Copybots such as Neillife

[charity Hollow]

I had heard about these copybot viewers that allow someone to rip off your entire avatar just by being in the same room as you. But I thought SL banned these years ago. Recently I had a friend say somebody she knew got copied. She said she was standing there in a busy sim, then suddenly several people looked identical to her. Same shape, clothing, skin, everything. Then another friend told me somebody was chatting with her and did it. He turned into her. And this is recent. I don't want to be copied. I know it's not a big deal but I've spent a lot of money on my av and I don't really think it's fair to steal my things or my shape. Is there maybe something I could buy? Like a hud that would stop this?

[bigmoe Whitfield]

It's just like game crackers or cheat makes for games, they are always one step ahead of the game.  There is no true way sadly of fixing this issue, as the motto goes "if it can be seen on the screen it can be copied"

[Chelsea Malibu]

The question one really needs to ask is how did this harm you? No, I am not advocating copy bots or anything that infringes on ones intellectual property however, what damage did this cause you?

Did it inhibit your ability to play SL? Did it cost you money and or how much time did it take you to rectify the situation?

If you get my point, you will just scoff it off and move on.  Much more important things to get upset over.

Truth is as mentioned, if its on your screen, it can be copied and if they didn't copy it from you, they will from someone else but it really doesn't sound like anything malicious took place.

[Lynna Yorcliffe]

I can see how it would 'harm' her. If you spent a lot of money, to customize your avatar, make it unique, one of a kind and have someone in a moment clone you and make your original nothing more than one of a 'army' of clones than yes that harms you. It ruins your enjoyment and if you dont enjoy it - whats the point being here.

It's also content theft, but unless you made the content your avatar is actually wearing you might just find yourself depressed and out many Lindens without any way to resolve the issue. LL requires you be the content creator to file a DMCA. Proving someone copybotted something you are wearing, or your entire avatar would be kind of complicated if posssible at all. Unless they copybotted something and then gave you a copy showing them as the creator.

You need proof. Photos would be reasonable proof..... I dont think logs are necessarily proof though but perhaps helpful. Reason I say logs are not proof, logs can be edited, easily. So I stopped logging a long time ago when I realized it only caused me lag and was not valid proof of anything.

[Knutz Scorpio]

Kinda hard to give advice for something that has happened to a friend of a friend in the past, but if it happened to me I'd try to AR them all for using a TPV not on the LL approved viewer list.  Not that AR's ever worked for me, and my avatar is made up of freebies, but it would bother me to be around others that so lacked in creativity and effort to make their own unique look.

[Jenni Darkwatch]

AR them, move on. There is unfortunately no way to prevent this from happening, as someone else already mentioned.

[GothGirl Demonia]

CopyBot such as Neil Life was banned quite awhile ago, but there are still ways past given the fact SL is open sourced.

1. Copybotting won't hurt you really there are those that will do it, and there will not be a way to stop it, but it can cause annoyance to you, if a griefer targets you for example spoofs your profile, and looks exactly like you and does griefing in your name. However this will bring harm to the creators of the content.

While there is no way to stop the CopyBot you can help by.

1. Do not join groups that deal with CopyBots, for example a lot of Gorean RP groups have CopyBots in them, they can be very tricky and hard to spot to the normal eye, but the moment you notice something I would leave, it is what I did back in 09 after I contacted the owners of my group, and saw what was going on by my own group then found out about their big alliance drama/griefer groups doing the same thing.

This is however not limited to GOR, but other RP sims as well, Clubs, and Welcome Areas. These are the places wheer CopyBots hang out, sometimes they will even hang out in a creators store with 100% legit content copying people.

2. How can you help deal with CopyBots and griefers.

1. Help Abuse Report them don't tell them so they dont know who did it.

2. Contact the sim owner, and possibly the creator of the content depending on the situation.

3. Leave all groups that CopyBotters are illegally abusing creators in if the owner of the group or sim supports it, Don't do with evil people.

4. Search Google Search Engine for known griefers, for example a Second Life Users Name, or MMORPG.com under second life forums there.

For example in google search type.

Bob The Avatar, Griefer

Bob The Avatar, CopyBotter

if something lights up then be warned, you can also do with with any Second Life residents name, or particular RP simulator, and if they are a known griefer, or you see drama avoid the sims, avoid the players.

I will say this, While in Second Life Disclosure of ChatLogs is a Community Standard violation, outside of Second Life Jurisdiction, when someone griefs me or draws first blood and refuses to solve a dispute they will find all chatlogs of their griefer attempts posted online, and therefore avalable on google search, and if GM's abuse in any so called Second Life MMORPG, for any reason or no reason they will find their RP simulator listed under MMORPG.com, Games List, Under Second Life forums with evidence and documents of abuse which will remain forever on google search, and help others avoid senseless drama, and another thing I will start doing is filing a report for any loss of money on their simulator to RIP-OFF Report site which reports are never removed which means it will stay forever on google search, and I will even link it to other search engines. . So please don't grief people, and please do not Bot other developers, and by grief I mean everyone makes a mistake, but I only strike back enemies people who never will learn, or it becomes serious business. Oh and yup when I find myself into trouble even if I have never been to a place that can trigger an investigation by me, and if I find anything illegal being done on the sim or land expect an abuse report to LL, and a report online. That is the only reason I found out my own RP group I was a part of in 09 was a group of griefers had it not been for me using my brain I would have never have known anything about it.

Oh and last but not least.

Do not trust Objects given to you that ask to take L$ from your Second Life account, by accepting these even from a legit company in SL you may loose all L$ on your account.

Do not trust Objects given to you randomly, as you rez it in world it may grief the simulator you may get your account suspended.

Do not Wear objects you do not trust as these can contain ChatBugs, always check for hidden scripts.

While it is not a banable offense for newbies wearing stolen content given to them, some really don't know its stolen, and some others just really don't care, and I would also avoid those who don't care about the people who work hard to develop us content on this grid people who without I wouldn't have a cute neko avi.

Also don't forget.

Red Zone, CDS, and any other Copy Bot Detectors on our grid are False, and Spyware, they never worked never will work, they were feared for the first few weeks by some maybe, but after that just a big laugh because they fail, and do nothing but harm others who did nothing, and the reason I will not back such systems because of abuse. Had they not have been abused I would have been for support of them, and I still support the same things these creators of these systems do, but I will not support harm to innocents, or systems that do not work can easily make a mistake due to the SL client software being open sourced.

In the end CopyBot is like a Gun, The people who make weapons for people and military are not the ones commiting a crime, the person using that weapon is the one responsible for what they do with it in other words same thing with Open Sourced SL.

So yup some things to think about.

[Alicia Sautereau]

There is no way to prevent it, it`s all client side so you will not even notice it
You don`t need a special sl client as there are other tools to even do it with the official ll client 

[Jennifer Boyle]

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bigmoe Whitfield wrote:

... "if it can be seen on the screen it can be copied"

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I have only the foggiest understanding of these things, but I thought what made it possible was that all of the textures making up an avatar are sent to the client.  If they were all combined into one texture on the server, wouldn't it be impossible?

Also, as I understand it, all textures that one sees are sent to one's client in unencrypted form, so that all an unscrupulous person has to do is obtain the software (which is readily available) to capture them.  Why can't they be encrypted?  I know that wouldn't deter a determined hacker, but it would raise the bar a long way, probably far enough to deter most people who do it.

I was tempted to try Neillife in the past, just to see if what people said about its capabilities was true---people in SL never exaggerate anything, you know.   What deterred me was that I thought that someone who wrote a viewer that would copy content indiscriminately would not be above including code that would do all sorts of things I don't want done, like capturing passwords and credit card info.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't, as I m might have ended up on the Red Zone $#!tIi$t.

[Nataly Moonwall]

There are a web of hackers/copybotters that offer direct downloads for all the viewers with copybot capability, even with videos to show you how use these viewers. Also on the forum they have A LOT of free files to download copybotted stuff (stolen from many content creators). I guess that LL knows about this issue, and my question it's....LL really cannot block logins from these viewers or take down this web providing illegal viewers??

[JoJo Aurelia]

I've had many designs taken and sold in other worlds. I was kinda shocked when first saw them, but at least they were my earlier designs and not very good! LOL. I still don't know how they did it!

[Ceka Cianci]

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charity Hollow wrote:

I had heard about these copybot viewers that allow someone to rip off your entire avatar just by being in the same room as you. But I thought SL banned these years ago. Recently I had a friend say somebody she knew got copied. She said she was standing there in a busy sim, then suddenly several people looked identical to her. Same shape, clothing, skin, everything. Then another friend told me somebody was chatting with her and did it. He turned into her. And this is recent. I don't want to be copied. I know it's not a big deal but I've spent a lot of money on my av and I don't really think it's fair to steal my things or my shape. Is there maybe something I could buy? Like a hud that would stop this?

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there really is nothing you can do to stop it..

if someone copies my avatar..they may get one look for part of the day that i wear..hehehe

omg they got my shorts i like!! \o/

and my hair and shape and all the stuff i was wearing that moment!!\o/

they don't get your whole inventory..just a look you were wearing for that moment..

and unless you made the things yourself..i wouldn't worry about it..you didn't lose any money..

they are not really stealing from you..they are getting the persons items that made the stuff and will hurt their market ..

all of our looks have been inspired by someone somewhere..you are going to bump into a lot of people that have a look similar to yours..don't worry about that part of it..chances are you may have something in common with them ..strike up a conversation..you may find a new best friend in it all..

but as far as copybot viewers..all LL can do about them is just ban that viewer once they find out about it..they can't do much else until they know they are there..

 

[Rene Erlanger]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

The question one really needs to ask is how did this harm you? No, I am not advocating copy bots or anything that infringes on ones intellectual property however, what damage did this cause you?

Did it inhibit your ability to play SL? Did it cost you money and or how much time did it take you to rectify the situation?

If you get my point, you will just scoff it off and move on.  Much more important things to get upset over.

Truth is as mentioned, if its on your screen, it can be copied and if they didn't copy it from you, they will from someone else but it really doesn't sound like anything malicious took place.

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Not quite true...it alters the psyche...i would be questioning myself  "what's the point spending money on this platform to create a unique self, if it can be cloned in seconds"

Copybotting has knock-on effect on the SL community......to both consumer and creator asking themselves those type of questions.

[Ceka Cianci]

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Rene Erlanger wrote:

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

The question one really needs to ask is how did this harm you? No, I am not advocating copy bots or anything that infringes on ones intellectual property however, what damage did this cause you?

Did it inhibit your ability to play SL? Did it cost you money and or how much time did it take you to rectify the situation?

If you get my point, you will just scoff it off and move on.  Much more important things to get upset over.

Truth is as mentioned, if its on your screen, it can be copied and if they didn't copy it from you, they will from someone else but it really doesn't sound like anything malicious took place.

---

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Not quite true...it alters the psyche...i would be questioning myself  "what's the point spending money on this platform to create a unique self, if it can be cloned in seconds"

Copybotting has knock-on effect on the SL community......to both consumer and creator asking themselves those type of questions.

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i think experience has a lot to do with things also and how it's gonna impact someone..

it would be creepy to all of a sudden see like 5 of the exact avatars as myself all of a sudden pop up..

but right away i would know what was going on..where some wouldn't..

i think the more we learn about SL weaknesses in it's world the more we learn to adapt with our reaction..

someone newer i could see being a bit more freaked out than i would..

they may think these guys have all their information and everything in their inventory and who knows what else..

SL can be pretty cruel sometimes like RL..

the best thing we can do is hope they look for answers and find them rather than just leave the world..

i would much rather have the chance to tell them what happened rather than them thinking they have been hacked or worse..

it does feel like a personal violation i bet..

the best cure i have found is..MAKE OVER TIME!! lets hit the mall and get some new stuffs \o/my treat!!!

hehehehe nothing gets a smile going faster than some relaxing girls day out shopping like crazy hehehe =)

 

[Anaiya Arnold]

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Knutz Scorpio wrote:

Kinda hard to give advice for something that has happened to a friend of a friend in the past, but if it happened to me I'd try to AR them all for using a TPV not on the LL approved viewer list.  Not that AR's ever worked for me, and my avatar is made up of freebies, but it would bother me to be around others that so lacked in creativity and effort to make their own unique look.

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I don't think there is any rule against using a TPV not on the TPV directory so the AR needs to be worded to make it clear that the TPV concerned violates the TPV policy (rather than merely is not in the TPV directory) if this route is taken.

 

The best response I can suggest to this kind of situation is to take pics, use the inspect on any copied prims to show the creator name and get a pic of this (make sure that "show UI" is selected in your pic options so that the inspect thing with the creator name is in the pic), and then using your own prim made by the real creator, get the name of the real creator (of the original content that you legitimately bought) and get all this information to them. 

The creator can lodge a DMCA take down thingie with LL, and if you give them the pics with the outright evidence of their content with someone else listed as creator, along with the name/s of any avatars and pics of them wearing the copied items, then the creator may be able to use this to lodge a DMCA notification to get the content removed by LL.

That's about the limit of what you can do so far as I know.

[Ticee Nansen]

Basically a lot of people go through hell and back in order to look unique and stand out from the "dumb" crowd in every MMO, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Star Wars, whatever.. the major difference is just that in the mentioned games you have a preset amount of clothing and avatar choices available, and you roughly pay the same prices when it comes to it, and you always know it's possible to meet others looking like yourself.. but it doesn't necessarily matter that much if one or two look like you, since it's not really the main focus of the game, you probably play better than them.

On SL everything is player made, there's a endlessly huge amounts of different combinations, so you expect to be unique, and eventually you end up paying massively to achieve that. Furthermore there's no other primary gameplay to put character customization a bit as a second hobby.. No, it's the main point of SL, to stand out, to be special and attract attention in whatever form you want.

Basically all this means that people copying your avatar is really a spear through your soul - I can't speak for all, but I know my avatars looks is a result of years of experience, items and ideas of how to combine it all.. I wouldn't expect anyone on this entire overpopulated globe to come up with the same looks, so if some noob just walks up and copies it completely, I'd be willing to catch a plane and go strangulate the offender, litterally. It's basically identity theft, which in my mind is one of the most nasty crimes you can commit.

[JoJo Aurelia]

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Ticee Nansen wrote:

Basically a lot of people go through hell and back in order to look unique and stand out from the "dumb" crowd in every MMO, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Star Wars, whatever.. the major difference is just that in the mentioned games you have a preset amount of clothing and avatar choices available, and you roughly pay the same prices when it comes to it, and you always know it's possible to meet others looking like yourself.. but it doesn't necessarily matter that much if one or two look like you, since it's not really the main focus of the game, you probably play better than them.

On SL everything is player made, there's a endlessly huge amounts of different combinations, so you expect to be unique, and eventually you end up paying massively to achieve that. Furthermore there's no other primary gameplay to put character customization a bit as a second hobby.. No, it's the main point of SL, to stand out, to be special and attract attention in whatever form you want.

Basically all this means that people copying your avatar is really a spear through your soul - I can't speak for all, but I know my avatars looks is a result of years of experience, items and ideas of how to combine it all.. I wouldn't expect anyone on this entire overpopulated globe to come up with the same looks, so if some noob just walks up and copies it completely, I'd be willing to catch a plane and go strangulate the offender, litterally. It's basically identity theft, which in my mind is one of the most nasty crimes you can commit.

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I totally agree! I am like you. Nothing free about me. LOL. I've worked for a long time to get my avi to be who she is, and I'd not like anyone to look like me! I've never personally heard about someone copying avatars. That would piss me off!