copy bot mesh?

[LovedWarrior Quan]

I am still pretty new at building in sl and someone today told me some people could steal my meshes with copy bot or something and he told me i could put a signuture in my meshes.

Any idea how? 

I appreciate all the answers. 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

In many ways, yes.  In some ways, no.  The rule of thumb is "If it can be rendered, it can be copied.  If it can be copied, it can be stolen."  This applies to everything, no exceptions.  (>_<)

Now, I don't know how much the old copybot client is involved anymore or if it's even relevant.  But the name has stuck for all matters of content theft in SL.  GLIntercept can surely nab textures and models from anything running on OpenGL, SL being a big example.  I'm not sure if there is a means of capturing rigging data, but, I can only assume there is. (._.)

The sad truth is that the only true way to protect your work is to never let anyone see it.  Again, this applies to anything.  From games, to movies, to music, to DeviantArt, to Flickr, to SL.  You can help yourself identify stolen textures by using relatively invisible watermarks and objects with a "signature" pattern in the wireframe.  You can be diligent and lurk the marketplace for copies of your stuff.  I suggest looking into reading copy protection license documentation to see how items have been legally protected over time. ()

In the end, there is little to no question over how something can be stolen.  It can.  The geunine question is if it will be stolen.  And, the answer to that relies on statistical odds..  Don't let any of this kill a creative venture.  Keep confidence that your work will be seen as yours, those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter. ()y

 

 

[Stefanosje Sellers]

Content theft of mesh is fairly easy. With current technology rigging can not be copied. When the mesh is copied, it contains T-pose. Meaning it would take them about 3 minutes to rig it back in themselves.

[LovedWarrior Quan]

ok thank you all.

But how do I put a signiture or something inside a mesh so if someone steals it, I can file a DMCA and prove it is mine? I know how to do it for textures but for .dae files any idea?

[Pamela Galli]

You dont need to prove it is yours to file a DMCA.  A DMCA is a legal document claiming it is yours. LL does not investigate claims.

 

 If you go to court, then you must prove it.

[LovedWarrior Quan]

OMG sl doesn't look into DMCAs??? Even in IMVU u can file a DMCA and they will disable that product or even the person who stole it in some cases. Soooo then what do you do if someone steals ur mesh???

[Pamela Galli]

That is not what I said, if you will read again. A DMCA notice is a statement you make, not a proof.

 

Here is something I found on the internet that explains what the DMCA process includes:

 

5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

This notice, which must be filed by the copyright holder or an agent working for them, is sent to the service provider's DMCA agent, which all service providers must appoint and register with the U.S. Copyright Office. Most DMCA filers, use some form of stock letter to help speed the process along.

Once the notice has been received, the host has to first make sure it is a complete notice and then they are to either remove or disable access to the infringing work. This can be done many ways but is usually handled by simply backing up and deleting the allegedly infringing material.

With that done, the host then usually contacts the client involved, who in turn has the opportunity to respond.

[LovedWarrior Quan]

ok thanks so much for the info

[Chic Aeon]

Here is the whole page about DMCAs and Second Life. I simply searched for "second life DMCA process".

 

https://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php

 

The only people that I know of to go through this process were the mover and shaker take home 10,000 US a month type folks (well I have no idea what they actually make but you get the idea). This is a REAL LIFE PROCESS that only begins by sending info to Linden Lab. So for most folks it really isn't worth the hassle.

 

 

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, I just did some searches. See, people who do this love to brag about it. You know what I found? NOTHING! There was 1 interesting hit that I got, but considering there were no others, I don't think it is a problem. Yes, it is easy enough to pass LL's IP test, but it still keeps most cheaters out of the process. If they get caught uploading someone else's mesh, their ability to upload mesh could be revoked.

Youtube is crazy tho. That is kind of how you know when these things are going on, cause people love to brag, and the creators of these tools know that Youtube is great for marketing their cheater tools. It's actually much harder to copybot a mesh than any other asset in SL, as it doesn't work the same way.

[Stefanosje Sellers]

In the past, I've kept busy with exploring and even programming copybot possibilities. At the time these bots were only used for innocent purposes, mainly for generating land traffic to gain more visitors and more authority in the SL search. I've never stopped being intrigued by the developments and still actively follow various underground development blogs.

Here's the deal: yes, you can DMCA. Sue them even. However, if they're only the slightest bit of practiced at their job: you won't find them in a lifetime. Copybots currently allow you to hide your IP, MAC-adress and viewer details by the ease of a tickbox. Not to mention how they can run these programs by proxy using the preference menu. If they add another layer of proxy. No way in hell you are going to trace them.

Trust me. I'm on the creator's side here. But the sad truth is thus. Now, I am not discouraging you to DMCA with LL. Although they won't investigate the DMCA itself, they will investigate user behavior. Which includes checks on suspicious prim-assembly on sims. It will get them banned, and they will get themselves back on the grid in a snap of the fingers. However, their marketplace store will be locked and their balance frozen. I'm not sure about the details, but I'm fairly sure LL charges from the offender his account nowadays to due balance for content theft. Although I can not say for sure.

I think you are best off just publishing your products with good trust it won't happen. If it does, a signature won't stop them anyways. Enjoy your time here, creating and publishing things to our virtual world. Worries are cancerous thoughts.

Here's a short list of the few things that are a pain in the bottox for copybotters:

1. If you release a demo product, stamp "DEMO" on the textures. Just not one texture of the 5, but ALL textures. It takes them massive times to clone stamp these away to acceptable/mirrored quality. If they see a product with high quality textures DEMO-ed. It's usually not worth their time.
2. Learn to mesh. It's more expensive to copybotters, as they will have to re-upload the 3D model and it's textures. They will also need to know how to rig the models (it is fairly easy, but copybotters are often lazy or dumb).
3. Become friends with other creators and when the incident does come to play, make sure them and your friends report the user. Try to speak with them on other surroundings such as Skype, Steam. If you're a strong minded person and you know how to play onto someone's mind: pretend you are willing to pay them some money if they stop selling your products. Offer to pay via paypal, creditcard or bank. If they are dumb enough to release any of those to you, you have a decent lead to chase them down IRL and sue them.

Feel free if you have any other worries or questions about the tech. side of the "dark force of SL". I hope you understand I'm not a copybotter, nor do I take advantage of this technology. I'm a respected programmer in real life, and the only way to fight copybot is to gain knowledge about it.

Stef.

[Ronald Greybeard]

i just had to reply to this thread and here is why, a while back i was googling for some info on blender and happend upon a website for a copybot viewer, not going to say its name or anything, anyway, the site had a forum and i decided to check it out and what i saw surprised me, they had fully ripped mesh items from some big names here in SL and some i dont know how, even still had their rigs in place.

now is it possible to copybot mesh that is a big YES and it would not surprise me if someones meshes here on the forum was on that site