I snagged myself on your barbed defenses

(Continued from part VI. And my apologies in advance--this had formatting taken to more closely resemble the quotes pulled, but then I hit Preview on Blogspot, and that erased all the formatting. No idea why, really resent that that happened, and just do not have the energy right now to go through and fix everything.)

Miss McMillan commenting on the SLU's JLU thread (hey, that's kinda catchy) reminded me of something.

[09:41] Kal-El [Kalel Venkman]: I also need to fix the PZ nodes so that they rename themselves to 'Object' on installation. A little conversation in the GreenZone Users Group (a group dedicated, apparently, to the destruction of any networked banning system, not just RedZone) showed that their detection devices relied on sensors that checked for the names of installed prims.
[09:41] Kal-El [Kalel Venkman]: This will make PZ invisible to such sensors and protect PZ users from attack by griefer coalitions

There's only one problem with this. Simple onboard estate tools allow searching by name of owner, name of prim, number of scripts, number of collisions, among other things. I could go on any sim for which I'm part of an estate team and pull those figures. This is not a 'griefing sensor', this is how Second Life is designed to work.

I mean, in essence, I get what he's trying to do here: he wants to hide prims on parcels or sims unobtrusively. What greater invisibility can there be than one more Object in the midst of all the other Objects? (I admit, I once named every single prim in a house build. Mostly, it just made me smile when someone touched one of the door prims, and heard either 'Estella' or "Priscilla" open.)

The problem with that, though, are those estate tools, plus other tools like Thomas Conover's full-sim scanner, which will pick out individual prims and tell you not only where they are, but how many scripts they contain, who owns them, what their name is--all information that an estate owner or estate staffer desperately needs on occasion. I guess it slides it by the standard folks, but most certainly not everyone.

Still, it's interesting that Venkman's thoughts turn to concealment and blending in, over open revelation. You might think he had something to hide...

And from the long-suffering maintainer of the summary thread, her own response to GLE:

"Further, please stop with that tired nonsense about broadcasting your IP everywhere. It's not applicable. No one ever argued the notion of IP recording being a problem in and of itself. They argued it once it was *tied to an account name* and used to tie it to *other account names* in order to establish potential alternate identities. That was the problem. The tired old 'oh you leave your IP all over the internet' thing was debunked MANY months ago, and zFire himself tried the same tactic of clouding the issue and pooh poohing it. It didn't work for him and it's not going to work here, either."

In more cogent form, that's what I've been trying to get at. It was never the strict gathering of IP. That wasn't the issue. It was the subsequent aligning with actual (or, in many cases, presumed) alts or similarly-named avatars. As she says, the linkage is the problem; not the IP collection itself.

She goes on to offer a really great example of this mode of thinking:

"Let me put it this way- there's an argument that religious folk like to use against atheists. There was a thread about it on SLU recently- about morals without gods. The fundamental premise was that there are some religious people who believe atheists are fundamentally immoral because they have no fear of an all powerful deity who will punish them for wrongdoing. The atheists counter that they don't need the fear of a powerful deity or punishment- they're capable of ascertaining the right thing to do without an authority figure making a rule about it.

"That was what I was getting at- not the timeline of how this came down because you all are still arguing over what PZ does and does not do. My point was that you supported alt detection and it took the Lab(see: powerful deity in this case) to come down and decide against it. You didn't come to that conclusion on your own. You are obeying the rule- but a rule had to be made *first*. You don't support the actual premise- just the rule.

"Again, that's a big deal."

Yes, it is. And at least GLE in word and deed, and Kalel in word and deed (and who knows how many others in the JLU) don't seem to understand that they're on the other side of this argument.

Another mention from the original thread:

"The argument that a hashed ip isn't an ip combined with the argument that anyone who doesn't want their alts tracked must be hiding something makes a very ugly mess.

"A largely self-inflicted mess."

Again, I would agree.

And from the comment directly below that one:

"The fact that Kalel started contacting peoples real life jobs and schools is enough for me to be honest.

"Seriously you internet hero fuckwits, when you call somebody's employer they don't get upset that their employee fired 1000 dicks in a virtual world sandbox. They care that some deranged psychopath from some internet game is calling them."

He has a point, too, for all that it was bluntly phrased.

And Miss Zenovka's entire comment is worth your time to read, but I'll still boil it down if required:

• She posits that the JLU may not be collecting IP addresses and collating them with other data, but that they are possibly acquiring other data lists and links, then comparing them, and entering them at that point to the wiki or the Brainiac server.
• Due to this potentiality, they might also not keep their scripters (nor their poster children) properly informed of the potential conflation of outsourced data (and gosh, Zen not up to date on what's really going on, there's a shocker)
• Finally, in no way meant to be a direct part of the above, members of the JLU are also members of the GreenZone group, which has not disbanded long after the actual threat of RedZone has been removed (and that, while not directly tied in, I do find fascinating)

There's another comment on the thread that, while it repeats some of the information seen on previous comments, pulls a few more things together and makes everything a little more clear. (Which is like saying we've moved from mud to murk, but hey, it's a start.)

And then this from Sione:

Quote:
Originally Posted by AEther
Again, no. Nothing overrides a local pass created by a network owner or admin on their own network. In fact, network owners may set their networks to not accept global bans at all ("trusting") and/or to not share local bans with other networks ("sharing"). Turning off both would, for example, give you a completely isolated network that simply shares bans between all the land you protect with the system.

"Hang on hang on. Share bans with other networks? So are you saying that unless specifically turned off bans propagate between networks? If you are banned by someone with it on then you have to IM your way around the grid hoping the sim owner is online."

As Kurmin noted in the summary thread, this was the awful sound where the penny dropped. People were so focused on being outraged, for good or bad reasons, that they hadn't honestly stopped and thought this through.

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I take from that quote in this context:

• There are no global, nonremovable bans--any user of PhantomZone may allow avatars even other sims don't allow.
• Estate owners can also allow PhantomZone to operate solely as a wider ban list, isolated to their particular land alone.
• However, if that sim owner wishes, they can leave those options on which accept global bans, even those that propagate on other systems.

So...my question is now, which systems? All of them? Some of them? If people had the foresight to somehow search out and keep the global list of RedZone bans, could they then import those into their PhantomZone units? Does it centralize ban lists from any other ban system, like Voodoo? Like the dozens of other, less invasive security orbs on the grid?

From a later comment in the thread from GLE:

"His account was hijacked. He is no longer a member. He was a good guy who didn't deserve this treatment. He enjoyed patrolling sims and interacting with the other members of his 19th Century roleplaying group, but someone decided it would be funny to burn out his account just to steal some pages from the wiki. The result was not amusing."

I do believe we're talking about Baht McMahon again, and I'm still wondering what got him into this. If GLE is to be believed--someone hacked his account, logged in to the Brainiac server, and that's the source of the second batch of leaks?

So...is Baht even on the grid anymore?

Back to security issues--this comment is well worth the time to read, but I will pull one extract from it for here:

"You need to stop hiding your toy. People need to be able to CHOOSE to not go to a location with your device, and they must be able to choose to opt out ***BEFORE*** the data is collected. KalEl's advice to rename the device is specifically and solely a dodge around that premise. Period. The end. There is no other explanation."

I will be honest, people want security in Second Life. Even if they don't seem to really grasp the difference between secure (logged off of SL) and insecure (in world), they have this idea in their heads, and they never let this go. This idea says:

• In this perfect world, the best security orb is cheap
• In this perfect world, the best security orb keeps an unlimited ban list
• In this perfect world, the best security orb is unobtrusive, will not warn, will instantly ban people (or deny them entry in the first place), and will offer great protection with limited set-up

Why? Not because people want to defend against griefers. Not because people want to prevent copyright infringers from accessing their personal homes and stores.

No, largely, the average user of any security system in Second Life does it because they don't want to come home to strangers having sex in their bed. Flat out.

How does PhantomZone address this? By the same methods RedZone did, and I'm not talking about the physical scripting, here. I'm saying PhantomZone plays to the same fears that RedZone did while it was operational:

• If you don't use PZ (RZ), you won't be able to protect yourself from avatars who will come into your homes and touch your things
• If you don't use PZ (RZ), you'll be cut off from the "best" protection that's offered on the grid
• If you do use PZ (RZ), it's free--we'll never charge for it and any updates (or at least, that's the assumptions I'm getting from its proponents)
• If you do use PZ (RZ), you can take part in helping to ban anyone you object to, for whatever reason, to keep your things safe
• If you do use PZ (RZ), relax: it's just like Banlink, a system you trusted to keep people away from your things

The problem with these modes of thinking is not that PhantomZone doesn't live up to its end of the bargain. I'm quite sure it does. The problem is it plays into that culture of fear we've developed on the grid. We fear things, and we fear people, and we fear people who can do things we don't understand.

For example:

• If someone you don't know rezzes into your store, and stands at the beam-in point, and doesn't move, there are some schools of thought that tell you this is a copybot.
• If someone you don't know rezzes into your store, and is wearing newb clothes and a newbie skin, there are some schools of thought that tell you this is a copybot, or a griefer.
• If someone you don't know rezzes into your store, and turns in a circle, there are some schools of thought that tell you this is a copybot, or a griefer getting their bearings.
• If someone with the last name Resident rezzes into your store, there are many schools of thought that say this is a copybot and a griefer.

Fear. And the fear escalates.

Let's think about this in a different way:

• If I've never been to a certain store before, and I stand at the beam-in point, and don't move, it's likely because that sim (or my system) is lagged enough that I can't move. I hardly think I'm alone in this, but for several months last year, some merchants had rules signs posted at their default beam-ins, saying If you don't move in 15 seconds, we're banning you. NO COPYBOTS!
• If I rez into your store with a newbie skin and newbie clothes...well, first, there's obviously something wrong with me, because I don't generally do that at five years in--but if anyone else does that, the stronger possibility is that they're just new, not evil. These days, with the proliferation of really well-done freebie items, it's getting harder to peg someone's that new just by looking.
• If I rez into your store, move off the beam-in point, and turn in a circle, I'm not scanning your store for items to copy onto my system. Over two years ago, that was the way to force things to rez in--turn once (or twice) in a circle, taking in all aspects of the store, will help textures turn from grey to crisp. Then--if still having problems--moving the bandwidth slider up and down rapidly will usually do the trick.
• And if someone rezzes in with the last name Resident, they're not evil, a copybot, or a griefer by default--they're just unlucky enough to be born on the grid after last names were abandoned as a bad idea.

Yet, fear and paranoia on the grid continue to cripple us. Why?

(And note, I am not saying, I say again, I am not saying that PhantomZone and RedZone are the same product. I am ***not*** saying that. What I am saying is that, in terms of marketing, they're serving the same function: "Keep them thieves and miscreants away from yer wife! This is the best shotgun on the mark.)et, that'll larn 'em!" When in fact, fear never creates anything positive beyond more fear.)

trees here might be green, but their hearts are black as black can ever be

Extra Credits has now officially moved to Penny Arcade, with episodes debuting each Wednesday. Today's episode was on pacing, and if you've ever wanted to write anything--whether that's a video game, a roleplay scenario, a movie script, or a novel--you need to watch this video. I'm completely serious. In just a few short minutes, the EC team analyzes pacing, why it works, when it doesn't, how you can break it down, and how you can make it work.

Some notes from this year's Burn: the Dalek Art Car, and the Steampunk Octopus. Enjoy.

I want to start today's rambling journey (which would be continued from part V) with something taken from the official response from the JLU on the Krypton Radio site:

Is the public outrage posted on SL Universe real?

We think some people are genuinely indignant or upset, but we also think they’ve been given a lot of false information in order to enrage them.

In the SL Universe thread as of August 25, we note that an astonishing whopping 1036 posts were made by members of the banned Second Life group, "The Wrong Hands" or the person posting supposedly un-doctored pages from our wiki (and in one case, someone whom we discovered to be impersonating a police officer and who has been trying to phish private information from people within Second Life).

So, note: they're saying that first, all the postings we've been reading are false constructs intended solely to defame the JLU. It's a good stance to take: "It wasn't us! They're smearing our good name!"

But then this:

Was the information actually leaked by a disgruntled JLU member as they claim?

We had originally thought that the information was stolen from our systems by a hacker, who managed to compromise the account of a (now former) JLU member, which was then used to steal the connection credentials necessary to breach our database. Linden Lab notified us that a member account was breached, and that they had detected spyware placed by that account in our in-world headquarters. The chat spy devices (there were two) were active between August 3, 2011, when they was placed, and August 18, when they were removed (about fifteen days).

We now know that an alt of Cheergirl Allen, a Wrong Hands sympathizer, had managed to sneak a mole account into the League and had ready access to the BrainiacWiki over the span of about three month's time. Our records indicate that this account was shared with others who had no legitimate right of access – once again, the content was not "liberated", or "reported", but simply stolen.

So...that seems to pretty well confirm that it was them. Which is it? Either it is their information, or it isn't, and they've claimed both. Also, if you read on in the original link, they're claiming that (once again) it is their information, but that it's been substantially revised and in some cases, outright fabricated. So they're claiming once more that it's not their work.

Guys, chill. Either claim it or deny it; doing both makes you look like fools.

Moving on to the accusation that, at least at one point, Rodney Linden was considered a griefer by the JLU? What? I'm up-front about my frustration and upset with the Lindens, a great deal of the time, but actually calling one a griefer? Guys, even I've never done that. Tone it down.

I had to take a screen capture of this one, I just couldn't believe it actually took place. Starting from a mention about halfway down in the summary thread section I'm now in, came this line:

Zen tries to tell everyone that because PZ is free, and not sold, it shows good faith and a lack of bad intentions. Everyone calls him on this because that statement is STUPID.

I clicked the link, I couldn't not, and I'm also providing visual proof:

(from the media album)

Wau. Just wau. This is completely and utterly insane. So, just to test Zen's hypothesis, here:

1. When a copyright infringer lifts texture UUIDs, re-uploads them into SL, and gives them away at welcome centers and newbie stores, that's okay, because there's no profit being made?
2. When a copyright infringer lifts clothing templates, re-uploads them into SL, and gives them away for free, that's okay, because there's no profit involved?
3. When someone makes an exact duplicate of Britney Spears' face, or Wonder Woman's costume, or a Nike shoe, or a Gucci bag, in SL, that's fine as long as they don't charge for it?

Seriously, that's what he's saying? That it's okay that these info nodes are proliferated across the grid, because they're the good guys, and they're not charging for the system?

Way to massively, massively fail, there.

So let's talk about their 'personal and private' wiki branch. First, it seems to be neither of those things if Miss Mouse's information is accurate. So I checked.

(from the media album)

Is this the JLU official wiki? I don't know enough, nor am I a member of the JLU, to tell if it's the current, 'live' version; but digging into the source code revealed this:

(from the media album)

Is this the actual feed from the JLU's source?

But, in wandering through those pages, I discovered a few things. The only thing I want to mention specifically, though, is this:

Alt Links
(currently being implemented)
The Alt Links Brainiac feature allows us to connect all the alt accounts used by a particular griefer (or other account). A link may be established by any JLU member between any two Second Life identities currently in the database. Each link shall have one of the following possible status values:
Not Present
The link is not present in the database.
None
The link was once present, but was broken by someone
Suspected
That the two identities are one user's alts has not yet been proven, but is highly suspected.
Confirmed
It has been proven that the two identities are alts of one Second Life user.

That phrasing does make me wince, a tad--"used by a particular griefer (or other account)". In essence, that tells me that the Alt-Link feature of the Brainiac server can collate between any two known accounts, anywhere, and decide by some as-yet-unmentioned method (*cough* like IP addresses *cough*) which accounts match up and which don't? Or am I misreading this passage?

Note: I'm not saying positively that I believe the JLU are lifting IP addresses. But the whole thing, including their recent behavior concerning the first and second Bwiki leak situations, has been fishy to an extreme.

(Oh, and this is just too damned funny for words.)

Now, from Aether--who at least sounds rational, if not completely trustworthy--comes this bit:

"Now, on the topic of IP address logging and alt detection I can certainly say we have considered the possibility of doing this in the past, and even made experimental evaluations of other groups' such mechanisms before the Second Life Terms of Service and Community Standards were changed to forbid the sharing of such information in-world. But the truth is that there's very little point to it. I fully believe that if we could do it reliably there would be ways to utilize such information while still remaining in compliance with the disclosure clauses of the Second Life TOS/CS and without undue threat to residents' privacy, despite RedZone's obvious failure in this area. However, there are still some very dissuading practical considerations, which is why we have never, in fact, utilized IP collection from SL in our own systems.

"First, IP collection for alt detection is far too unreliable. NAT, proxies, and the prevelent use of dynamic IP addresses lead to far too many false positives and false negatives alike. The fact is that human interaction and observation is still the surest way of learning about alt accounts, and griefers are usually all too happy to reveal such associations behaviorally; their sheer need for attention almost demands it. Failing that, it's simple enough to catch the next act of griefing, whether or not the griefer is an alt account of a previously banned resident."

I can, weirdly, get behind that. If one of the coders of the PhantomZone project can be trusted at all (which is still up for debate), the fact that he's willing to go on the record as saying "Yeah, we thought about it, it's not a good way to do things, so we don't code it like that" means something, even if it's something small and insignificant. It may not be much--it likely isn't--but it definitely feels more honest to me than anything out of Kalel's mouth or Zen's keyboard.

The problem with that feeling? It only feels like it's more honest; that doesn't say it is. As Anguissette says in a later comment:

"The thing that stands out most to me as the biggest problem with that PR whitewash is that its writer is essentially saying (forgive the paraphrasing but the original wording is so long and inelegant) that they are here to answer questions, but only to particular people in a particular way on a particular subject...that totally makes it sound like they've got lots of things to hide, things that really wouldn't stand up to even mildly intense scrutiny and questioning.

"Also, it strikes me as a little contradictory that one could be demanding that people be civil with their questioning, when one's own statement includes all sorts of insults, including what seem to me to be rather rude and damaging allegations and accusations."

Yeah. She's not wrong.

And one from Miss Dufaux again:

"I'm super confused now, pun sort of intended -- I just read the front page of the Krypton Radio site and there's an article there about Linden Lab removing Power Rangers merchandise from the grid after receiving a notice from Saban Entertainment (copyright holder).

Linden Lab is in something of a no-win position, being obliged to respect the legal rights of intellectual property owners and yet also acknowledging the large role media-inspired sales play in the virtual economy. Savvy media creators often avoid scrutiny-and Linden Lab’s restrictions-by rebranding their wares so as to avoid overt use of copyrighted names or sales images.

The article's tone is pretty soft in regards to the issue of blatant copyright infringement by content creators -- I was surprised, frankly, as I also read in the JLU's mission statement that it 'follows absolutely strict adherence to the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines for our own behavior, as well as a strict moral and ethical code.'

"So I guess I'm finally 'getting' the purpose of JLU: That they are more concerned with griefing, and not so much about copyright infringement? Which would seem to makes sense, based on their use/adaptation of copyrighted DC Comics material.

"This seems really odd to me... and to be honest, makes me question the integrity and intention of the group all the more."

Again, I have to agree, but that, at least, I've said before on this blog, it's not a new concern where the JLU are...well, concerned.

From the next bit of the summary thread:

GLE comes back to reply. He seems to miss the point of what he was told, and overall starts sounding *amazingly* like zFire.(it should be noted for the record that GLE "sounding like" zFire is in the types of things he said-we've heard this stuff before, and not an indication that he has any connection at all with zF.)

So what's the linguistic connection to zFire Xue here? Things like this:

"Alt detection is useful to protect people whose sims are under constant attack from the same two or three people. The sim owners eject and ban the griefers, who instantly create new avatars and come roaring back. Same computer, same IP address, same evil intention, different avatar name. It would be nice if a sim owner could ban a griefer no matter what name he used while attacking."

Very zFire.

"The system never became reliable enough to be able to consistently ban a griefer from a sim no matter what name he used. It was still under evaluation when LL added alts to the disclosure rule."

Also very zFire, though I will grant, GLE knows how to spell words, which zFire never bothered to learn, EVER.

"One of the most interesting aspects of the alt detection discussion was watching how some people reacted so violently to the concept."

Oh, and this one nearly coils brain cells. I want to break that one down. What I think he's saying:

• He was interested in the alt detection discussion, not because he thinks it's a bad thing, but because it was fascinating to watch people get so upset over something he thinks is no big deal.
• It amused him that some people--emphasis mine, but one would assume from the phrasing, people obviously not "rational about these things"--reacted so 'violently' to the concept.

Bet me, he's one of those people who thinks that no one should have undiscovered alts; that the mere fact that someone wants an alt to be hidden is evidence that they're going to do untrustworthy things with it. Presumption of guilt before innocence, in other words.

Back to the main comment, though:

"To them, the concept was wrong for the simple reason that it was wrong, and if you asked for an explanation of why it was wrong, then there was something wrong with you, because obviously you didn't think it was wrong."

Which is very odd coming from him, because by and large, though there were hysterical moments, and lots of them, throughout the entire RedZone debacle, there were also strong cogent points made for why, precisely, alt detection is a bad idea. It was never--at least, in those articles I read, and posted in the blog, plus my own comments--wrong "simply because". Everyone I read, and everything I wrote, pointed to specific reasons why.

"A lady in one of my groups who was pretty much a basic Second Life user was absolutely terrified of alt detection. She had no concept of how it worked, and she didn't oppose it on the grounds that it was an invasion of privacy. She was unable to articulate why she thought it was wrong, but she absolutely did not want to be anywhere near anything that might identify any of her alts. It always intrigued me to wonder what she had going on that she was so afraid to have brought out into the open."

And sadly, I called this one. This is the other side of the alt detection argument that is just as specious as the 'it's wrong because it's wrong' argument. Namely: You wouldn't be upset if you didn't have something to hide. Which, though it was stated by a different person entirely, flashes me back to that "doing perversion" line. That presumption that only the guilty want to hide their actions.

All right, I'll grant you, especially with certain politicians (in the US at least), that presumption can--on occasion--be valid. But as a widespread belief, it just doesn't pan out. I'll even give you a good example. Desmond Shang, a man who seems almost incapable of hiding any SL avatar link where his tenants are concerned, still has at least three accounts--all of them known by the Lindens, two of them at least who work closely with the Lindens, or who have in the past--that are alts. He's hiding nothing "untoward", or perverse, or criminal, in the least, by concealing these alt names. Mostly it's a simple issue of contact--there are times he needs to get on the grid--for private consulting purposes, or when directly working with Lindens on a sim/estate issue--where it's just not viable for him to get ten new IMs every three seconds. For that, he has designated alts.

Put plainly, Desmond Shang himself is an alt, of his former main account. The presumption that anyone with an alt wants nothing more than to hide griefing, malfeasance and nefarious, illicit sex acts is inaccurate. It's a wrong belief.

"You have a partial page from the Brainiac wiki showing a conceptual discussion of how Phantom Zone might work some day, and omitting the rest of the discussion where the IP addresses were planned not to be visible, and you call that 'proof.'"

Uh...does GLE know he just admitted that the PhantomZone banlink device was, at least at one point in time, then, collecting IP addresses?

"What you are calling 'proof' does not stand up to close examination."

Neither does yours, GLE.

This seems like a good place to stop for tonight. One more associated entry, and then there will be Deep Thinking involved on whether I want to stay mucking through all this, because it's not going to get any easier.

I want to know what you're thinking, there are some things you can't hide

In a startling development, the main asset-holder for the Meeroos on the grid was banned from SL. Now, to be fair, mistakes do happen, and the Lindens have been known to reverse their decisions on bans, but...I'm just going to coast on this small little rose-colored cloud of Meeroo incipient demise, so don't mind me. It'll likely all blow over, but right now I can see the lack of Meeroos on the horizon, and it comforts my soul.

If I ever wanted to play Diablo III, I don't now. No modding, no offline play, and an auction house setup guaranteed to attract quest farmers and gold farmers, so Diablo III will become yet another fantasy enterprise where we'd spend more of our time dodging level-2 idiots screaming in the street about how cheap their gold is...versus actually playing the damned game.

No. I give up. Not playing.

In other news, Michael Prime--aka zFire Xue--has pleaded guilty to four counts of violating his previous probation--interestingly enough, for computer fraud.

For the next two years--after his release--he is confined to his home, prohibited from all interaction with computers, and his activities will be monitored.

Save--barring the ankle bracelet and the confining part--that was his previous prohibition, and look what happened. Here's hoping this time around goes better for us...and results in less activity from him.

Last thing--this was a quick little entry--I was fascinated to find a brief comparison to World of Warcraft and the Iliad, via the expeditious acquisition of epic loot. It raises some very pointed questions about society, history, and military culture. I'd love to see it expanded, but for now, since McKnight is working on his doctoral thesis...that may be all we get.

Still, it's a great question to pose. What relevance did 'epic loot' play in history? What relevance does it play now? There's looting on every battlefield; what's taken, and why?

All good questions; it's just a pity McKnight's too busy to explore the answers. (Still, possible book in this...it's a thought.)

keep drinking coffee, stare me down across the table, while I look outside

If you live anywhere near Anaheim, California, there's a chance to participate in a project that would ultimately result in a steampunk exhibition at Muzeo. Click the link for more information; they're seeking funds and publicity.

The Redzone JIRA is still getting hits, and I think most of us are profoundly tired of it (save for the battling participants involved). I think Kaira Aeon has the best solution for the problem, however:

Much as I might sympathize with people's issues concerning systems that they feel are like Redzone, Coming here to the Redzone JIRA and saying something should be done about other systems is about as useful as writing McDonalds to complain about Dominos pizza.. If other systems are of such concern, then start a JIRA for each PARTICULAR system that is the cause for these concerns. Coming here may allow people to vent, but that's the most that will accomplished, but in the end nothing will be done about any other systems that are in place now. This JIRA created specifically for Redzone's abuses and now Redzone is kaput.The Lindens aren't going to widen the scope of this JIRA to cover anything else that isn't Redzone, no matter how Redzone like it may be.

Yes, please can someone do that? Because if we truly object to VooDoo (doing pretty much the same thing RedZone did) products, reporting them makes so much more sense than reporting on a JIRA that the Lindens have stopped watching, because it has been resolved.

And more on copyright infringement--somehow I'd missed that when mesh was first discussed, one of the first big videos on what it's going to look like used a copyrighted character. This was at SLCC 2009, and even back then, rumblings of "copytheft" were rampant.

Yet the higher-ups at the Lab move to the RL convention, and...don't care? They likely loved it. That video probably went out in official blogs at the time.

But, as the blog link shows, it's not like they're particularly efficient at hardlining copyright infringement. Or they get it wrong when they do work on it--witness the travesty of justice that was Azriel Demain's eight-day ban from SL, putting at risk his entire business (which is his RL livelihood) and running the risk of his defaulting on four entire sims on the grid.

And why? Because he had the audacity to say "inspired by" on a product. "Inspired by" is beyond the pale, but functional iPods, complete with icons, are okay? "Inspired by" meant cutting off a sim owner of long standing and putting their entire life at risk, but having photo-accurate iPads are perfectly okay?

Yeah, this is still me being outraged and appalled over something that will not change, but the hypocrisy galls me.

There is one more comment on the RedZone JIRA I'd like to bring up before I go.

The voodoo product does not datamine using the media hack as far as we know. It uses a third party website to mine your data. When you click the sploder you must access the website in order to register to win. It does not warn you prior to visiting the website that your SL information is being passed to the website to be correlated to other information mined via your HTTP connection. This data is then stored and further used to identify any alts you may have. There is a website which publicly "names and shames" avatars that the system has determined to be either an alt or a bot.If you are on this list, you are banned from any place on the grid that has voodoo installed. It is a networked, gridwide ban. Monkey has begun adding people to this list who are not bots or alts, just people he doesn't like (usually because we have spoken out about his product).

That being said, yes it is a website and not the media stream bug that is doing the datamining. The data is still being mined, correlated and paired with internal SL information and stored to be reported and used. It is unknown who has access to this data. Monkey is using his network to ban his "political" enemies and publically "name and shame" them on his website. He openly advertises his product as an alternative to redzone.

While this product may be marginally compliant because it uses an external website, it is in violation of the CS which was updated to include the reporting of alts. We know it tracks and has a way of reporting alts and if the system has determined you to be a bot, He also claims to protect against copybots. While obeying the letter of the TOS, it violates the spirit of it.

And as far as the claim that every media stream can track your IP. Thats true but unless it is also SENDING your internal SL data to the stream, it has no way of correlating your IP to your SL identity. As far as I know DJs and Musicians do not employ any kind of automatic way to track and store the IP address. It is visible on their stream dashboard but it is not saved.

We can argue the finer points of the TOS until we are blue in the face, the issue that remains is that some of us feel it is knowingly violating our privacy and using the information mined to detract from, and in some cases destroy, our experience in world. Monkey has now taken on the same tin god personae that zfire did and has been manually adding people he deems as his enemies to the ban list. This violates his customer's trust that when they use this product, the avatars they will be protected from are those that are confirmed bots, not their trusted customers. He claims that the Greenzone group has defamed his product. We don't have to, he is doing that quite nicely himself.

Azure Twine said that, and she's right. But what we need, more than anything else, is someone to file the specific ToS violations that the VooDoo products are responsible for, preferably per product, and have the Lindens deal with them as they do all other bug reports. Commenting further on a closed post just sets you up for drama, and gets none of us further to the goal of eliminating (at least the obvious sources of) data-mining on SL.

We also need to go farther, I think. Boycotting businesses that support Monkey Wonder and the Voodoo products seems like a good start to me.

• AJS Angelic
• Alpha Club and Shops
• Artica
• Avibook Avatars
• Black Shark Reef
• Bloodland
• Breda Tech Head Office
• Bressig CityShop
• Cenedra's Gardens
• Cheryl's Land
• Club Illuminatus Estates & Resort
• Damian's
• Dutch VIP Beach Resort & Parties
• EW Gadgets
• Fast Five Club & Shop
• Sunell's Free Money stop
• Guu Factory Sculpt Maps
• The Kingdom of Jordan
• Little Swing Germany
• Katomani
• Le Fabulous Club
• Low Prim Houses
• MC & Pond Creations
• NC Craft, T&C Designs & MAC
• The Pink Fairy
• Puff Dragon Club
• RB Business Up
• Second Life Job Agency & Advertising
• Speck on the Map Mini-Mall & Choppers
• Steampunk Fashion & More
• Stoffwechsel by PM Design
• TechTonix
• Viper Land Rentals (and an alternate location as well)
• Underworld Biker Hangout
• Wiccadia Weapons

And of course, the Voodoo main store.

NOTE: None of these are specifically places using the products (though I'd assume they do); they're just ones who are retailing Wonder's wares remotely. If we really don't want to support his products, we also have to boycott the people who support him. It's unfortunate, but it works--but this list will be verified when I'm next in, to ensure that all the names on it actually have one of the Voodoo vendors, and are actively engaged in retailing Wonder's products.

you kiss me like potted plants, bite me like fire ants

While I was out in the wilds beyond the grid today, a very, very old JIRA issue EXPLODED. I sifted through the shards, and am bringing the best--and most relevant--to you.

It started this morning with a comment from Izabel Muircastle:

RedZone is dead.... but have a look here

So I had a look there. The link leads to six items from the "Voodoo Anti-Bot Mainstore", including such gems as the "Free Anti-GreenZone Script" (which purports to work with RedZone equipment), the L$700 Anti-Bot unit (which purports to detect and untraceably ban all bots AND alts, in addition to severely discriminating against blind users of SL), and the L$500 Voodoo Sploder, which not only somehow "guarantees" to be Linden-approved as a non-gambling device (I call shenanigans on that), BUT in addition to banning more suspected bots and alts, it disallows anyone playing from the same IP, anywhere on the grid.

Okay. I'm sold. Evil bastards. And?

Apparently, and this: several hours later, Monkey Wonder commented:

I own the business being defamed by Izabel Muircastle. (Who I have abuse reported)

Our security device does not scan IP addresses. It is exactly the same as a standard security orb, but it is networked to our server and retrieves a centralized blacklist.

We do not use any SL exploits and any IP addresses logged by the Voodoo Sploders (in verify mode only) are done so by people visiting our website.

This is explicitly allowed as per section 4.3 of the TOS
http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php

We have clear warnings in an LSL dialog and in IM before a user can visit our website, and they must also agree to our own terms of service before any IP is logged.

And I quote, from their own details page on the "Voodoo Sploder" entry:

♠ The verification ensures no two avatars using the same internet connection can enter more than one Voodoo Sploder grid wide.

If that's not blocking by IP, then what is it?

The next relevant comment (I thought) was from Vania Chaplin, a few posts below Monkey's intro volley:

You said: "Our security device does not scan IP addresses. It is exactly the same as a standard security orb, but it is networked to our server and retrieves a centralized blacklist."

And later said: "Any data we collect from our website is strictly confidential and never published."

Are your blacklist maintained only for your eyes, and never shared with your customers? Or the 'strictly confidential and never published' part is a lie?

A damned good question, methinks.

Monkey Wonder chimed in a bit after that:

We don't tend to ban people on our system for using text viewers, it was an early rule that we made obsolete a long time ago because as you suggested it is a legitimate way to connect to SL and there is nothing wrong with it. The website needs to be updated.

And I quote again, from the Anti-Bot Marketplace listing:

We also ban anyone using a text, or illegal viewer.

Wau. Monkey's lied twice in the same JIRA. Do I detect a whiff of zFire in this one?

From Corvan Nansen a bit farther down still, in response to Mr. Wonder:

"We do log IP addresses of visitors to the verify web page of our sploders to prevent people using lots of avatars to gain an unfair advantage in the sploder game." which means you are correlating alts, which is expressly forbidden by the Community Standards.

I would profoundly agree.

Azure Twine:

The fact is, you have chosen to use redzone as a marketing ploy for your product.

Yes. Openly, even.

Minerva Breda:

Let me be clear here:
1) your product records data.
2) this data links alts. (or you boasts of Anti alt are false)
3) you keep this data on a server (out of world)
4)you maintain what you believe is a bot list.
4A) you maintain what you believe is an alt list.
(neither of these [has] any basis in fact only suspicion. You are not Linden Labs you can only assume.)
5) Maintaining and linking lists of alts is Against the community standards.
6) This is not defamation these are facts from your own ads and form Soft's statements here.
7) Greenzone has nothing to do with this. This is [your] own doing.

I should note, the two edits made were made solely for purposes of clarity, and are small edits; you can verify that here. But I also agree fully with that list.

And finally, what ended this round of he-said/she-said, Alexa Linden coming in and calling everyone out as misbehaving:

All, this is a reminder that Jira is not a message board nor is it a forum. Unless your comments deal directly with the issue, has reproducible steps and [is] an actual bug, please take your discussion to out of Jira. Let me also remind you that personal attacks are not allowed in jira http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/PJIRA#Be_courteous

So, the end result of this flurry of "new" information?

1. I don't trust Monkey farther than I can throw his car, his pet, or his coffee cup if I have both hands tied behind my back. He's openly lied and seems defiant about it. This seems like yet another press nightmare for Linden Labs, and, depending on coding, possibly more federal- and/or Interpol-level fraud charges for the player behind Monkey.

2. Yet again we have this split going between the FacebookLifers and the sane people, namely: "If you have an alt, you're obviously a griefer/copybotter/bad person!" versus "You know, I have alts for very reasonably reasons, and go screw yourselves with something painful". I don't think that particular debate is ever going to be resolved; it's degenerated purely to the "Yuh-huh!"/"Nuh-UH!" stage.

So we'll wait and see...but I suspect that, if the case played out as RedZone did, Voodoo Anti-Bot devices are not long for this Second Life.

all the cameras watch the accidents and stars you hate, they only care if you can bleed

Tossed up two new links on the sidebar. There are scores of people asking for donations in world for Japan relief, and I'm not trying to compete with that--but if you're here, and you feel the urge to flip a few bucks their way, Direct Relief International comes highly trusted for Japan. And above that, Haiti Relief is still on the ground in Haiti, helping the country rebuild. (With all major buildings still under construction, a recent virulent outbreak of cholera, and more than 300,000 dead...yeah, it's going to take a while.)

As long as we're talking virtual donations, Gaia Online apparently forced the fundraising cap up on the site's donation efforts. They had originally pegged a high mark of $10,000--that's US dollars--but the donations came in so fast in such numbers that they hit $50,000 before they knew it. Sales of special fundraising items are still ongoing.

Meanwhile, AltDetector Resident--one of the minds behind QuickWare's AltDetector Pro--has been summarily banned from SL along with the objects, scripts, and the like--which are probably also going to be globally stripped from the asset server, along with any remaining RedZone bits.

Anyone else? I think, based on Soft Linden's actions, alt detection is No Longer Cool. (Not that it ever was.)

So, now that it absolutely doesn't matter in the least, where were we in the RedZone Thread of Doooom?

Boy Lane:

"Sorry Zidonuke Ghost, you overstepped a number of times.

"You close relevant issues that are not in your responsibility.
"You call people you don't like names.
"You pretend/hack into, to be a Linden who can assign roles to Jira tickets (Soft Linden) and you try to scare people in taking appropriate action "If you reopen this here, your Jira privileges will be revoked."

"Unless you are a Linden hiding behind some fake account, this is a slap into the face of everyone concerned here, including Linden Lab and Oz."

I quoted pretty much the whole of this comment because it's so apt. And following that was this bombshell:

Psyke Phaeton:

You can learn all about Zidonuke here:
https://twitter.com/#!/Zidonuke
including things like:
"@ZaphaelXaron I operate in a very narrow grey area that appears to keep getting me in trouble. But I will not stop my security research."
"All 200 Alts just got banned."
"Filed 75 Support Tickets for my most important alt accounts. Filing another 50 tickets for the vaporeanbots."

And this was another entire passage from the comment. I mention that because I'm reading through his stream now. How about trying some of these comments on for size:

@Zidonuke:
I'm going back into security exploit finding in SL. I just learned of some amazing things from people. Also the fact that I earned money.

@Zidonuke:
I have discovered a new way on how to trap copybotters based on a pretty neat method. Visiting a copybot related website = ban on my system.

@Zidonuke:
SL Bigbrother is coming once again. Deploying zidobots across the grid to track and record agent keys, region location, and local position.

@Zidonuke:
And so, Linden Lab shall burn. Goodbye Joe Miller. Now... Only if @soft will quit LL. If he leaves, I lose all faith in that company.

Yeah. Sounds like a definite asset to keep around in SL... :/

There was a lot more back-and-forth bickering at that point, but then guess who showed up again?

Soft Linden:

"Zidonuke, stop monkeying with this issue.

"'No one at LL can remove RedZone because the policy to make it illegal doesn't exist in their eyes.'

"While it's true that it relates to policy and that this often makes response slower, nobody at LL has said anything like the above. You asked and I gave you the same answer I've given anyone else who wrote a security ticket: I've made sure several key people understand how it works and what privacy issues are involved. Until they have approved a response, no Linden could or would make any statement about the company's position."

Way to step up and tell Zidonuke he's wrong. Woot!

And I may or may not return to this, but this feels like a great place to stop:

Argent Stonecutter:

"Regardless of whether it's legal or not, it's creepy as hell, and it's far more of an invasion of privacy than cameras in malls since those don't tie into a government issued RFID tag shared by friends and family. It utterly astounds me that anyone can defend it."

Pretty damned much.

We live in a universe where companies sell our ages, our habits, our locations, our dating profiles, our surfing history, what we buy and what stores we buy in, where we choose to eat, our insurance information, our medical information, and our credit scores. All of this is up for grabs to the highest bidder. For the most part, we know about it--or at least we should.

But in Second Life? Maybe it's part and parcel of an entire population that has no clue, but people just don't expect to be hacked inside a game. And it scares a lot of us when we find out we have been. We feel a distinct loss of control, and we suffer a definite loss of faith in the people who run the game.

Frankly, the Labs don't have that much ground left to lose before there's nothing underneath them but air. Here's to Soft Linden changing that perception, in a big way. He's already made a great start.

though loathsome hideous squid-headed blasphemies rise up from the deep, I don't pay heed--it doesn't matter to me

Welcome to Shadow Cities. The first I'd ever played with location-based apps was the Inception app for the iPhone and similar platforms. (The one that frustrates us ALL with the Africa dream.) Shadow Cities takes it farther--the world is the battleground, and anyone who downloads the game (apparently, it will be offered for free download) can choose to play.

Talk about large- and small-scale MMOs--the scale is huge, but the gaming platform is small--literally hand-held. And there aren't a lot of flashy graphics to get in the way--again, the battleground is the real world.

I'm definitely interested in seeing where this goes.

In the meanwhile, Mr. Excalibur Longstaff, who maintains the Steamlander forums, has come up with a fairly innovative work-around for the problems of group chat being so horrendously broken--with no end in sight.

The problem with his solution? It requires Facebook use. At first I found myself actually angry over this...then depression set in...then I thought it through, and realized it doesn't actually impact me any more than any other decision on or off the grid. I don't use Facebook. The Steamlander forum chat does. Therefore, I never need to consider the Steamlander forum chat. Problem solved.

Talk about your fine ethical lines. For my part in this, I'm somewhat on the fence about revealing someone else's personal information in the course of standing against them solely for reasons of privacy concerns. That being said...the information contained therein is, as summarized by Miss Poindexter, decidedly of the "bombshell" variety. And--if everyone's right on the math--this thing may go to court, and speedily, because there may well be a violation of parole on zFire's part. If that is true...forget zFire's product being pulled from the grid; the man behind zFire could go back to jail.

Now, I don't have a ton of experience with the legal sector--my main ethos in life, after all, is not to do anything that would send me off to jail--but we did have a friend once, who was arrested for doing Bad Things (yes, I'm just going to leave that there, for purposes of the example no one needs to know specifics). And he was assigned three years' probation. Probation, in terms of how it's usually applied, is such an onerous and invasive state of being that most criminals, whether or not they "reformed" whilst behind bars, decide quickly that it's not worth the hassle of jumping through the state's myriad annoying hoops.

How'ver, our friend struggled mightily down to six months remaining on probation, and that's when the bench warrant was discovered. For an old parking ticket in another state, no less. But even though the offense was negligible when paired to what he'd actually been convicted of, it was enough to throw the entire system into chaos--and muck up his personal life in insane and damaging ways. To wit: in response to the notification of the bench warrant, his parole officer:

* went to his residence, moved everything out into two storage lockers, and informed his landlady that he wouldn't be returning;
* paid six months on those storage lockers, and kept the keys;
* went to his place of business, informed his boss that he would be taking an unpaid leave of absence, and his boss was welcome to fire him;
* removed him from his workplace in handcuffs;
* took him back to the jail to be registered formally as a prisoner, with all the attending paperwork, search humiliations, and changes of attire that entailed;
* reclaimed him after that process, and took him to a holding cell one town over;
* removed him from that holding cell the next morning, put him on a plane--still in handcuffs!--and flew him to the state where the bench warrant had been issued;
* dropped him off in yet another holding cell;
* reclaimed him the next morning to appear before the judge who'd entered the bench warrant, who took in the prisoner's state of distress, his orange prison uniform, and the stern set of the parole officer's visage (plus the two armed prison guards who'd accompanied him from the prison to the plane), and said "Y'all realize this is for a parking ticket, not homicide...right?"

Keep in mind, this wasn't even for a federal-level crime. I understand they have full rights to treat prisoners with even more strictures should they step out of line. So that being said...why would zFire risk breaking probation for...okay, the rough equivalent of $30,000 or so, but still...

At any rate, with nothing better to do, I will return to picking through the JIRA That Will Not Die.

From the RedZone album

Chopstick Oxygen:

"It seems that Linden Lab is unwilling to stop the abuse of their own customers."

Actually, as of this writing this seems no longer true.

Vee Chun:

"you guys need to get a life
RedZone does not provide the IP address!!! the only information that the RedZone provides is alts & your profile information!!!!!

[..."T]his Miss Smoothkitty must be a copybot or a drama queen that got banned!"

Which leads directly into...

Mocksoup Graves:

"Vee Chun, you are EXACTLY the kind of person we want to protect ourselves from. YOU just accused the creator of this JIRA of being a copybot because you disagree with her stance on privacy.

"This is nothing more than an exploit creating a vigilante style witch hunt."

On both sides, at this point. And it's managed to take over several blogs, not the least of which mine.

Cole Cybertar:

The Jira is for Server bug issues & the way your viewer decodes & reads the info. this place is not a complaint Department.

Sadly, many, many people haven't realized this yet.

Innula Zenovka:

"To my mind, LL could solve the problem in pretty short order by letting sims have unlimited ban lists and by giving landowners the option to ban by ISP from their land in the same way LL bans by ISP from the grid – it would achieve the same result as does RedZone without revealing people's alts to any stalker or griefer with L$4000 to spend."

The only problem I see with that is increase on the system used currently to check incoming names (like calling cards, which are apparently disabled in v.2x viewers but not in 1.x viewer modes). But something else to keep in mind is--four thousand Lindens currently costs sixteen dollars, US. Sixteen is two lunches out at a cheap place. Sixteen is one ticket to a 3D movie with a child-size popcorn. Sixteen is local zoo admission, if your city has a local zoo. That is not that much, in the grand scheme of things.

Rosemarie Hathaway:

"There is a compromise to this that seems more likely, LL give landowners the ability to ban a person and alts, without telling the landowners who the alts are. So when you ban a person, you have the option to ban with alts as well, but it wont tell you who those alts are."

Why? Okay, fine, you don't want Zena on your land, but as far as you know, Ziria and Zelayna are different people. Sure, if this system goes through, and all three of them stop coming to your store, you might twig that things are hinky somewhere, but seriously--if you got into an argument with Zena, does that automatically mean you're going to argue with Zira and Zelayna? Maybe you don't even know them. Maybe they've never even been to your sim.

That just seems insanely arbitrary, frankly.

Zidonuke Ghost:

"No one at LL can remove RedZone because the policy to make it illegal doesn't exist in their eyes. It's such a problematic issue to tackle that they will need definitive policy in place before they can take action of systems that reveal alts."

You know, I'm really starting to resent this idiot. Whether or not anyone non-Linden-based cares about all the screaming, it's not any non-Linden's place to close JIRA files. Flat. Out.

Boy Lane in response:

"'No one at LL can remove RedZone because the policy to make it illegal doesn't exist in their eyes. It's such a problematic issue to tackle that they will need definitive policy in place before they can take action of systems that reveal alts.'

"No, it is clearly covered under ToS 8.3."

And Zidonuke punts it back:

Zidonuke:

"If it was CLEARLY covered as being against the ToS... They would of taken action against it already. The fact of the matter that as far as LL cares, its legal until they make it illegal, which is exactly what they are working on right now."

Yeah...and Boy Lane says:

Boy Lane:

"It is absolutely clear to me. Perhaps you should read the ToS.

'You agree that you will not post or transmit Content or code that may ... invade other users' privacy.'

Which is the short-form version of that ToS provision.

Qie Niangao:

(Jeez. This is not the place to have this discussion.) Legal won't be changing the ToS; rather, they'll put some policy language around how they interpret such devices to be in violation of the existing ToS. My concern is that in the meantime, folks who are mislead into thinking such devices have any impact on the copybot threat will innocently enough fork over L$4K, and end up with a brick.

And that's exactly what is going to be happening--with zFire's ban, and the deactivation (goddamn slow deactivation, but deactivation) of all the scripts responsible for running RedZone over the grid...the buyers of RedZone will slowly find themselves in possession of a brick.

Unscripted.

That cost sixteen bucks.

in spite of a warning voice that comes in the night

Oops--didn't mean to publish yet, meant to place-hold--but hey, we'll just leave this here until I can edit it later. zFire Xue is gone.

More when I get word.

it was a black winter night as she stumbled on, and with every step grew closer to the ground

"Earthquake, tsunami, nuclear plant meltdowns -- as if the people of Japan didn't have enough to cope with, a volcano began erupting Sunday."

Great. That's all Japan needs...

Flynn lives. Go to the website for more information.

Minecraft now has faeries. They're a neutral mob, and more to the point, they're a complete mod of the existing code, start to finish--but they are interesting in both the benefits and the danger of having them around. I'm halfway tempted...

Pursuant to the last entry, a couple people worth mentioning (Lady Diamanda Gustafson and Miss Samantha Poindexter) let me know that Desmond had put out a confirming RedZone entry to all Caledonians in notices. But, because it didn't come with a notecard attached, I missed it last week. This is the text of that notice:

1) I've been asked about devices like 'Red Zone' that 'out' alts ~ these are against covenant in Caledon. We have a right to anonymity here. If seen, such devices will be returned, per our Avatar Rights.

2) Land ~ the market seems to be doing better these days, please folks, I've had some *very* painful decisions to make lately ~ if you skip tier, you may well lose a parcel. I only wish I had 8000 USD a month to give away, but sadly there are direct, immediate consequences with regard to tier.

Des

So, the Independent States of Caledon officially do not allow the use of RedZone or alt-detecting imitators, specifically because of the "Avatar Rights' provision of the covenant of Caledon. From the Steampunk Wiki, a brief explanation:

The Caledon Forums and Caledon Wiki are by virtue of flying its flag, a part of the community of the Independent State of Caledon, and as such are obligated to try to honor that community's covenant and its protection of "avatar" (individual) rights. One of the most important among the avatar rights, is the right to individual privacy. No character may be included here over the objection of the person playing that character, and reasonable effort will be made to remove references to a character if they request it. These sites are created to enhance the enjoyment of role play, not to restrict the ability of a character to change their role or withdraw from some aspect of play. Today's Victorian Wildcat might be tomorrow's Steampunk Cowboy and we will try to respect such change of heart even where it might seem trivial or silly to others."

Considering that the only thing that RedZone seems to do well, so far, is connect random similarly-IP'ed individuals under the "alts" heading of titular main accounts--who may or may not even have met, let alone be connected--of course this would be against Desmond's declaration of Avatar Rights.

So...who else will feel the need to declare one way or the other, on RedZone? It's garnered a lot of attention, nearly every speck of it bad.

Here's been my question, always: what's the big need to discover alt accounts in the first place? People have said that alts hide copyright infringers--which is certainly not all alts, nor are all infringers maintained alt accounts--some are throwaways, with obvious throwaway names.

So if that's not a good reason, what about griefing? People have said that if RedZone and other systems are banned, people will not be able to prevent griefers from entering their land. Which...is kind of silly, when I think about it, because all anyone has to do with a griefer is ban them from that parcel, and if that account really gets on your nerves, talk to the estate manager for your sim, or the sim owner, and sometimes, that name will be placed on the sim ban list. Done.

Okay, so if it's not about griefing or copyright infringement, what's left? To my mind, two things: stalking, and harassment. And I'm not even going to go out on that limb and say if you own a RedZone system, then you're the stalker. I just want to focus for a bit on the urge to protect ourselves, our virtual spaces, and our peace of mind.

Say you're someone who's been stalked. (And if you never have been, take my word for it--it's unnerving and upsetting. I've been stalked online, I've been stalked in person, and in any realm, it just makes your skin crawl. Never knowing when they're going to contact you--call you--show up on your doorstep--it shatters your confidence, it makes you fear the world. And when they start sending their friends to 'check up' on you...you start fearing other people. Any other people.) You want that fearful wariness to ebb, but you also want to be protected, you want to feel safe again. How safe are we, after all, with no safe spaces?

So you hear of a product on the market that will protect your land from those you--and others--have deemed harmful. It's a hefty chunk of change, but what price peace of mind? You buy it. You install it. And then the trouble starts.

Protesters. Complaint notecards. The whole GreenZone issue. Then a mobile version of the HUD, resulting in people--maybe even people you know--offering their services as wandering alt "detectors", and always for a fee. Maybe that makes you nervous.

Then it gets pulled from the market. Then it gets pulled from in-world. Maybe that's when you get nervous.

Then it turns out zFire Xue has been hacking accounts of people who bought his system--people like you--and who knows how long that's been going on?

When does it cross the line between wanting to protect yourself, and going too far? When is it too much?

More from the Jira That Will Not Die:

Angelica Pickles: "But silly as we are, we trust LL, and we like to listen and dance. In any way, LL TOS has made it sure that L isn't to blame for victimised residents who just weren't nerd enough to know that your privates are exposed to anyone rich enough to buy a sim and put a IP scanner.The developer of redzone knew that, and for that reason he could sell lots of copies of his griefing tool to many sim and parcel owners. In the mean time, LL kept thinking it wasn't their issue, because it's something outside of SL. But no, the people affected are SL residents, and they leave SL by the dozen because of not feeling safe and protected. Time passes, and more IP scan tools are developed of course, and without restrictions, scriptors after the big money spend hours daily developing scripts on demand. Where that ends? nobody knows, but what I know is that residents are feeling very much unprotected, and although LL encourages the use of alts as enhancing ones SL experience, people start thinking that having an alt is a criminal offense."

That's pretty much where we are.

Then Darren Scorpio mentioned this: "I think we all missed this from the latest LL Blog:

'It's also important to note that we are going to remove the 'voting' feature in JIRA in one month. Today, we do not use voting to triage or to make product decisions and the last thing that we want to do is set false expectations. So, when you are interested in what action we will take on a particular JIRA, use the JIRA 'Watch' feature so that you will be immediately updated in email when there are new comments on that particular JIRA issue. We will continue to use the number of Watchers as an indication of the level of interest.'

Note 'We will continue to use the number of Watchers as an indication of the level of interest.'

So if you have voted make sure you are still watching this Jira, also let everyone whom may have voted and is NOT watching to watch it, because apparently LL only cares about the number of watchers not voters."

And that was about when the bottom dropped out of my email account. Because I'm currently watching five or six issues, including the Jira That Will Not Die. This means, on average, I get between ten and thirty emails related to JIRA issues a day, and it's insane. I do not want this kind of hit to my email account; it makes it ridiculously difficult to track tenant issues, for one, and to weed through for blog replies, for two.

So--replace a system which lowered comments, and retained customer interest, but which the brass stopped caring about, for a system that will infuriate anyone trying to play by the rules, which will contribute to people spouting off on the JIRA--because why the hell shouldn't they? They're already getting every goddamned thing emailed to their accounts--and only lead to people becoming disenchanted with the whole damned thing and giving up on it as any kind of useful system to get issues--genuine issues, technical issues--taken care of, because--and is everyone with me? The Lindens do not care.

Except maybe for Soft. And possibly Yoz.

And the annoying thing? Largely, the Lindens have contributed to this bad reputation. Why are we here? Because there are no other forms of contact but the JIRA and abuse reports. How long are we going to maintain getting every single comment mailed to us on issues we care about? Not as long as the Lindens think.

And maybe that's their point.

Val Bellflower:

I hate content theft and copybots as well, but I do not see how IP tracking, exposing a person's legitimate alts and compromising the privacy and security of private individuals solves the issue.

I don't either.

Rosemarie Hathaway:

Sites like Red Zone, and all this profit off of one thing
Fear.

True.

Annamaria Button:

RedZone is ILLEGAL according to European protection data laws and regulations. No personal data may be collected in Europe without a prior privacy notice and especially without consent from data subject. I know laws and regulations may be different in the United States. But Linden Lab, being to keen to amend its regulations whenever it is discovered any of them breaks U.S. laws, having many European customers should also be keen on respecting OUR laws, and avoid to expose us to illegal activities.

International residents should know better by now, that's not how the US works. We don't respect other laws, we whine until you respect ours!

(But I'm not bitter.)

Serjourn Daxter:

Yes, please, please, please listen to Annamaria: She says what has been said over and over again on this Jira: REDZONE IS ILLEGAL.It not only gathers data without consent, it also [correlates], processes and [punishes] individuals based on these data. It does not matter if Linden Labs is a US company: When the data gathered is entered in Europe and concerning EU Citizens, EU law applies!

It does not matter that LL can gather the same data, because in signing up for Secondlife, you gave CONSENT to LL to do that. The same consent is not a blanket consent that also covers RedZone. RedZone must get the same CONSENT from EACH USER. Furthermore the consent must be given "before the data gathering, informed and [voluntary]".

But Daxter has a point, too--one which was proved earlier in Germany, when Germany threatened extreme sanctions against Linden Labs directly for actions of users in Second Life. EU rules do apply for EU citizens, which the Labs would be foolish to ignore. In fact, I'm surprised I haven't heard of court actions already having been filed against xFire and the Labs for the actions of RedZone.

Stacy Braveheart:

I think [RedZone] is a good thing... too many liars in sl now as it is using people for their own agenda.

And wau, did Stacy pick the wrong last name...THIS, right here, right HERE, is why RedZone has made so many sales. Because as far as alt detection goes, it's all based on fear, insecurity and jealousy. And it's completely, irrefutably, STUPID.

Seriously: you're dating someone in SL. Maybe he or she is your partner. Maybe you share land together, a business, a life...a Second Life. Past SL and the life you built there, and barring the choices you both make to be partners in real life:

* What business is it of yours where they live, unless they choose to tell you?
* Or how old they are?
* Or what gender they are, if you've never spoken with them?
* Or who else they're seeing, if they're being respectful and discreet?
* How is it you being threatened if they have a wife, a husband, a daughter, a son, apart from the time you spend together on the grid?

I'm not saying anyone should withhold all questions. I know I've asked some questions of people with whom I've been involved that have been very daunting for them. And I may be wrong in this, but I like to think that I have never made it a condition of continuing to date someone that they answer me. And if they tell me a thing, and I have made the decision to trust them, I have never removed that trust by disbelieving what they say.

Maybe it's just me, because I admit, I'm polyamorous on the grid and off. I make no bones about the fact that I have a wife, and a girlfriend, offline. I make no apologies for the fact that I have loves online. While those I love may not know details, they do know.

There is no room for fear if there is honesty, even if it's honesty only in generalities. Jealousy thrives in an atmosphere of fear, so there is no jealousy. And insecurity? Hey, that comes and goes, but that's just worry, and it can be pared down. Everything is possible for the lovers who choose communication over controversy, friendship over fear, and understanding over alt identification.

Only the fearful and the jealous don't understand that.

sorry you, sorry me, sorry every in between

There's an insane amount of things to announce today. So this is going to be a potentially long and meandering post. Bear with me.

First off, Winterfell has banned RedZone from its sims. This surprises me not at all. Honestly, I'm surprised Caledon hasn't banned it outright, but to be fair, RedZone--and its endless imitators--market to fear. There's not much an estate owner can do to combat that fear, because it comes directly from ignorance about how Second Life works, as well as how computers and similar technologies work.

Next, there's a new post from Axi Kurmin about the uphill battle Soft Linden's having getting RedZone--and its endless imitators--yanked like the toxic weeds they are. It mentions a YouTube video leaked by several sources that seems to be on how easy it is to use the RedZone system to get access to potential passwords of RedZone users. The best comment on the link I used first:

"Seems to me that if RZ and Xue goes downhe's trying his best to [take] SL down with the wreck."

Yeah, it really does.

(Just for verification, match the fuzzy-vision blue blur of hair shape and face shape, as well as vocal tone in the supposedly "fake" video, with this one, which is a full-face authentically-voiced zFire talking about jumping out of an airplane. This is the same guy. Does he think we're that stupid?)

InWorldz, as of this writing, has also banned RedZone and RedZone-like devices.

So the question becomes, why hasn't the Labs? Soft Linden is doing all he can, but he really seems to be the one guy on the job. Is he receiving any support from superiors? Does he have a team? Or is it just him fighting his uphill battle while the upper management tell him it's no big deal?

According to the Alphaville Herald--not noted for their journalistic integrity--the hackers have been hacked, but apparently the blackhats went down to whitehats, or at least greyhats (it's hard to friggin' tell who's who). They "wont" release the database, but they recommend zFire remove the password tracking capabilities of RedZone.

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

One of the comments to that entry is notable. This from Scylla Rhiadra:

Linden Lab needs to act NOW to re-establish the confidence of its customers in the system. This is no longer just about RedZone: it's about the security vulnerabilities in SL itself that have made this kind of disaster possible.

I agree with her, but here's the main thing:

* Premium account-holders' confidence staggered when the openspace/homestead debacle went down the way it did.

* Merchant confidence plummeted when Zindra popped as a continent and all the Adult businesses were forced to relocate.

* Now a large majority of people are freaking out on some level, from "ZOMG this man I don't know has my home address/SL password/alt names!" to "ZOMG LL has been haxx0red!" (which, as we know, has happened at least twice in the past, so it's a reasonable concern under the hysteria).

And from another RedZone thread on Tateru Nino's blog comes this stunner (to me, at least):

"IBM were right after all to abandon corporate activity in Second Life. This sort of compromise was what they feared.

Hence their active work using Opensimulator and their 'walled gardens'."

Breen Whitman said that, and I'd love to find confirmation for it...anyone? Because IBM has been one of the strongest supporters of Second Life; if that's changes, SL as a concept has serious, serious problems.

Miss Nino, later on, tackles zFire Xue's statement directly:

"For me, the primary take-away is "Do not challenge people to try to break into your site if that is not what you want them to do.'"

Yeah, didn't we all learn not to do that when Gawker got hacked? Come on, people!

So let's go back to the Jira That Will Never Die, not that it so much matters anymore.

Emerald Seaside: "Sigh. Seems that the Linden's don't know what each other of them is talking about Soft Linden says it does belong in a JIRA and Oz Linden says it doesn't."

It would be nice if Lindens could agree on what's official policy, yes.

Unya Tigerfish: "This is a clear breach not only of ToS, but of US privacy laws. US law states that the criminal act of 'invasion of privacy' takes place when there is (for example):

* Public disclosure of private facts (my alts are my private matter, and only mine)

or

* False light: the publication of facts which place a person in a false light, even though the facts themselves may not be defamatory. And being labelled alt of someone is a false light, as the IP gathering is less than perfect.

Maybe we could find a US resident willing to sue?"

I'm actually hoping this doesn't end up in court, because there'll be bad precedent either way.

Arkady Arkright: "I see Oz Linden's comments as a deliberate attempt to sweep the whole issue under the carpet - 'Mention it again and I'll ban you" - a disgraceful example of a company ignoring its user's wishes by invoking a technicality."

Please. This is how the Labs do business, people. Obfuscation; confusion; misdirection. Oh, and of course layoffs.

Masami Kuramoto: "Oz, how many more votes on this issue does it take for you to realize that personalized media playback without user confirmation is a design flaw? More than 300 residents can see the problem. Why can't you?"

I'd adore an answer to that.

zFire Xue shows up: "Dare I challenge Linden Labs to investigate the viewers, inventory, and chat logs between GothGirl Demonia and myself.

"RedZone cooperates with Linden Lab, all they need to do is ask.

"[...] RedZone has full support in working with people."

Right. I have several questions on this.

1. Does he mean "I dare to challenge the Labs", or does he mean "Dare, I challenge"? In the latter case, does he mean Dare Munro specifically, or another Dare?

2. RedZone cooperates with Linden Labs? Really? When Soft comes out and returns his vendors, and he puts them right back out? When Soft delists his listings on the Marketplace, and he puts them up for sale again? That's cooperating with the Lindens?

3. Full support in working with people? Password-skimming of his own userbase equates "full support"?

Micaela Darkwatch: "I would seriously like to recommend Linden Lab employees check out the Redzone forums.

"By most accounts, this product is worshipped for it's alt account detection ability. When the HUD came out people were excited about going to other sims and being able to 'click' on other avatars to find out if they were in the database or to build onto the database. Some Redzone users want the ability to ban the HUD users on their sims, because they don't want to be scanned. Because it's an invasion of their privacy.

"Seriously Lab, this isn't a joke any longer. This isn't paranoia. You have my information. You can tell that I'm not a griefer, copybotter etc. I am a premium member. I contribute to the community just as much as these people.

"Close the media hole."

I thought quoting her whole comment was worthwhile, because this is indicative of the level of complaints--it's not just 'free accounts', it's premium members, some of whom have been members of SL for several years. Merchants, estate owners. Major players. When will the Labs listen?

Some small bit of levity before I tie this up until next time. This from one of the many, many hunt groups proliferating across the web:

[20:38] Raindrop Lowbeam: Hey Couch Pototatos! How's the hunting?
[20:39] Thane Woodford: Been making things lol
[20:39] Raindrop Lowbeam: big things! laughs
[20:39] Anya Flux: a little more difficult than i expect, but i can solve it
[20:40] Vesper Wildrose: I am a french fry.
[20:43] Thane Woodford wonders what is a french fry about
[20:44] Beautiful Shamen: 3 inches?

I know, I know, really bad joke. But I thought it was funny.