Second Life after CopyBot

So, what is life after death, erm, I mean CopyBot like? well, it’s much like it was before.

In the latest update we are now informed that use of CopyBot to make copies of items for profit etc is against the TOS (Terms of Service) and will result in a ban for those found to be using it as such. So um, whats new?

A lot of speculation was flying around, people making accusations, blame thrown in the Linden’s direction or in the libsecondlife direction. libsecondlife also got a lot of flak for “hacking” second life while reverse engineer or document its protocols would be more apt titles I think.

All in all it scaremongering and drama ensued on a grander scale than GLIntercept had seen. Several content creators closed shops and vowed not to open them again until “this has been sorted”, as if that would be possible. Others are complaining that Linden Labs isn’t doing enough to protect their copyright… it isn’t even Linden Lab’s responsibility to protect the residents/content creators copyright, that’s like saying company A who makes CD players has to take responsibility for the protection of copyright material played on said CD players, isn’t it? You know, finding metaphors for Second Life isn’t easy.

Well folks, I for one will be staying in SL for a good while yet and can see that CopyBot is as much a threat as GLIntecept (and works along similar lines, intercepting data which MUST be transmitted and could not be encoded) so there is little that can be done to hinder such things. If it breaks the Lindex/currency then I’ll be might peeved but otherwise? meh.

CopyBot

Okay, lots of speculation and uncertainty about the libsecondlife’s (link) CopyBot. I don’t wish to add to the speculation but would like to collate some links I’ve found to be useful or informative so here you go:

From libsecondlife’s own website:

CopyBot is not a product that we sell or distribute. It’s a debugging tool and silly demo with a [now] obviously bad choice of name. Hopefully you won’t be seeing copy bot on SLex any time soon..

The issue at hand with copy bot seems HUGE!

“Oh my god why would they do something like that?!”

But our reason for showing this application around was partly we were proud of or achievement, and then on the other hand, if it’s this easy, we should tell people that relying on the Second Life systems to protect content is not feasible any longer.

For a while now we’ve had this project on the back burner that has been asked for so many times by content developers, an ability to back up content to your hard drive and restore it in Second Life. Basically import and export functions.

That’s the basis of CopyBot as well excepting the permission check. The problem is the difference between CopyBot and and import export tool is little more than 1 line of code that is easily commented out by even novice programmers.

What you see in CopyBot is the same capabilities that any import/export tool would have.

It’s not something easy to deal with, and we’re struggling ourselves with the issues that CopyBot has brought. It’s caused many personal conflicts as well between developers and their friends who do not see the merit in what we do.

Robin Linden responded to the issue with a post on the Linden Blog here.  [ Edit: New Linden post here. ]
Also, Ordinal Malaprop has dedicated half a blog post to this subject which you can read on her blog, An Engine Fit For My Proceeding, here.

Finally, for those of you with a strong stomach you could wade through the Second Life Forum, specifically you might find the script “Short Term CopyBot countermeasure” useful or informative which Ethan Cinquetti posted in the Script Library.

Get Ready to RAMBLE!!!

Right, definetly time to ramble on some more, this blog ain’t going to write itself.

I find myself sitting with SL running while browing the net looking for things to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve a few things in the To-Do list but can’t seem to work up the drive to actually get started. Putting To-Do to the side, what have I done? Recently I’ve been working on a secret submarine base, I’ve been meaning to work on underwater themed builds forever. One of my first builds in Second Life was an underwater themed home, made of bubble-shaped sections, air-locks and of course a machine which blows bubbles. However, when I moved to Lasiocampa and bought waterfront land which would suit such a build I discovered a massive flaw in the design: A texture which uses 32-bit targa (i.e. transparecy layer) or has a transparency of greater than zero shows up like a sore thumb through the waters surface. As my work so far was made to look like a completely glass structure it didn’t look too appealing from above the waters surface and so I have left the thoughts of an underwater base/home/build to boil until now. With the transparency problem at the forefront of this design I decided I should attempt to blend my build in, hide it perhaps. I’ve done this by taking a snapshot of the ground texture underwater and attempted a seamless texture with it. Now, I really ain’t the best texture-er but I think it turned out all right, if only I could get around to lining up the textures.

The building houses a submarine or two, I had fiddled with the basic car/boat/whatever vehicle script a long time ago to make a simple submarine script and now I’ve put that script into a larger submarine with the intentions of improving the script and having fun with it. While on this submarine project I also decided to start making some scuba gear, having recently gone back to Scuba Diving in Real Life (that’s Second Life’s competitor). The scuba gear I’ve seen in SL so far is a little under-detailed in my opinion and I wanted something more, so I got to work on a tank, mask, fins (flexi of course), regulators and BCD (bouyancy control device, an item I have not yet seen in SL). Ideally I would make these items suitable for sale, perhaps several sizes of BCD and mask to enable more flexibility but for now I’m happy touring SL with my scuba gear on, much to the bemusement of others.

So, rambling complete for now, watch out for more later.

Second Life makes the Fox 11 News but thats not all…

Not only did Second Life make the Fox 11 News (see it here) but they interviewed two of my friends for it, now what are the chances of that? Both Cher Harrington and Lazlo Wombat did a good job and I’d say the interview put across a positive and exciting perspective of Second Life.

Good job guys!