Copybot Herald II

To follow-up on the Copybot Herald post,

What will happen if I use a unauthorized viewer, like Copybot, in Second Life.

Short answer: Nothing, just don't copy Second Life content illegally.

Long Answer:

The official Second Life wiki post is:

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) being banned from Second Life. If you feel that someone has used CopyBot to make an infringing copy of your content, please file an Abuse Report.

Here, “Copybot” covers many viewers that can bypass the normal content permissions of Second Life content, and not a specific product or viewer. Examples include the rather nasty Patriotic Nigras' ShoopedLife, Cryolife, and the old CopyBot Viewer (video demo here). Other viewers can export builds to your computer, like Second Inventory, Inventory backup, Emerald, Meerkat, and Cool Viewer.

Some of there viewers are approved by the 2010 "Third-Party Viewer" policy, and some are not. Marty Linden writes:

"We know that there are many compliant viewers in use -- beyond the seven that are currently listed on the Third-Party Viewer Directory -- and we will not interrupt their access to Second Life."

Reading between the lines, sooner or later, Linden Lab will interrupt access into SL from viewers that are not compliant. If you try to use an interrupted viewer, you will have connection denied, but could court some trouble. July 2010 SL Third-Party Viewer standards says:

We do not guarantee that Second Life will always be open and accessible to Third-Party Viewers and Developers... If a Third-Party Viewer or your use or distribution of it violates this Policy or any Linden Lab policy, your permission to access Second Life using the Third-Party Viewer shall terminate automatically. You acknowledge and agree that we may require you to stop using or distributing a Third-Party Viewer for accessing Second Life if we determine that there is a violation... We may enforce this Policy in our sole discretion, including but not limited to by removing a Third-Party Viewer from the Viewer Directory and suspending or terminating the Second Life accounts of Developers or users of a Third-Party Viewer.

In practical terms, going with listed and compliant viewers is safe against banning. If your favorite viewer can break Second Life's permission system, be ready to drop it at any time.

Of course, do not make illegal copies yourself, please, no matter what viewer you use.



What will happen if I get botted, stolen, copyright bad stuff in my inventory?

Short answer: if it's only a little, you'll likely lose it. If it's a lot, expect trouble.

Long Answer.

Official Linden Lab® Information:

If a legally sufficient DMCA* notice is submitted, Linden Lab will then remove the identified materials as appropriate. Repeated copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property violations by a Resident may result in their accounts being suspended or terminated.

*DCMA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1992 heightened the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. In December of 2009, Pink Linden wrote how they enforce Intellectual Property (IP) complaints:

Content that's removed as a result of the IP complaint will be replaced with generic placeholder items as follows:

• Textures, bodyparts, and clothing will be replaced with monochrome items that are the average color of the items they replace.
• Animations will be replaced with a special rotating animation by Blue Linden
• Sounds will be replaced with a new sound recording from Torley Linden
• Objects will be replaced with a plywood ball that displays an IP notice when you click on it.

WHAT TO DO
Don't panic if you receive a single IP complaint about content you got from someone else, ... Residents whose content is repeatedly subject to IP complaints may be suspended.

Don't Panic. But, what if your out-of-control inventory might have lots of questionable items? There are tips in LL's FAQ on the IP procedure: [with a few comments]

1. Think twice about offers that are significantly cheaper than the prevailing market price. If the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. [Copiers don't usually offer content in shops.. They sell it avatar-to-avatar or give it away freebie.]
2. Most retail stores do not have live staff to help with your transaction. It may be risky to buy from sellers who ask you to purchase an item by paying them directly.
3. Be wary of Residents who are less than 60 days old, who do not have payment information on file, and who offer lots of content. Creating original content is time consuming! [Look up the content creator using the edit tool to see if the profile looks like a legitimate content creator.]
4. Many Second Life merchants have a presence on the web in addition to their inworld locations. There are also a variety of websites devoted to reporting on or reviewing Second Life content and helping you, the consumer, find great content and reputable merchants. Spend some time on your favorite search engine learning about the content creator before you make a purchase in Second Life.
5. Before finalizing your purchase, be sure that the transaction details are what you expect, and check whether the seller name matches the creator name on the content. If they don't match, consider asking the seller about his or her authorization to sell the content. [Some sales scripts make this hard to check, but you can still look at the owner of the sales prims and the content therein.]
6. Be aware that there may be greater risk in using items from boxes of “freebies” from Residents you do not know. Freebie items may be distributed more casually within Second Life, and the Residents distributing them may not know their origin, who has IP rights in them, or how the IP owners may have allowed or disallowed their use within Second Life. [Even Residents you do know might be unknowingly passing on copied stuff. ]
7. Use extra caution when evaluating items that represent famous real-world brands, celebrities, well-known artistic works, or fictional characters or settings from books, movies, games, or television. These items may potentially violate intellectual property law and Linden Lab policies. For more information, please see our Xstreet SL Branding Guidelines and our Knowledge Base article on Intellectual Property.
8. Review your inventory, and delete content that you do not need and do not know the source of. This may reduce the risk that you inadvertently obtained content that is potentially infringing, and if you don't need the content anyway, some housecleaning may be in order.

It's now official Linden advice: Use inventory control. Get rid of stuff you don't use.

Love, Arth