Open Forum: What's The Best Way To Report On CopyBot/Content Theft Violations?

Days of CopyBot sellers and giant flying boulders, circa 2006

In recent weeks, I've received a number of reader tips about potentially dangerous CopyBot-style content theft programs, and allegations of their in-world usage. Perhaps this represents a trend, or maybe a sudden community acuity over the issue, in the wake of Stroker Serpentine/MunchFlower Zaius' recent lawsuit bringing the topic to a court of law. In any case, beyond the lawsuit, which is important in itself and already in the public record, you haven't read much about SL content theft here, on New World Notes. Why? At least three reasons:

• Publicizing CopyBot/copy theft allegations here also gives undeserved publicity to the (allegedly) guilty.
• Reporting such allegations inevitably leads to counter-allegations, and the need for interpersonal dispute resolutions better handled elsewhere -- such as JIRA.
• Finally (and I suspect this is a controversial claim): While content theft is unethical and immoral, and should be fought in the proper channels, I'm not convinced that it's a significant factor to the overall Second Life economy. I had this intuition during the first CopyBot incident, in 2006, after searching far and wide for entrepreneurs willing to show me how CopyBot had directly damaged their business, but none came forward. More key, in-world economic stats continue to climb, even when user growth rates and per capita spending rates grow much slowly. If content theft in Second Life is as widespread and persistent as some believe, wouldn't that be evident in the economic charts?

Far more useful, I think, would be a general, high-level conversation on virtual intellectual property, how's it's best protected and saved without harming the economy or specific content creators.  That's a conversation I'd love to help foster here.  On the other side, it is possible that publicizing CopyBot allegations would help the community to self-police more. (Albeit with an inevitable increase drama and panic.) However, I'm not persuaded that's the case.

So that's my take at the moment, but I'm eager to hear other views. Should I be looking at this differently?

Comments

[PixPol]

Second Life serves as an interesting test-bed for real-world claims of damages due to intellectual property infringement. You failed to find an entrepreneur who was directly damaged. What do you consider to be the reasoning behind this?

[Arcadia Codesmith]

The copybot thefts I've seen are fly-by-night operations with no-name avatars, operating from rental box malls. There are groups and other resources dedicated to spreading the word about these parasites, but when the player can start a new avi with minimum effort, I'm not convinced that publicity does much good.

Publicity mainly seems to hit more-or-less legitimate creators who take design "inspiration" from other creators, which is where you get the endless back-and-forth catfights.

In any case, I wouldn't publish any allegation of copybotting without looking into it myself and getting independent verification and documentation. Sometimes hard to accomplish in SL, but CYA.

As for the numbers... I haven't seen much of it myself, and the people doing it can't be moving much product out of those rinky-dink rental malls. There may be a larger number ripping off single copies for personal use, but nobody I know has ever copped to doing that.

But that's just my experience. Without the tools to track and fight copy violations, we can't even tell what the scope of the problem really is.

[skribe]

It's the FUD that these things enable that is part of the problem. The people that leave because they fear their IP being stolen, those that never bring their content inworld because they are uncertain it will be protected, companies that doubt that SL is a viable business platform because content is vulnerable.

The stats are essentially a macro view. They don't tell the micro picture that maybe occurring on the ground. In fact, theft may increase the macro stats as the thief generates business - even if the originator leaves.

As for alternative ways to protect content, Blue Mars has tendered one solution. It may not work, it may inhibit creativity or it may provide the surety that content providers need. It's way too early to tell how effective it will be but it's an alternative. I suspect we'll see other models as more virtual worlds come online and allow UGC. As long as there are fat wads of cash to be made this is only going to grow as an issue.

[Nalates Urriah]

I agree with Skribe, I'm not sure content theft would decrease the over all sales numbers. Those that would not buy an item at L$350 might buy it at L$35 and add to the stats.

The number that would steal for self use is probably small. It requires some effort to learn how to steal content. One quickly finds it is cheaper to buy it than the cost of the time needed to learn how to export non-owned items.

When someone makes something like the Neil Life viewer that turns things around. By driving it underground and pointing out the risks of using a viewer made by thieves use is reduced.

Blue Mars has the idea they can protect content. They use a proprietary viewer. But PAR has shown one does not need to modify the viewer to capture the data stream and extract and modify it. So, how effect BM will be... I'm not sure.

[Adric Antfarm]

I love the way we throw around Blue Mars as an example never mind they have released the world's first beta that has nothing to test. Generally speaking a beta is something you want to test and less a concept of ideas you sort of have a draft of.

Please stop. It's getting tedious.

As for scope, prizes to all who called it. If I only report the days it rains here, you would think it rains here all the time. Much like we talk about the times people are busted and not the millions of legit transactions. Oh - and they are getting busted...so the point here is.....

I am sure Stroker Ace is sure he is ripped day and night when if the problem was that widespread people who kept going and make the next generation of products that are more desirable (and somewhat harder to nab) would be screaming much more loudly.

Oh, I know Hamly wasn't talking about self censorship since that would just be dumb since pretending something doesn't exist is not equal to it not existing...... Give your readers some credit and quit making that call for them. It's disingenuous to say the least.

[Toxic Menges]

I think the angle on this is to help people educate residents as to WHY they shouldn't be doing it, and the damage they are doing. Also to Publicise people who are already trying to get the message out.

A shift in perception and understanding is what we need, as ultimately apart from lobbying LL, we, the consumers, creators and residents do not have the power to make copybot or it's derivatives go away.

Likely this is not going to sway those who are making money - but if perception and understanding of why it is wrong is so widespread that the tide turns against those who do sell creations, then it may stem this very scary tide.

[Miro Collas]

In my view, any reporting of CopyBot activities must be factual and substantiated. So for example, avoid the wild speculation that is going on over at SLUniverse about this new client (that no one seems even willing to name), with all kinds of claims being made, but no evidence being put forward to back them up. That just stirs up panic... it is nothing more than fear mongering. And when a few show that the claims are incorrect, they are simply ignored, and the claims repeated as fact.

Another site points fingers at third party viewers like Emerald, without cause. People read it and believe it (because the vast majority do seem to believe anything they read, without questioning).

So... make sure that the information you write is true, verify it personally if at all possible, and/or give sources. If you can't, then make it VERY clear that you were unable to verify and so the claim is suspect.

IMHO of course. :-)

-- Miro

[CyFishy Traveler]

I'm with Arcadia--ripped content is generally sold by disposable accounts, not by established avies, so naming and shaming does little to stop it. I don't think guilt tripping the content rippers is going to help, either--they seem to be the equivalent of spammers, trying to make easy money with minimal effort and not caring who they irritate or enrage in the process.

[Maggie Darwin (@MaggieL)]

Funniest thing I've read all day (other than the fact that the Google Chrome plug -in make IE run 10x faster):

An allegation that the copying patches in NeilLife are in fact themselves stolen IP, acquired though anonymous access to another viewer's svn repo of unreleased code.

[Adric Antfarm]

I said ******** here and urged Hamo to do a story over a week ago. It's been so long the name has changed to ThugLite.

Best do that story before the little gits change it again.

I personally think informing as opposed to parenting is the way but the guy with funny (per se) pictures has no right to tell a man covering SL since before he knew it existed how to do his thing. Not that I plan to stop.

[Skate Foss]

I have recently uncovered a group of Avatars imersonating Lindens and Mentors recruiting newbies from Help Island Public 1 & 2. They made phony groups and gave themselves titles, such as Second Life Mentor. Then tell newbies they are Mentors or Lindens, give them freebies, and persuade them to help the Lindens or Mentors. They instruct them how to download and custom install illegal viewers, that the newbies will use to sweep the grid!
I have alerted LL to this, but I think making their actions very public is the best defense.

[Astrid Panache]

I agree with your assessment about the effect on the economy, Hamlet. I think the effects of copybotting have been overblown. However, I also think it is psychologically devastating to see your work copied and redistributed, and it certainly seems as if a lot of this activity is done for that reason rather than for economic gain.

It's actually a sort of terrorism, and guess what, folks? It's working. Everyone's in a fluster and flurry about their work being copied, tearing themselves and each other apart, rather than tending to their businesses as they well should, accepting the small losses that accompany business (like shoplifting), and taking care of their responsibilities, like copyrighting their work and reporting losses to LL so they can aggregate the stats and approach it reasonably and efficiently.

And I agree with Toxic. Helping create a culture where people understand that copying and profiting from or distributing other people's work is unethical would probably be more effective than anything.

In fact, creating an environment where value is ascribed to the content made (rather than encouraging freebies) would be even more wonderful!

[Hamlet Au]

"You failed to find an entrepreneur who was directly damaged. What do you consider to be the reasoning behind this?"

Because as suggested by CyFishy and others, copybotters are fly-by-nighters and quickly get shut down by the community filing AR reports. But more to the point, there's not many of them, and the content they copybot is generally substandard. Whatever the case, the absence of any evidence that it's hitting the larger in-world economy suggests it's not really a significant story. (Though of course that's not much reassurance to the unfortunate content creators who get hit by one.)

[Saffia Widdershins]

I agree with what Toxic Menges has said here - that was is really needed is a shift in perception and understanding - in other words, a social shift, so that people see theft in virtual worlds is as wrong as real world theft.

It's with this aim in mind that we've set up the Step UP! campaign (you can read about it here - http://stepupsl.wordpress.com/). The plan is to work towards a day of action and celebration - it will be November 5th - Fireworks Night in the UK. But underlying it is education - to make it clear to people what content theft is, and how it damages their world.

[Nyoko Salome]

:0 greatly appreciate (and often share:) the same thoughts you do hamlet... :) see if i can add a lil' to the conversation...

"
"You failed to find an entrepreneur who was directly damaged. What do you consider to be the reasoning behind this?"

Because as suggested by CyFishy and others, copybotters are fly-by-nighters and quickly get shut down by the community filing AR reports. But more to the point, there's not many of them, and the content they copybot is generally substandard...
"

:0 just to add also the thought, that i cannot tell you exactly what tools this or that thief used to perform their work, was one of the reasons i usually do not participate in those surveys. much of the 'hard info' just simply is not there for creators to write down in their detective notes. (fortunately that is not required info for a dmca; the infringing act is the misuse of copied product, perhaps up to/including the initial uploading of it.)

part of copybot's 'hysteria' was that it made prim-copying easily possible. (copybot came out of libsl/os development, right? so although the capability existed, it only prior existed for those truly dedicated and had the coding moxie to make a custom tool for themselves. that someone continued onward to develop a 'much easier-to-use' tool, and make it available to anyone who wanted to use it, was the trojan horse opening up inside the gates.)

i understand there are perhaps plenty of legit uses of copybot for architects and builders of large simbuilds; seems like a valuable tool for shtuff like that! :0 but, it also added to the thief's toolbox, and expanded their market and abilities, too. (and the tools continue to be developed and expand their capabilities.)

;0 well, so - back to the question: how much impact has it really had on the sl economy?? as you say ham, 'virtually nothing', as it continues to expand - but what's that really count? (i often find thieved works of my own being sold for -much more- than my own prices, so could it simply run the other way? doing their best to 'burn' the creator's business perhaps by getting to customers first if just to rip them off and leave them with a bad taste in their mouths for your own creations?)

:0 the expansion may be more to do with land ownership as opposed to the creator's economy... there's 'no cheating' land; it's the one stable and secure thing (aside from whole-sim copybotting, one perhaps dubious advancement made in it not long ago). doesn't surprise me that residents, old and new wish want to keep 'playing' in here, expanding their land when they can, and will be trading more and more mon for rentals and other land uses. that's about as 'secure' a biz as there is inworld anymore! ;0

and if figures for just the creator's economy can be gleaned, then also consider - the thieve's own incomes are included in those figures, right? the lab could not easily separate those numbers further to determine 'good' vs. 'bad' gnp.

well anyhow... this was the long way to answering your question. ;0 i guess the answer is, 'no one can say,' other than that many of us continue to find thieved works, and continue to file dmcas.

[Nyoko Salome]

p.s. to say ;0 it is also equivalently difficult-to-impossible for a creator to estimate their total losses to thieves (unless we could afford or interest a thinktank to write a report ;0). i once had some 'immediate situations' where i felt i could make a strong 'guestimate', shooting 'optimistically' low and being more generous to the effects of market saturation and other factors, and although the amount would be 'nothing to write home about' for most people, it was still 'much more than small claims, not enough to higher a lawyer if i could anyways...' just to fill that part in too. (perhaps my local u's law school would be interested in pro-bonoing something lol, but that's the best chance i'd have.)

[Ann Otoole]

When you have no wholesale costs then what is the loss from someone that wasn't going to buy it anyway steals a copy? And then gives it away to hundreds of people? Well the damages in court would be 3 times the value of all the copies that were distributed. Problem is it is sort of hard to know they were around to steal in the first place. Unless they use one certain obsolete client that has no purpose in SL anymore except to steal content that is. And it's use appears to be on the rise.

Anyway I suspect the majority of the stealing is done for personal use.

Things you can do if so inclined are summarized here: http://bit.ly/stepupSL

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Even if the copybot capers have no measurable economic impact (and we've got no data on this one way or the other), it still has a chilling effect on content creation and marketing. I think it's perfectly legitimate and important to take on the script kiddies that provide the tools that make it possible -- that would be a more significant impact than trying to pin down any particular thief or ring.

[JeanRicard]

Has Stroker or LL shut down his island? It was unaccessable today.

[Nexii Malthus]

@JeanRicard, maybe stroker had a stroke from stroking too much.

(stroking his ego that is)

[Jiri Grohmann]

))))))))))

[Anonymous]

Howdy if you want to know the name of a Copy Bot look for Synphony Vayandar in Second Life, she has been copy booting Cal Corleone who creates some very unique houses, Szym Motors, and a few other creators like creators of hairs. This person comes from KingG00n as well, and is denying it all, but really this bitch sits in RP sims and copy bots other peoples avatars, builds, etc using Export to Hard Disk so its undetectable.