Why don't the Lindens lock chats so people can't copy them and pass around notes?

[Sniff Heinkel]

Don't you get sick of people copying private IM's and passing notes with chat logs to their freinds? I know I do. I don't want to hear about what someone said. Its their buisness and  I wouldn't want anyone doing that to me. Its way too easy for residents to violate your privacy by doing this. What about people who copy chats onto notes and they omit things or add stuff to make someone look bad? So why don't the Lindens make the chat log inaccessable so no one can copy them onto a note? Besides its not like the Lindens accept chat logs on notes as proof so why not just take away that ability? This would cut out a huge amount of drama on the grid and users would feel safe talking about things.

By the way I am not talking about making the chat only accessable to Lindens. I mean they should take away the ability to copy the chat.

[Rolig Loon]

This resident-to-resident Answer sevice is here to help answer your questions about how SL works (or to commiserate with you and help find solutions when it doesn't).  We don't deal with Linden Lab's policies, which we couldn't do anything about anyway.

Off the top of my head, though, I can think of several good reasons why what you suggest would be a bad idea.  SL residents use chat and IMs heavily for saving archival information.  I have written dozens of scripts for doors, security systems, communication devices, and vendors, for example, that depend on a user being able to cut and paste data from chat into a notecard so that the script has a non-volatile backup record.  I have also been in several in-world groups that depend on being able to make chat transcripts of meetings for the benefit of members who could not attend.  Aside from the fact that it would not be technically possible to make chat and IMs uncopiable anyway, doing it would mess up a lot of things that SL residents depend on. 

The way to cut out all the drama you're worried about is to refuse to get sucked into it or, at the risk of just creating more stupid drama, file an Abuse Report when you can prove that private communications have been shared without your approval.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

It is a violation of the ToS to disclose any information without the express permission of all involved........file an Abuse Report whenever it happens.

I'm not going to agree with you about "locking" chat logs.  I don't think you understand much about what you are asking for.  Chat logs (open chat or instant messages) can be very important for completely legitamate reasons........notes on a meeting, the ability to read the logs later for your very own personal reasons (I can think of many reasons where the chat logs, both public and private, have been extremely important for a project I was involved with in SL just a few months ago.........without being able to re-read those logs it would have been impossible to come up with any solutions or direction for the project).  You are looking for a quick solution to what is really a pretty small percentage of people who use the logs for reasons other than what they are available for.  I've been SL for a really long time compared to most people here on these forums (over 7 years now).  I've had a note card with copied/pasted logs passed to me, uninvited and without the permission from the person(s) involved maybe 3 or 4 times................it just isn't a big problem at all (and yes, I AR'd it each time).  I'm also a little vocal about people who do things like that.........I do everything I can to embarrass that person in front of as many people as I can muster.  Is that nice?  No it's not.......but I'm not worried about being nice to anyone who violates someone's privacy.  You might give that a shot next time someone passes you a notecard with private conversations in it (it works......but you are very likely to lose that "friendship" over it.  Such is life.  I wont remain a friend to anyone who does crap like that anyway).

You also might want to find better friends...........friends who aren't a$$holes behind other people's backs.