CopyBot Items

[Mony80]

Hello

i want to know if some of my friends send me items , how could i know this item is legal or it's not copybot , because i saw friends of mind their accounts banned because they found in their inventory copybot item

so how do i protect from that ?

note : i want the right answer regard this from the specialist who know what they handle issue like that

thanks

[Kenbro Utu]

This is a resident forum, not an official channel.  All you are going to get here are other resident's opinions on the matter.

[Mony80]

ok what u gonna do if you want to check copybot item in your inventory

[Czari Zenovka]

I have not had this happen personally, but over the years I have read threads about copybots and copybotted items.

The first thing that has to happen is the original creator of an item that is copybotted files a DMCA which is a "take down" (ie. take down/out all the copybotted items from the copybotter).  Sometimes creators have no idea their items have been copybotted, thus don't fill out a DMCA. I've heard of other creators who are aware of their item/s have been botted but for whatever reason don't want to go through the DMCA process. 

If a creator files a successful DMCA, then the copybotted items are removed from the copybotter's inventory (iirc) as well as anyplace they are trying to sell them in world and on the MP.  I have seen posts of items *poofing* from people's inventories that they later found out, usually via the forums, that were botted items.  I have never heard of a person who was not the copybotter but unknowingly had copybotted items in inventory being banned.  The items are just deleted.

There have been a few high profile cases of copybotting (thinking here of the original creator of a certain sex bed).  That went through a fairly lengthy legal process.  As a result, anyone who had the animations that were botted from this creator in any furnishings...not purchased from him...were "broken" by LL.

I honestly don't see any cause for concern UNLESS you know an item was botted, in which case the proper action is to contact the original creator (how would you know it was botted if you had not seen the original) and at that point it is the creator's responsibility to proceed with a DMCA...or not.

Hope this helps.

[Jennifer Boyle]

If your only offense is to have it in inventory, the worst that will happen is that one day you will discover that it has been replaced by something named "IP Replacement."

[Perrie Juran]

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Mony80 wrote:

Hello

i want to know if some of my friends send me items , how could i know this item is legal or it's not copybot , because i saw friends of mind their accounts banned because they found in their inventory copybot item

so how do i protect from that ?

note : i want the right answer regard this from the specialist who know what they handle issue like that

thanks

---

If you want "official" answers, I will suggest this page  on the SL Wiki.  Beyond that the odds of A Linden answering here are about zero.  Included on this page are tips for avoiding stolen content.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Frequently_Asked_Questions_on_the_IP_Complaint_Process#What_steps_can_I_take_to_make_sure_I_don.E2.80.99t_inadvertently_have_content_that_may_be_infringing.3F

 Beyond that the  answers you will get here from us will be based in general on our experiences,  knowledge, understanding & interpretation of the TOS and CS.

Essentially speaking, you will not get in trouble for having stolen content in your inventory.  At the worst, should you have bought the content, you would suffer the loss of the linden dollars you spent.  Unlike the real world, LL does not treat mere possession of stolen goods as a crime.

I have had content removed from my inventory.  This is a copy of the notification (E Mail) you receive when this happens.  As stated in the E Mail, "If you weren't aware of an intellectual property issue, don't panic or take it personally!"  I would emphasize the "don't panic" part.   We do see enough posts from people who do panic when they get this notice.

 

 

Intellectual Property Team removals@lindenlab.com	11/11/10 **Only uploaded images may be used in postings**s://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif" border="0" alt="" />		**Only uploaded images may be used in postings**s://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif" border="0" alt="" />

Hi Perrie Juran,

We are writing to let you know that we removed some content you had in Second Life under our Intellectual Property Policy. For a list of the specific content we removed, please see the "IP Complaint Details" below at the bottom of this email.

When we receive an intellectual property complaint, we investigate it and look for copies of the content identified in the complaint. Our investigation found that you had some of this content. We replaced the content with generic placeholder item(s), as described in our FAQs on our Intellectual Property Complaint Process.

If you weren't aware of an intellectual property issue, don't panic or take it personally! Just take steps to avoid content that may have intellectual property issues. Here are some tips to protect yourself and keep your inworld shopping safe and fun.

Many thanks for your interest in Second Life.

-- The IP Team at Linden Lab

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IP COMPLAINT DETAILS

Content Removed:

• Item: Bodypart named "Pale skin" Location: Inventory of Perrie Juran

*If animations were removed, the replacement animation may be in your HUD or animation override (AO).

 

[Caitlin Tobias]

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Mony80 wrote:

Hello

i want to know if some of my friends send me items , how could i know this item is legal or it's not copybot ,

because i saw friends of mind their accounts banned because they found in their inventory copybot item

so how do i protect from that ?

note : i want the right answer regard this from the specialist who know what they handle issue like that

thanks

---

I have never seen that happening - accounts being banned for having copybotted items in their inventory. I have had, in 5 years,  2 emails and items removed from my inventory because they apparently were illegal. Nothing about banning or anything, see the mail Jerrie posted.  No panic pls.

 

[GothGirl Demonia]

Actually you can get suspsended/Banned from SL if you have stolen content it happend to me.

I was given a bunch of stolen content we are talking about a total of 4000+ items which years ago I was keeping in a box, and reporting it to LL for removal constantly, I knew they were ripped, and as a result LL did suspend my account and when I asked them why they told me. When they restored the account they asked me to remove the items from my inventory.  This was years ago, and a lot of the content was actually removed by DMCA which was the goal to get a lot of it removed or as much as possible. Now knowing more about griefing, and CopyBot it is impossible to stop all of it without the help of Linden Lab sadly.

1. To answer the question however LL usually doesn't suspend, or ban an account over a few stolen items in your inventory by accident. However if you are accepting a large cache of stolen content like Skins, or Clothing look for tags infront of the skin, usually this is a signature on the item of the creator who made it. In addition to this usually big boxes filled full of high quality skins full permissions are CopyBot.

2. Generally if you have accepted such items you know are Botted you can just erase them and stop using them, and LL will not do anything, however if you are one of the users I have seen who hangs around and says I dont give a (BEEP) if its botted or not when they are clearly wearing stolen hairs that we all recognize, then do not be shocked if you do not get Mass Abuse reported for wearing stolen content, which can trigger and investigation into seeing if you passed it out to friends and so on, and possibly lead to suspensions/bans on both accounts.

If you actually have no idea it is ripped and wearing it, then hopefully if someone spots it they will give you a warning to remove it, I know some stores in SL ban on sight for wearing stolen items which in my opinion can be a bit harsh if it is indeed someone who is new and doesn't know and there are a few ways I actually check that stuff to try and tell.

The best way to avoid stolen content is to go to creator's stores in SL any buy their goods directly from them. There are sometimes when botters will setup a fake store in SL, but the most common is using a Stall inside of a Mall to setup illegally cloned items, or The Market Place, because its cheap easy to avoid, and cash out before getting banned.

Keep in mind that wearing stolen items gives you a bad name in SL if you knowingly do it, even if you don't know it does, but its worse if you don't care and someone tells you. It also gives your Group a bad name, and gets you banned from a lot of places, so avoid it as much as possible.

[Dirtnap Mumfuzz]

What did your friends have that got them in trouble?

How did they know they had it, and that it specifically got them TOS'ed?

Do you have the same property in your folders? Does anyone else know?

 

Between things missing/misaligned parts and mis-applied textures, botted stuff is pretty easy to spot, kind of like spotting the real Mona Lisa, and one that was copied onto tracing paper.

 

As far as I am able to tell, LL doesn't inspect your folders for contraband, they use the 'squeeky wheel' technique; they wait for someone to complain about someones actions then they take action.

 

The approach seems generally to be use of oppression rather than proactivity to interfere with, rather than prevent the black market commerce.

You can have an entire inventory of contraband, and as long as you keep it to yourself no one cares.

Use them on or show them to another person, or try selling some of it, and you expose yourself to the risk of joining the band.

[Perrie Juran]

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GothGirl Demonia wrote:

Actually you can get suspsended/Banned from SL if you have stolen content it happend to me.

I was given a bunch of stolen content we are talking about a total of 4000+ items which years ago I was keeping in a box, and reporting it to LL for removal constantly, I knew they were ripped, and as a result LL did suspend my account and when I asked them why they told me.

When they restored the account they asked me to

remove the items from my inventory. 

This was years ago, and a lot of the content was actually removed by DMCA which was the goal to get a lot of it removed or as much as possible.

Now knowing more about griefing, and CopyBot it is impossible to stop all of it without the help of Linden Lab sadly.

---

I would have been suspicious also of a "good Samaritan" who had collected 4,000 illegal and suspended your ass also until I had verified what was going on.

It is not clear here but I am guessing you were reporting the Box, not the 4,000 items individually.  If you made the box it would have had YOUR NAME on it as the Creator.  So again, they did the right thing suspending your account till they confirmed the facts.

ETA:  In other words, if you were Abuse Reporting the Box, you were AR'ing yourself!

[Sassy Romano]

I will attempt to answer your direct question.  "How to avoid copybotted items?".

Let me first ask the same question back as to how you would identify fake RL goods from the original?.  The same sort of techniques are needed.

In SL, you can right click the object, see who the creator is.  If you're unsure, open the creators profile, does the profile have references to their business?  It's rare for a good merchant to have a blank profile or absolutely nothing about their business in their profile (though some don't).

If they have a "Pick" about their store, tp to the location, does it look like a plausible store for the product?  Example, if the store sells nothing but hair, would you wonder if you've been passed a mesh car by that same creator?  (No reason why they wouldn't make one but it should raise a question if it's not in the same style of existing items).

Do they have an inworld support group?  More evidence of running an established business.

In attempting to identify a copybotted item, you can inspect the linkset, are all of the prims named "Object" and created within seconds of each other.  If so this suggests a scripted build, common for automated copying but it's not infallible as some may create on a different grid and import or just use a script for the build for whatever reason.

However, scripted build, blank profile avatar, no inworld presence, no marketplace store, high quality item?  That's like buying a Rolex on a street corner from someone who has a great offer and you're the buyer!  Odd?  Would you believe it to be real?

Is the creator name on the prim the name of the person who did the copybot?  NO!  This is where it gets even more difficult because there are simple methods to make a copybotted item appear to be copied by someone else.  I've seen people naming and shaming and pointing the finger at "xxxxx is a copybotter, ban them from your stores!!" but that's simply not necessarily true that they did this at all.

Then there are the items that are just well known in SL and people know the creators of the item on sight.  Many of us know that hair some wear is not really created by "ChooseMy Destiny" or whoever it happens to be this week.

Bottom line, there is no checkbox that says "item has been copybotted" but you can make a good judgement, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

[GothGirl Demonia]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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GothGirl Demonia wrote:

Actually you can get suspsended/Banned from SL if you have stolen content it happend to me.

I was given a bunch of stolen content we are talking about a total of 4000+ items which years ago I was keeping in a box, and reporting it to LL for removal constantly, I knew they were ripped, and as a result LL did suspend my account and when I asked them why they told me.

When they restored the account they asked me to

remove the items from my inventory. 

This was years ago, and a lot of the content was actually removed by DMCA which was the goal to get a lot of it removed or as much as possible.

Now knowing more about griefing, and CopyBot it is impossible to stop all of it without the help of Linden Lab sadly.

---

I would have been suspicious also of a "good Samaritan" who had collected 4,000 illegal and suspended your ass also until I had verified what was going on.

It is not clear here but I am guessing you were reporting the Box, not the 4,000 items individually.  If you made the box it would have had YOUR NAME on it as the Creator.  So again, they did the right thing suspending your account till they confirmed the facts.

ETA:  In other words, if you were Abuse Reporting the Box, you were AR'ing yourself!

---

 

Which is the reason I never use a prim with me as creator unless it is actually something I am building then I make sure it is Copy/NoMod. I usually use a prim with no creator name or something on anything I create like Hud based attacks, or anything that I don't want my name as creator on, or a prim from a deleted alternate account that can't be linked back to me.

And actually it wasn't a suspension, it was a Perma Ban from the game, however this was due to a griefer from a big SL gang that does nothing but grief RP sims, and other people they dislike I could careless their griefing I only care when they cause actual problems for others, and even today they are still alive in SL griefing aka all that RP drama was started by a griefer from their little griefer gang.

The actual Ban was because I had over 4000+ Items some of the same items were Copybotted 3 times from some creators I know of and had a few different names on some of them obviously spoofed.

The reason for the ban was actually simple I had a griefer from a griefer network the same griefer I debated about those RolePlayers maybe a few weeks ago came from and they copybot hundreds of skins from well known devs I know and put them in a notecard and gave them out to a lot of people on purpose to draw Linden Lab to me, then they sent these items to my account like a lot of times using different alts, even some creators contacted me my Im's were filled full of like over 10 creators asking me about it all because of this griefer who thought it was funny to bot a bunch of peoples things, lie to me, backstab me, and grief friends. (( The botters account was like from 2007 too and they have a lot more accounts too and are good at playing mind tricks.))

This griefer thought they had won against me in fact they did get me banned, but I managed to find their little GothGirl gone away party aka banned from SL on their site, and appeal it and I came right back only to have them talk more trash on their little blogger about me ultimately failing...

The Problem

Copybotting, and sharing Stolen content is so easy as pirating any video game on the internet, even those games that they claim on realse are Anti Pirate I laugh because its so simple to pirate almost any game listed on steam, all it takes is a search on the internet, and some braincells. What I am trying to say is that people share hundreds of .XML files on torrents for SL therefore, Copybotting a Specific item could be imported by 100+ people, and no way to DMCA report them all because each one has a different creator and UUID. Given the fact that most botters are spoofing/hiding their information it would be like impossible to track to anyones actual main account.

Why do you think the griefer called *Night**re Deen** is so popular in the sandbox the thing where he spams green text and says he has hundreds of accounts one in every sim etc.

The Solution

The problem that I see is The griefing, and Alternate account abuse is so easy to do and LL needs to do something to prevent the constant registration of griefer accounts like ID Verifcation, and or Telephone Verification and require Real Life registeration information when the user signs up. This would slow down the griefers, and on top of this maybe improved protection or a way to prevent hardware spoofing might not be possible when the client is open sourced on this one however.

It may not be possible to stop the CopyBot 100% but it would be possible to make it a lot harder for Bots and Griefers to register accounts to Second Life constantly to grief, aka less stolen content going around. With the large number of people I know who identify stolen content, and content illegally uploaded from other games now that mesh is out, it is possible to have botters gone from this game faster than they can blink an eye if LL could provide better protection their numbers would go down not up when they get banned. * Also give us ways to do something about people just generally in violation of the Community Standards in SL aka Sim owners disclosing logs and abusing others with those actual false rumors in Second Life because I have reported lots of this griefing with logs they still are in SL today causing grief including those botters from 3 years ago.

Some people are agaisnt this some people are not, but I believe it is a step that has to be taken to prevent griefing, and I believe that LL needs to also filter out those who are knowingly supporting the griefing as well such as the sim owners of those few places who knowingly break the TOS in many ways its not funny but LL Does nothing.

 

[Perrie Juran]

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GothGirl Demonia wrote:

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The actual Ban was because I had over 4000+ Items some of the same items were Copybotted 3 times from some creators I know of and had a few different names on some of them obviously spoofed.

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Exactly my point. The fact you had collected 4000+ Items would have looked pretty suspicious to me.

This is not the same as someone who has a couple of items in their inventory.