 |
CopyBotNovember 15th, 2006 |
It certainly seems like everyone is talking about this issue. Both Cory and Robin have had their say, Second Lifers are organizing boycotts and ‘legislation’, and the original authors of the code that led to CopyBot seem slightly flummoxed by the whole thing.
In short, what’s happening is a small-scale social crisis that brings into sharp relief the split between the hacker-ethic-libertarian-info-must-be-free ethos that underpins much of the technology of virtual worlds, and the rampant commercialism that has actually enabled its embodiment. What we have here is a case of bone fighting blood.
I have talked before about what exactly MUDs and MMOs are, and why they all deserve to fall under the rubric of “virtual world.” Much of it boils down to the fact that client is a representation of a server simulation, and that therefore any given server could have many possible representations.
In the post discussing this, I noted that
The real difference between the MUDs of yore and the modern MMORPG client isn’t the sim on the backend; it’s the fact that the datastream is tokenized. When you connect to a MUD and it attempts to inform you of the presence of an object, say a chair, it actually sends the definition of that chair down: the words that make up its description. When you connect to a graphical MMORPG, instead you are sent an index number, a token that lets you look up on your local client install the description of that chair (which these days, is likely to be a 3d model).
A client install is nothing more than an elaborate caching scheme. Tokens are used to minimize bandwidth during play, but these days we see more and more worlds returning to the older practice of sending down the descriptions of objects, and not just their lookups, with titles such as Second Life but also games like Dofus or Runescape, which “stream” off the web. Text was the original streaming technology. Non-streaming games are (to use a phrase that seems to get me in trouble a lot) a historical aberration, a transitional technological hack to get around bandwidth limitations and the idiosyncrasies of embryonic delivery systems.
Here’s the issue with streams: you can capture them.
In Second Life, a protocol is used that fully describes an object. Much like HTML, if you know how to parse this protocol, you can recreate what the client is describing. Everyone finds this fascinating and wonderful when we’re talking about using it to fab objects, but the fact is that once you have the secret code, you can use this data for absolutely anything. Such as, for example, feeding it back into something else (as in the fabject example), converting it to a different format (taking an SL model and importing it into Maya, perhaps), or even feeding it right back into the system where it originated — and this latter is what CopyBot does.
In some ways, this is very similar to what people do do get around copy protection on any other digital media. Encoded signals are received by a proprietary client, and then they are parsed and decoded and finally presented to the end user. At the stage of presentation, you can always grab a copy and re-encode it. In crudest form, “the analog hole” so to speak, you can videotape a screen, you can record the audio coming off your speakers, and so on. In more sophisticated form, you can capture digital output post-decoding and then re-encode in whatever format you prefer.
This is the same thing that is giving the recording and movie industries fits (though they are increasingly seeming to reach some accommodation). This is a slow-moving extended fit — the only reason that things like blank cassettes were allowed to be sold (remember cassettes?) is because the recording industry managed to get themselves a royalty on blank media. Now we see a similar thing happening with Universal getting a royalty on digital media players.
Yesterday, Microsoft agreed to share revenue from Zune sales with record labels and artists. Forcing the issue was Universal Music Group, which at deadline is the only label named in the program. UMG refused to license its music to the Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions.
“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”
Microsoft is working with all major and independent labels to establish similar revenue-sharing agreements.
The net was full of vilification for poor Mr. Doug Morris. But he’s absolutely right. Statistically speaking, what teenager actually owns 60 gigabytes of mp3s legally purchased? That’s thousands of dollars worth of iTunes sales.
Those on the copyleft side, the free culture side, the share-and-share-alike side will make the case that there are many excesses to DRM — and they are right. They will point out that the freer availability of music now that it is in digital form has led to an explosion of diversity on the market — and they are right. They will mention that direct distribution has enabled producers of content to reach audiences that they previously could not — and they are right.
All this is to some degree beside the point; the issue here is not which side is right, but which side owns the soul of the stream. You see, in something like Second Life, it’s not the megacorps who are having their stuff copied, it’s us. It’s not the big companies that are trying to profit, it’s the little guys. And all of a sudden, the same folks who likely argue cyberliberties and donate to the EFF and have gigs of video stored on RAIDs they keep in their garage suddenly feel the sting of perfect digital copying. CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us.
Van Hemlock notes that this whole thing rather recalls the old Law of Online World Design,
Never trust the client.
Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this.
This principle was first articulated, to my knowledge, by Kelton Flinn, though the phrasing above is my own rendering of it. The thing is, this statement is about as perfect a philosophy as one can imagine for the proponents of DRM, “trusted computing,” and the like. It is born out of practicality, in the case of virtual worlds: unlike music, where the harm in copying is difficult to trace, and in some cases theoretical, in a virtual world users who can alter the backend simulation can cause real harm to other users.
However, there’s one aspect in which the client must in fact be trusted: rendering. (Hence the many hacks for FPS shooters which make opponents more visible). CopyBot and the many other examples of its ilk that I am sure will soon appear are not doing anything whatsoever to the server-side simulation. They are merely feeding in data that happens to look just like some data that is already there.
It is theoretically possible to encode database matching for similarity. You could analyze a new model and find that it is 100% commonality with someone else’s model, and is therefore a replica, and therefore to be rejected. But then at some point you will run into the nasty issue of what exactly “fair use” means in a digital world like this. We always build on the shoulders of giants. Are we allowed to use 25% of the giant, or 95% of it?
The issue is that at its core, the underlying philosophy on which virtual worlds are built is one that encourages copying. The further we move towards the inevitable world of streaming rather than cached worlds, the more of this we will see — just as stylesheets, images and whole websites are rather indiscriminately reused, remixed, and repurposed all over the web, quite without the original author’s permission. Just as tools that we find incredibly useful are built out of scraping data off of someone else’s screen. In fact, the whole Web 2.0 philosophy, which is many many ways MUDs anticipated by a few decades, is based on spitting out data streams for this express purpose, so that new uses can be barnacled on them.
The Second Life dilemma here is that the business model for so many of their users is built on content, not on service or functionality. As I have pointed out before, the market value of content is plummeting. Kevin Lim astutely points out that this whole thing is very much like the world described in Star Trek after the replicator showed up:
…after such a machine was invented, currency as we knew it ceased to be function. Since everyone had the capability to create (replicate) anything they desire, capitalism as we knew it died, and the new dawn of perfect Marxian philosophy was adopted by the Federation.
The bottom line:
It is commerce that enabled these worlds to reach the levels they are at today. It is the blood and muscle and sinew that animates the skeleton provided by the technology and the hacker ethos. Nowhere have we seen this more than in Second Life, where the commerce was pushed to the hands of the users, and the shackles of megacorps were supposedly broken. But.
As long as Second Life creators are relying on creating content like textures and models — the exact same sort of stuff that drives costs so high in other worlds, the exact same stuff that is most commodified, and the exact same stuff that is streamed — they will continue to face the same dilemmas as any other content industry. They will be copied. They will be ripped off. They will find their market prices falling. They will agitate for DRM. They will form lobbies with the analogue to a government, and argue that they are in fact the primary cultural contributors in the system. They will, in the end, come to embody everything about the broader, commercial Web that they fled to Second Life in order to escape.
They will, in effect, be hoist by their own petard.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
. 
Raph’s Website » CopyBot
Copybot
CopyBot By Raph The real difference between the MUDs of yore and the modern MMORPG client isn’t the sim on the backend; it’s the fact that the datastream is tokenized. … When you connect to a graphical
Doctorow, “but benevolent dictatorships aren’t the same thing as democracies. If a game is going to declare that its players are citizens who own property, can the company go on ‘owning’ the game?” Raph Koster, too, sees the CopyBot dispute as signaling a larger struggle: “what’s happening is a small-scale social crisis that brings into sharp relief the split between the hacker-ethic-libertarian-info-must-be-free ethos that underpins much of the technology of virtual
Raphâs Website » CopyBot Raph Koster on the copy crisis in Second Life. “They will be copied. They will be ripped off. They will find their market prices falling. They will agitate for DRM. They will form lobbies with the analogue to a government, and argue that they are in
cynical, but refreshingly pragmatic positive take on it all. Last Edit, I promise: Those interested in further analysis and discussion by somewhat more informed minds than mind could go to Raph’s Website, for the current Analysis In Progress there: Raph’s Website: CopyBot and Hamlet has In-World reaction at New World Notes, including actual store closure protests: New World Notes: Copying A Controversy[IMG]
more how big this issue is. The big difference here that it’s not so much between big corporations and consumers, or corporations amongst each other… it’s between you and me. It’s about one guy copying another guy, or the shop of another guy. All of a sudden we all want a sort of DRM, because it concerns ourselves. “You see, in something like Second Life, it’s not the megacorps who are having their stuff copied, it’s us. It’s not the big companies that are trying to profit, it’s the little guys. And all of a sudden, the same folks who likely argue
As it always has been, play is always innovation at some level. But at the massive level, part of the future is playing itself out today. My last post took an unexplored tangent off of Raph Koster’s insight into Second Life’s Copybot, exploring the arbitrage opportunity when content production costs are increasing, but it was too generic. See Raph’s comment and his deeper thoughts on the future of content. He clarifies that he thought rising production costs applies to the
the inherent protections of SecondLife for creators; the only problematic aspect are textures – which, incidentally, is also a common issue with copybot. In Opinion: ‘Bot Life In Second Life’, which references Koster’s blog entry on the Copybot debate. The Prokofy Neva debacle continued, ad infinitum, ad nauseam – including Prok’s accusations that the Electric Sheep Company had something to do with it. Lock up your tapioca pudding. Prok goes on to say only one ‘group’ could work on reverse
I’ve just been reading a very interesting discussion about a recent occurence in Second Life that is threatening to completely change the nature of SL’s economy. It has many reflections onto real life issues. On another note, I just came across a nice and unexpected little
Aubrey de Grey interviewed 7 punk and post-punk female singer videos Raph’s Website » CopyBot The CopyBot controversy « Tao’s Thoughts on Second Life [IMG] [IMG +]2 Years
In this episode, Johnny hosts a round table discussion about CopyBot and the future of intellectual property in Second Life. Hosted by Johnny Ming with Torrid Midnight, Cristiano Midnight, Jeremy Flagstaff, and Urizenus Sklar. What others are saying: Raph Koster Linden Lab Eric Rice Second Life Insider
November 16th, 2006 by johnny In this episode, Johnny hosts a round table discussion about CopyBot and the future of intellectual property in Second Life. Hosted by Johnny Ming with Torrid Midnight, Cristiano Midnight, Jeremy Flagstaff, and Urizenus Sklar. What others are saying: Raph Koster Linden Lab
secondlife@del.icio.us: Counterterrorism Blog: MetaTerror: The Potential Use of MMORPGs by Terrorists (Feedster on: secondlife) 03/10 18:17 Blog Awards 2007 – A breakdown (Feedster on: secondlife) 03/10 16:44 secondlife@del.icio.us: Raph¡Çs Website CopyBot (Feedster on: secondlife) 03/10 16:03 BlogHUD: metaverse manifesto (Feedster on: metaverse) 03/10 15:54 BlogHUD: metaverse manifesto incident (Feedster on: metaverse) 03/10 15:39
Aubrey de Grey interviewed 7 punk and post-punk female singer videos Raph’s Website » CopyBot The CopyBot controversy « Tao’s Thoughts on Second Life [IMG] [IMG +]2 Years
Raph?s Website � CopyBot
[...] Mir ist allerdings ein Artikel, der, meiner Meinung nach, sehr, sehr wichtig ist, nicht entgangen. Und zwar dieser hier. Ja, es ist nicht sonderlich cool Raph Koster zu verlinken. Ist ein wenig wie Links auf SpOn setzen, doch manchmal muss das eben sein. [...]
[...] Toys: All Second Life, All The Time Broken Toys: All Second Life, All The Time: “Raph Koster has more on Copybot. Since he did such a good job of analyzing the issuesinvolved, I’m just going to copy what he wrote and use it as my own opinion on the matter. [...]
[...] Update 4: Woah! CNN Money just cited me on the CopyBot vs. Replicator on economy issue, and so did game designer Raph Koster. Popular news aggregators TechMeme and Megite tagged me on this CopyBot phenomena as well. I’ve been getting some hits from Technorati, and from my referral logs, I can tell that people are looking to find places to download the CopyBot! (Guys, it’s not as good as it’s hyped to be!) Readership (282) | [...]
[...] Anyway, Notable game designer Raph Koster on CopyBot. [...]
CopyBot…
Simple subject today, since just about everyone is talking about it.
I think the best discourse on the subject is here, so I won’t go into any more detail myself.
LibSL’s main page had a new entry on its since since that post as well, good …
[...] … but this might be a turning point for the Second Life content business, as we know it now.Raph Koster made an excellent post in his blog (required reading), which Frans quoted in the last post here on the SLOG. He makes an excellent analysis of the issues around copyright in the digital realm from years of experience in the MMO industry. And, I am afraid, everything he says is true: it is more or less impossible, to effectively protect “content” in Second Life – like it is impossible to protect content in First Life – especially in digital form. There is not much Linden Lab can do about this. Like there is not much the music industry can do about it on the internet of today.This already has been true for quite a while. CopyBot just made it apparent. It will change the content industry in Second Life dramatically over the coming year. It won’t be impossible to make money with content like fashion, skins, prefabs etc. but it will be harder, maybe much harder – like it is harder now for the music industry to make a profit than it was some 10 years ago.I don’t think the publishers (or platform companies like Linden Lab) are to blame. It is us, the consumers, who drive this development by doing what serves us best – short term! Still I did not like one part of Raphs original post where he describes this in words that seem a bit harsh to me, because, what he decribes is not true in Second Life (as to my personal experience):And all of a sudden, the same folks who likely argue cyberliberties and donate to the EFF and have gigs of video stored on RAIDs they keep in their garage suddenly feel the sting of perfect digital copying. CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us.I tend to seriously doubt that it is really the same “same folks who likely argue cyberliberties and donate to the EFF and have gigs of video stored on RAIDs” who are protesting in Second Life now. This has got to do with the very special demographics of Second Life and the fact that many, many of the – so far – successful entrepreneurs in Second Life are not rooted in the game player/ script kiddie/ hacker culture. If you look at the fashion industry for example, you will find very many people (a lot of women) far into their 30s, 40s or even 50s who probably won’t have 60 megs of stolen MP3s on their iPod.I don’t want to sound too pharisean, but I – besides being male – am maybe a better role model for these “inworld business people” than the stereotypical Open Source advocate you are describing. I am 46 just now and most of the tracks on my iPod stem from CDs I actually own. The rest was downloaded from iTunes. And you won’t find a single copied DVD in my household.
I am sure, though, that from a technical viewpoint Raph’s assessment is right and in the long run not much can be done to prevent content theft from websites or Second Life. So society will have to adapt to this fact – as well as they will have to adapt to the fact, that soon most of this content will be “manufactured” in south east asia or to the fact that major publishing houses (music, print, movies …) will die in the coming years. Society allways adapts.What I find a bit hypocritical, though, is Linden Lab’s attitude towards the issue. They are seriously tooting SL as a platform to make real money on, while being rather laissez faire with the whole issue of Copyright (in action, not in words). This seems either naive or maybe a bit dishonest to me. [...]
[...] Raph’s Website � CopyBot [...]
[...] Deep stuff. Haven’t been blogging much recently due to some serious workload at work. And any inkling of free time I’ve managed to have at home have been devoted to a little game programming. [...]
[...] Raph Koster has posted what I thought was a very interesting entry on his blog regarding CopyBot. He touches on several points and brings an interesting perspective to the debate (note that he is not speaking in favour of CopyBot. you must read the whole article to get the context): [...]
[...] However, thanks to a link posted by Pathfinder Linden, I read this post by Raph Koster, which seems to sum up most of my argument without any need for me to pause and pen it. He begins by stating: In short, what’s happening is a small-scale social crisis that brings into sharp relief the split between the hacker-ethic-libertarian-info-must-be-free ethos that underpins much of the technology of virtual worlds, and the rampant commercialism that has actually enabled its embodiment. What we have here is a case of bone fighting blood. [...]
[...] The revelation confirmed what many including your faithful correspondent had been saying: “There was gleeful, malicious, hateful victory-dancing about wrecking the world people had so carefully made and constructed out of the “your world/your imagination” motif.” [...]
[...] Of keen interest to me this morning, though, was Raph Koster’s blog entry on Copybot. For those of you who don’t know Raph, he’s been a major player in MUD and MMOG design for a long time and is one of the visionaries of virtual communities. I was a long-time Ultima Online player (Lake Superior shard) where he was the lead Dev, known as ”Designer Dragon”. After he left that project, he was then creative director for Star Wars Galaxies. [...]
[...] CopyBot In short, what’s happening is a small-scale social crisis that brings into sharp relief the split between the hacker-ethic-libertarian-info-must-be-free ethos that underpins much of the technology of virtual worlds, and the rampant … Come Read The Full Story Here. [...]
[...] Ralph Koster has written one of the more well thought out articles about the emergence of CopyBot and some of the implications for Second Life. The conversation following this article is also very thought provoking and worth a scan to get a big picture of what is going on. The hundreds of thousand or so freaked out comments to the issue on the Second Life blog are simply impossible to get through. [...]
[...] *Raph Koster: CopyBot [...]
[...] My friend Raph Koster wrote an awesome post yesterday analogizing the situation to the heated debates about DRM in the music and video markets: DRM is good when it works to protect your economic interests, evil when it prevents us from enjoying the data we want. Raph says, “CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us.” [...]
[...] In this episode, Johnny hosts a round table discussion about CopyBot and the future of intellectual property in Second Life. Hosted by Johnny Ming with Torrid Midnight, Cristiano Midnight, Jeremy Flagstaff, and Urizenus Sklar. Standard Podcast [51:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download podPressPlayerToLoad(’podPressPlayerSpace_85′, ‘mp3Player_85_0′, ‘300:30′, ‘http://www.secondcast.com/podcasts//secondcast-ep44.mp3′); [...]
[...] Raph Koster, MMO expert and designer Pham Neutra, SL resident Doeko Cassidy, SL resident and SLNN writer Susan Wu (VC at Charles River Ventures) [...]
[...] My friend Raph Koster wrote an awesome post yesterday analogizing the situation to the heated debates about DRM in the music and video markets: DRM is good when it works to protect your economic interests, evil when it prevents us from enjoying the data we want. Raph says, “CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us.” [...]
[...] Raph’s Website » CopyBot Ok, lots of talk about CopyBot, but this is worth the del.icio.us entry (tags: legal secondlife) [...]
[...] I read a lot today of the issues Second Life is having due to Copybot. I think it’s a really interesting case on how the evolution of the internet has changed our view on copyright. The copybot issue of today just shows us once more how big this issue is. The big difference here that it’s not so much between big corporations and consumers, or corporations amongst each other… it’s between you and me. It’s about one guy copying another guy, or the shop of another guy. All of a sudden we all want a sort of DRM, because it concerns ourselves. “You see, in something like Second Life, it’s not the megacorps who are having their stuff copied, it’s us. It’s not the big companies that are trying to profit, it’s the little guys. And all of a sudden, the same folks who likely argue cyberliberties and donate to the EFF and have gigs of video stored on RAIDs they keep in their garage suddenly feel the sting of perfect digital copying. CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us.” [...]
[...] Continue reading “SCEA VP on Backwards Compatibility: “I Would Like My Car To Fly and Make Me Breakfast”" » Posted by Chris Kohler 1:54 PM PST | Post Comment | View Comments (24) | Permalink Raph Koster on the CopyBot controversy Topic: Online Gaming Game guru Raph Koster has an interesting post on the CopyBot controversy that’s roiling Second Life. [In a nutshell: a script that creates perfect copies of any object in the virtual world threatens the thriving economy and has already put some content creators out of business.] Raph writes: It is commerce that enabled these worlds to reach the levels they are at today. It is the blood and muscle and sinew that animates the skeleton provided by the technology and the hacker ethos. Nowhere have we seen this more than in Second Life, where the commerce was pushed to the hands of the users, and the shackles of megacorps were supposedly broken. But. [...]
[...] Raph weighs in on the Second Life CopyBot issue [...]
[...] This week was the escalation of the CopyBot Incident @ Second Life. Second life officials came out to ban the use of the tool, which was created by a group of coders who were trying to create further hacks for the Linden labs based on their Open Source codes. The issue has been addressed by Virtual word scholars all over. And The one thing that the Wang loves the most, is that this breaking news is being covered and reported by SL journalist, and second life Reuters; a true sign that the virtual world is an existing information system and that its own citizens are now dealing with an moral issue regarding copyright issues and the ownership of virtual properties. [...]
[...] But also this week, the now infamous CopyBot reared its ugly head in Second Life. Here’s a brief recap: CopyBot is a tool that enables the unauthorized copying of virtual objects by a player (see Raph for more detail). Since virtual objects in Second Life are created by other players, rather than by Linden Lab, there was an outcry from many players to stop the use of CopyBot. Players protested and closed their in-world stores in fear that their creations would be stolen, resulting in the loss of real U.S. dollars. [...]
[...] But also this week, the now infamous CopyBot reared its ugly head in Second Life. Here’s a brief recap: CopyBot is a tool that enables the unauthorized copying of virtual objects by a player (see Raph for more detail). Since virtual objects in Second Life are created by other players, rather than by Linden Lab, there was an outcry from many players to stop the use of CopyBot. Players protested and closed their in-world stores in fear that their creations would be stolen, resulting in the loss of real U.S. dollars. [...]
[...] libsecondlife era (es) una biblioteca open source que pretendía servir de ayuda a la construcción de utilidades destinadas a hacer la vida más fácil a los residentes de Second Life. Entre las múltiples herramientas escritas ayudándose de libsecondlife, había una llamada CopyBot. Esta herramienta sería para demostrar el potencial de la biblioteca, y era capaz de copiar la representación de cualquier objeto tridimensional presente en su radio de acción, previa autorización del dueño del objeto copiado. Una herramienta ideal para compartir diseños y para hacer copias de seguridad de los mismos. Sin embargo, debido a su naturaleza open source CopyBot es muy sencillo de alterar, y alterándolo para que no solicite la autorización se convertía en una herramienta capaz de copiar indiscriminadamente cualquier objeto, al menos cualquier objeto que no lleve programación –scripting– incorporado.Debido a su contenido creado por el usuario Second Life no tiene diseños pregenerados en el cliente (técnica habitual en la mayoría de los MMOGs por motivos de eficiencia), sino que podríamos asimilarlo a un “navegador 3D”, donde cada objeto que nuestro avatar se encuentra debe ser transmitido su diseño a nuestro cliente para que este lo represente en pantalla. No es muy difícil deducir entonces que bastaba que se investigara el protocolo* para saber cómo extraer cualquier diseño de objeto de pantalla. Así que es anecdótico que haya sido precisamente con esta herramienta. Podrían haber existido otras herramientas y si no hubiera surgido CopyBot, seguro que hubieran surgido otra, probablemente como cheats en ambientes “poco recomendables”, que suele ser lo habitual en estos casos.El que haya surgido ahora y no antes tiene que ver más con el creciente interés que ha despertado en los últimos tiempos Second Life. Y sobre todo, tiene que ver con el hecho de ser vendido con un negocio de propiedades virtuales, con equivalencia con dinero real. Algo demasiado apetitoso para personas poco escrupulosas que ya están explotando otros mundos virtuales para obtener dinero, como los gold farmers , el RMT (Real Money Trade) y otras variantes.Así que la aparición de los oportunistas era inminente, si no estaba ya en marcha, y el escándalo CopyBot sólo ha servido para ponerlo al descubierto. Mucha gente que, atraida por el tremendamente efectivo marketing de Linden Labs se frotaba las manos con la posibilidad de un –supuestamente– lucrativo negocio virtual, se han encontrado que su bienes virtuales, su “propiedad intelectual” era perfectamente copiable, y que se encontraban indefensos ante esta posibilidad. La noticia corrió como la pólvora, provocando una oleada de cierres de tiendas, desconfianza generalizada y protestas: un auténtico terremoto en el mundo virtual.Linden Labs ha reaccionado, y ha terminado por declarar el uso de CopyBot y herramientas similares una violación de los términos de servicio (y por lo tanto sancionable con la expulsión). Y aunque CopyBot ha sido eliminada de libsecondlife, todo estos no son más que apaños, parches con los que intentar remendar una tela, y que no se va a sostener. Si no es la versión modificada de CopyBot (que estará ya circulando por las redes warez a gran velocidad), serán otras herramientas. Allá donde haya posibilidades de dinero fácil con poco esfuerzo, aparecerán en seguida los delincuentes.Se podrán plantear variadas soluciones de compromiso, pero ninguna de ellas completamente efectiva. El modelo basado en la propiedad intelectual de información ya ha fracasado en el mundo real, así que en un mundo virtual no hay muchas posibilidades de que prospere. Simplemente, como en el mundo real, hay que ir hacia modelos de negocio basados en el servicio, no en el producto.Algunos enlaces interesantes sobre el tema:CopyBotThe sky is NOT falling because of CopyBot …ARGH! Copybot! – But Don’t WorrySecond Life’s Virtual Economy in Peril?–* La ingeniería inversa de protocolos de MMOGs es ya mítica, y ningún juego hasta ahora se ha librado de ella si había interés en descifrarla. No debemos por lo tanto ser inocentes y creer que esto se podría haber evitado.Labels: CopyBot, propiedad virtual, RMT, Second Life [...]
[...] There has been so much talking about this that I’m going to have to check it out, if for no other reason than to see what people are talking about. Hopefully I’ll be able to throw up my own opinion on some of these issues as well as see what the big deal is. [...]
[...] is being pirated. His article actually raises some great questions for the industry. Digg It [...]
[...] – Raph Koster opines brilliantly on the CopyBot meme. CopyBot, if you haven’t heard is an open source app for Second Life which creates copies of in-game objects. Since Second Lifers can create AND SELL in-game objects, this open source app has some ramifications upon the in-game economy, to say the least. Raph’s commentary is the most thorough and objective I’ve read so far (though there’s too much posting on this subject to have read but a fraction). In it he points out that this is essentially another example of how ALL content is being commoditized and the money of the future is in services. I agree! It also deserves reading if only for the fact that he uses the line “hoist by their own petard”, which in my book is deserving of a blogging-pulitzer!
[...]
[...] Google News: copybot Second Life: Programm ermglicht virtuelles Klauen – Heise Newsticker Second Life: Programm ermglicht virtuelles KlauenHeise Newsticker - 15. Nov. 2006… Stein des Anstoes ist ein Programm namens CopyBot. Mit CopyBot knnen Nutzer der virtuellen Welt beliebige Kopien der Gegenstnde … Deflation im "Second Life"-Land – Gameshop Deflation im "Second Life"-LandGameshop - 15. Nov. 2006Mit CopyBot kann man fremde Gter kopieren – und zwar ohne zu fragen. … Stein des Anstoes ist ein Stck Software namens CopyBot. … NETZEITUNG.DE News im Web – copybot ‘Worm ‘ attacks Second Life world (BBC.co.uk) Virtual world Second Life had to close its doors for a short time on Sunday after a worm attack called grey goo. Second Life Businesses Close Due to Cloning (Slashdot) Warren Ellis is reporting that many Second Life vendors are closing up shop due to the recent explosion of a program called “Copybot “, designed to clone other people ’s possessions. From the article: “The night before last, I was looking around a no-fire combat sandbox, where people design an… Second Life: Programm ermglicht virtuelles Klauen (Heise online) In dem offiziellen Blog der virtuellen Online-Welt Second Life schlagen derzeit die Wogen der Emprung hoch. Auf zwei Blog-Eintrge der Second-Life-Macher sammeln sich mittlerweile rund 1.200 Kommentare der Nutzergemeinde. Stein des Anstoes ist ein Programm … Google Blog-Suche: copybot Raubkopien durch Copybot in Second Life Durch ein Tool mit dem Namen Copybot ist es in Second Life mglich Gegenstnde zu kopieren, ohne dass es der Besitzer wei. Dadurch werden ganze Geschftsmodelle in Second Life ausgehebelt. Ein Grund mehr fr mich, erstmal die Finger … Use of CopyBot and Similar Tools a ToS Violation Until they are, the use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation of Section 4.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service and may result in your account(s) … CopyBot CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us. … CopyBot and the many other examples of its ilk that I am sure will soon appear are not doing anything whatsoever to the … Yahoo! Search: copybot libsecondlife libsecondlife is an open source project to reverse engineer the Second Life networking protocol … The CopyBot application changed all of this. … Raph’s Website ” CopyBot Raph Koster’s personal website: MMOs, gaming, writing, art, music, books. … Pasture ” Blog Archive ” SL Growth, Copybot roundup wrote on November 16th, 2006 … ‘Second Life’ faces threat to its virtual economy | Tech News on ZDNet <img src=/i/ne/test/icons/photo2_icon. … of a program or bot called CopyBot, which allows someone to copy any … The reaction to CopyBot is not the … Weitere interessante Links Nach copybot bei Google suchen. Nach copybot bei Mirago suchen. Most wanted Tags Kommun | gdg | air taser | brd | ayurveda | Schadstoff | sportpaedagogik | Peter Prinzip | tictactoe | 800 neftenbach | reise schnaeppchen | wohneigentum | medizin | cosel | Refactoring | gr 20 | Trema | komfortblinker | Gespenst | mostwanted | beize | Doha | leihwagen | Hakamid | software freeware | geschenke essen | Xerox PARC | kinder diademe | Blutplasma | fussgaengerbruecke | Bihac | Impressum [...]
[...] Website | Download [...]
[...] 2. Debate with Raph Koster, loved up by the Lindens and the very griefers like Baba Yamamoto who celebrated Raph because he is breaking it sadly to the great ignorant playing in the game of SL that their stuff can all be copied. [...]
CopyBot, Community and Controversy…
What a week to be away. While I was busy chatting to fans of the best MMO going, the virtual world of Second Life was getting its knickers in a twist over something called CopyBot, an application that intercepts data flowing between the Second Life ser…
[...] Raph Koster’s seminal article on the CopyBot Van Hemlock notes that this whole thing rather recalls the old Law of Online World Design, "Never trust the client. Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this." Keywords: secondlife, gaming, law, crime, internet [...]
[...] Certainly having the entire game live on the server is not that radical a concept. As I have had occasion to mention lately and long ago, the default for virtual worlds, the “way they want to work,” really, is full streaming. I would be hesitant to say, though, that broadband alone can revolutionize the ways in which we develop content. Certainly it permits more dynamic content in some ways, but often that comes about simply because of streaming content that is always changing. We also shouldn’t forget (hard to, when you try going to a crowded area in Second Life!) that there are downsides to a totally dynamic environment as well: lots of latency and lots of packets coming down. [...]
[...] Raph Koster’s Website – CopyBot [...]
[...] Last week The Electric Sheep Company found itself smack in the middle of the Copybot phenomena (link, link, link). In a post by the Second Life Herald, we were wrongfully accused of having commissioned CopyBot as a mannequin for an apparel client. [...]
[...] http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot/ [...]
[...] Copybot, DRM, Piracy, and how the table has turned [...]
[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] Let’s see, what else. Skyboxes. This interesting World From My Window series of posts (having to do with people who have invested vastly more than I have in the world), and the recent “copybot” incident (having to do with intellectual property here, rather than replicants), which has gotten considerable well-thought-out commentary: You see, in something like Second Life, it’s not the megacorps who are having their stuff copied, it’s us. It’s not the big companies that are trying to profit, it’s the little guys. And all of a sudden, the same folks who likely argue cyberliberties and donate to the EFF and have gigs of video stored on RAIDs they keep in their garage suddenly feel the sting of perfect digital copying. CopyBot is a mirror, and what we see reflected in it is the unsavory fact that we all want DRM, if it favors us. [...]
[...] After a night of discussing the metaverse, copy bot, libsecondlife and bottom shelf sex we adjourned to Jerry’s place where we all got school on the history of the metaverse by Bruce Damer. It was a truly spiritual experience. [...]
[...] What happens when one utopia runs into another? Recently, Second Life fell victim to exploitation of Copybot, a reverse-engineered program that allows players to copy items without paying for them. Raph Koster, famed designer of failed-but-ambitious online economic systems, elaborates on the point of the copybot–being able to create anything you want, without asking permission or paying money–as practically the embodiment of post-scarcity Marxism intruding on Second Life’s libertarianism. They’re being hoisted on their own petard, he states. [...]
[...] http://www.libsecondlife.org/content/view/30/ http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot/ http://www.sluniverse.com/forums/topic12759-1-1.aspx [...]
[...] Your page is now on StumbleUpon! For each appearance in your referral logs, one of our members has ’stumbled upon’ your site after clicking “Stumble!” on our toolbar to discover a new great site. Enter Your URL → [...]
[...] Koko CopyBot-keskustelun keskeisin kirjoitus löytyy Raph Kosterin blogista, jossa tämä summaa kauniisti, mistä tilanteessa on kysymys: In short, what’s happening is a small-scale social crisis that brings into sharp relief the split between the hacker-ethic-libertarian-info-must-be-free ethos that underpins much of the technology of virtual worlds, and the rampant commercialism that has actually enabled its embodiment. What we have here is a case of bone fighting blood. [...]
[...] Second Life Discussions I’ve just been reading a very interesting discussion about a recent occurence in Second Life that is threatening to completely change the nature of SL’s economy. It has many reflections onto real life issues. On another note, I just came across a nice and unexpected little insight on Torley’s blog. [...]
[...] Raph’s Website » CopyBot Ok, lots of talk about CopyBot, but this is worth the del.icio.us entry (tags: legal secondlife) [...]
[...] Copybot, don't copy meHow do I copied hug? [...]
[...] Raph’s Website » CopyBot [...]
[...] katsoen saattaa näyttää siltä, että CopyBot on kuollut ja kuopattu, mutta täällä Raph Koster kertoo, miksi näin ei ole. CopyBotin taustalla olevia ajatuksia ei voi tuhota eikä [...]
[...] inmobiliaria en Second Life). Unos enlacitos: – Análisis del asunto Copybot por Raph Koster: http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot/ – Entrevista a la magnate inmobiliaria de SL Anshe Chung: [...]
[...] Raph Koster opines brilliantly on the CopyBot meme. CopyBot, if you haven’t heard is an open source app for Second Life which creates copies of [...]
[...] 4 ) ** Raph’s Website » CopyBot [...]
[...] Raph Koster’s Website – CopyBot [...]
[...] Raph’s Website » CopyBot … with titles such as Second Life but also games like Dofus or … Esta herramienta serÃa para demostrar el potencial de la … src=/i/ne/test/icons/photo2_icon. … of a program or bot … aimbot download cs 1.5 adres:www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot [...]
[...] the CopyBot! … theory.isthereason.com/?p=1388 [Found on Yahoo! Search, Ask.com] 3. Raphs Website » CopyBot Ive been getting some hits from Technorati, and from my referral logs, I can tell that people [...]
[...] this episode, Johnny hosts a round table discussion about CopyBot and the future of intellectual property in Second Life. Hosted by Johnny Ming with Torrid Midnight, [...]
[...] of the blog-o-twitter-o-sphere a couple of weeks ago. I also remember Raph’s perceptive comments on this topic back in 2006 when Second Life was hit by the Copybot [...]