Baba Sucks

So lots of people seem to think IRC is the place to find true character. Let’s talk about what I knew about CopyBot, Second Life, and you.

People seem to think CopyBot was developed to cause the destruction of Second Life. That’s simply not true. Am I saying it wasn’t going to cause a lot of discussion and worry? I knew it would, because it’s something that’s important.

The issue isn’t CopyBot. The issue is what real protections you can expect in Second Life.

Nothing will prevent copying. You can only react to it after the fact. Trying to stop it will only lead to failure, and it will have the effect of limiting fair use.

We’ve seen the same words from Linden Lab, from Robin and Cory. We’ve all been saying the same thing. I’ve been saying it for months, others have been saying it for just as long if not longer. A lot of people are aware, and it still seems that those who would be effected by it, the content creators, do not hear us.

CopyBot isn’t a very good copier. It’s inefficient and buggy. One good thing about CopyBot, and also mirrored in my comments taken from IRC, if it can copy an avatar down to the last prim and with the same appearance it will have HUGE visual impact. That’s the kind of thing you don’t shrug off. It almost instantly connected all those disparate dots for anyone that watched it do its thing. What is yours is now suddenly somebody else’s.

I didn’t develop CopyBot, but I was aware that it would cause a controversy. I was glad for that because now almost nobody is not aware of the limitation in the protocol. Happier? Probably not… Do you want to be happy, or rather oblivious of libsecondlife and angry at Linden Lab for something else?

Cristiano Midnight seems to think this is OH-SO incriminating, so I’ll post it here. Enjoy me!

Nov 10 18:42:51 BabaYama ;0
Nov 10 18:42:58 BabaYama hamlet is already on my case for being a griefer
Nov 10 18:43:10 jhurliman can anyone find a quaternion calculator online? i’m trying to generate some test cases for nunit
Nov 10 18:43:11 bushing who’s hamlet
Nov 10 18:43:12 maxine hamlet is already on BabaYama’s case for being a griefer
Nov 10 18:43:14 frob maxine: forget hamlet
Nov 10 18:43:14 bushing ugh
Nov 10 18:43:15 maxine frob: I forgot hamlet
Nov 10 18:43:30 jhurliman bushing, http://nwn.blogs.com/
Nov 10 18:43:50 * bushing has had trauma w/ quaternions
Nov 10 18:44:37 jhurliman short story: he used to be a linden, as their official reporter but he’s an independent guy now (with ties to LL). considered one of the more notable SL blogs
Nov 10 18:44:55 jhurliman i made a video with him this afternoon so libsecondlife should be on that page sometime this weekend
Nov 10 18:45:21 Cw “In 2006, the effects of first-time immersion in virtual worlds were documented by many technologists and sociologists, none quite as sadistic as Hurliaman, who took Milgram’s approach in reinforcing that, regardless of their attempts to hit various keys or move the mouse in any direction, they could not depart (or even climb) orientation island
Nov 10 18:45:26 jhurliman anecdotes: anshe chung doesn’t like him, and he thinks baba is a griefer.
Nov 10 18:45:41 bushing jhurliman, probably before we get on metaverse sessions, eh?
Nov 10 18:45:47 Cw fuck mark
Nov 10 18:45:52 bushing lol
Nov 10 18:46:02 jhurliman Cw: ??
Nov 10 18:46:25 Cw not a big deal jh
Nov 10 18:46:39 BabaYama jhurliman, he knows who I am ;0 he just wants to know why i left that plane (parts) in the art gallery ;0
Nov 10 18:46:46 BabaYama haha honestly i forgot about it
Nov 10 18:46:47 jhurliman one question mark for “In 2006…” and one for “fuck mark”
Nov 10 18:47:07 Cw bush is a little shy when it comes to things like these so i had to egg him on a little bit to get you two on metaverse sessions
Nov 10 18:47:17 jhurliman BabaYama, i think one of the owners IMed me this morning and was like “nooooooo!!! why does baba hate us?”
Nov 10 18:47:21 Cw who knows where johnny ming is
Nov 10 18:47:28 BabaYama haha
Nov 10 18:47:42 BabaYama what did they say? ;0
Nov 10 18:47:43 Cw Milgam was learned helplessness
Nov 10 18:48:02 jhurliman Cw: our interview got cut! :-\
Nov 10 18:48:08 Belaya Many people don’t like Hamlet, heh.
Nov 10 18:48:12 Cw not in my book
Nov 10 18:48:27 jhurliman bushing, you might recognize hamlet from SLCC too
Nov 10 18:48:28 Cw come on are yous erious?
Nov 10 18:48:34 Cw let’s talk about in world fashion
Nov 10 18:48:37 Cw oh shit
Nov 10 18:48:41 Cw someone is stealing my textures
Nov 10 18:48:43 Cw dmca report!
Nov 10 18:48:49 Cw lindens must be on top of those
Nov 10 18:48:52 * Belaya laughs.
Nov 10 18:48:53 BabaYama jhurliman, i dont think he was paying attention to anything
Nov 10 18:49:00 bushing suck it
Nov 10 18:49:00 BabaYama he spent all of SLCC in the dark with his computer
Nov 10 18:49:18 Cw libSL is the most important thing happening in this space
Nov 10 18:49:22 jhurliman i’m going to walk away for 5 minutes to cook a pizza, and when i return hopefully this conversation makes sense
Nov 10 18:49:23 bushing ugh
Nov 10 18:49:25 BabaYama but he dates a linden now ;0 so he will learn ;0
Nov 10 18:49:27 Cw not whatever ming “cut” it for
Nov 10 18:49:38 bushing azureus is like totally shitting all over my viewer
Nov 10 18:50:05 BabaYama Cw, they did the interview like months ago
Nov 10 18:50:10 BabaYama when shit was boring
Nov 10 18:50:16 BabaYama now we’re gonna steal your shit
Nov 10 18:50:28 BabaYama haha
Nov 10 18:50:31 BabaYama and run away with it ;0
Nov 10 18:50:34 BabaYama like that griever
Nov 10 18:50:39 BabaYama with the tv ;0
Nov 10 18:50:42 BabaYama “Your Tv”
Nov 10 18:51:03 Cw do what now?
Nov 10 18:51:12 Cw alright
Nov 10 18:51:30 Cw admittedly, yes, the highlight at that point was injecting packets to give people god mode
Nov 10 18:51:39 BabaYama haha
Nov 10 18:51:55 BabaYama now the highlight is “OH SHIT”
Nov 10 18:52:09 Cw the mutha fuckin’ spotlight
Nov 10 18:52:31 BabaYama MUTHA FUCKIN’ HALOGEN
Nov 10 18:52:41 bushing so is the object stealer in SVN yet or not?
Nov 10 18:52:50 bushing Cw, did ou see this?
Nov 10 18:53:00 BabaYama oh yeah our object stealer
Nov 10 18:53:05 Cw i just don’t know where on the spectrum of LL ridiculousness their “open source client” in “dec” will fall
Nov 10 18:53:08 Cw no
Nov 10 18:53:17 BabaYama and there is supposedly an exploit still functional to steal scripts
Nov 10 18:53:28 bushing BabaYama, do you have that image?
Nov 10 18:53:32 Cw so combined with rob hubbard, you’ve got a complete cloner?
Nov 10 18:53:35 BabaYama heh
Nov 10 18:53:42 Cw ahem
Nov 10 18:53:43 Cw ron
Nov 10 18:53:51 * Cw not a big scientologist
Nov 10 18:53:56 BabaYama bushing, yeah let me upload it to libSL ;0
Nov 10 18:54:03 BabaYama cause i put it on my website and that fucker is down
Nov 10 18:54:44 IceBrodie hrm, need to initiate teleport start and end…
Nov 10 18:55:10 IceBrodie at least teleport home works.
Nov 10 18:55:30 Cw bush you did meet hamlet
Nov 10 18:56:19 BabaYama http://www.libsecondlife.org/images/libsl/stealing.jpg
Nov 10 18:56:24 bushing oh shit someone jsut tired to talk to me in SL
Nov 10 18:56:26 bushing gotta sign off
Nov 10 18:56:50 Cw heh’
Nov 10 18:57:25 bushing that was a close one
Nov 10 18:58:02 Cw so this is something that observes an object, recording it prim by prim + texture, then reconstructs identical new object?
Nov 10 18:58:57 BabaYama we should send a press release to all the SL news agencies with humorous h4×0r talk about all the shiz we can do with libSL to steal and cheat
Nov 10 18:59:12 Cw this just in: pwnd
Nov 10 18:59:55 BabaYama hehe
Nov 10 18:59:57 BabaYama wait
Nov 10 18:59:59 Cw dear adam reuters: pwnd! sincerely, #libsl
Nov 10 19:00:14 BabaYama first we need to get a bot that can duplicate all the attachments on a furry and wear them
Nov 10 19:00:46 Cw shouldn’t some furry have to code that?
Nov 10 19:00:53 BabaYama ;0
Nov 10 19:01:03 BabaYama no we will just pretend it’s for stealing silly hats
Nov 10 19:01:08 BabaYama but it works for furries too
Nov 10 19:01:19 BabaYama oh and prim hair
Nov 10 19:01:23 BabaYama right off your head
Nov 10 19:01:26 Cw is it running right now?
Nov 10 19:01:29 BabaYama ;0
Nov 10 19:01:30 BabaYama soon
Nov 10 19:02:20 BabaYama ahah
Nov 10 19:02:57 Lancej I’m running the bot right now at the libsl HQ, trying to fix rotation.
Nov 10 19:03:04 BabaYama the bot should just teleport around to every sim stealing attachments and apperaances and storing them in folders
Nov 10 19:03:17 BabaYama then we will have all kinds of great demo materials
Nov 10 19:04:12 * IceBrodie files the DMCA paperwork now on her AV…
Nov 10 19:04:15 BabaYama hah
Nov 10 19:04:46 BabaYama “why would you create something like that?” I think we have an obligation to do it ;0
Nov 10 19:04:59 BabaYama just so there are no misconceptions about it
Nov 10 19:05:07 jhurliman i think it will promote uniqueness
Nov 10 19:05:30 BabaYama HAH
Nov 10 19:05:44 BabaYama it would be fun to compare the number of identical shapes
Nov 10 19:05:48 BabaYama ;0
Nov 10 19:05:51 BabaYama and hair
Nov 10 19:06:03 BabaYama and all that ;0
Nov 10 19:06:17 jhurliman if everyone is able to easily become anyone else with the press of a button, then it’s not cool to be someone else. people will want to create their own avatars, or modify existing ones to tweak them to their preferences instead of buying the boxed version (no mod) and dealing with it
Nov 10 19:06:33 Belaya Y’know, as amusing as I find the clone bot — rubbing that in everyone’s face is seriously negative publicity, Baba. It’s not wise.
Nov 10 19:06:48 jhurliman so someone is able to steal a furry outfit and learn how the creator built it. OH NOES LEARNING!
Nov 10 19:06:50 BabaYama Belaya, yes
Nov 10 19:06:50 Lancej I wonder how long it would take to have it travel to every sim and copy every object.
Nov 10 19:06:52 BabaYama yes it’s very wise
Nov 10 19:06:59 Belaya Heh, your funeral.
Nov 10 19:07:10 BabaYama It’s not supposed to be good publicity
Nov 10 19:07:17 Cw it’s got to be done
Nov 10 19:07:27 BabaYama damn straight Cw
Nov 10 19:07:33 Cw someone’s got to teach prokofy what’s going on here
Nov 10 19:07:38 BabaYama hah
Nov 10 19:07:38 Cw er, the community, i meant
Nov 10 19:07:54 BabaYama they all have the same level of understanding ;0
Nov 10 19:08:22 BabaYama prokofy isnt some unique idiot.. she is just loud and proclaimes her ignorance to the world
Nov 10 19:08:34 Belaya Just because you’ve had assurances from LL at one point doesn’t mean they’ll be there the next day. You should know that one by now.
Nov 10 19:08:48 BabaYama Belaya, i could care less at this point what assurances LL gave us ;0
Nov 10 19:08:50 Belaya Still, I was amused when I saw Hubbard the other night.
Nov 10 19:08:51 Cw well said belaya
Nov 10 19:09:08 Cw still, expecting privacy in a virtual world, by now,
Nov 10 19:09:13 Cw ……

SignpostMarv posted a great comment to the Linden blog.

Check it…

libSL is incapable of copying anything not available to everyone already.

It cannot copy your inventory, because nobody else but you can see your inventory.

It cannot grab your password, because nobody but you (Linden Lab office employees aside) can see it.

libSecondLife is a project which can only do whatever the official client is capable of doing.

The official client can render avatars, so libSL is capable of copying them.

The official client can render objects, so libSL is capable of copying them.

The official client can render islands, so libSL is capable of copying them.

ANYTHING the official client can do can be done by libSL.

What you fearmongers and headless chickens don’t seem to realise is that to stop libSL from being able to do what it does, you must stop supporting the identical feature in the official client.

Don’t want to have your avatar stolen ? Tell Linden Lab to remove avatars altogether.

Don’t want your content stolen ? Tell Linden Lab to remove support for user-created content.

Don’t want your islands stolen ? Tell Linden Lab to remove the 3D environment the list of features Second Life has.

Hmm….

Now.

What are we left with ?

Ah yes.

Telnet MUDs

THis is from a blog comment I made to Robin Linden’s blog post on Copyrights and Content Creation in Second Life(still in moderation 11:30 pst)
##

CopyBot is not a product that we sell or distribute. It’s a debugging tool and silly demo with a [now] obviously bad choice of name. Hopefully you won’t be seeing copy bot on SLex any time soon..

The issue at hand with copy bot seems HUGE!

“Oh my god why would they do something like that?!”

But our reason for showing this application around was partly we were proud of or achievement, and then on the other hand, if it’s this easy, we should tell people that relying on the Second Life systems to protect content is not feasible any longer.

For a while now we’ve had this project on the back burner that has been asked for so many times by content developers, an ability to back up content to your hard drive and restore it in Second Life. Basically import and export functions.

That’s the basis of CopyBot as well excepting the permission check. The problem is the difference between CopyBot and and import export tool is little more than 1 line of code that is easily commented out by even novice programmers.

What you see in CopyBot is the same capabilities that any import/export tool would have.

It’s not something easy to deal with, and we’re struggling ourselves with the issues that CopyBot has brought. It’s caused many personal conflicts as well between developers and their friends who do not see the merit in what we do.

Mac Os Forge is back.. Thanks guys ;0 What can I say? It’s less than 3 months old and has already seen 2 months of down time. ;0 Somebody shoot the idiot who made that decision.

It’s been so long i’m going to call it the

MAC OS FORGE RE-LAUNCH

Mac OS X includes a wide variety of open source software from FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, the GNU Project, and many more projects each its own vibrant developer community.

Mac OS Forge is dedicated to supporting the developer community surrounding open source components specific to Mac OS X. Here you will find resources for working with the source code to popular Apple-original projects, as well as third party projects that are closely related to the Macintosh operating system.

Only select projects in Mac OS X are featured at Mac OS Forge. Look here for the complete set of open source software found in Mac OS X

p.s. I dont blame you kvv

;0

I just found this great interview with Robert Sutor. Sutor is IBM’s VP of Standards and Open Source, which makes him a really cool guy in my book. The interview is reposted here because I don’t want to link to a PDF.

Related to this interview Robert recently blogged about IBM’s new site devoted to open source and business.

Read more