Cristiano

I think this is probably going to cause a bit of an uproar:

BuilderBot: How best to release it??? | Rezzable

Rezzable is releasing an open source tool called BuilderBot that will copy an SL sim and produce files necessary to import the content into an OpenSim grid. Additionally, they will be selling a pro version for $100 that will allow import of the sim data back into SL. The key here, though, is that it has no permission checks. It does not copy scripts, but otherwise can produce a copy of a sim. Discuss!

Here's a little more background on it:

http://www.secondeffects.com/2009/07...ld-you-be.html

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Nimrod Yaffle

Pssh, when I sold something like this, it made me the most hated person in SL. I'm sure with the rezzable name attached it probably won't make as much of a problem.


That excuse didn't work for me.

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Cristiano

Here is some more about it also:

Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » Rezzable Readies Release of Full Sim Copybot

Isablan Neva

Does this fall under the analogy of having your party guest leave abruptly only to find out 15 minutes later that they've turned the upstairs bathroom into a biohazard zone?

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Aki Shichiroji

we need some means of registering acceptable third party viewers and clients as soon as possible

i wonder just how much time and effort creators in SL lose over copybot already. Some folks work at this on a hobbyist level, some people work on it at a full time work level. At what point should one just decide 'well, time spent chasing copybotters exceeds time spent working at stuff, i should just pack up'?

I spent about five hours this past week documenting and following up on thefts. I hear some people get tips on theft every day or so.

This can only make it worse.

Aki Shichiroji

As a developer, i would like to have a tool that can be used to replicate a sim that *I* have permission to replicate. I would absolutely *not* wish to copy other peoples' work, and most certainly *not* at the expense of everyone else's sims being copied wholesale without attention being paid to intellectual property rights.

Adam Zaius

Yeah; I personally dont see releasing it without checks as being helpful at all.

We already have enough time invested into chasing down things like the freebie garden on OSgrid; without a convenient tool out there to do the ripping. Implementing permission checks is a fairly simple and straight forward process if you are already gathering the property data (which any complete exporter should be doing.)

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Originally Posted by Joshua Ignore Adam, he's just a troll.

Khamudy

It just seems a bit of a "Fuck you" move, tbh. Their blog gave the impression of "Thieves never bother with DRM, so we won't either!".

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Aki Shichiroji

$100USD for the pro version of the program is not going to deter any casual theif.. and much like Rezzable's other 'business model' for creating revenue in SL, not going to be profitable at all. How much you wanna bet the program gets cracked and passed around on torrent sites within the week of release?

Also, do not underestimate the lengths to which 'casual thieves' will go to make a buck. Last month a bunch of 'casual thieves' copybotted my entire store, rented half sims in not one but two estates, and attempted to pass off my work as well as lots of work from many other creators as their own. And when their stuff was returned by LL, they simply appeared again the next day and rebuilt.

As someone who does full sim work myself, yes, it could be useful to replicate my own work in a full sim environment to take elsewhere... however NOT at the expense of adding another completely unfettered tool to thieves.

I would really like to see LL impliment some sort of API for registered third party clients and bots only. I recognize there are many that are legitimately useful and not harmful to the SL community.

What Rezzable is proposing to release however? I certainly feel has the potential to be harmful. And Rezzable should be prepared to face legal trouble should they knowingly release something that ignores SL terms of service and creator intellectual property rights.

And all for $100 a pop? I'm pretty sure Rezzable will find the costs exceed the benefits again... but then when did that ever stop them from trying (and failing) to make ends meet when they were still in SL?

Govi

Theft is theft, no matter how worded or justified. While this won't bring on the Apocalypse, it's just another brave accomplishment by brilliant persons who've been magically brought into the world without a conscience.

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Eata

We should probably just ignore all this stuff as inevitable. You can't do anything, don't lose any sleep.

Persephone Milk

Permission checks should be implemented before this is released.

As somebody that has had one of their items copied for export to an open server, this tool really troubles me. The fact that it copies the entire sim, without regard to the creator of items, is irresponsible. At best it will breed laziness and the inadvertent copying of items that one does not have permission to copy. And the less-than-honest will have a built in excuse "Oh wow, that was your item? I am so sorry. The tool just copied everything. I thought it had all be created by our design team."

I realize that it's painful to move a sim from SL to an open server. It might even take days to work through all of the link sets. But really, is unleashing a tool like this, which has the potential to hurt thousands of designers, really justified by the handful of people that would use it for legitimate purposes? It's not enough to say "Thieves can already copy content." This tool makes it incredibly easy to copy massive quantities of content.

Rezzable should pause, and act with a sense of responsibility.

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Cristiano

I think the free version is even more dangerous - while the OpenSim market is still in its early stages, the fact that this tool can copy an SL sim and take the contents into any OpenSim setup is kind of scary too.

eku Zhong

entire sim as in including vendors and boxed content???
sheeesh... this DOES make one want to pack it all in.

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Adam Zaius

I can tell you technically it cant do that; without you being the owner. The client doesnt get enough information on the objects otherwise.

Joshua Nightshade

The irony is that RightAsRain, who never made any content at all in SL in the first place, almost assuredly hired someone else to create this thing, and it is transparently a "fuck you SL and all your dogs too."

Every time I hear about this bozo he seems more and more selfish, self-centered and disgusting.

eku Zhong

haha joshua thats what i just posted on their fuck you blog

Joshua Nightshade

Know what would be cool? If the first set of sims this tool is used on is everything on the Rezzable grid.

I think they wouldn't be so amused when the whole of their shit is suddenly open sourced and flooding SL without their permission.

But it's just a small price to pay for the security of safe backups!

Vaalith Jinn

A rather childish and obvious 'fuck you', a spit in the face of a platform that allowed
them to grow into what they have become.

Also i'm not sure how some of those things work, but i'm guessing that
SL > BB > OSIM > SI > SL would probably be the path favored by thieves.

Khamudy

"Rezzable: Stream-lining theft for the 21s century!(tm)"

Just as a question to technical peeps like Adam, would it be possible for Linden Labs to do anything to block or break this tool so it didn't work, or does it pull all the data from local sources?

To be honest, I come away with the impression that Rezzable, after failing to make money and failing to force content makers to do exactly as they want, are now doing this as a way to 'knock' all of them. I'm also fully expecting a "Well, it's not the tools, it's the people who do the crime" kind of response from them about all this.

Isn't there an old saying of some kind about middle men always being bad news?

Joshua Nightshade

Linden Lab could try to block it. I don't think they would, because it could break other tools like Second Inventory if they did, and it probably wouldn't be difficult for Rezzable to have their program present itself to a server as a legit viewer anyway. There's little difference, as far as the server's concerned, between copybot and someone using the regular client, so for LL to get involved in obstructing this would be a cat and mouse thing.

I would think if they wanted to stop this from working a C&D to Rezzable would be a lot easier.

I don't suspect they would do any of this though. If LL went to block it and Rezzable worked around their obstruction to make it work again, then their motivations are made pretty clear.

I think that this is, really, ultimately meant to be as malicious as possible. He seems full of contempt and dislike and this absolutely seems to be an opening salvo.

Carthalis

This is appalling and certainly comes of as a big 'fuck you' to everyone in sl from rezzable. Disappointing, I always liked visiting their places in sl, but this is just bad.

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Adam Zaius

Pretty much no.

Actually the tool I wrote which does the same thing uses local sources nearly exclusively (uses a complicated form of proxy); so even unintentionally it would be pretty much indistinguishable from a legitimate viewer.

From a technical angle - if someone wanted to make it undetectable to LL - it would be quite possible to do.

Ciaran Laval

They've already made that response.

NeoBokrug Elytis

Are they even allowed to sell such a tool with the licenses in place?

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