The End Of Selling Objects?
The libsl group has produced a program called copybot, which, among other things, allows one to log on to the SL servers and copy objects belonging to other people.
There was a bit of furor a while back about the program GLIntercept. GLIntercept is a program that intercepts the OpenGL data being sent from LL and copies it, thus allowing one to copy textures received for display by secondlife.exe.
I think at least one person was suspended (not banned) from SL for mentioning GLIntercept in the LLSL forums.
Copybot is able to perfectly reproduce objects, along with their textures. The statue or piece of furniture one worked so hard to create in hopes of selling it can be recreated flawlessly by Copybot. Recreated flawlessy but not identically – the creator field will be different, the version produced by the Copybot proram will show the name of the account the Copybot program used to log in with, not the person who actually created the object design.
Linden Lab suppressed discussion of GLIntercept in its forums. GLIntercept is a program created entirely outside of and distinct from Second Life and Linden Research, but LL has been and is aiding in the creation of copybot, along with the libsl’s other projects.
Linden Lab took disciplinary action against SL users for talking about GLIntercep because it aided in copy and sale of the result of texture creator’s efforts, despite the fact that is was not an exploit of a flaw in SL, but now it aids a group in the creation of a system that allows reproduction and sale of an object creator’s work.
If SL objects and collections of SL objects are copyrightable works of art, and LL claims to respect the IP rights of SL users, then why are they aiding in the production of a program that overlooks, evades, and destroys those rights?
==========================================================
October 13, 2008: This is an old post. I am getting hostile comments and no enlightening or interesting comments on it, so I’m closing comments.
Unable To Connect - SuezanneC Baskerville 
November 13, 2006 at 9:46 pm
This is a good question and I would like to hear an answer to it. I would imagine that LL will answer that they can’t stop it. Has anyone posed the question in the forums?
November 14, 2006 at 1:33 am
[…] Copybot: LibSL’s GLIntercept for objects « Talking To My Self – Sue Baskerville […]
November 14, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Nothing to worry about here. The program copybot is not downloadble from the net anymore. Only a handful of people have it. Please stop fanning the flames of a non-existent problem.
Thank you
November 15, 2006 at 5:24 am
Aldair, I should know better by now than to be disturbed by Linden Lab’s inability to be consistent or logical in what they say, but one can always hope, can’t one?
Secundus, the flames hadn’t really got started good when I made this post. The source code and the exe files are both still available on the web. I still have my copies of both; I’m sure others that would give them out or sell them do also.
The rest of the code that was used to produce the copybot module is still in the repository, so anyone with the required knowledge and skill could produce a program that accomplishes the same thing.
I believe the source code is actually still available in the repository, you just have to know how to look for it. I haven’t actually looked for it myself but I think that is correct.
As for stirring up flames, that is your interpretation of my words, but your interpretation isn’t particularly accurate. I compiled the copybot program, despite my lack of knowledge about C#, i loaded up an alt and watched it mimic me, and I enjoyed seeing the army of SuezanneC and other clones made by someone with a large number of bots before the big brouhaha occured. Also, one can’t really stir the fire much making posts that are almost entirely unread.
Sorry for the delay in letting these comments appear, I had pretty much given up on the hope of ever getting a comment on anything I wrote.
November 15, 2006 at 6:17 am
This is much ado about nothing.
The idea that people need a forced monopoly on the very idea of anything they invent or create is utter nonsense, and has impeded, not promoted, creativity for 200 years.
The idea that SL somehow needs this nonsense for people to create within it is even sillier.
The creators of the best stuff will still find that people are eager to buy from them firsthand. Maybe they won’t be able to charge monopoly prices any more, like thousands for a set of xcite parts, but they’ll still make good money.
But this is the most naive part yet:
“Nothing to worry about here. The program copybot is not downloadble from the net anymore. Only a handful of people have it.”
Has this person not been paying attention to how the information revolution has worked for the last decade? If it’s not already on the file sharing networks, it certainly will be, soon. And now that it’s proven that it can be done, others will be writing their own versions, anyway.
It’s like how the guys cracking direcTV cards are not only usually right on top of whatever the newest card encryption is, but actually ahead of the next release. You just can’t stop the truth.
November 15, 2006 at 6:58 am
[…] Wanna know what it’s like to live in the Star Trek universe, where anything and everything you possibly could hope to ask for is one replicator function away? Then perhaps this Second Life script is for you! Copybot is able to perfectly reproduce objects, along with their textures. The statue or piece of furniture one worked so hard to create in hopes of selling it can be recreated flawlessly by Copybot. Recreated flawlessy but not identically – the creator field will be different, the version produced by the Copybot proram will show the name of the account the Copybot program used to log in with, not the person who actually created the object design. […]
November 15, 2006 at 3:18 pm
They’re aiding the open source project because they’d love to see a swath of bright, young programmers offsetting their development and maintenance costs in SecondLife, so they can push their platform, sell out, and make lots of money. 🙂
You really can’t create technology that will stop IP theft. You can police and moderate the experience in Second Life to an extent, but I seriously doubt LL wants to pay to babysit folks and ban them when they copy (but maybe not distribute) other people’s creative works. They just don’t have the money or time for that. It’s like the web: Lots of folk copy images and modify them, and the world goes on. Some folks get sued, and eventually we all adapt to deal with it on some level.
It’s silly to point the finger at the developers of the technology when in the real world, we blame the person who used the tool. As long as the technology isn’t trivially easy to use for abuse, we should embrace and refine it so that it becomes useful for us all.
I’d say the ability to take your creations into other worlds is a great idea, and I wish them (LL and the libsecondlife folk) all the luck in the world.
November 17, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I don’t support copyright laws, or patents for that matter.
I would like Linden Lab to be consistent in it’s public statements and policy.
An example of it’s inconsistency is that Linden Lab employees aren’t supposed to participate in resident operated forums, according to a post by Torley Linden, yet Linden Lab members participate in the libsl IRC channels and in the secondlife IRC channel. I don’t see any reason to distinguish between forums and IRC chat, so what makes these places be the exception to the “hands off” policy?
February 11, 2008 at 2:29 am
Turns out new ones are being released. . .
February 11, 2008 at 3:35 am
Hi
Is Anonymous Hacker your real name? 🙂
I presume you are talking about Second Inventory.
Second Inventory sounds like it might be able to do something I want: I have three folders full of scripts that I want to put all on one web page, with links to the LSL wiki for each relevant word in the code.
I am not going to copy and paste the code from SL manually. Too much work.
However the price of the Second Inventory is too high for me. It costs 11,000 lindens.
5,000 lindens I might consider.
September 29, 2008 at 11:53 am
There is a new copybot! Did some search on internet and it’s downloadable.
some commands are:
* importoutfit Imports an appearance from an xml file. Usage: importoutfit inputfile.xml
* export Exports an object to an xml file. Usage: export uuid outputfile.xml
* changeperms Recursively changes all of the permissions for child and task inventory objects. Usage prim uuid [copy] [mod] [xfer]
* clone Clone the appearance of a nearby avatar. Usage: clone [name]
* giveAll Gives you all it’s money.
* dumpoutfit Dumps all of the textures from an avatars outfit to the hard drive. Usage: dumpoutfit [avatar uuid]
* findobjects Finds all objects, which name contains search string. Usage: findobjects [radius]
* objectinventory Retrieves a listing of items inside an object (task inventory). Usage: objectinventory [objectID]
* priminfo Dumps information about a specified prim. Usage: priminfo [prim uuid]
* follow Follow another avatar. (usage: follow [FirstName LastName]) If no target is set then will follow master.
* import Import prims from an exported xml file. Usage: import inputfile.xml [usegroup]
* exportoutfit Exports an avatars outfit to an xml file. Usage: exportoutfit [avataruuid] outputfile.xml
September 30, 2008 at 3:03 am
CopyBot, are you the real copybot or just a copy? 🙂
You say you found a new copybot, and that it’s downloadable, but you don’t give the url.
Where is it?
So far as I know, the old copybot source code has been available on the web since it first appeared.
Here’s a link to a story on SL Herald: http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/03/more-copybot-dr.html on the copybot topic from March 2008.
Here’s a link to a story around the same time at Vint Falken’s site: http://www.vintfalken.com/copybot-20-myth-rumour-or-reality/
October 13, 2008 at 1:23 pm
This is an old post. I’m getting hostile comments and no interesting or enlightening comments. Specifically, no one provided an url for a new version of copybot, though I did find what purports to be one at one of the more well known greifer sites.
Comments closed.
November 10, 2013 at 12:12 am
[…] Copybot […]
November 17, 2013 at 4:06 am
[…] Copybot […]
November 23, 2014 at 11:20 pm
[…] Wanna know what it’s like to live in the Star Trek universe, where anything and everything you possibly could hope to ask for is one replicator function away? Then perhaps this Second Life script is for you! […]