[COPYBOTTERS] A very odd situation.

Posted: 1/17/2011 by .Loviathar Hellman in
3

On the 15th january 2011, at 15.13 SLT, I noticed an avatar called BadBoy Grun (badboy.grun) in my store at the Bada Bing sim.
He was wearing a copybotted haircut from the store ETD, called Stan.
I opened an IM box with him. The aim was to tell him that copybotted haircuts aren't allowed in any way and that I was going to ban him and report his copybotted hair.
At that very moment, he got disconnected. I closed the window.

I opened my estate window to ban him from my sim. When I searched his name, I was told "BadBoy Grun, not found". At first, I was amazed and I thought it was a spelling mistake. I checked my log. It was the good name.
I searched him on search window, still not there but a few minutes before, I had seen and closed his profile so he was obviously there and he obviously exists.

I was unable to report him since he wasn't searchable.

I searched for his name on google. I found a blog on which he's listed as a copybotter. It was in 2009 that the blog first mentioned him as a copybotter.

I sent a notecard to ETD's owner informing her of what I discovered and I sent a support ticket on Second Life's website.
I wasn't answered until today, so I opened a live chat support window.

I talked for about 30 minutes with one of the support operators.
She told me that she wasn't able to find him. She said that it looks as if he had been banned and that it's "odd".She told me to fill an abuse report in with Governor Linden as the abuser name since BadBoy Grun isn't searchable and that if he comes back, I should send another abuse including a picture of him (with the name showing).
I told her that it would be good to inquire about the situation.

I was not alone at the store that day. About 10 people were in the store at that moment, including a friend of mine and my own RL husband. That guy was online and in my store on the 15th janary 2011 15:13PM SLT.

I won't blame here anyone about the fact that guy can come online when he's supposed to be banned for being a reknown copybotter. I leave anyone to his/her own opinion about the situation.
What I will do is adding a security system to my sim and add his name, since my security system doesn't require to search the name in the SL database.
I'd invite everyone to do the same if you want to protect your stuff because if a copybotter can come online when he's not supposed to even exist in Second Life, it means that he's dangerous.

It's all I've got to say.

Loviathar Hellman

Update : According to Deb Tigerfish who's a member of the Associated Hunt Vendors Group. & ♡ !-[LoveFactory]-♥ owner, some banned people can use proxys to still get connected on Second Life.
To what I saw today, while talking with designers friends of mine, not a lot know about it. So I think it's very useful to spread the information around so people try to invest in a light or bigger security system that doesn't need to search the SL database to add someone to the banlist. I hope it will be enough. Anyway it shows that copybotters can be more than copybotters but real hackers and that they can go far to get what they want.

Update : Thanks to Deb for having been able to find the guy's avatar key ! I finally was able to ban him bf7398d8-0f03-441b-823f-a6a3c8876d07

3 commentaires:

  1. Emerald Wynn says:
    17 janvier 2011 à 21:30

    Thank you for sharing this important info. I have a question: How could you tell his hair was copybotted? I hear people say this type of thing often and it makes me feel bad, because I couldn't tell a copybotted hairstyle if it slapped me in the face.

  1. .Loviathar Hellman says:
    18 janvier 2011 à 08:57

    The aim isn't to track everyone but sometimes it's very obvious.
    Some have conscience they're wearing copybotted items, some not so informing them that they do is important so they get that it's a bad thing. Also reporting is interesting as long as the original creator didn't let go cause of the difficulty to write a DMCA.

    So, to find what is copybotted, I'll talk only here about ATTACHMENTS cause it's what I'm the most used to and my method is only based on my knowledge.

    1) I notice someone who wears most of the time freebie stuff (from freebie sims for example) & I notice that the person is most of the time wearing an old haircut by a store I know or not.

    2) I toggle edit mode, by typing ctrl3.

    3) I look the NAME of the item. If it's Cabello, that's in 99% of the cases copybotted but it can be called "Stan Haircut by ETD" or something else, even the original name. Cabello is the most known name.

    4) I check the creator name & profile. If the profile doesn't say that he owns a store, especially if I know the store where the haircut first came from, I am SURE that it is copybotted.

    5) The best of the situations is to see a haircut from a store you know like Deviant Kitties, a haircut you already saw or own from that store and that you can check the name of the creator and to see that it's name CABELLO and created by someone else who doesn't seem to own a store in his profile.

    That is just hints put together and in the end it gets obvious.

    Hope it helps you. We can talk it over in world too.

  1. .Loviathar Hellman says:
    18 janvier 2011 à 08:58

    I had first written "hi and thanks for caring" but I had to resend the message and now I sound rude :/.

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