Virtual scum.
This week has been one hell of a ride on Second Life. I’ve had the pleasant experiences of multiple crashes, astronomical lag, full sim crashes, annoying newbies and trolls. Last night I was so irate about the complicated mix of the above I was experiencing that I was ready there and then to log off and not return.
I am pretty much known for being sentimental and forgiving towards others as a person – it’s something I strive for in myself, anyway. But I’ll tell you one thing that has driven me COMPLETELY insane, and you know what that is?
The evil, destructive, brainless and moronic TWATS who use copybots to take and sell content which isn’t theirs.
Believe me, one of the words in the above sentence is not one I use. But here, I feel it is justified. These people do not deserve to own computers. These people should be banned permanently and thoroughly from Second Life. They are scum.
Some background here :-
Two weeks ago, I visited a couple of sims which house the new store Alchemy Immortalis. I fell in love with the place immediately, and started taking photos using the Emerald viewer. About 15 minutes after my arrival there, I received a lovely little IM :-
[11:49] alejandra Chayoo: Second Life 0.1.2 (0) Feb 6 2009 16:05:28 (CryoLife) :Alchemy Immortalis
[11:49] alejandra Chayoo: Second Life 0.1.2 (0) Feb 6 2009 16:05:28 (CryoLife) :Alchemy Immortalis
[11:49] alejandra Chayoo: Second Life 0.1.2 (0) Feb 6 2009 16:05:28 (CryoLife) :Alchemy Immortalis
[11:49] alejandra Chayoo: Second Life 0.1.2 (0) Feb 6 2009 16:05:28 (CryoLife) :Alchemy Immortalis
At this point I had no idea why I had received this IM, or what ‘Cryolife’ is. Now, I know better. Cryolife is an open source viewer which allows an avatar to copy any object, any texture, any sculpty, even those worn by an avatar to their inventory with full permissions. For some reason, the Emerald viewer is unique in that it detects when the Cryolife program is being executed in the same sim.
Last week, I received another IM exactly like this. In Dublin. A few days ago, I was at Kusshon, owned by Beolas Whitfield (a friend of a friend) and received yet another. This was shortly after a release note from his business partner, who he told me had just released a product they’d been working on for weeks. That is the point when I totally lost my temper regarding this issue.
This post, dear readers, is aiming to do two things.
Firstly, to warn people (using the term generously) searching for Cryolife or other copybot material with the intention of using it. If you come anywhere near Dublin again you will find yourself banned, IMMEDIATELY, and an abuse report filed against you. You are scum. SCUM – and if I find you, anywhere on the grid, you will know about it.
Secondly, for my friends and the honest and respectable residents of Second Life who may happen upon this post, I ask only for this – be aware of what’s happening. Get the Emerald viewer, and if you receive one of these IMs while using it, abuse report the person, tell the sim owner, tell any sim staff you may know of. If you find content which is too cheap to be true, or that you recognise from a known seller, tell the seller. Go to the Linden office hours and demand to know what is being done about this issue. Spread the word.
Otherwise, Second Life will become a barren wasteland with no content creators, no interesting sims, and a completely collapsed economy.
THIS COULD END SECOND LIFE.
We need to fight this NOW! Or we all suffer the consequences.
Not necessarily true, or there’d be no Linux & no GPL-licensed code (sourceforge is pretty well full of such as is google code) and there’d be no freebie mp3s or Creative Commons licensed content. However, it would put a lot of people off from spending huge amounts of time creating content if their motivation is making money or at least covering costs. It’s a bad thing to take what’s not given freely, akin to an assault, theft or rape, and a lot of really good stuff isn’t free in SL. As such it’s immoral & needs to stop. Go customise freebie stuff instead, copybotters!
I don’t have a problem with open-sourced software or freebies – but open-sourced software with illegal add-ons such as this and freebies which haven’t been released as such from their creators are just… wrong. Apparently they’ve now found a way to evade being banned from sims.