M&M Target of Copybot Attack, Threats

M&M Creations informed SL Newspaper that they were the target of A Copybot attack that ripped off many of their content creations, and then someone threatening to distribute copies of the pirated goods around. “Isn’t this outrageous,” 10 Goosson commented, “This is bizarre, but so open. We traced the thief, and his account was deleted. Then we were approached by a new av who says he is a friend of the thief. So openly?!” Porting reporters to the scene, a sandbox in the sky in the Mythos sim, 10 told, “the more things will rez, the more you recognize our main-stores complete content.” And indeed as shapes and colors formed, familiar goods appeared, “Behind you Bixyl, 2 other plateaus, all rezzed permanent ready to be taken, stolen ... This is still a bit shocking, the way the Hamarack Krovac and Swiss Ryada did this.”

10 handed over a notecard of the conversation she had with Hamarack Krovac, “im gonna give your scultie to every peopla.” “I'll report this, small effort.” “its too late. its on my computer ... LOL, i got your shop in my invent, come see ... adresse renew, its easy. i can come every time, second life cant banned  me. ...  FREE SCULTIE COME HERE, ALL IN THE BOX FOR ) LINDEN, 0 linden*, alll its free.” At times, the griefer claimed he was trying to “help,” but his threats and boasts spoke otherwise.

The incidents confused the Goossons and others. Marcthur Goosson remarked, “the craziest thing is that the copybotter told me he copybotted.” A woman responded, “He TOLD you?  Do include that in your AR , and near the time he said that to you.” “I know, I am struggling with word scanner pictures...  just to relief myself, this matter pisses me off. I am standing in a sandbox with half my shop copybotted. I talk to live chat and they tell me to send DMCA. I have to work my a** out with documents, pictures, notecards, faxes and PDF etc etc. And I am still standing in that sandbox with all proof in front of me.(it is an exact replica of my shop) Where is LL ??? They are hidden behind the papers, crawling in a stupid system. ... Sorry to drop this out of the blue.”

10 claimed the items had been in the sandbox for some time, “We're so sick of these little children! And LL is not showing up while we're standing here, no we need papers, forms, proof, (how much do you want to have) digital signatures ... It's still standing here, for hours!!! ... We both filed abuse-reports but it is bizarre. LL asks us to make such a long wait while all things are here, proof enough even the names and notecards, and still LL responds this bureaucratic paperwork-way, I can't imagine!! For a virtual world that moves this fast, being so so so bureaucratic, is this normal??? Can we as hard creative workers expect this?? Even the event tree, what a cynical thing to see. Pathetic if you ask me.”

10 went on, “I just want to express what happened to us and show all in-world some stupids are playing against LL-Terms Of Service and OURS, and nothing has been done. Marcthur (has been) standing here for hours!! Tell the proof is still here ... I've no idea how many 'friends' this idiot has.”

More people dropped in, and the discussion went on. One visitor after looking the scene over commented, “... Makes me wonder what the hell was the point ... We know: 1)He did this without any monetary benefit, 2)Informed the creator he copied. So this is probably a troll.” 10 told a little more about the incident, saying they had found the first guy at M&M Creations a few days ago, “Swiss Ryada, we approached him friendly, but he just went through with rezzing before using his copybot right under our noses!! So after several requests, we banned him. And now, a few days later this Hamarack is 'back' for helping his friend Swiss.”

Eventually, Marcthur announced, “I talked to the landowner, he banned the guy and waits for my signal to wipe this.” When someone asked why they didn’t go ahead and get rid of it, “I want LL over here, better proof is not be found. ... So we residents have to solve our own business and all LL does is read reports. I cannot file a DMCA in a few minutes. It is good newspapers are here.” Someone commented, “I remember back in 2004 and 5 when Lindens (were) in-game with us, and you could look one up and they (would) just fly right over and issues like this were addressed right away. It’s sad really. ... This makes me feel very uneasy as a designer where Second Life is headed.”

Eventually, everyone left the scene. Hours later when the sandbox was checked again, the copy of the stolen goods was gone. Question is, is this the end of M&M’s problems?

By Bixyl Shuftan

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Content creators frustration with Linden permissions

There are many out there in Second Life who create for the creators - what do I mean?
You know that fantastic sofa with loads of animations you just bought? or that AO that has you posing while you stand and chat? what about the door script on your house?
These are the builders' suppliers, each is created by someone and because of the very nature of their sales they have to sell their creations full permissions - dont they?
After all if they didn't then a builder couldn't add an animation to a sofa or modify a door to fit or if they could they couldn't then resell their creation.
But this leads to an obvious risk - what is to stop anyone from then taking those creations and, instead of using then in a build, just reselling them as animations or doors or whatever?
The answer is nothing - Lindens answer - file a DMCA claim which can cost thousands after the original creator has already lost thousands.
We are not talking pennies here - people are losing money on a daily basis and a lot of the time it can be through pure ignorance on the builders part.

Yesterday I spoke to Sylva Petrov a noted animator in Secondlife:

Sylva Petrov: Due to ignorance or intent, every time I sell animations to builders, I risk them becoming tomorrow's freebies
Dana: How?
Sylva Petrov: If the builder doesn't change the perms he is giving them away essentially, and quite a few think that just setting the permissions on the containing object is enough. I even got yelled at yesterday for asking for samples of a builders work so i could show her!
Dana: no because you can copy from the contents if the perms are not set
Sylva Petrov: she SWORE up and down that the mlp2 scripts set the permissions when it was sold, people believe all sorts of urban legends
Dana: If someone sells something to me full perms then I would take for granted it was all of it - including the animation
Sylva Petrov: yes, but they're not, they're supposed to be selling them no copy or no transfer.
they set their own part, the bed for example, to it, but they don't realize the contents are wide open. Ignorance probably does more damage than intentional thieves.
Dana: Can anything be done?
Sylva Petrov: Social change is difficult, expensive, and not very effective - technical changes are cheap, easy, and almost always work.
Dana: Don't you point out and make an agreement with the builders about setting perms?
Sylva Petrov: We can roar ourselves hoarse to the builders about proper permissions setting, but what of the builder that starts tomorrow? A technical fix will eliminate the 'honest' mistakes.
dana Vanmoer: What you are asking for is that LL sets a secondary permissions system?
Sylva Petrov: yes, so we can say how the people that buy from content creators can set the perms afterwards
They can give us owner-after-next permissions
The ability to set a property on an item that will force the item to become either no copy or no transfer on the next owner to our buyers.
The way it would work is if i toggle that switch - lets call it the 'limited full perms' switch if they try to make it copyable, transferable will gray out if they make it transferable, copyable will gray out
Dana: So after you give a full perms object, it automatically becomes either no copy or no transfer if they give it to someone else - wouldn't that be difficult to do?
Sylva Petrov: Linden labs collects millions of dollars from us a month to do difficult things that's what they're paid to do. According to a programmer, it shouldn't be 'that' difficult

There is a JIRA on this very subject where many have voiced their opinions, it is as yet unassigned (surprise surprise)
Lets help those that make our lives better by supporting the content creators and helping them to protect their products from thieves and ignorance by voting on this HERE
And to Linden Lab?
Actually I can't say I am surprised this is ignored by Linden Lab, many will say its not a priority but I would argue that those same people would soon regret it if the content providers stopped selling full perms for the builders.
I love my AO and my amazing scripted furniture - don't you?

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Eye on the blog - Lindens admit mistake over DMCA:

Responding to Questions about the DMCA Process

Linden Lab inadvertently disabled some inworld content this past weekend.
The problem should be fixed now, and we apologize for the inconvenience it caused. If you believe your content was inadvertently disabled, please try re-rezzing it.
If that doesn’t work, please contact Support at http://secondlife.com/support.

Linden Lab has not changed its DMCA policy. For privacy reasons, we don’t discuss the specifics of DMCA notifications with third parties. However, when we receive a valid DMCA notification, we send affected Residents email notice so they aren’t surprised when we remove content from their inventory and inworld locations.
The email notice explains how to submit a DMCA counter-notification to seek restoration of the removed content. Be sure to keep your email address current and make lindenlab.com an exception in your spam filter so you receive notices from Linden Lab.

We’ve received questions about removing infringing items from Residents’ inventory when an inworld location (a region name and coordinates) can’t be provided.
Inventory items may be subject to DMCA claims when the items are sufficiently identified. For example, if you can’t provide an inworld location, provide the names of the allegedly infringing items and avatars.

Linden Lab will conduct a reasonable search for the identified items.

Also be aware that persons who materially misrepresent copyright infringement in DMCA claims may be liable for damages, including attorneys’ fees and costs.
In one case, a company that sought removal of content protected by the fair use doctrine paid over $100,000 USD.
For more on this, see here.
If you’re unsure whether certain content infringes your copyright, we suggest speaking to an attorney before submitting a DMCA claim.
More information about Linden Lab’s DMCA process can be found on our DMCA policy page and in our recent blog post on Protecting Your Copyrighted Content.

Linden Lab’s DMCA policy has not changed, and this information is up-to-date.

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Content theft is the banking screwup all over again

It worries me to see that Linden Lab seems to treat intellectual property and content theft just as it treated finance earlier this year.

The recent removal of other people's inventory items because they were originally stolen, as this newspaper has reported on Sunday, does qualifies for the same pattern. Do nothing, stay out because you do not want to "play government", realize that it snowballs and then intervene with what seems to be a high level of improvisation. This is only too familiar, my beloved readers!

The problem with this kind of erratic behavior is exactly the opposite of what should be done to give Second Life users a sense of stability around this world.

Coherent policy means the ability to define what should be allowed and what should not very early on. If I am a content creator, I need to know from the beginning whether this SL thing is the Wild West where I have to enforce my intellectuel property rights or whether Linden Lab will do it for me. Before I start investing, uploading and building, I want to know what I am getting into. The same goes for consumers, who need information about what goes on, so they can detect stolen products. So that their purchases are not wasted money.

Clearly, I cannot see coherent policy on the part of Linden Lab. I wish I did. I have been around the grid for more than a year. I made friends. I found a virtual partner. I built businesses. I consumed virtual goods. In short, I got involved.

On the other hand, I keep finding reasons that can drive people away from SL. A steep learning curve for newbies, incoherent problem-handling policies and grid instability are major reasons why someone would get pissed off and stop caring.

Is someone listening at Linden Lab?

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Linden Lab moves on Content theft

Its the move many have been calling for and when LL finally move they move mountains!
Content has suddenly disappeared from inventories all over the grid, many had no idea it was stolen content and woke to find half their shop stock just gone (most seem to be unable to rezz or missing from database).
It seems LL have decided to act on certain DMCA issues that have been pending for some time the affected objects include objects that contain certain scripts or anything that says it was created by a couple of avatars, namely Eva Capalini and Loni Arado.
Clarification has been requested from Linden Lab for their apparently unannounced change in DMCA policy.
Rumours abound that LL will make a statement in the next few days (although we all know how these rumours usually end).
So is it a good move that Linden Lab have finally stepped in?
We will let you decide.
I know many have asked for it and on the face of it that is a good thing to ask for if your content has been stolen, however the other side of that is the people who have bought items in good faith and then based their own business on them. Arado created sculpties and sold them full perms many have used these sculpt textures to base their own creations on - all in good faith - those are now useless and not only does the business owner lose their business but every customer who ever bought from them.
Think on how many people just removing these 2 avatars content has affected.

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Nicky Ree starts to see results from DMCA

After hearing about the numerous thefts suffered by so many fellow designers, I thought to share a little good news with you all, it may not be much but it is a small step and a little good news.
I filed another DMCA against Annejoy Paine of aDiva this year and Linden Lab have checked my DMCA and taken down the 2 items I listed in all the locations in the DMCA.
So do take heart honest content creators and designers, file your DMCA in the correct manner and do not give up, every little thing counts.

Nicky

Click images to enlarge

Full story HERE

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