who could then resell etc? Copybot can bring a new product to rapid ubiquity as opposed to the slower growth of adoption of a new product which occurs without the thieving. Why bother?

This is perhaps not directly analogous but those of use who started playing UO in '97 were just as shaken up a couple of years into the game when the first gold duping exploit got loose. And that did indeed destroy the economy for awhile.

Thousands of people left the game in a period of a few months.

And of course people were routinely calling for (and filing) lawsuits against Origin, calling for Garriot/British's head on a platter etc.

The duping problems still exist (see "More Than 400 Dupers Banned, Tens of Thousands of Items Deleted" posted today) but Origin has since learned to deal better with duping, both echnically and community relations-wise.

The economy recovers from the shocks of duping more quickly in UO because people have become more accustomed to the occasional duping over the last 9 years. The big difference is that Origin actively takes steps to put a stop to the exploit/hack and ban those who used it for ill-gotten gains. That's why the shards still up and running.

Damn, I just got here and already I'm babbling. Someone else's turn now...

No, I work for the Isle of Wyrms as an Estate Manager, and it is my job to help Daryth Kennedy protect her investment as much as you want to protect yours. I also have a small shop in Limbo (which I am still setting up, since I have been dealing direct with customers).



My advice to any and all content creators is DON'T WORRY ABOUT COPYBOT. Continue to do everything you planned to do. Just like when terrorists make threats and set off bombs (and crash planes into buildings), don't change your life BECAUSE of them; that's EXACTLY what they want. Instead, continue living your life in SPITE of them. That doesn't mean you shouldn't TRY to protect yourself, or be ignorant to their existence and activities, but kicking, screaming, treating other people like crap because you are mad, disgusted, whatever, yelling that "the sky is falling" when there is no evidence AT ALL to support such a notion, then closing down your stores, sims IN PROTEST (of reality? get a grip, eh?)... it's all INSANE and IRRATIONAL. IE, "HYSTERICAL".

Yes, people are gonna copy your stuff. It has happened, it will again.. and again.. and again. DO what you can to PROTECT yourself; FIGHT for your rights when people infringe them, but continue living the life you planned, if anything, to SPITE those that want you to do otherwise.

As the calmer voices of reason keep saying OVER AND OVER AGAIN: Your loyal customers will STILL continue to buy from you, bring MORE of their friends to buy from you, and will SHUN copies and knockoffs. With your support, they will go to bat for you and help you ferret out people who ARE copying your stuff and/or selling said copies. TAKE advantage of EVERYTHING LL gives you, and if you have to (I would), assert your legal rights under Copyright Law to their fullest extent. EDUCATE new players about copying. Help them know how to tell the difference between a "Coco Original" and a "knockoff".

Don't make any assumptions about what I do and don't get "upset" over (unless you just want to be a condescending jerk; some people do :-/ ). I have the SAME concerns as anyone here; I'm just not going to cut my own head off to spite my neck. I am going to WAIT and BE PATIENT and see what happens before I proclaim World Disaster.

Do you think that you all can do that, too? I sure hope so! I want to have someone to spend my L$ on, and someone to buy MY stuff, too!

I would rather have them SHUT UP.

coco

None of my products are affected at all by the CopyBot. When I make products, they are always heavily scripted. I consider my stuff completely useless without the scripts.

I only get involved in this discussion because I feel strongly about Linden Labs promise of a virtual world where ownership is important, and their promise of a new "virtual economy." If LL isn't going to work hard to protect the people's content who built this "economy" then they need to stop marketing the BS that this is a great place to start a business.

Personally, I think iTunes is a good example because they are connecting buyers with sellers and they advertise a secure system with DRM. When someone breaks it... they try their hardest to patch it. That's the route I think LL should take. The success rate is irrelevant. What is important is that they try, and that effort will reassure content-creators Apple values the content they host on their servers. I'm just saying LL should do the same.

I think you worry a bit to much about what other people think. Maybe more than a bit. It becomes more evident in each subsequent post which becomes increasingly more snide, condescending and caps strewn.

You know, this is a lot of advice, much of it good. Some of it kind of naive. For many items, including whole houses, apparently, there will BE no way to know the difference between an original and a knock-off. It won't have the creator's name on it any more, and 16x32 translates into 16x32 with no change in the translation. It's not like photocopying something and photocopying the photocopy, and it's also not like copying a Da Vinci (though those forgers can be very good). It's 16 x 32 along with thousands of other numbers, all of which translate exactly.

Where the advice misses the mark for me, though, much as I lap it up, is that it is coming from you. Nothing good has come from LL. They don't care about this.

That means - very little confidence for the future. I accepted Robin's answer as a first salvo. I waited for more. Then I got Cory's - and I believe he is a higher-up, like essentially right up there with Philip.

What he said is: We love LibSL, so back off. They can do what they want. OK, if you insist, we will make using the code to copy items without authorization against the TOS, at least until the first quarter of 2007.

Now you know, none of that is very encouraging to me. So while I try to figure out how to get my shop running again, with the most protection possible, and while I take your words as others as the inspiration pep talks they are (and much appreciated, they are, too!), I really can't gain the enthusiasm I once had, with this weak response from LL.

Perhaps there will be some improvement. Maybe something will be said at the Town Hall tomorrow.

I hope so, because I really would like to get back to creating, not sitting around bitching on the forums and trying to figure out how to do so without having my shop stolen out from under me, with the Lindens, who caused this whole problem, scarcely lifting a finger to stop it.

coco

What you are saying is technically incorrect. It does NOT affect the existing items in the game AT ALL. It make a COPY. The original owner is NOT deprived of ownership in the Original in any way, shape, or form.

Maybe you are misusing the word "stripped", but that's a communications problem we need to get out of the way here first.



So? Buy an object, spend some amount of hours copying it by hand. Use your own textures (or ones you make from carefully placed screenshots, or with a cache copier or proxy, your choice). You'll have a near-perfect duplicate. Yes, it will take longer. Yes, it may take you longer to copy it than the original creator took to make it, but you now have a full-permed copy of the PRIM object, just like with CopyBot, that you can try and give away or sell. Is that illegal? Should that capability be banned? Who knows? Copying is copying. You can't stop it. YOU CANNOT. PERIOD. You can make it harder, yes, but ultimately you just have to resort to POLICY and LAW to resolve it.



Well, are you wanting to play a numbers game now? How big a percentage is "large" enough to bring the economy to a crawl? What would make the economy crawl? What percentage of my sales lost to copying would make me quit? How about you? How about Coco? Are we REALLY talking about small-time copying here (which has been predominantly the case for the last THREE YEARS), or large-scale productions? Are these expectations of a "crashing economy" even REMOTELY indicated by ANY past or current trend data?

You see, everyone is so willing to explode and destroy over what they PERCEIVE as a problem, but don't have ANY evidence of its significant existance. THAT is what I am on about, more than anything. I have never said I supported copyright infringement; in fact, quite the contrary. I support LibSL, and I support the EXISTENCE of tools like CopyBot, and their LEGITIMATE, NON-INFRINGING USE.

I have an advanced version of Jeffrey Gomez' Prim Mirror that I reengineered myself. I made it simple, easy, and quick. I CAN copy all kinds of prim stuff that isn't mine, either. I don't; neither do a lot of folks who have things like it. I use it as a TOOL for LEGITIMATE, NON-INFRINGING USES. The same principle applies. The TOOL shouldn't be banned, but its INFRINGING USE MUST be. I have already stated elsewhere that I am aware of the limitations on enforcement due to the stupid unverified alt situation, but that doesn't change the fact that people MUST TRY and get LL to follow through on stopping it according to their own policies. Rabidly attacking the tool and the toolmakers serves NO purpose whatsoever.



Duping items and money in a game is a completely different situation. I've already addressed this argument with someone else, but let me sum up:

1) Law is not involved (it's not against the Law to violate game mechanics, nor is there an existing Doctrine protecting said practices under certain circumstances).
2) Bugs in game mechanics and systems running them are just that; bugs. CopyBot is not a flaw or bug. It is automation of a process which circumnavigates a protection system. You don't NEED to use it to do the same.
3) There is precious little that LL can realistically do to stop it, since it is not as simple as "patching a hole".

I have read so much on this topic recently, my brain is beginning to fuzz. I think really this all can be summed up very simply in a few major points.

1.) Copybot does something "outside" the normal boundaries of the SL client. Wether is evil or not evil, wether it has uses or not, its just something that should not have been created outside of LL. Now I know people will immediately say, "well in the RL this kind of thing happens all the time" This is true, as many have said, Apple, Microsoft, and many other various companies all deal with this. The difference is that they live and work in the Real World, while we and LL live and play in the Virtual World. If Microsoft could shut down the "Real World" for a day and scan through it looking for instances of pirated software, don't you think they would do it in a heartbeat? Why is it so hard for some people to see that this is not the Real World and you can't equate it with what we are expirencing here. In the Real World, companies take steps to stop pirating and theft, I am not sure why LL is encouraging it.

2.) What Copybot is doing is theft. Plain and simple. I love the arguement by people that "Well Copybot issn't doing anything bad, you could take screenshots and look at people objects and rebuild them yourself if you wanted to" Well you right, I could. Why don't I? Its called an economy. Why don't I do everything for myself (some people do in SL) its becuase I have chosen to specialize in a skill (maybe dancing) and make my Lindens that way. Then I take those Lindens and buy what I cannot make. I personally cannot make some of the houses I have seen in SL, no matter how long I had, I couldn't do it. However with Copybot, I most certainly could have that house. Can't you see how wrong that it?

3.) LL will never be able to stop all the hacking activities. I think everyone understands that, and people are not looking for a perfect system. They just want a system where LL "tries" to stop the hackers and doesn't come out saying "hey what these hackers did is great" That kinda goes against what everyone here in SL stands for.

4.) I know closing shops won't REALLY stop the the copybots, but its still a sign of protest and if those people are willing to take a financial hit in order to show LL that they are against Copybot, I say Good for them!!!! They know Copybot could still be copying their items elsewhere in the world, but they are standing up for their rights as Content providers.

5.) I think another problem people see here is that their has been a double punch recently. First, non-verified alts. Ok big problem, but it was settling down and people where adjusting, now comes Copybot. The combo of Copybot and free alts is bad mojo. Before free alts, is someone had an alt and paid 9.95 for it, they might just be abit less likely to use it for Copy-botting. However with unlimited numbers available, who cares if their bot gets AR'ed? Not a problem. Thats what I think has the community up in arms. The AR process seems to be laughable anyway, and then to tell people thats their only resort against cop-botters, doesn't sit well for most.

6.) I wonder how some of the RL business here in SL are taking this. Isn't Deel and IBM setting up islands here? I wonder if they will mind all the contect they create being copied? I would think they wouldn't be too happy about that.

7.) I know I said RL and SL are very different However I was wondering if I showed up at LL and started my own server running and copying SL to them and started my own SL there, maybe I will call it Third Life. I mean sure I could write my own code and assets servers and etc. However according to the Linden's its quite alright to just copy someone's hard work

Just my .02

Brendan

Here's a fun lb sl chat transcript everyone should read, especially those defending them as some sort of wonderful service to SL:

http://www.sluniverse.com/forums/Topic12867-1-1.aspx

Nah, not really.

I mean, I care some degree about what my fellow residents think, but tomorrow (or the next day), when this all blows over (and people STOP SPAMMING our channels with "Rah Rah You must protest copybot, or we will spam you some more!!", which makes me a very cranky Dragon Elder), I will be back to my regular SL, happily making things, and no one will see me again for a while.

I don't think I have become more snide. More tired, maybe; I do know I am annoyed that I have spent the day arguing in the blog and in the forums now, instead of getting work on my projects done, but I don't mean to come across any more snide and condescending than I have been entreated with by others. The caps-strewn thing is a style. A lot of people take it as "yelling"; I use it for emphasis. Just an old habit, from an old Dragon. Sometimes I remember to use bold or italics instead, but after 25 years of text communications with folks, old habits die hard.

If you (proverbial) are offended without cause, I apologize. If you started out offering offense, then you got your just rewards.

Talarus you make some good points (though the same points could have been made with all lower case characters as well.)

As I said, in the first paragraph about UO "This is perhaps not directly analogous" meaning that I understand that copybot isn't cloning L$indens. *In my 4th grade voice* Duuh.

But other than that it seems perhaps I may've done gone stuck my n00b foot in my mouth about how much of the economy is effected by copybot.

It's starting to sound like a lot less of the economy can be harmed by copybot than I'd gleaned from reading other threads. And the things you and some others have said (like Mark Gjellerup's post about how scripts aren't copied by copybot) are enlightening me as to just how far into my mouth my hippie-sandaled foot has gone. It will will do some damage, but probably won't slow it down too a "crawl." *ahem*

Anyway, I asked you to set me straight about why my initial post, and the articles I linked to, are "overblown" and you did. Thanks for doing that. I do still disagree with your assessment that it won't be used much for ill-gotten gains. Griefers grief. That's their thing man. 'Sploiters 'sploit, dupers dupe and cheaters cheat. Of course, this could be an argument for either of the 'sides' that seem to be forming around the copycat thang.

'Nuff of my blather. I last logged out after laying down on the hammock with the tie-dyed pillow on Help Island. Time to wake up there for my first trip to the mainland...

Peace out ya'll

I don't know about anyone else, but here's my take on it. I have a friend who makes lots of prim art, including very detailed Victorian houses. Now let's say I ran upon a house that resembled hers, but didn't have her name on it as creator, and I asked her to come look. She rezes one of her houses, and we superimpose it. I BELIEVE that we could determine, with relative ease, that it was an illegal copy of her work, especially since she uses ALL her own textures.



I'm not sure, but I think I have just been insulted there. Oh well. I guess the concept of "truth is truth, no matter the source" is lost on some folks. You may not like what I have to say, or how I say it, or who I am, or whatever, but the advice is genuine, and if you find it true, don't reject it simply because of the source.

Nothing good has come from LL? NOTHING? Come on, now... if that were true, WHY would you even be here? They don't care about this? That sounds rather bitter, especially in light of what they have already said and done on the matter.



Maybe, but if they TRULY didn't care, they'd say "tough; use the DMCA, that is what it is there for", and would continue working on the next "shiny".



*shrug* My builder friend felt the same way. We had a lot of the same debates; she then got to see how CopyBot worked first-hand. She quickly realized that it was overblown, put her shop back up (with some precautions, obviously), and got her enthusiasm back. Tomorrow, I expect she will be back in full swing making things again, and more then happier, despite Copybot lurking out there.



Well, for what it is worth, good luck. Don't worry; be happy.

The houses are copied with their textures on them, permanently.


No. Looking back, I can see as how it would read that way. I meant that as much as I appreciate and lap up the encouraging words from you and from others, they are coming from you and NOT from LL. As in, coming from one of us. Not coming for LL. I really do appreciate your heartfelt advice, and the terrorist analogyis a good way of looking at it.


I meant, nothing good has come from LL on this matter - no words that are the least bit reassuring. I thought I wrote that clearly.

coco

/nodnod. I think that would make it even easier to help identify it as bona fide infringement, no?



OK. Well, I think we both may be getting fatigued and mistyping/misreading each other a bit. Sorry about that.

An intelligent black knows that, once everyone has the technology, the security holes will likely be fixed and will therefore keep his little tricks to himself. Such a person would do possibly much less harm than those immature, playful white heads, who love the open source idea so much that they share their discoveries with everyone on the planet and their dog.

The black hat would be in it for either profit or the god-like feeling that he tricked and screwed the system. The white head is in it for appreciation. They want a pat on the shoulder and a "such a fine doggie you are", and they want to hear it from as many persons as possible. If that fails and they get a slap with the newspaper instead, they'll totally fail to understand what happened and why everyone is so upset, as we have seen. And some dogs that get beaten turn around and bite.

Look at the grid attacks a while ago. There we have our black hats. Thankfully not many of them, so LL was able to handle the situation. Now imagine a grey goo script handed out to everyone out there for review. As open source, so to speak. All the rather untalented bored griefer types, that are now content with caging and shooting, would have had their turn to play with a nuclear bomb. And once a hundred or more malicious brains ponder about an idea, dim-witted or not, many of them have a short-lived flash of wit in the lines of "What if I change this line, and add something here... ooh, neat, the grey goo fence doesn't stop it anymore". LL would have never been able to clean up the mess.

Yes, those students or script kids (speaking of mental maturity) with way too much spare time at hand find many of the security holes, even if they poke some of them into our paper walls themselves (btw, paper walls are quite common in some asian countries, but housebreaking is a crime there nonetheless). Whenever they found something, they will likely jump around like Alfred Nobel on crack, totally unaware of malicious uses or side effects. "Look, our new tool can back up your whole inventory with one click! Isn't that what we always asked for? Well, yes, it can 'back up' the inventories of everyone around you too, that's rather dangerous, I can see that now that you say it. Too late, it's already out there."

But the greatest danger is, this team won't find all the backdoors and exploit holes. And then they'll release an open source client. Oh happy day! Everybody will be able to have a look at the source code. Every hacker kid will find out what our nifty little world is made of, on the client side. Grey goo fence? Forget about LSL limitations. Client-side bots can rez prims at rapid speed, using the standard building tools and a mouse macro. Giant prims, covering whole sims, if they tweak the client just a little. What a bright open source future.