COPY THAT! COPYBOT'S OPENLY FOR SALE IN SL
In every store, it is a familiar sight to see the posters about copyright issues and designers being ripped off. I have been to countless showdowns when designers have gathered to hunt down someone who has "stolen" their work or blatantly copied it. Most of the time, in these scenarios, the people being blamed for the crime nearly always say they purchased the resell pack innocently from sl exchange. While I am sure that this might be true in some cases, I am sure that in others, it isn't.
Today when I logged in, I was left an IM by one of my friends. He had saw this spammed in a group chat and saved it for me to have a look at.
(Saved Tue Jul 15 07:06:49 2008) [23:01] Space Ansar: Working copybot for sale, make working copies of things you don't even own! Copies clothing, skins, objects, linked objects, sculpted objects and more. Why pay for something when you can just take it? Demonstrations available for interested buyers, price is 5000L. IM if interested.
Without a second thought, I looked the name up in the search and guess what, IM if interested and demos really aren't an option. As soon as this notice went out the person obviously thought they would be clever and delete the account-so as not be caught. This is what I call a real sl entrepreneur. I mean, who are we supposed to call now?
It seems that the problem of copying others is still very much a "problem" in sl and most assume it will get you banned. I went to have a look at the LL terms of service, just to see what they had to say this week. I am saying "this week" because the TOS tends to change on a regular basis.
"Second Life needs features to provide more information about assets and the results of copying them. Unfortunately, these are not yet in place. Until they are, the use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation of Section 4.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service and may result in your account(s) being banned from Second Life. If you feel that someone has used CopyBot to make an infringing copy of your content, please file an abuse report. Note that this is completely separate from any copyright infringement claim you may wish to pursue via the DMCA."
I then went to have a look at Section 4,2 which states:
4.2 You agree to use Second Life as provided, without unauthorized software or other means of access or use. You will not make unauthorized works from or conduct unauthorized distribution of the Linden Software.
Basically the TOS says that you cant use copybots or any other type of program, but that isn't the problem for a lot of the designers. They know their work has been ripped off and they don't care how, they just want LL to do something to stop it. Sadly at the present time, they cant and they wont take any responsibility either. What they do is they read your report that you submit and if you have suspicions of the copyright infringement, they tell you to file a complaint under the Digital millennium copyright act. While your waiting for a reply, the person who is ripping you off is making a fortune selling copies of your stuff.
Eventually, they will investigate this for you and take down the offending or ripped off items. However there appears to be a small catch in all this because to file notification under the DMCA, you must have your products listed and copyrighted to you. If you dont, they wont touch you with a ten foot prim.
This is the problem that a lot of people have, they don't actually have their work copyrighted.
I thought a lot about the IM I was given and wondered why LL just couldn't ban the ip address of the person who created the account?
Why cant they just create something to stop copybots being used altogether,whats keeping them?
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