I knew you wanted to tell me, in your voice there was something wrong

Burning Life 2009 ended, and the reputation of the Burn went up in smoke.

This is how it goes.

Tateru Nino over at Massively and Stroker Serpentine, the mind behind SexGen, broke the story about the massive cases of copyright infringement that were plunked right in the middle of Burning Life.

And I was sad because I hadn't wandered the virtual Burn. Now I'm glad I didn't go.

To repeat information you will find there, this is a partial list of everything that was lifted from various designers on the grid, hacked into notecard segments, and passed out in one full-permission box (apparently previously owned by Damen Hax, a long-time resident, who says otherwise, he has zero connection to the infringement):

3FX (Jasmine Godenot?)
FNKY! (Funk Schnook)
CobraTech (BlckCobra Shikami)
**Kabuki Creations (Naku Nishi)
AQUALOVE Zen and Serenity (Luigi Dickens)
Raziel Foggarty Sexbeds (Raziel Foggarty)
Luna Animations (Jennifer Brennon)
::Bloodlines:: (Mars Bracken)
Zyngo (Aargle Zymurgy)
Bojan Allen Sexbeds (Bojan Allen)
CM Designs (Corrin Maitland)
Eclectic Randomness (Winter Ventura)
Bits and Bobs (Craig Altman)
[.::CHASE::.] (Ocean Lane)
Damania (Damanios Thetan)
Lovebirds Paradise Furniture (Bird Lilliehook)
Shiny Things (Fallingwater Cellardoor)
Stiletto Moody Shoes (Stiletto Moody)
Midnight Lotus (Hasuko Kuramot)
Quantum Products (Darling Brody)
5ifth Order (Jonny Dusk)
AKEYO (artoo Magneto)
Arcane (Eyllen Allen)
MystiTool (Mystical Cookie)
Ce Cubic (mirari Jun)
BARTLETT & NIELSON Furniture (Belle Bartlett)
Vamporium (Trijin Bade)
.:MAD Studio:. (Maddox DuPont)
SixtyNine(Kumii Yoshikawa)
:SEY (risey Arai)
SiniStyle (Krius Misfit)
SineWave (Easy Babcock)
VISTA Anim (Vista Barnes)
Henmations (Hendrik Schroeder)
Abranimations (Abramelin Wolfe)
Armidi (London Armidi)
@HOME (nightlife Overlord)
SOREAL (Kwarney Pinion)
[ hoorenbeek ] (Limer Kosten)
Gritty Kitty (Noam Sprocket)
Blaze Nielson (no store name, no classified ads taken, resident since 2006?)
TOM Burt (no TOM listed, just tom Burt and Tomae Burt, and no one has anything on their profiles?)
kowalski Erin (Neither kowalski Erin, who is German, or Erin Kowalski, who is not, have anything on their profiles?)
Redgrave (no idea whether "Redgrave" is first name or last, thus no other name to search for, thus no further information--anyone know more?)

Note, this is only a partial list.

From Ciaran Laval:

Linden Lab really need to make an example of someone here. They need to send a loud and clear message that exploits won't be tolerated, it's time to stop playing nice over there in San Francisco and go after those who encourage content theft.

It also hit over on Shopping Cart Disco, where Tenshi Velle sounds shocked and appalled, start to finish. (There's also an open discussion on copyright infringement that's worth reading through.)

Today, the creator of the Neillife viewer responded to the allegations that exploits in his viewer allowed this major hack. He denies any culpability...then spends a minorly exhaustive time detailing, in that post, simple hacks he's okay to tell others about, on how to get gestures, animations, system clothing layers, particle streams, and prim objects.

Lovely.

The march for IP protection and copyright security goes on...neither side is winning, yet, nor likely to do so for some time.

and never stopped to listen to your one and only prayer

The ultimate vampire comparison chart. (Though I note, there are mistakes on this list. But it's fun nonetheless.)

Speaking of ultimates, this is cut paper. No, seriously. All of that castle is comprised of folded and cut paper. Incredible.

On my way somewhere, I came across mention of a haunted house in Pirandello Bay. Imagine my intrigue when I saw this:



Oh my.

It's good food for thought, though, and it is a true statement. Plus, it forever amuses me that in keeping with PhotoBucket's draconian nudity policies, I have to 'mask out' nipples--therefore making them even more obvious--but the whipmarks across those lovely breasts? Will likely be just fine.

Hypocrisy, I tell you.

But more on them later; in the meantime, we move on! To...Chateau de Mort! Thrills! Chills! Zombies! Undead!

...wait, next event October 14th?!?



I admit, I love the concept of the Teleport Booth. That was a nice touch.

There were a lot of nice touches at Chateau de Mort, but very little coherency.



The Hell Hole was new this year, but overall rating...eh. One out of ten skulls? Too many things happening for no reason, way too many sounds overlapping, but the build is nice. Which brings us to...

Bloodmoon Manor. Which, oddly, was the same build as the Chateau, and many of the same props. What the hell? Mostly dull, but there were interesting moments:



The ballroom, for instance. Took a while to rez in, but once it did, it was eerily beautiful. Another lovely little touch is in the front room of Bloodmoon--a ghostly radio that plays themes from horror films, classic and modern, on the parcel stream. Again, elegant little touch.



This was also an interesting touch. Not truly connected to the rest of the house, but a nicely laid out room on its own. The burning body was a nice touch.



The attic was rather good, as well. The fellow with the chainsaw was overkill, but the torso on the table was reasonably grotesque.

Yes, my hair has eyes. It also blinks on occasion. But we'll move on.

Then we went to Pirandello Bay. This is an adult-rated sim. They're very interesting. They have an ice dungeon. It all sounds fascinating.



You may have to port in to the welcome center and find the teleport down; I'm not entirely sure it's not on a default beam-in point. Luckily, there's usually someone hanging around ready and willing to help out, in whatever fashion they can.



The house itself is well-built, and nicely laid out for a small haunt, but....honestly, there's one rat. I think the biggest terror in there is that there's dust. And the one rat.



And not enough bondage equipment in the dungeon. The horror!

Onward to Quark, where I ported into a table. This table:



Ick. On the positive side, we finally have a table setting for upwardly mobile zombies?

The house itself is amazing--all 750 prims of it. It's Ulysses Cabaret's "Crooked Steamer" house, and this place is just packed with neat nooks and crannies and small rooms and gearpunk tweaks--including the slightly curving smokestack that is the house's tallest feature.



But--apart from the brain buffet downstairs, and a single ghost roaming upstairs, there...wasn't anything else in the house.

I climbed the ladder to the attic and saw this after I drew close to the single pumpkin adorning the attic floor:

[23:32] Halloween Contest: BOO! Emilly Orr has survived the haunted house and have been entered in the Halloween Zyngo Contest! Your high scores will now show on the contest board! Visit Ill Faire to play

AAAAAAH! ZYNGO!! RUUUUUUUN!

Okay, that was scary.



"About the history of Slaughter Creek Manor

"This historic two-story house in Slaughter Creek with its wide verandahs and beautiful wrought iron work is now open to thousands of visitors each year - and they all want to know about the ghosts and tragedies associated with this sprawling mansion.
The original occupants were Andrew Mills and his family in 1884 and it would appear that from the Mills family most of the stories of ghosts and hauntings and many other tragic happenings seem to originate.

"In fact the ghost of young Mrs Mills and her new born baby has been seen many times in her former room and in recent years. It is believed that after Andrew Mills was murderd by their former stable hand leaving behind his beautiful wife and newborn son in 1910, Mrs Mills only left the house on two occasions and leaving her son in the care of her nanny had left the house upon her return she found the nanny had killed the baby by dropping him down the stairs and then killed herslf , This was the last straw for poor Mrs mills whome had become so very depressed and was soo distraught at the loss of her family she hung herself from her bedroom closet no wonder her presence still lingers. A new family had since moved into the empty home and had felt a bad evil pressence that took over the father and he when mad till he killed his whole family with a knife in thier sleep and turning it on himself...one family had tried to live there but lasted only a short time their experience: "We moved into Monte Cristo on June 3rd 1963 blissfully unaware of the Homestead's often gruesome history, those dubious revelations would be some time off..."



It goes on like that, for a really long time. Like, a lot of exposition. And while I've shortened it for blog inclusion, I haven't corrected any spelling errors or run-on sentences, so you can see the back-story is about as scary as the house!

Still, the actual haunt is rather fun.



The best part? They have a creepy haunted tip jar doll that chases you until you pay him! RUUUUN--or pay the kid, and then he'll go away!

Couple more from tonight's run through the haunts to come. Stay tuned!

they've torn the life blood from your naked eyes

Saw this sign in USC Textures today:



Really? Unlucky chairs now qualify as "realistic violence"? Is this a new ruling? Because that makes zero sense. ZERO. SENSE.

Can anyone verify this? Because in an hour of searching the SL blog for new adult content rulings on unlucky chairs, I've come up with nada.

MMORPG has an article on customer service sins, from the gaming standpoint. It's short, and wanders, and is not particularly on point, but this comment from Myrdinn in the forums after snagged my attention:

"That being said, CoX's (City of X's) CS are also top-notch from beta on to today: however, they seem to be a reflection of my first point. They play the game... it is reflective in how they respond to issues found in game. Kind of hard to explain it, but the grammar and vocabulary used often reflects how the in-world users of a game phrase and talk about issues. CS folks in other sites don't always do that..."

I know they're talking about the City of Heroes/City of Villains game, but it's a good point for dealing with Linden Labs and Second Life. At this point, I know automatically if I have a customer service need, and I get someone who knows SL terminology, that I'm likely in good hands.

But the controversy over the formation of Ursula, and everything that's followed since the renaming to Zindra, has more than convinced me that no one involved in that entire continent build, start to finish, ever plays Second Life. The simplest terms evaded them completely--even the loud protesting over the co-opting of "AO" to mean "Adult Options" when every single resident on the grid hears "AO" and translates it as "Animation Override"--did nothing to convince them they needed to employ folks who actually play in the world the Lindens own.

Some random shots from Kowloon sim.



(Rotating metal fish that appeared in a cloud of pink smoke, festooned with vacuum tubes, and disappeared as quickly.)

I've been wandering around in Kowloon off and on for a while now. It started when I was in FallnAngel Designs, and saw a small black cat with a turning particle head:



(First sighting of the Kowloon Kitten in Azriel Demain's domain.)

This thing is very cool, but also very creepy...but, the more you wander Japanese sims? You realise this thing is everywhere...

The problem is, it doesn't appear to be for sale anywhere. WangRen Frog made it, but he doesn't seem to have a shop, or anything listed on his profile, except--a picture of the Ubiquitous Kowloon Kitten, and...a mention of Kowloon.



(Main Street, Kowloon sim.)

The detail in this sim is impressive. The quiet is a bit unnerving--I've only ever run across one other person in the sim, and she never spoke a word. I'm sure there are people who populate the sim, but...I've rarely run across anyone.



(Hazeran. Cafe? Pleasure house? Eatery? I wasn't sure, but things were vibrantly red in and near it.)

Many of the places in Kowloon are so detailed, I forgot I was wandering on a sim and started wondering how I'd gotten lost in a Singapore coastal market. Then I actually got lost, wandering in the 'residential' zones above the street.



(Another plume of pink smoke, another odd construction bobbing in the hallway.)

I turned a corner and suddenly saw another burst of bright pink smoke. What faded into view afterwards, however, was not easy to describe. A drill...wrapped in slick flesh...that hovered and rotated in midair. Before I could take a step forward--or run away--it disappeared as the cyber-fish had.



(Lazily spinning fan above aged plaster walls in Kowloon.)

The detail's very impressive, even in the back corridors, and--while I got the idea that taking pictures wasn't allowed--somewhere in all the back corridors is a box, that gives out a HUD, which takes you on a visual virtual tour of Kowloon. While you're in the sim. I can't explain it better than that, but it's a fascinating process.

I plan to go back...one way or the other...I'm finding out who has that kitten.

cast aside to be forlorn...

Off in the distance, the autumn wind carries a hint of woodsmoke on the air, the damp must of fallen leaves, and just a faint, faint edge of overheated metal, slicing through the comforting surroundings like a knife.

She looks to the east, and sees the glow of fire, far far away. As far as the train whistle is, thin and distant and plaintive as the train she cannot see winds around the far side of the mountains.

Here we go again.

To stave off such depressing thoughts, let's go back to the third-party viewer comments.

RockAndRoll Michigan had this to say about Emerald in response to Blondin Linden:

"When our revised policy goes into effect, any viewer containing functionality that can be used to impede our efforts to manage Second Life will not be tolerated"

Does this mean (hopefully) that Emerald's built-in avatar scanner will not be tolerated?

Let's see. I can use this to scan for any avatar within 4096 meters of my location. Check

Contrary to what people have said to me in-world, this will allow for people to be found even in other sims. Check

This will allow me to teleport to the location of anybody that I find in its scan range of 256 sims. Check

This renders the ability to decide who can and cannot map my avatar absolutely useless. Check

This feature doesn't even care if the avatar that it has found is somebody on your friends list or not, it will allow it for total strangers and friends alike. Check

Let's take this point by point.

First. There are gadgets in world--I have one myself--that scans for avatars on a sim. ON the land I admin, I can scan for who's on the sim and where they are. Any estate manager can do that. There are also tools one can buy and rez out that show every avatar's mame and position on the sim.

None of these gadgets, tools, and abilities are illegal on the grid.

I still don't think you can find people in other sims by doing this, but nothing stops someone with a strong enough computer processor from maxing out draw distance with no cam restrictions, and that also is not illegal.

Next, if you think you can sit in the center of a 4096-meter-wide space and access 256 different sims...you're just too mental to talk to.

Finally, on avatars porting in without warning, I have two answers to that. First, avatars on or off your friendslist can always port in without warning, in a number of ways--none of them, either, illegal, most of them just deeply tacky. But more than that, if you set your parcel to have a specific beam-in point, it is incredibly difficult for people to just "pop in" unexpectedly.

Think of it like Caledon's telehub system--you can't just go into any house, you go to the central hub, unless you own that parcel. Set up a beam-in point away from your house, and the only avatars that will port in and interrupt you are the jerks who would have done it anyway.

Torrid Luna says what everyone's thinking:

You know, Linden Lab are just about to launch their own new viewer soon, and they have thrown lots of money on that project. Probably they just want to milk out a list of "must have" features from you all, for their baby to profit.

Of course they are. This is, or at least should be, known by everyone.

That doesn't mean it's a worthless conversation to them, and, in fact, could be a valuable conversation indeed if they *listen*. Because seriously--no alternate viewer would have a chance in hell of succeeding as a solid, community-approved choice, if the Linden viewers didn't suck so badly, most of the time.

Suella Ember remarks again:

Actually, i often wonder why LL don't work more like this anyway.

Keep the open source nature of the viewer, but adopt an approach more akin to Firefox with one "official" viewer that the open source community can contribute to (think Firefox extensions).

And that's not the worst idea, either. One official viewer, but add-ons that anyone can download and install. It doesn't change the nature of what the official viewer does, it changes what the client sees. That could be the best of all worlds, and anyone who's used to Firefox, Chrome, or virtually any computer game is already accepting of the concept.

Prokovy again:

The people using encrypted chat are more likely to be motivated by the desire to conceal financial fraud or engage in illegal activities like child pornography than they are to use it for "corporate communications" -- if they are genuine corporations, they're not on the main grid, duh, they're on Nebraska.

And again, my first reaction is, You have to be KIDDING.

While I am not one to deny the rampant ills of pedophilia in American--and worldwide--society, on the net there are far easier ways to exchange child pornography than downloading the Second Life Viewer, uploading the picture to the main server, sending it to someone else who's downloaded the viewer, and making sure they receive it. While of course it's possible that people are doing this, it seems--to me, at least--a path fraught with cumbersome complications and the very real risk of getting caught faster.

So, let's see. So far Prokovy Neva hates Communists, the open-source movement in general, the ecologically aware, anyone who isn't foursquare for capitalism as a business model, hippies, people who use Linux, child pornographers, pedophiles, terrorists, anyone who's been on the net longer than five years, and people who make freebies--and he equates all these people as one group in his head.

Yeah. That's just insanity, that is. That's get-him-to-a-therapist-STAT right there.

Prokovy again:

Fraud, copyright theft, and griefing THROUGH THIRD-PARTY VIEWERS have all been *amply documented* by *both residents and the G-team* and *acted upon* by the G-team.

This is something that the big boosters of the third-party viewers don't want to admit. In fact, they'd rather bully and harass anybody pointing that out and commit more violations than admit that in fact their beloved viewers have been widely used by griefers, stalkers, thieves and fraudsters.

The Lindens know that, those of us that have suffered at their hands know this, we've got plenty of eyewitnesses AND Linden action, and THAT IS WHY THE LINDENS ARE ACTING SO AS TO RESTRAIN THIRD-PARTY VIEWERS, DUH.

Um, no, not all third-party viewers. As far as I know, no features of Nicholaz were in any way against the Terms of Service of Second Life. And, while there are some features with Emerald that can be misused, yes, it was not designed as a hack viewer.

Features of Emerald I really like while I'm on the topic:

* The "worn" tab. Yes, I know it's possible to search through my inventory to find everything I'm wearing. I can also "detach all" or "remove all". But it is so much easier just to click over to that tab and see everything--prim clothing, HUD attachments, system layers--that I have on.

* Double-click to wear or remove items. This used to be part of the official Linden viewer when I started, and I missed it. It came back with Nicholaz, and then Mr. Beresford stopped updating his viewer, so until Emerald, I didn't have this ability. It's such a simple little thing, but it's wonderful.

* Built-in radar. Radar has been essential to me for many, many reasons. Mostly as a host in various places, I will admit, but it's also good to be able to see at a glance who's around me, if I'm otherwise off doing something; I can at least respond if I can't see them due to working on textures, or building, or what-have-you.

* Built-in AO. While I still use an external AO, just knowing that, when on Emerald, I can have my AO drawn from the viewer, as opposed to the HUD I have attached to my viewer screen, means so much. I don't have to lag parcels with my cycling AO when I have it packed full of cool new animations, I can let one hard-coded script accessing a simple notecard in my inventory take care of everything.

* Presets on new prims and new textures uploaded. This one's INSANELY USEFUL. Knowing without a doubt that every texture I upload is automatically full-permissions, knowing that any system layer I create is automatically mod/copy/notrans...it's a small step, but incredibly helpful. Better, knowing I can create any prim on the grid to default white, over plywood, helps bunches.

robertltux McCallen had this to say:

My take is don't block/ban a viewer make an [official] list of both "hostile" and Known Good Viewers and please don't nerf the great but powerful features of the third party viewers just because they can be used for both sides of the coin. (example the avatar radar and tp to feature: great tool for anti griefing and [griefing])

He's not wrong. Any strong, sturdy tool to use for good on the grid could be turned; radar, for instance, is incredibly important for hosting and for sim management, but can be used to harass other avatars. TP to height/TP to avatar features have good uses; but we only hear about people who've been surprised by friends and not-friends alike barging in on their private spaces without asking first. (Of course, there's an easy solution for that, as well, even in Caledon--security orbs are allowed at skybox level, just not on the ground.)

Meade Paravane in answer to a question from Dnali Anabuki:

| Why is encryption such a big deal?

Because terrorists will use it to hide their activities.

A (very tired) cliché? Oh yes. Absolutely.

True anyway? Yep. Well, maybe not exactly terrorists but there are lots of jerks in the world and many of them have computers.

Let me get this straight. OTR encryption for privacy--which, by the way, no one has to use--is bad because:

* Terrorists will say bad things using it and plot world devastation.

* No, wait, maybe not terrorists, but hackers will use it to say bad things and plot griefing devastation.

* No, wait, it's just there's a lot of jerks in the world and we should know what those jerks are saying.

Is this seriously the point she's trying to make?

Look. First thing, I can't use OTR encryption if I'm not using Emerald, or if the person I want to communicate with isn't using Emerald and I am. Second, I don't use it for business IMs--whether I'm the customer or the retailer. Because I want those conversations logged, and, as near as I can figure, OTR encryption means just that--no recording of the conversation at all.

And I only use it with certain people when I do use it, and generally because we discuss very personal things . I'm not so much trying to hide criminal or unsavory activities, as detailing things about myself, RL, that I don't necessarily want spoken openly, in SL.

How is that hard to understand?

And I love the step-down, I adore the stepdown--TEH HORROR TEH TERRORISTS WILL WIN! to Jerks, you should watch 'em, bet they're planning to do something stupid.

Insanity.

*watches Rubbery Trenchcoat wander by in world and goggles*

Man. People and their names. Apparently, Sanura Sakai dealt with a "Death Soup" yesterday, in her store.

At any rate, this is more than enough griping for this entry. We'll move on to the next one!

there's no more coming back this way, the path is overgrown and strewn with thorns

He's not wrong. Even for bad movie fans, the Star Wars Holiday Special has broken too many geeks for it to be considered 'bad' in the traditional sense. It should more properly be classified as 'toxic' to all who view it.

You will not emerge unscathed, it should say. Or come with a bright red warning label affixed to it: CAUTION--THERAPY WILL BE REQUIRED AFTER VIEWING.

Before we go back into the rant zone, I wanted to mention a couple things. First, SN@TCH--the store name I hate to mention--is, along with several other makers of very cool things, having their annual Halloween Hunt.



Last year they built a haunted girls' school and called it CUTTING CLASS. It was fairly well-thought out, genuinely creepy in spots, and it was a puzzle, a game, that led you through the tragic history of the school to the end room, where there were lots of prizes to be picked up.



This year they did things a bit differently, in that they hid prizes throughout the build. Look everywhere--in drawers, behind structures, on top of lockers, in chairs. And you'll also be collecting notes that explain what went on in Nightmare Eden, a now (mostly) abandoned space station somewhere in orbit between Mars and Earth.



You know me and eyes, if you know me in world at all, and I'm here to tell you, there are a lot of eyes to pick up and cuddle in this game. But be warned--most of them are eye-sized, and in fact, eye-shaped. The House of Ruin did the eyes for finding, and I'm reasonably sure, without too many doubts, that I didn't find them all.

This one's also definitely creepier--the sounds, the look of the place, the mutated animals, the skinned humans....and the computer, B.E.T.T.I, getting more and more deranged the closer you get to the core. It has some chills, and at least one place where I actually (RL!) jumped back.



You can start in front of the SN@TCH main store, or go to the Nightmare Eden Embarkation Center instead. Inside, you'll find a sign for Nightmare Eden, which will give you a landmark and a HUD to wear. You can wear the HUD; I don't recommend it, as it cut off a lot of my range of vision. How'ver, it does contribute to that 'video game' feel.

Secondly, to celebrate the opening of an actually open satellite store, Lady Disdain is having a hunt!



The Lost Coast is located at Black Sand Beach, in the Solace Beach Estates. It's a charming little patch of land, that I am slowly developing (as I get funds and time). But the store is open, and making sales, and to celebrate that, I'm holding a hunt!

This one's so much easier than last year. Twenty bats, a Linden each, very easy to see against the walls of the store. As the sign says, all but four of the bats are inside the store--and none are hidden behind anything, though you may have to cam in (or cam up!) to find them all.

They contain:

* Thirteen newly-painted sets of eyes, tilted towards the spooky end of things;
* Three of my first ever poses (the sign says four, but I think in the end, I ditched one as unimpressive); two static kneels, for photography, and one animated "zombie attack" that comes with a sculpted arm stump (mod, of course);
* Two new outfits (the next two in the "Carni" series);
* One set of amber horns (large, but I think they can be resized);
* And my first ever skin. Based on the Splendor skin release by Sezmra Svarog, with a burlap overlay and burnt stitching here and there, it is a wonderfully creepy little rag doll.

Click the sign in the store (or click the sign in Autogenic Alchemy for the notecard and a landmark) for more information, and exactly which bat contains what. Find them all or pick and choose, it's up to you!

And if you'd rather not hunt them out, everything but the horns and the poses will be for sale in the store after the hunt. (I'm still working out how to find an animation sales display stand for the animations and poses.)

All right: next post, more ranting!

hit me like a ray of sun, burning through my darkest night

I wandered over to the discussion finally, on the third-party viewer question on the Linden blog. I'm very nearly sorry I did. It all comes down to two words, one name, one resident: Prokovy Neva.

The very first post after Blondin's expected chirpy intro, in fact, is Prokovy's:

I'm glad there's at least a glimmer of a notion of "accountability" for these heedless and hedonic and even malicious third-party viewers that have enjoyed a reckless field day in Second Life since first blessed by Philip Linden, and since criticis of them were first silenced in town halls or on blogs.

Hedonic? Also, it's "critics", properly, but...

...Hedonic?

.......HEDONIC?!?

Okay, I admit, I had to look this up, because I'd only ever heard "hedonistic": it turns out "hedonic" is an archaic form that pretty much means...the same thing. It comes from the Greek word hēdonikos, from the base hēdys, which originally meant "sweet".

Still. Weird. Anyway.

The reality is, these opensouced viewers have not brought any demonstrable boon to Second Life, and those using them are not connecting up the dots between their trunks and their devil spawn of deliberately malicious viewers.

Hooooold up, here. First, it's open-sourced, but second, open-sourced viewers have brought demonstrable boons to SL. For one, Emerald has a whole host of innovative features, all of them taken directly from the sldev list; it's not code that's coming from anywhere else. Second, were it not for Nicholaz Beresford's work on the Nicholaz viewer, at least 20% of SL's user base, if not far more, would have been completely, cripplingly unable to log in, AT ALL, during half of 2007 and all of 2008. Third, Snowglobe, which is the single most stable, most creative viewer that Linden Labs has ever built--came directly from conversations on the sldev list WITH OPEN-SOURCE CODERS.

How is any of that not a "demonstrable boon"??

Aeronya Arai had a thought-provoking comment:

[...] after all not every user of SL has an unlimited bandwidth line into SL, some have to pay monthly based on their total bandwidth used during the previous month, and yet others are on plans that simply cut off their access when they reach their maximum usage for the month (the various bugs in the past with the standard viewers haven't helped these individuals, in some cases a new version of the viewer began using up to twice as much bandwidth than the previous version did often times as a result of some bug in the code).

Especially in the case of Australian users of Second Life, this is a very real hazard--per month user loss is one thing, but bandwidth leaks--which are perpetual with the official viewers, even Snowglobe, and have been alleviated to a great extent with Nicholas, Kirsten and Emerald viewers. It's yet another case where there is a visible and demonstrable boon of open-sourced viewers--keeping more international users able to log in to Second Life, and contribute to the culture and the economy.

Things were actually going well in the thread, lots of relevant discourse, between residents and Blondin Linden on what features draw people to the Emerald Viewer. Everything mentioned were things the Lindens desperately need to listen to. Then Prokovy Neva snapped a cog again:

Today, temporary free uploads to evade the sink tax of $10 per texture for the sake of "creactivity". All client side.

Tomorrow, hacks and exploits to ensure that "temp mode" stays permanent, perhaps even during log-ons and movement between sims to enable people to have entire fashion shows, builds, powerpoints, whatever, all without costing a dime.

Then the day after, even more hacks and exploits to permanently do an end-run around the $10 texture cost and to override economic common sense mechanisms to keep it stable.

You HAVE TO BE KIDDING.

First off, it's ten LINDEN per upload, not ten DOLLARS. Second, "temp mode" is just that--entirely temporary. When that session ends, so does the texture upload. It's not meant to be permanent, because it never goes on the server. It's entirely client-side.

There's no way the Lindens would change that, for third. And there is no way to get around that, because that is server-side. "Hacks and exploits" would do nothing--you can hack textures off the server, but you can't hack "free" textures into the server...without paying that ten Linden fee.

The concept of 'free' fashion shows, also, is just ludicrous, from start to finish. First, temporary texture uploads, while viewable to others, are based on your session alone. You can't give creations away made with them. I suppose you could sell them, but when the plywood frock ended up in your customer's inventory, you'd be ARed in a flash. Not only that, but if you crash? That's the end of your session, and all those textures wipe back to default.

It stacks stupidity on stupidity, at that point, to ramp that up to builds--because it wouldn't last. All the temporary texture upload feature does? Is bring a bit of beta grid onto main grid. That's all. It means those of us who build--and I'm beginning to understand just how little, if any, building Neva does--don't have to log in to a separate grid to keep creating. This saves us time and is a help, not a hindrance.

Is it something I want in an official SL viewer? Not necessarily; but it's one of the best features of Emerald.

Suella Ember had a great retort on this topic that covers some of the same points I've made, but I want to quote her anyway:

LL charge $10L per upload to cover hosting costs - fair enough, i have absolutely NO problem with that. What i do have a problem with is being charged $10L all the time for textures i upload to test on a build. I like to get my designs perfect and i can often upload a texture 10, 20 even 50 times until i have it looking exactly as i want it on my creation. These test textures are all deleted and hence it does not cost LL anything in hosting.

The temp texture upload from Emerald solves this problem perfectly. The temp textures are automatically deleted at relog and you HAVE to upload a final texture with the $10L upload cost for hosting for the final build. You cannot use a temp texture on a final build as it will just appear grey for anyone else viewing it or if it goes off sim from where it was uploaded.

PRECISELY.

Of course Prokovy got the concept wrong, and even sent out a patronizing retort that we just weren't 'getting it':

Today, a temp upload for a quick view.

Tomorrow, an upload for hours to check my PowerPoint or Fashionshow

The next day after, a strident demand to have that 'always' on the asset server and "for free".

It's all part of creating the climate of erosion of values and demands for everything for free.

If you don't start pointing out that climate when it is only "client side" it migrates to "server side" in a jiffy.

Yeah, see...NO. First, no one but the stick-stupid would complain about the uploads costing--yes, there are times I can't build because I just don't have the Lindens, but during those times, I can go to the beta grid and work designs out. When I have money for upload fees, I use money for upload fees, and have been doing so since I started building in 2006. It's no exaggeration to say I've paid hundreds of thousands of Lindens in upload fees for textures, sounds, animations, and half again as much in photo fees. And I've never minded this--I know that as a free account, it's what I can do to help support SL and the Labs. And I do it, I've never had a problem with it.

But second, while someone could run a PowerPoint presentation with this technique--if not too many folks showed up for the class--one could never run a Fashion Show, because I don't think a computer exists that could build twelve outfits from scratch, upload them all temporarily, AND hang out until the show and then show all the outfits themselves--without any other models, and WITHOUT CRASHING.

Never happens.

Kean Kelly commented:

What I love about Emerald is that it is made of people who are clearly in the know about using, building, socialising etc. in Second Life.

Emerald has a lot of new features that are great like buildt in radar and ao, But many features is allready in the SL viewer, in Emerald they are just put in a more userfriendly spot on the UI (windlight settings to mention one out many).

All true, and that's one of the things I adored about the Nicholaz viewer, and it's one thing I adore about Emerald--that the folks behind both viewers knew building, knew scripting, and build--or built--heir viewers for SL with building and scripting in mind.

Prokovy Neva also commented on a reply from Korwyn Obscure:

As to all these features, one has to look at them with a weather eye:

*Lagless Radar built in

Er, radar for what? Privacy issues have been raised here repeatedly.

Err, privacy for what, exactly? Radar has been a part of SL since nearly the first two years; not only that, but radar doesn't mean you see everything on the sim with one touch; most radar systems read the people only within talking range (19 meters) or within shouting range (96 meters). And no radar that's not a sim-wide scanner will do anything beyond that. (As far as I know.)

So what privacy issues? The privacy not to be seen by folks who can likely see you anyway as you walk up to them? That's mental.

Prokovy quoting Korwyn again:

*TP to as well as offer tp (works within sim, using the Radar Interface)

Are you saying this enables you to TP on to the head of someone who hasn't given you that power on their friendship card?

This one I have to agree with Neva on--this was a stupid power to put into a viewer. People have been unfriended over this, and in Caledon, there are people who just go OFF when someone ports in without asking. There's a whole different ethos in the portions of the grid that are Caledonian, Winterfellan or part of the Steamlands--that of, knock first. Or at least IM.

This one I wouldn't mind seeing gone from the Emerald viewer, actually.

I skip a lot of "Nuh-UH" response of the five-year-old variety to get to this:

*Being able to become visually phantom in a griefer attack with a keyboard shortcut. No more being orbited by griefers or pushed.

One sided report of this issue, which then puts your entire review here into question. Phantom is what people use FOR the griefer attack, duh.

Okay. Let me clear this up for the intelligence-impaired.

This is me, in normal avatar mode, in Caledon Morgaine:

This is me in phantomed avatar mode, in Caledon Morgaine:

Didn't catch it? Let me explain it further.

When you employ the Phantom setting in the Emerald viewer, you cannot move. You remain visible. But you are visibly fixed in place--so no griefing can touch you, no weapons can push you, even those that have figured out a way to work to blast avatars off prims they use to sit.

You are seen by other avatars when you are in Phantom Mode, you just cannot interact with them.

Can I make this any clearer? Maybe.

This is Ms. Allen (in the robot avatar she's working on) and myself (I have the autumn-leaf dress, obviously):

In phantomed mode--and pull up for the big pic if you doubt this--Ms. Allen WALKS THROUGH ME. Admittedly, this was hard to capture in a still photograph; this was the best one I got.

I do not move in phantomed mode. I cannot move in phantomed mode. In fact, NO ONE WHO IS IN PHANTOMED MODE CAN MOVE--that is, in pure fact, part of the point. I--or any avatar who is using phantomed mode--cannot move to sneak off like great invisible ninjas of the night to hassle Prokovy Neva--or anyone else, for that matter--with atrocious acts of evil griefing. BECAUSE NO AVATAR IN PHANTOM MODE CAN MOVE, PROK. AT ALL. TO GRIEF YOU OR ANYTHING ELSE.

And just because I'm this sort of nitpicky completionist, the proof of phantom mode--because this is me not in phantomed mode, being pushed to the side when Ms. Allen walks into me--because I am not in phantomed mode. And thus, CAN BE INTERACTED WITH. And, just to drum this neatly into the ground, CAN MOVE AND BE MOVED.

Okay? Does everyone have this point? Please tell me I don't have to quiz everyone later.

Moving the hell ON. Unfortunately, it's moving the hell on in the same damned letter:

* enhanced camera

And the reason for that is...what? Spying on people? or sunsets?

Oh, you have to be kidding. WHY is Prokovy so convinced anyone cares enough to spy on people? Or, more to the point, spy on Neva? It's insane. It's raving, foaming-at-the-mouth paranoia. And I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of it, as I crawl through everything said since the 20th of this month.

I, for one, was lost on looking out over larger builds until I discovered the setting that eliminates the camera's internal limits. Even with that, I can't cam up and look down on an entire sim with any efficiency--so I can't imagine how sim owners who might seriously need to build overhead do it. Asking for enhancements on the camera settings--which not everyone is going to need or use--just makes sense.

Beyond that, if people want to, they can already--with existing camera limitations--stand in one sim and see what's going on in another. People can already--on the official viewers--be two hundred, three hundred meters away and watch what folks are doing. It is already possible to cam through walls, it is already possible to cam across sim borders, it is possible to follow people through port after port after port if you really want to--and those are all tools that are available in the official Linden viewers, not any presumed "fly by night" third-party viewer.

Bear with me, people, I think it's going to be a long, irritating week reading through all the dreck of responses on this blog entry.

in this world of over-rated pleasures, of under-rated treasures

How do you pick your MMO?

Relive Caledon's humble beginnings. And yes, even back then, there was cake.

Two days from now, there will be a party!



Actually, two--to support the fight against breast cancer, and to celebrate the second-year anniversary of der Hut des Jaegers in Winterfell Absinthe!

The first will be held from noon to two pm SLT in Port Absinthe, in Winterfell, and the second will be held from four to six pm SLT, on Sunday, for those who couldn't make it on the 24th.

From Frau Lowey's notecard:

Yes, it has been that long! Come celebrate the Consulate office with a bar, or the Jagerkin bar that has office stationary!

Also the release party for the 2010 Shirtless Against Breast Cancer Calendars - Ladies, Gentlemen, Fur & Fin, and Jaegerkin! Benefiting breastcancer.org, helping breast cancer patients and their families.

Music will be provided by Radio Riel, and yes, I know, Miss Fuschia just announced a party on the same day (**actually, it's Friday, not Saturday, oops!**), but do try to make it if you can. We are gently impressing on Miss Reghan Straaf to make a pink hat for sale on both days--so there might even be toplessness at the event! (Buy the hat, lose your top--if you wish--and support the fight against breast cancer at the same time!)

Shocking!

We'll be happy to see you. Expect songs of mad science and mad creations, Sparks, evil geniuses, Tiny mad things, genteel ladies, Jagerkin of all persuasions, and anything and everything I've failed to list!

Ales, and dancing, and music, and odd glowing things and good fellowship and helping the fight against cancer--what more do you want? We'll see you there!

I learn every time I bleed that truth is a stranger

Kraken are the new vampires.

Van Gogh strikes again--in starry starry cake.

Copyright infringement at the highest levels. While I still say the iconic poster, as drawn from the original image (which yes, seems clearly not the image that Fairey claimed originally), is transformative and may fall under fair use principles, the AP is stroppy over Fairey's outright lying to them in the earlier lawsuit, and lying about which image--taken by AP photographer Mannie Garcia, as it turns out--he in fact used.

And this is just ridiculous. Because Zindra worked sooooo well to enhance the "predictable user experience". I offer this translation: "Based on how Zindra killed the adult economy on SL, we're going to use those same principles in developing content protection tools, thereby killing the entire economy on SL. You can thank us later."

Interesting couple of things happened today. One, Miss Elegia Underwood announced in Caledon that there was a seminar on copyright infringement and intellectual property rights given by Kay Alderton in Wind River Territory. I decided I could take time out from frock tailoring and go sit and listen. I figured most of it I'd know, but I might learn something new along the way.

Most of what I heard I already knew, but I started applying it to what I knew of the grid. She began in very clear, absolutely unequivocal ways: if you do not know, for a surety, where your textures come from (or create them yourself); where your designs, skin and outfits come from (or buy a template you know that someone created, not hacked); where your scripts and sculpts come from (either self-created or created with a clear ToS license)--then you are violating copyright.

Think about this.

* Free textures: where do they come from? If you don't know, violation.
* Free sculpts: where do they come from? If you don't know, violation.
* Free scripts: where do they come from? If there isn't attribution, violation.
* Free skirt templates: sculpted or flexi, just like hair, where do they come from? If you don't know, violation.

Have you ever made something that reproduced any band logo, any book cover, any poster, any painting, any costume, any RL fashion designers' work, any RL shoe designers' work, any furniture maker's work, any architect's work? If it's not original, she says copyright law holds it's infringing. "Inspired by" only works for items already in the public domain.

Superheroes? Movie monsters? Cartoon characters? Tim Burton films? Computer games? Anime characters? TV shows? Actors, authors, dancers?

Music? Do you play songs in world you don't have licensing to play? Do you use clips from television shows, movies, or recorded music you don't own rights to in gestures or in-world sounds?

Do you import stories, or whole books, on in-world notecards that are not in the public domain, or allowable through library services for libraries in world? Or do you read entire books not written by you or not in public domain on voice?

Do you download anything not licensed as royalty-free or open-source from the internet?

Copyright violation.

More than that, as the digital era progresses, the more we realize that any time we view anything on our computers, whether we download it or not, the mere act of viewing that content means we have made a copy. And it's making a copy with only as many flaws as the original has; we are duplicating. We are cloning the original, as many times as we view the original content.

Every.

Single.

Time.

It's daunting. It's staggering. It's monumental. And ignorance, Miss Alderton said, is no guarantee of protection.

Boiled down: if we don't legally purchase the software we use to create textures ourselves to cover created prims we've made ourselves containing scripts we've written ourselves and sounds we've made ourselves...unless we know clearly the sources of all content we've imported in...

Potential violation.

As much as I support people making money, and artists being able to support themselves...there has to be another way.

And people wonder why I hand-paint eyes. Photorealistic? Hells, no. But mine start to finish? Yes.

Two, I found out about this video concerning the DMCA takedown order given AnimesFree. I find this especially relevant at the moment, because the speaker is absolutely accurate--with far less than 5% of the total American market devoted to anime and manga, any infringement takes on a huge relevance and can, in point of fact, be the difference between the studio artists and voice actors eating that month, or not. Or that particular animation studio staying open.

And, apart from sites that merely provide forums--which can, "wink-wink", include external links, skating the limits of responsible copyright protections--sites like AnimesFree blatantly discard any responsibility whatsoever. While they claimed they hosted no videos, and thus could aggressively claim innocence, they were seeking to hire people who could upload and manage lifted videos! These people, once put on staff, would be lifting the videos for them--how is that innocent in the least?

Finally, Boxed Heroes has pulled the majority of their stock. Their main room is empty; in fact, how I found out was one of my loves saying to me, "Emi, you've done bad..."



This was not my intent, but when I last spoke with one of the shop owners, he did say he planned to take the store in a new direction, more original work, which might lead to some very interesting avatars, with the talent behind BH already.

And, as previously stated, he did remove the kiosk, as he felt it had been misrepresented to him.

This, from the card Step Up! gives out in world:

What is content theft?
Content theft is when the work of a creator is stolen and either sold or even given away without the creator's agreement.

This is true, as far as it goes, but "content theft" is a misnomer in the extreme. It's more properly "copyright infringement"--something a maker has designed, that the maker retains intellectual property rights upon, that is not being distributed by the maker of the item. "Content theft" is catchy, but it's not accurate--the maker doesn't lose the item, the hacker just copies it--there's no "theft" involved.

Content could be anything in Second Life. It could be hair, clothes, skins, houses, furniture, transport. All of these have been stolen in Second Life. And much, much more.

Content theft hurts creators. It takes away the income and the credit that should be theirs.

It's accurate that "content" in SL covers "anything one can make in SL"--meaning skins, outfits, homes, furnishings, weather, rocks and trees, cars, sounds, songs, gestures--anything that can be dreamed up, than a maker can make: that is "content".

I'll also agree it hurts creators, but I don't necessarily agree on the second point. If someone has zero brand loyalty, and their prices are so absurdly high that, if attacked, people will not prefer the originals to going off and buying the hacked copies from someone else, then that business has technically failed anyway.

How'ver, if the maker has a good rapport with customers, good support from the grid and gets hacked, people will make a point of going to the source of the creations, so to speak, and buy things directly from the maker.

From another section of the card:

If the store claims to be selling goods by well-known content creators at fantastically cheap prices, with full permissions (to modify it, to copy it and to transfer it to someone else), then it may well be stolen.

If price seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Sometimes people genuinely don't know. It's on the tacky side, but I ran into a maker tonight who was offering a Wingless Emoto furry in her Midnight Mania. She had this impression that if she wasn't profiting from it--and, technically, she isn't, at least, not directly--then it wasn't copyright infringement. The avatar was given to her in a full-perm box; the avatar inside was full-perm; she received it over a year ago; where's the harm?

I tossed her a link on provisions in the DMCA and digital content law explanations, but I don't think she understood the point, at any time.

People do this continually on the grid. A maker has a freebie; they didn't make it; but it's full perm; why not use it? Outfits, clothing, vehicles, gestures--it's full perm, so it's okay to give away, right?

Wingless Emoto originally packaged up everything ever made into a full-perm box and set it out because of a disagreement over copyright, and there's at least one maker out there who's used the full-perm nature of these avatars to start her own fur avatar business. Which is copyright violation in a whole other direction, but that's neither here nor there.

Use the Edit menu to check. Right Click on the object for sale, and see if the creator's name matches the name associated with the product. It doesn't? This could be stolen!

Check to see if a shop is selling mixed styles that look to be made by more than one creator. Right-click on a couple of the products that seem wildly different. Do they have the same creator? It could be stolen!

Look at the creator's profile. Did they start Second Life last week - and yet they're already making fantastic clothes or skins or hair? That content could be stolen - using alts is a popular trick for the thieves!

These aren't bad tips, but they do tend to increase guild paranoia. If we're all running around self-policing, at the end of the day we can't say we had any fun, unless reporting avatars for purported violations is fun for us. In the end we're just tired, drained, and even more resigned. It is a big problem, but it's not pandemic yet. And Step Up!'s notecard seems to play it like it is.

What to do if you think something has been stolen
NEVER confront the thief yourself.

This is perhaps the truest bit in the entire notecard--save for that use of "thief". Remember, copyright infringers are copiers, first and foremost; think of it like Chinese knock-offs of popular products. They're not making original works, they're just recreating what's popular. Remember, you still have the original item in your inventory, so no "theft" can take place.

Content creators appreciate your support and your loyalty, but this will only put you at risk for being Abuse Reported and cause the thief to switch locations and accounts making him / her more difficult for the content creator to track. Creators need that time to investigate and gather information to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

Because anyone can AR another resident, but only that particular creator can file a cease and desist order with the Labs, it is important to send off a notecard from wherever you happened to see the infringing content, and let the maker know. I'd say it's going to become as common as reading labels in RL stores: eventually, people who need to will do it, and the rest of the people won't bother.

If you think content in a location may be stolen, but you don't know where it originally came from, contact the CCA at cca.report@gmail.com and they will investigate quietly.

I don't know how closely Step Up! is allied with the Content Creators' Association--from the membership list for both groups, I'd assume pretty closely. But I do see now where the owners of Boxed Heroes had no idea the group was trying to enforce copyright, grid-wide, and not just protest "content theft" on an individual basis.

It's still a difficult and tricky issue, and we are taking the very first steps in 'frontier law', so to speak--there will be damage done to both sides, and misunderstandings will race. Rumor, after all, travels on the fastest of wings, it always has. All we have is what we see, what we can do to affect change, what we can do to change ourselves.

But we can begin by properly identifying what the problems are. They're not "content theft". Though it's a very catchy phrase--and I and everyone else on the grid have used it--it's time to set that aside and see it for what it really is--copying the original, not lifting it and stealing it away.

(Does it really make the act of copyright infringement on the grid any easier to bear? No. But at least we--and the law--know what we're talking about when we talk about it. That, at least, is a step forward.)

so much muscle that you never gotta flex them, to catch you when you fall

Two stories from iReport, one on the JLU's recent activities and one on exploitative viewers.

First, the JLU. Now, I know members of the JLU in Second Life; many of us do. These are, generally to a hero, compassionate, committed people, devoted to raising money for important causes, helping newcomers to SL and protecting the grid in general with a variety of anti-griefing tools. These are laudable goals and I commend them for caring so much, about SL and the world beyond.

But this is the problem of copyright infringement, isn't it? Speaking out against "content theft" in loud voices and proclaiming that every avatar needs to look around themselves and AR everything that violates...this is where the impact is going to be felt.

Superman. Aquaman. Supergirl. The Green Lantern Corps. Batman. Wonder Woman. Hawkgirl.

More that I don't mention, nearly a hundred--if not over a hundred--members at this writing, but every one of those names links to a story about what they've done, in world and out of it, to improve Second (and First!) Life.

They're also, to a hero, infringing copyright.

Where is the line drawn? When does it stop being fans wanting to make a difference--the drag queen raising money for AIDS research dressed up as Cher in Lisbon, the man dressed as the Caped Crusader fighting for the rights of fathers in England, that fellow in New York with the lightning bolt across his chest, who carts around his own wheel-locks to protect the city from drunken drivers?

Where is the line drawn in Second Life, for that matter? Has anyone in the JLU spoken with any of the Powers that Regulate at Marvel or DC? Has anyone gained official permission to use any hero's likeness to do their good works? Should they have to before flying around the grid, helping people?

They don't get paid for this. They don't function as an officially-acknowledged police force. They don't sign autographs and show up for mall openings.

They're just people. Who want to help. They just happen to want to do it as their heroes, in tights and tight boots, golden lasso and green ring, one by one making the grid a safer place.

If you want to fight copyright infringement, you can't make exceptions. If you want to fight copyright infringement, you can't acknowledge good works as a compromise. If you want to fight copyright infringement, you have to fight ALL copyright infringement.

From Philip Linden on down.

And how long will the fight go on before hitting something like this? "But they're good people!" the cries will sound. "They don't mean any harm!"

Of course they don't. They're involved in Relay for Life, in Project Jason, in protecting welcome hubs, sandboxen, charity events, putting their avatars on the line to provide security for talks that might possibly attract griefers. They do this, hour after hour, day after day, when they could be shopping, playing, having fun, flying around doing nothing more important than roleplay.

They don't. But they infringe copyright.

What started the latest push to get the word out about copyright theft wasn't even random. It was directed, it was to hurt specific individuals--which it did--because of some stupid argument between the hacker and the shop owners. The hacker himself admitted as much, several times, as the story broke.

Do I think that's wrong? I do. Do I think it qualifies as copyright infringement, or even the more charged phrase "content theft"? I do. I'm not disputing either of those points.

But I do think it is a sad and tragic diversion of time, money, resources and personal energies that could be better spent anywhere else calling for a stop-one-stop-all halt on everything that infringes copyright.

Boxed Heroes? Would be gone. The JLU? Would be gone. Anyone who's ever designed a hero avatar in world? Out of business. Anyone who's ever been inspired by comics, movies, books or music? Gone. 98% of all gestures? Removed. At least 90%--if not more--of all music played in world? Not allowed.

What a bleak and barren landscape this leaves us with. We are creatures that copy, we are creatures that innovate new ideas based on old ones. Some of us do it directly, and on occasion, that runs into copyright issues. But all of us, each and every one of us, do this. Yearly. Monthly. Hourly. Because it is who we are.

(Though, just for the fun of it...Catfight! From the Justice League Unlimited animated series.)

And veering off seemingly in a completely different direction, Fanny Starr talks through her daughter's Second Life avatar about the horrors of the Holocaust. Why did I link that in? Beyond the fact that it's a well-written article...

But it was for this line:

She also gave a special thanks to the members of the Justice League SL group, whom stood out in the audience with their superhero costumes. She explained they were here as a precaution against possible griefers, who never came.

Kill them...kill their identity. Where is the line between fan tribute, and personal empowerment, and protection of copyright? In the virtual world, at least, we need to find out. And sooner rather than later.

Now, on the exploitative viewer angle, I just have a simple question: why is it exploitative to imitate real life? Granted, I don't have anti-gravity breasts RL, no woman does, but if I run, they move. Unless I'm in a really tight sports bra.

So where's the harm in making them bounce a little in world? I don't see the "exploitation" factor. Breasts--and butts--on occasion jiggle; it's the nature of things. In Runes of Magic there are breast physics. I think WoW has bouncing beauties, though I'm not sure, I don't play WoW.

More to the point, though, why are the breast physics what people are screaming about? What about incorporation of Restrained Life tools into the Emerald viewer? What about the change in standard buttons (which Modular has ALREADY heard avatars yelling at them over) meaning, when I like someone's outfit, and I click on their prim skirt, I can remove it for a few seconds? Why aren't we screaming about that?? All I wanted was the name of her designer, I didn't want to tear her skirt off!

But bouncing breasts...I don't see the harm. Is it a feature that will likely appeal to more men than women? Sure. But it's not like we don't have breasts now, women--and men stare at them, in and out of world. That hasn't stopped yet, it's not GOING to stop! Just get over it!

you stoop to feed the crows to let 'em scratch the truth

All right. I'm only saying this once more, because apparently folks are still confused.

Yes, I was fired from Radio Riel. It was over a difference of opinion. No, it was not my decision to leave. Yes, I'm not thrilled about it. No, there's nothing I can do about it, and no, I don't want to boycott Radio Riel over it.

Is everyone caught up now? Let's move on.

The two pictures I captured during the ten-box S.I.C. hunt (in the sims sick and sick5) were when I was standing outside of the Weapons Shop, just a step away from the port-in point in the main sim.



They won't really show you how cool this was; you should go look for yourself.



(By the way, while you're wandering the sick chain, check out the small Hallows fair in sick5. Fun seasonal freebies to take home and treasure, including a crow machine!)



(I'm not kidding about the crow machine.)

The boxes you're looking for are like always--small tarnished metal boxes, with handles, and a center rotating glowing blue "active" beacon:



This one, at least, is relatively easy; you don't have to wear a HUD, you don't have to take the completed HUD to the central computer core and wait for prize delivery. Just collect the boxes. Ten collected, will unpack into a pretty nifty set of cyber-armor. In what might even be holiday tones.

In other news, I received this notice from the Octoberville Group:

Group Notice From: Master Kaos

We are reverting to the original policing policies only [involving] abuse, harassment of people on the sim.

WE WILL NOT BE POLICING ARC ANY LONGER. WE WILL NOT BE POLICING CHEATING ANY LONGER. We have tried to do our best, being that this is a sim built for everyone in SL just to have fun and explore and have something interesting to do, and no longer wish to be cussed out, threatened, reported, badly represented, and have false claims sent out in notecards in mass mailings. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Okay, first off, what the hell? And second...no, it's still WHAT THE HELL?!?

I have to find out why this was sent out. Because this just sounds insane. Notecards sent in mass mailings threatening Octoberville? Because they had the audacity to have a scavenger hunt?!?

I'll tell you more when I know more, but this is surreal.

all that and more coming down from the sky

The real tragedy with this issue is that it's the second time it's hit the JIRA. Likely in a few days, some Linden will wander by and say, hey, you should just report this, I'll kill the issue for you--

What is it going to take? I'm still steadfastly against teens joining Main Grid, but this sounds excruciatingly dire. I don't think users of the Teen Grid toss around phrases like 'ghost town' lightly. And the legal recourse we have at present requires a lot of research, a lot of follow-up, and I'm not saying teens can't do that, but that's a whole other level of confusion with copyright law--for instance, can a virtual resident complain about Copybotted items if they're not eighteen? Must one be of legal age to complain about infringing content?

Because if so, with no one on the Teen Grid being over eighteen....Teen Grid is screwed.

(The link works now, btw--sorry about that.)

Meanwhile, Philip Rosedale is off saying everything's fine, he's just leaving. Again. Only not really. Way to vague things up. And Jack Linden, as usual, is dodging questions about grandfathered homesteads entering the marketplace again. Buh?

I remain amused that Miss Widdershins either took her response to me on the kiosk post, and turned it into an entry on the Step Up! blog--or, copied sections of that blog entry, in her reply to me. Either way, it doesn't speak well for the organization, that they're very upfront about the fact that they're not checking on who's getting the kiosk.

It's simple, at least for me--if you're invested in protecting content--I mean, really invested, in that you want it stopped, you need it stopped, and your focus is finding ways to block infringing content--THEN YOU CHECK WHO'S GETTING YOUR KIOSK.

Because otherwise, it IS a tacit endorsement--no matter how often you say "We just can't check everything" and "Hey, it's going to happen".

I ran across a wonderful talk, actually, on the difference between the establishment of copyright law and current applications. And she's right in what she says--copyright, two hundred years ago, was very easy to understand, because copies were arduous to make, and the average citizen had no means to employ them. "A copy" always meant a physical copy, and even twenty years ago, the means of copying media--be that sound, image or word--always resulted in degradation from the original.

Now? Digital advances mean we can take the original of one song (or story, or photograph, or show), and copy it a hundred times, and each of those hundred copies will be an exact duplicate of the original. Copy each of those copies a hundred times and there will still be no degradation, no loss of signal strength, no flaws--that weren't already present in the original.

In a sense, it's no longer copying, per se--it's duplication.

Granted, that talk was given while Bill Clinton was still President, but it's relevant today, even after changes have been put into place. In many ways, we're still dealing with the type of folks who think that all information should be restricted, bought, sealed, secured--versus people who think information should be free and unrestrained.

(And even saying that, please do not think my protests on this blog indicate any sort of support for copyright violation--even knowing everyone on the grid has engaged in it, from Philip Linden on down, I am still not in support of copyright violation. But the problem is so much larger than "educating" people on what "content theft" is--because it's all around us, we see something on the grid that infringes every single day. It's important to understand where we can effect change, to enforce change. And even with that, people will need to want to change.)

I want to talk about the Exodi hunt a bit, though. A group of us went out last night, the night the hunt opened, and as much as I love the eyes, and the skins, I loved the hunt grounds more.

This remains a pretty good overview of the hunt--it goes without saying you're hunting for small, blocky (commercially-branded) candy bars (*cough*), but I found myself falling more in love with the hunting grounds, than the hunt.



These are the rules. It's pretty straightforward, all things considered: find the bars; right-click on the bars; get a virtual version of that candy, or the skin or eyes that candy holds. Once you get the skin or eyes from that particular type of candy, you don't have to search for that candy again.



The huts were just gorgeous small crafted things, sculpted thatch roofs, simple wooden construction, each of them containing a glowing pumpkin. Very evocative of home and hearth and harvest.



The hunting grounds themselves were high over the Exodi lands, enclosed in this neat little half-sim-size bubble over the sculpted land base. The glowing orange sky was scripted to move, just a bit, and it really added to the effect.



A shot of the place from the cemetary, showing trees, huts and sky.



An overhead shot, showing the little picnic area with the haybales, just off from the church building.

All in all, it's well worth the hunting time, and it's a pretty easy walk around, even considering the hunters, the sculpted nature of the hunting grounds, and the script costs. And it's pretty--how many makers on the grid take the time to make their hunting place pretty, in addition to functional?

I highly recommend it, and just based on how this hunt was handled, I'm contemplating joining their in-world group. Very well done, start to finish.