Boy Lane

I'm posting this as a new thread as the other doesn't focus on the problem anymore but merely personal opinions. Skills Hak produces and sells an in terms of false positives allegedly 100% failure free (!) grid wide banning tool aka "[GEMINI Cybernetics] Client Detection System / CDS" based on a closed sensor system that should detect users of "copybot enabled" viewers employing secret detection mechanisms, then collect a number of personal and hardware/software details, sends these details to a specific external database (without any privacy protection rules) after which a user will be banned for lifetime in all sims deploying her tool.

After a closer review it became pretty clear that the CopyBot ban link system from Skills Hak is violating several paragraphs of SecondLife's Terms of Service (ToS) which can be found here: Terms of Service | Second Life

"CONDUCT BY USERS OF SECOND LIFE
4.1 You agree to abide by certain rules of conduct, including the Community Standards and other rules prohibiting illegal and other practices that Linden Lab deems harmful.

In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not:
(i) take any action ... or otherwise transmit Content that infringes or violates any third party rights
(iii) take any action ... or otherwise transmit Content that violates any law or regulation
(iv) take any action ... or otherwise transmit Content ... that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort ... libelous, invasive of another's privacy, ...or otherwise objectionable;
(v) take any actions ... or otherwise transmit Content that contains ... other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information
(viii) interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
(ix) attempt to gain access to any other user's Account ...; or (x) "stalk", abuse or attempt to abuse, or otherwise harass another user.

Any violation by you of the terms of the foregoing sentence may result in immediate and permanent suspension or cancellation of your Account"

In my opinion Skills Hak system heavily violates LL's ToS and I can only suggest that everybody, affected or not should file an Abuse Report based on this. It can not be that an individual takes control, right and law in her/his own hands and develops a huge griefing tool that is abusive by it's design and sells this griefing tool for a notable profit; regardless how good the initial intentions and available alternatives may be (or not).

We do not need self proclaimed police wannabies who control our second lifes in broad disrespect of existing terms and policies in place. That's not better than any person guilty of copybotting!

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The Rainbow Girl
Be plurked: http://plurk.com/BoyLane

Ann Otoole

Got a good lawyer? Can you prove any of that to be truth? Because truth is the defense in libel.

BTW the first people I told about this system when I found out was Linden Lab. Do you see Linden Lab doing anything about it? No.

I think Linden Lab needs to ban people that clog up their abuse reporting system with vigilantism libel.

And I definitely think Skills needs to publish the detected copybot users list with dates/times/locations/viewer/version information for all to see.

Couldbe Yue

i would have said that "(x) "stalk", abuse or attempt to abuse, or otherwise harass another user. " should be included too. People will be identified even if they're using the official viewer if they're on the list.

I would think that counts as harrassment if the user of the system is notified by the database that the person should be banned despite them currently doing nothing wrong.

(iv) take any action ... or otherwise transmit Content ... that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort ... libelous, invasive of another's privacy, ...or otherwise objectionable;

This for invasive of another's privacy - if it really is grabbing pc data then you could certainly call that invasive.

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Boy Lane

@Ann
You post your libel BS not the first time. Dismissed. For personal opinions please use the other thread you started. That is messed up enough. Thanks.

Cristiano

Ann, if the system is in any way collecting data which can connect accounts (the so-called tells gathered from the users PC), that is a clear violation of the TOS as stated. Ultimately, it is LL's decision of what violates their own TOS, but I don't see how you can get around the surreptitiously intercept or expropriate system data part. You are also so anxious for the list to be published, but what defense does someone have if they are erroneously listed? Who knows what motivations lie behind this system or how the list has actually been compiled. No one ever does anything bad with data or has an agenda? You are normally the first person crying foul - I can't believe you seem to be completely defending this, or am I misreading you?

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"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream" - Vincent Van Gogh

* my blog *

Boy Lane

Not only this. Storing such data is also object to privacy protection laws (which are different in each country). However it goes above and beyond just LL's ToS.

Fred Rookstown

She paid for a 6-month license. She's now trying to validate her shitty purchase.

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Ann Otoole

There is nothing to defend. You can't go making statements intended to cause harm to a business unless you have facts that can stand up in court.

There is a very subtle difference between saying something collects information "about a PC" and "from a PC".

So to sum it up for all of you the real money Skills might make is from dragging all of you into court if his system is not doing anything that is against the TOS. All of you will be legally liable for triple damages in a libel suit if you lose.

Besides I don't even see it as possible to do what some of you are saying it does.

So to me it is rather simple. If you have no evidence then don't commit libel.

Thus why I am warning people about libel.

This stuff is all over plurk, LL's forum, this forum, multiple blogs, and everywhere else. It is a libel lawyer's field day. Literally hundreds of people are in the defendent class already. And all Skills has to do is say "go" to a lawyer.

Cristiano

I wondered about this myself. While in the US, nothing is sacred anymore, I know Europe has very strict privacy laws. If this thing is accessing and storing PC-identifiable information, it seems it would run afoul of that.

Ann Otoole

Nope. Not as foolish as you think lmao

Cristiano

I love how easily the word libel is thrown around. Based upon what Skills has said, it is tracking information that can be used to identify if someone switches clients and even accounts. Am I wrong on this?

Fred Rookstown

You never whine about libel when you're spewing stuff about LL like Prokofy on steroids. You can whine and cry about libel all you want, when the fact is that we're discussing the implications of the existance of a system. It's a product, it's perfectly fine to discuss how and why it collects private information, Ann.

Ann Otoole

So does Linden Lab in multiple ways and people used to bitch about that.

The system is in the USA. Europe can go fuck themselves. Your laws do not apply to the USA. Europeans have to opt out and stay out of the USA.

Oh and China sure as hell could give a fuck about Euro laws. Go yell at them a while for their fucking spider army from Baidu going through every PC on the planet collecting everything and who knows what else lmao.

Ann Otoole

You are smart fred. You should know the difference between discussing something and attempting to harm a business with unprovable statements.

Fred Rookstown

Ann, has someone compromised your account? You're never like this.

Europeans cannot opt out. In fact, no one can. There is no "opt-out" button.

Circle Widdershins

Oh god no - please! not the e-lawyers! We'll have to break out the prison rescue pack again.

.... ah fun times, fun times.....

I miss that crazy Encore Mayne even though I didn't get a colour on her list.

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Cristiano We need to make 'endless celestial sex' into a thing.

Nimrod Yaffle

IBTL!!



(In before the list!)

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Buy my pirate stuff!

Ann Otoole

Gonna have to do better than that "hun". lmao.

Fred Rookstown

We make unprovable statements about LL all the time, like how Mark Kingdon is liquidating fucking LL. What the FUCK is wrong with you tonight?

Cristiano

What ever became of EM? I rather enjoyed some of her accusations, like Tenshi and I were the same person, and that I had an alt that had a costume shop.

Couldbe Yue

One thing Ann has always been steadfast in is her abhorrence of content theft. I'm surmising that despite what logic tells her sometimes her desire to get rid of them overrides her judgement.

She's not happy about the data collection either, hence the comment about wiretapping made what feels like an age ago.

I can understand people clinging to the hope that this gadget will sort it, the problem is that it won't and the price that everyone is expected to pay with regards to data protection is just too high.

Ann Otoole

The last thing this web site owner is going to do is lock a thread he supports.

This place is like 4chan.

Circle Widdershins

I think she dressed up as a clown from your costume shop and was never ..... seen .... again.

/cue sinister music

Cristiano

Ok, I take great exception to that. If I felt the thread were out of hand, I would lock it. It has nothing to do with my opinion of the topic. What I support is finding out what information this system is collecting. I don't think that is unreasonable, nor do I think it is unreasonable to question things. You have spent months posting here making all kinds of accusations against LL, but suddenly this system is somehow sacred and people cannot question it? Bullshit.

Pussycat Catnap

Public matter, public controversy, public figure (or private figure temp. within public sphere), first amendment. The end.