Spambot backlash.. need help

I know I'm one of the contributors to the !quit debacle. I released my version of the tools to help educate people on how useless it actually is as a solution. As noted here, it is easier to change copybot to skip the !quit than to write the script to send the messages. I wouldn't have done anything except for the fact that some residents started selling such devices and I didn't want people to waste Lindens on what could only be a very temporary solution.

Unfortunately not everyone reads the blogs, and I still meet people who have no idea what the !quit messages are about. Personally I only ever saw the copybot defenders as having a lifetime of a week. Long enough to deter the spread of the original, long enough for the community to research and educate about what the level of threat copybot presents is and for Linden Labs to implement their own defence systems.

Based on my current observations in the world, I still believe this time scale to be about right. Hopefully Linden Labs will continue to update us on their actions against people using copybot for nefarious purposes and that such actions will be strong enough that we can trust their procedures for stopping it's use, rather than having near to useless systems such as the "defenders".

I am sorry that the systems, by necessity, are annoying to regular citizens, but I hope that as a whole, their use can be seen as a neccessary evil for this short time. Sorry if this makes me seem like a "joker" but it was with the best of intentions I took the actions I did.

If they have saved people wasting money and prompted them to learn about copybot, then they have served their purpose. Personally I will be stopping using them after the weekend and I hope others have similar plans.

Unfortunately, just because CopyBot dies off into the shadows, doesn't mean the complaining, paranoia, and "!quit" spammers will.

An example I love to point out. There are VERY FEW places that still have push enabled. This feature was added QUITE some time ago. almost all sandboxes have push disabled.

Greifers are no longer using push weapons for the most part.

The "sheild" types.. the paranoid "omg I might get shot at" residents of the sandbox, still INSIST on wearing 4m spherical anti-push sheilds.

I'm afraid that some people will do as they always have done.. log on to SL in a panic during all this drama, raise the banlines, install an illegal "home security device" (one that transports you home immediately without at least 30 seconds warning)... and now they'll have one of these things on every corner of their 512m plot of first land.. Add a house too big to actually fit on their lot, and a few trees pushed right up to the parcel borders.

.. that they never visit. and never respond to repeated IMs from their neighbors complaining about their trees.

"First Land Greifers"

That's the real threat from these things. Most of the shops will wake up to the fact that they just don't work and take them out, most of the malls and clubs will figure out that their customers are tiring of the things... it's the people who are "trying to be safe" who "buy weapons for self-defense"... they're the ones who are going to scum up the land with these things.

And they'll never realize that spamming 1.4 million people to stop ONE original instance of copybot (which has legitimate uses).. isn't appropriate behaviour.

Unfortunately, tryinf to explain that to people doesn't work either.. especially face to face. Users of these devices are overly paranoid.. and trying to reason with them.. isn't possible. They'll veiw your complaints about their treatment of you and every other resident as a criminal before the fact, as argument and hate, and will label you as a "Copybot sympathizer".

The parallels to the red scare are really too thick.

In order to get rid of the things, realistically, we'd have tp spam the spammers with "!quit using !quit, it doesn't work!".. and as much fun as my original, reactionary idea would have been.. I'm not going to bother with the project. It lowers me to their level. Though the idea of mercilously spamming the spammers back.. was indeed appealing.

So instead I just put !quit in my sig (I was told that doing so would keep copybot from copying the forums dontchaknow.)... and I'll either mute the things in places I HAVE to be.. or I'll leave places that use them. Mutes aren't temporary.. and adding 6 mutes to my list just to browse a shop I might never visit again... I'd rather just move to the next store on the list.

What? Oh yes, that's nice dear. *surreptitiously dials the The House Un-American Activities Committee*

It's not just stores doing it. During a brief scan & AR spree (FIVE of these things in 1/4 of a sim drove me to it), I even came across a freebie Archer house on a 512m2 parcel complete with freebie Linden furniture and a copyable object called 'COPYBOT SECURITY SYSTEM (this works because my friend tested it)'.

What somebody with nothing but freebies on her land has to fear from copybot is beyond me. She was within 1 prim of her allowance too so it's not like she's building stuff there.

The sensor to detect the anti-copybot spammers has one flaw. The same problem that the anti-copybot has. Sensors are unreliable per the wiki and can return avatars past the 96 meter range especially if they are sitting on a physical vehicle. I have gone nuts trying to locate one of the d**ned things for two days before I recalled that point. I live at 300 meters and only have one neighbor within range. That neighbor also hates these things and doesn't have one.

But I still get the spam when I sit on my elevator. Yesterday I was recieving the spam when I was at 4050 meters

But that's like saying "everyone wears armor now, so bows and arrows no longer work, but no-one uses bows and arrows anymore, so you may as well take off the armor". If push was re-enabled, the push weapons would come right back.

And, I think you could probably write a libsecondlife program to detect and report the IM spam. (ducks )

I've written a script that I put in an object that I wear. When I get a spam from one of these things I rename the object to be the same name as the spammer and then have it send this IM to the owner:

"COPYBOT SECURITY SYSTEM (this works because my friend tested it): *Warning* Copybot detected! Take immediate action to protect your items!"


It's actually worth all the spamming just to watch the fools run around trying to find the evil copybot that is stealing their items!

Does this make me evil?

I still like the idea of making ant-anti copybot scripts that would IM/Email the owners of these things.. as often as they IM/email us.

"no, you !quit"

But I'll personally satisfy myself with venting my frustrations via my sig. I'd rather not be accused of spamming.

It's not spamming if you are responding to an IM that was sent to you.

My script on page one will IM the owners concerned.

I tried Newgate Ludd's version of the script last night but found it didn't properly parse the new bot name and lacked some user notification that I wanted so here's a revised version of it that I'm now using.

integer SEND_IM = TRUE; 
string BOT_NAME = "Simple CopyBot Defeater"; 
string gLastOwnerName = ""; 
key gLastOwnerKey = NULL_KEY; 
key gOwner = NULL_KEY; 

StartSensor() 
{ 
      llOwnerSay("Scanning for "+BOT_NAME+"...");
      llSensor(BOT_NAME, NULL_KEY, SCRIPTED, 96.0, PI); 
} 

default 
{ 
   state_entry() 
   { 
        llListen(123,"",llGetOwner(),""); 
   } 
    
   listen(integer number, string name, key id, string message) 
   { 
        list ldata = llParseString2List(message, ["="," "], [""]); 
        string command = llList2String(ldata,0); 
        string value;
        
        ldata = llDeleteSubList(ldata, 0, 0);
        value = llDumpList2String(ldata, " ");
        
        if(command == "sendim") 
        { 
                SEND_IM = (integer)value; 
        } 
        else if(command == "search") 
        { 
                BOT_NAME = value; 
                StartSensor(); 
        }
        else if (command == "list")
        {
            llOwnerSay("Current search string: "+BOT_NAME);
        }
   } 
    
   touch_start(integer n) 
   { 
        StartSensor(); 
   } 

   sensor(integer n) 
   { 
      gOwner = llGetOwnerKey(llDetectedKey(0)); 
      string pos = llGetRegionName() + " " + (string)llDetectedPos(0); 
      string report = "Found object " + BOT_NAME + " at " + pos; 
      if (gOwner == gLastOwnerKey) 
      { 
         report += " owned by " + gLastOwnerName; 
      } 
      else { 
         report += " owned by " + (string)gOwner + 
            ", requesting owner name..."; 
         llRequestAgentData(gOwner, DATA_NAME); 
      } 
      llOwnerSay(report); 
      if (SEND_IM) 
      { 
         llInstantMessage(gOwner, "Your object '" + BOT_NAME + "' at " + 
            pos + " is sending " + llKey2Name(llGetOwner()) + 
            " unwanted instant messages, please disable it as according"+
            " to LL these objects DO NOT WORK and are only lagging sims"+
            " and spamming people needlessly.  Thank you."); 
         llOwnerSay("IM sent to owner."); 
      } 
   } 
   
   no_sensor()
   {
       llOwnerSay("Unable to locate "+BOT_NAME+" within 96m.");
   }
    
   dataserver(key queryid, string data) 
   { 
      llOwnerSay("Name of agent with key " + (string)gOwner + " is " + 
         data + ", saving this for next time."); 
      gLastOwnerKey = gOwner; 
      gLastOwnerName = data; 
   } 
} 

I find the simplest way to defeat this - Don't go there again

Find the parcel owner, and tell them the spam is horrid, and never go back.

Now, we'll have shops closed to copy bot, and places closed to the anti copy bot

That's a good option as well...unless you happen to live near one of these spamming things as a few of my friends do. Then suddenly that doesn't seem to be quite sufficient at all especially when their house is near a sim border and they're being spammed by a "defeater" from the /adjacent/ sim. Muting is always an option as well, but the thing is still there...scanning and spamming even if you don't see it. I've gotten to the point where I'm just going to start ARing the owners if they don't remove them after being requested to since the things do not work and are just using sim resources and harrassing people for no good reason at all.

Off topic...

But what's worse... owning land in a sim you can't get in to due to all the campers.. or owning land in a sim you don't want to visit due to all the spamming?

ANyone considered that this "protection" is keeping you from LEGALLY using copybot for LEGAL reasons, on land YOU OWN?

I just wish they'd acknowledge the futility of any such device considering the source code of Copybot was out there for days after the witch-hunts gave it maximum publicity. Anybody serious about using Copybot to copy prims only has to change a single word in the source code to circumvent these devices and recompile before bringing it into the world.

Is LL going to do anything about these "security" devices? Even if they sent a few Lindens out to sweep a dozen sims and give a warning to anybody using them, that might be enough to get word out to the wider community and dramatically reduce their presence.

As it is, these are far worse than any nightclub shouter because the interval between !quit messages is frequently very short and the spam is no longer just affecting the whole grid, but our email accounts too.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It was typical knee jerk reaction, ill conceived, badly executed and now almost unstoppable. Think cane toads or myximitosis or african bees.....

Since the SL software needs to route all IM's anyway surely they could add intercept code that specifically looks for the !quit sequence in IM's originating from Objects and then log the objects for deletion/disposal?

May be that would be a good use of libSL, to create a client that specifically tracks down spambots......

Boy, the !quit spam paranoids would have a field day responding to THAT. =)

lol

From: someone

LibSL Advanced SpamBot Defeater: !dieSpammer
LibSL Advanced SpamBot Defeater: !dieSpammer
LibSL Advanced SpamBot Defeater: !dieSpammer
LibSL Advanced SpamBot Defeater: !dieSpammer

Couldn't resist

I'll be real glad when the whole CopyBot thing is in the past

If the people running the !Quit anticopybot 'spammer' were to take them all out ... are you or anyone else that is complaining about them willing to take ANY responsibility when the copybots that they would have stopped ... come back and start to copy stuff again ???????????

Or are you just going to sit and complain because you refuse to do ANYTHING to help the creators ?? Like add your voice against CopyBot.

Wont happen ... the barn door has been opened by the Lindens and LibSL by allowing it in the public domain. They refuse to take ANY responsibility for it, and have give it lip service by saying it's against TOS which doesnt stop it in the least. ( And that was ONLY because of the outcry. )

If you want it over with.. what are YOU doing to STOP IT???

Now I see who I can add to my ban list as you are out there HELPING the Copybots!!!

Granted this may only stop a small percent of them .. but at least it was doing something to stop them, rather than like you helping the griefers and thieves.

Again I will ask you too .. what are you doing to stop ANY copybot or the thieves???

We creators have to live with it ... so do you!!

PLEASE stop helping the griefers and thieves... or are you one of them ??

It's been pointed out on several occasions that the only version of CopyBot that was affected in the slightest by the !quit command was the original, and even then it was easy to make it immune.

The only effects the copybot protectors have is to annoy innocent people and causes excessive lag for everybody.

Are you going to take responsibility for that? Or are you just going to sit and complain about innocent people getting fed up of badly-written, badly-designed scripts spamming them 24/7?

the version of copybot that the !quit command stops, actually issues a disclaimer notecard before copying anything and does not keep a permenat copy. the version that can steal your stuff is immune to the spam.
The only way the spam is stopping the copybot is by causing so much lag it cant operate just like all the other innocent people on the sim!
and it is against the TOS.
I am a creator but i wont use such a useless script.
and would recommend anybody using the spam scripts go find some way to actually protect your stuff, because the spam dont work and if LL did ridgedly enforce the TOS YOU would get a banned for a while.


using the spam script is like using a umberella made of tissue to keep you dry when its raining.