[bronxelf]

Hello there, Sluniverse folks.

Since the main thread about this topic has not only become extremely long, occasionally confusing, and filled with the usual fun and games an epic thread such as this brings to our humble community, it needs a summary.

Okay, I'll be honest. It needs a summary so people who genuinely *need* to sift through the signal to noise can actually do it in timely fashion. Now that the thread is over 100 pages, that's impossible to do without help.

Much like Opus, when he left the room for Doritos and found himself volunteered as a Vice Presidential candidate, apparently it's on me to write this hot mess up. I'm going to do it in 25 page summary chunks for the sake of sanity (mostly mine.)

As with the RZ summary thread, please keep shenanigans to a minimum so it remains an easy to read summary. On the other mitten theres a LOT of links here, and if any of them lead to the wrong place please tell me and I'll correct it. It was just a lot of info to put together. Thanks.

Our story begins as our own Misty Harley reports that a friend on Twitter had linked to a website claiming, amongst other things, That the JLU is harvesting IP addresses and oodles of personal information, much in the style of RedZone.

The claim is that the JLU has its own device, called Phantom Zone, and the similarity of names to RedZone is not completely coincidental. Since that led to people asking who the JLU were(as many had no idea) it comes to light that they are a group who feel that since Linden Lab is not able to successfully deal with griefing, harassment and other issues on mainland(primarily and on private regions secondarily), that they are helping out by patrolling the grid, intervening in disputes, and helping to direct the Lab's attention to problems through the use of Abuse Reports. Though they claim to be much like a neighborhood watch (in tights), the reality is that they are far more like the superheroes they would like to emulate, as every good superhero needs an arch nemesis or two. In this case, their arch nemeses are two groups called Woodbury and W-Hat.

It should be noted, with no small amount of irony, that the JLU is violating the copyright of DC comics, for which they do not have official sanction to use. This would not normally matter, as DC is usually pretty mellow as long as you're not acting like a jackass under their label, but in this case it's an important note.

The story initially has the makings of your standard e-peen war, writ large. Obviously there's a lot of backstory and history most people at SLU don't know and aren't involved in, but what is clear is the groups have been at odds for many years now.

Here's what happened in the first 25 pages:

• Though it is reiterated that people should certainly not wander the grid without Sione's media filter enabled, it is noted that the Lab itself has *still* not put any media filtering in the official viewers yet, even though the RZ saga happened many months ago. Here we are again, and the Lab still doesn't have their act together on this.

• A claim is made that the leader of the JLU group, known on SL as KalEl Venkman used an alt account to infiltrate and gain access to the W-Hat group such that he could effectively stage a coup. It is claimed that he took it over using an account called Drone1 Resident, and once having done so, kicked almost 900 people out of the group, effectively killing it.

• Immy notes a connection between this account and some shenanigans that went on during this year's SLCC.

• Robble Rubble, a new member here at SLU, explains that the reason the JLU dislike him personally, is that he was the person behind the *last* time information was stolen from the JLU, in the form of their "Brainiac Wiki" or bwiki for short.

• However, longtime SLU member Joshua Nightshade has also had issues with the JLU. Basically, they amassed personal RL information about him without permission, and stored it in the bwiki. It is interesting to note that in the second link, GreenLantern Excelsior (GLE), a member of the JLU, asks Joshua if he's a griefer (as if to suggest that's the only reason his info would be stored- that he were "guilty" of some perceived crime. Remember that one- it'll come in handy later.)

• GLE enters the fray to defend the JLU and states that they do not collect IP addresses.
  

• Cutting to the chase, Qie Niangao asks quite reasonably for proof of the provenance of the leaked data, as well as what those who are leaking it would like to see happen as a result.

• In response, new SLUvian Ryokashi answers part of Qie's question, by explaining that much like RedZone, the PZ systems can be used as a linked banning device, and that people can be manually added. Also, it appears that the JLU can add whomever they choose to the list(much like RZ) and if someone with a PZ device is using them in a linked fashion, the ban implemented by the JLU(rather than the landownder themselves) will be honored by the device on their land. Sadly, PZ starts to sound like the same old song and dance we heard months ago.

• However, GLE comes back again, once again defending the JLU and PZ, and saying simply that the device simply does not operate in a nefarious way.

• It would appear though, that the leader of the JLU responded in an odd fashion after the previous leak of the bwiki. At first he denied that the wiki belonged to the JLU at all, and then later, when that failed, filed DMCA takedown notices with the websites hosting the data. Sione points out the obvious- that if this is so, then he was lying about the data not being legitimate. You can only file a DMCA takedown on that which belongs to you. Once you do that, it establishes provenance of the data. Ryokashi confirms once again that that's exactly how it went down.

• GLE reappears again to assert that PZ does not rip IP data, and that the IP data leak does not come from the JLU. But it's important to note the last line of that post, made in response to a cut and paste of the current SL TOS as regards alt disclosure: "So it's fine to chat about it here, but be careful talking about people's alts inworld." That little nugget eventually becomes important too. Hang tight.

• Ely Hynes, not hanging tight, points out how telling that statement really is, and what it says about someone who would blithely make it.

• Qie, once again with an eye for the main chance, asks if PZ is open source, in an attempt to suggest that if it is, the code can then be examined and this issue would be put to rest entirely. Qie also suggests that all data collected by it should be available for people to view as well.

• Tux believes that GLE, not being a scripter, is perhaps misunderstanding the technical details of what's going on here, and tries to explain. He also asks for confirmation as to whether or not Drone1 Resident is an alt of KalEl Venkman.

• A new player in this drama, Vagabond Carter, one of the co-coders of Phantom Zone shows up to reiterate what GLE has said- that PZ does not grab or store IP addresses.

(just wait. There's more.)

[bronxelf]

There is much back and forth involving the back history and ongoing animosity between the JLU and W-hat/Woodbury at that point. It's clear they're all not going to gather around a fire and sing Kumbaya any time soon.

• A blast from the past! We find out that Cdurd770 Halfpint, a name that those who followed the RZ threads should be familiar with has ties to the JLU. If you weren't there for this, CDurd77 runs a "SL Police Department" and was suspected of running a RZ device, so much so that many following that story added his police group's web homepage to our host lists so it could not be recognized. Curiouser and curiouser.

• However, Vagabond does answer Qie's question, stating that no, PZ is not open source. He goes on to explain that if it were, it would not be effective.

• Sione, who can easily be considered to be an expert in such matters at this point calls bullshit.

Our fearless leader, Cristiano steps in at this point to remind everyone about SLU policy regarding linking to locations that have RL info attached(in short: don't do that.)This thread is already making him work harder than he should have to. There's then some more backstory sniping between GLE and Tux over past events. However the one important line in this exchange is uttered by zip paz, at the end of his post:

"Who are you to try and remove any of us from an infohub when we did not do anything wrong. You're not Lindens."

• However they were gathered though(at this point unknown), GLE does tacitly admit by omission to the JLU possessing lists of suspected or confirmed alts.

• Astolat Dufaux, ace reporter and Victorian seamstress, goes to the heart of the matter, asking by whose mandate the JLU is operating under, as they have no official sanction by Linden Lab.

• Marx Dudek notes that GLE's defense of PZ (as a technical matter) can easily be explained by a standard testing method.

• Zenmondo, another member of the JLU arrives on-scene, replying to Astolat's query for great justice, explaining the JLU's noble cause.

At this point, Ely notices that posts are starting to mysteriously disappear from the thread. Zen, who co-created PZ with Vagabond, also furiously defends his creation, and suggests that to test that PZ is clean, to download a packetsniffer like Wireshark and run a trace on it. There's a lot of back and forth sniping for a while. But then..

• Velvet Bikcin injects some sense into things, pointing out that the JLU are not making themselves look like the good guys, here.

• Astolat, falling back on her background as a reporter(why the hell isn't SHE writing this?) asks if it would be possible to see the actual wiki screencaps rather than cut and pastes and paraphrases.

There's a lot of arguing back and forth. This goes on until Huns stops traffic by discussing the potential psychological implications of people who would be a part of the JLU.

However amidst all the sniping, there's accusations of real life harassment, perpetrated by Woodbury and another group(PN) against KalEl in RL, in the form of a Halloween night prank in 2007. KalEl, in response, made a death threat, believing he would be justified in killing the pranksters under the law.(this by the way isn't how the castle law works.)

Stroker Serpentine points out everyone in this situation is being creepy. Misty agrees, and points out that the JLU is overstepping it's boundaries by the way they're behaving.

[bronxelf]

Then shit gets real.

Tux, in order to show the depth of the info that the JLU is amassing, posts his own entry from the bwiki. It's a showstopper. It also takes FIVE POSTS. Read it. If nothing else it shows you the sheer granularity of what they're after. It's horrifying.

At this point the IT pros bandy about some of the potential ways to go about doing what seems to be done, and *not* technically grabbing IP addresses, so that it would still happen, but that the JLU folks would, in fact be technically telling the truth. However, Qie steps in once again to focus on the point: that at this point, there's simply no smoking gun.

But Eunoli says what many by this point are thinking:

A"ll I get out of this entire thread is that there's some spandex-wearing, self-proclaimed authority figures running around and that - far more importantly, people (and it really doesn't matter who - anyone at all can be not what they seem - and usually are) are still using the media hole to suck up IP addresses for -whatever- purpose they have.

I only see a need to put more pressure on SL to require every viewer to have a filter turned on by default and to provide warnings anytime anyone tries to connect via media.

If these yoyos are doing it, others are too. And if they stop, others will continue. The problem has to be addressed at the defect level or its pointless."

The fun wasn't nearly over yet though, gang, because TheListSL stopped in for a charming dump of some more info from the bwiki, proving that KalEl Venkman was indeed Drone1 Resident, and that the W-Hat group was in fact destroyed by him. Further, that he fervently supported and continues to support alt detection all the way through the RZ saga and indeed, to this day.

Most shocking, perhaps is the evidence that the SL Police Department (remember Cdurd770 Halfpint.?) has integrated their security device with the JLU's info via a backchannel. Basically, though they were honoring the letter of the TOS, they had in fact pulled off what zFire threatened to do- take all the alt matching out of the Lab's purview. Here's the smoking gun:

History of The Justice League:
October saw the integration of the Brainiac database and the **Police Department**'s alt detection system, much to the dismay of some of the members of the League
Also in February on the 25th, Linden Lab changed the Community Standards to make revealing of alternate accounts to others without the consent of the owner into a violation of the Terms of Service as "Disclosure". Brainiac was modified to make it ToS-compliant when accessing records in-world, though the information remains intact in our database and can still be accessed outside of Second Life from the web interface built into the BrainiacWiki. I also added a chatroom to the BrainiacWiki so that we could maintain secure communications completely outside of the Linden Lab service. Conversation there, by definition, is not constrained by the Linden Lab end user license agreement or the Terms of Service.

But really- read that whole post. It's full of interesting stuff.

• Sione is the first one to call it- it's RZ all over again. Only it's mechanisms are different.

• ZenMondo, one of the previously named co-coders of PZ claims again that PZ does not collect IPs, and that he personally is against alt detection. The distancing, we see it. It is this moment that Zen seems to get stuck on forever. His only concern really is to defend his creation against the accusation that it is pulling IPs. He fails to notice that at this point, the discussion just went WAY beyond that problem.

• Tux points out that Sione's media filter is going off for various domains controlled by the JLU as of the day before(clearly, long after RZ has been pulled from the grid and the TOS changed), and lists them. He asks Zen to explain this. Zen continues to firmly and unequivocally assert that PZ does not rip IP addresses. He is adamant. Again, he's also not realizing no one really cares about his toy now as we are through the looking glass on this one.

Many Objection! pictures are then posted.

• Ryoshi continues to corner Zen on this issue. He points out that given the type of information the JLU has, by their own wiki(which is now verified as legitimate), that PZ MUST be doing something it should not be doing.

• Apparently, Soft Linden has his own page in the bwiki. While it's not very exciting on its own, what is interesting is the implication on the page that another LL employee, Rodney Linden, is a griefer according to the JLU.

• It is asked if it's possible to test the device, green zone style- get a free copy of PZ, set it up, see what it does. Except that the JLU doesn't give them out. They set the device up themselves, no matter where the devices are.

• It is questioned whether the JLU are doing something else that RZ supporters threatened to do- use a radio station URL(their own) as a bounce point to grab an IP address, so it technically would happen offworld.
  

• Zen tries to tell everyone that because PZ is free, and not sold, it shows good faith and a lack of bad intentions. Everyone calls him on this because that statement is STUPID.

TL;DR: There is a huge e-peen war, years long. However, it would seem the "bad guys" are not really so bad, and the "good guys" are not good AT ALL.

We have entered: Return to Land That RZ Forgot. Now with more Superheroes.

This summary summarizes pages 1-25. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening. /Bronx out.

[Miko Masukami]

Superheroes and Police Dept in SL?
Omg what's next...people wearing Latex and spanking people with ears and tails.
When will it ever end?


I LOVE SL!

[Loraan Fierrens]

Yes, yes, this is all very interesting I'm sure; but when are you going to get to Carlita? Is she really carrying Fernando's baby? Will her evil twin recover from her amnesia and remember who attacked Sister Mary Dominic in the confessional?

[Bree Giffen]

Even the summary is confusing...

[Ash Rothmanay]

The the epic thread *is* confusing and long. I tried my best to read it all through but after the 5th page, and oh btw, my page settings of post per page is in the highest possible so the 5 pages I read....means lots of pages people with page setting to normal read, I had to give up and went to the last page and have just been reading the subsequent pages from there /takes a breath So thanks for summary

[Economic Engineer]

Just wanted to clarify, the owner of the**Police Department** is Cdurd770 Halfpint.

[The The]

Originally Posted by Ash Rothmanay

The the epic thread ...

[zip paz]

Tux didn't say this
"Who are you to try and remove any of us from an infohub when we did not do anything wrong. You're not Lindens."
I did.. but it's cool either way.

[bronxelf]

Originally Posted by zip paz

Tux didn't say this
"Who are you to try and remove any of us from an infohub when we did not do anything wrong. You're not Lindens."
I did.. but it's cool either way.

Thanks. Will fix it right now. Sorry about that- there were just SO. MANY. LINKS.

ETA: Fixed

[Astolat Dufaux]

Originally Posted by bronxelf

• Astolat, falling back on her background as a reporter(why the hell isn't SHE writing this?) asks if it would be possible to see the actual wiki screencaps rather than cut and pastes and paraphrases.

You flatter me. I had considered offering to write something like this -- and you did an excellent job summarizing, BTW -- but thanks to my chemo pickled brain, I'm still not very confident in my writing foo. It would have taken me much longer to write, and I worry there is potential of me mixing up names and quotes and such.

I am a little better on the editing side of things, so I'd be happy to offer help there if you need it (I don't think you do, but two heads -- or even one and a half, if you needed me to lend a hand -- are always better than one ).

[bronxelf]

SUMMARY, PART TWO: PAGES 25-50.

Please, again, inform me if I need to correct links and names. There's a lot here. I am distilling 25 pages into about 60 moments that move the story along, with links. It's a lot and any screwed up names or links are accidental. Thanks.

--------------

When we left off, ZenMondo was claiming that the fact that Phantom Zone was not being sold for a profit was indicative that it was not malicious. No one bought this line of reasoning, and in fact pointed out quite reasonably all the ways that the opposite could be true.

In a grand gesture, and an apparent misunderstanding of what the JIRA system is for, JLU head honcho KalEl Venkman files a JIRA asking for the Lindens themselves to review Phantom Zone and proclaim it safe. Soft Linden, as a representative for the Lab says no and eventually closes the JIRA. However, the comments are interesting. Go read them.

• Mad Mouse points out that even now, the bwiki is not secure, as she was able to call pages from it herself, and links to the evidence.

• GreenLantern Excelsior (GLE) returns to once again defend Phantom Zone. He strenuously reiterates that PZ is not ripping IP addresses. However, at the same time, he comes out in favor of alt detection.

At this point the focus on Phantom Zone as a device starts to look a little strange. There's a lot of very vocal and strenuous insistence that Phantom Zone is not ripping IP addresses. Yet the information is there, in JLU hands. Some start to wonder if Phantom Zone isn't what's causing it, and focus on the support for alt detection itself.

• A cynical goth (Oh wait, that was me.), points out to GLE that there is a difference between supporting a principle (alt detection bad) vs. supporting a RULE about it for the sake of itself.

• A new SLU member, Anguisette says hi and talks about Hero Syndrome, and how it might be relevant here.

• Aether, also known as Hewee Zetkin appears as a representative of the JLU and in his capacity as the software designer for PZ. He writes a long post designed to help answer some of the questions about the system. It's worth a read, but the bottom line is he too, asserts that PZ is not ripping IP addresses.

Immediately, there are angry replies and refutations from Atlas Saintlouis and Tux, both of whom are part of the long-standing, previously mentioned feud with the JLU. Atlas, in particular, points out the same thing I did, that the JLU supports alt detection in principle, quite firmly.

• GLE comes back to reply. He seems to miss the point of what he was told, and overall starts sounding *amazingly* like zFire.(it should be noted for the record that GLE "sounding like" zFire is in the types of things he said-we've heard this stuff before, and not an indication that he has any connection at all with zF. )

• Zen is still very upset that people think that PZ rips IP addresses. He posts a wireshark screenshot of a RZ device to show what an IP rip looks like and invites people to try the same thing using Phantom Zone.

Suffice it to say, there is a lot of back and forth arguing and finger pointing at this point. It starts looking a little like a gang war. Anguisette notes the tone thusly:

"If people are going to start a gang war between two rival factions in someone else's sim, at least choreograph it and set it to catchy music. It's more traditional.

• I reply to GLE's attempt to reframe the conversation, and pull it back to the actual point- the JLU (and his personal) support of alt detection.

• Misty Harley puts GLE on the spot as well, citing statements made by KalEl in the bwiki and demands an explanation. This is important(read it) because it shows KalEl doing what zFire did- telling people to change the name of the scripted Phantom Zone device to "object" in order to make it less detectable.
  

• Sione recognizes what several others have also- that the JLU is dancing around technical distinctions regarding IP collection (and alt matching.)

• Aether(Hewee) returns, but unfortunately, his words only prove the point everyone is at this point making- the JLU is tapdancing around the entire issue. They are fully in support of alt matching and detection. They are only trying to not break LL TOS.

• Sione notices that too.

• Aether(Hewee) makes another clarifying post regarding alts and the JLU. Contained within it is this gem: "The JLU members and anyone else may, "collect," alt data through human observation, but any information the JLU reports in-world, including any information it itself adds to the Phantom Zone system, complies with the Second Life TOS/CS."

[bronxelf]

At this point, people are quite sure alt data(at the very least) is being collected. The question is simply by what mechanism. The issue though is the JLU has no ethical issues with alt collection and matching- their only concern is the LL TOS, not the underlying issue. Since they are strident that is is not PZ doing it, the question starts to focus on the underlying (and frankly, much larger) ethical issue at hand.

• Sione points that out.

• Qie attempts to summarize the situation thus far:

Ugh.

So there are now at least four conflicting descriptions of Phantom Zone.

At the extremes, we have PZ as RedZone redux, and PZ as BanLink redux. As I understand Heweee's description, it's really BanLink, with a bit more in-world server-side processing. The leaked description is RedZone -- again, with a bit more in-world processing.

In the neo-BanLink case, it's a mystery why they don't just give the thing out full-perm, source and all, and let anybody and everybody access all the data stored on the server. Either it's open to sunlight, or it's rotten.

In the neo-RedZone case... well, there we have inconsistencies, too.

Just for starters: What exactly do we think means "The base station then forces the avatar to access its URL"? This seems pretty clearly to imply a non-media exploit. In any case, that architecture should not generate any viewer hits to external sites (various slurpy-policey-sounding URLS).

Hm. Qie did that faster than me. Maybe he should be writing this...

Moving on.

• Qie gently, sanely and with a great deal of caring suggests to Aether that he get out of the JLU while the getting is good. It's clear he genuinely cares about Aether.

• Cathiee points out again that using KalEl's own words, that the JLU is trying to hide Phantom Zone devices from detection. This is *exactly* what zFire did.

• Gabriell reiterates what other IT professionals have been saying- that the JLU is dancing around technicalities here, but that they are still collecting data they should not.

• Potosi summarizes the entire JLU tapdance (read it- it's good.)

• At this point, Trasee steps in and warns everyone there's a strong danger of confirmation bias at play here, and suggests everyone try to be as objective as possible.

Apparently, Innula is psychic. Ok, well maybe she's not psychic but she is very adept at picking apart a situation and sifting through it. She analyzes the situation as she sees it. That analysis is very adept. I'm gonna be honest gang, I love everything about this post. Remember it- it's gonna come in handy later. (Also, someone give that girl an award.)

• zip paz and Anguisette note that this problem goes well beyond SL boundaries, and crosses over what might be actionable IRL.

• Tux then shares his story of harassment IRL at the hands of the JLU.

By this time it becomes apparent that the only people defending the JLU in this thread are JLU members. Everyone else active in the thread seems to think that they're full of shit and wouldn't trust them with a houseplant.

• Kate continues to reiterate the point that has been made many times now- that the RZ scandal showed that people in general are against alt detection and matching IN PRINCIPLE, not just in practice, and the fact that the JLU (as a group) are in favor of these activities put them at odds with everyone else.

• GLE responds to this by quoting something from an old JIRA written by Samuel Linden that says that IP grabbing is not an actionable exploit. It is unknown if he realizes we've seen that quote before(zFire tried that one too) and notes the date on the quote is a year before the RZ scandal broke. Nice try, though.

• Misty notes that where the JLU is concerned, the left hand doesn't always seem to know what the right hand is doing, and there are inconsistencies in the different stories JLU members are telling.

• GLE also makes clear that when it comes to Phantom Zone, the JLU themselves are the ones who come out and set it up and the only ones with access to the code.

• Sione realizes that Phantom Zone is designed to link up to other banning systems. There's an awful moment where the penny drops.

• I note that what would be helpful is a way to ban people by group, in estate controls. (Ann later tells me she tried to propose that years ago, to no avail.)

• GLE pulls another RZ move, and claims (sing it with me now! Just like zFire did) that the reason people can't know where Phantom Zone devices are deployed because it would invite harassment.

• I (who was frankly frustrated at how similar this has all become to RZ), reply to Aether, explaining in small words why KalEl wants the PZ devices hidden.

• zip paz also asks a pertinent question, raising a very important point: that no matter what the JLU has datamined, they are INCAPABLE of keeping that data secure. After all, this isn't the first time that bwiki has been cracked.

• Tux points out more JLU technical tapdancing. You'd think by now these guys would get top hats and canes. He then goes on to show that by whatever means they're doing it, their Brainiac has the ability to link potential alts together. (this is important, gang, you don't want to miss it.)

• I tell GLE that at this point, his position is really indefensible.

[bronxelf]

Then the next bomb drops. Astolat quotes from the bwiki showing that they are also collecting medical information about the people they're "investigating" and putting it in their (insecure) database. As Astolat has recently had medical challenges herself, she is infuriated (and I don't blame her.)

• ZenMondo, still defending the Phantom Zone device, rather than seeing we're WAY beyond that problem (see above paragraph) insists again that PZ is not ripping IPs, and that since no one has tried to run wireshark to test it, we're all just showing confirmation bias.

• Madmouse quotes from the bwiki again, showing just how... seriously KalEl takes himself. Mostly it just looks fantastically creepy.

• More quotes from the bwiki, this time from Ely, showing that the Brainiac can be accessed inworld, so that data collected offworld can be imported directly to a JLU member. Uh oh.

With these revelations (the medical info and the data import) the thread goes crazy with outrage. This goes on for some time.

• A new poster here at SLU, DontSpill McGinnis points out that the PZ system is not working the way JLU members are claiming. He shows evidence that the JLU's global banning system is overriding the preferences of individual sim owners.

In response to ZenMondo's accusation of confirmation bias to SLU at large, Velvet Bikcin summarizes what many, if not most people on SLU would agree with, refuting that as follows:

I had no rage for JLU at the beginning. I'll be honest, I looked down on them with amusement. Grown men running around pretending to be superheroes (try DC universe online, much more satisfying). It wasn't until I read the log entries prying into people's lives, and using their medical condition as some sort of information bargaining chip. You people (yes I said THAT) in the JLU while masquerading as fictional heroes have completely lost your moral compass and no longer see the difference between right and wrong, it's all a big game to you.

But your pixellated fantasies have now twisted into RL stalking and intrusion. We're past the IP harvesting mentioned in the OP title, we're now talking about the bigger picture. What the JLU is doing stinks to high heaven, and I'm hoping at least one of the lurky loos from the JLU reading this thing has at least a whisper of morality left in their soul and blows the lid off this thing so it can end, soon.

The rage on was caused by the JLU, they have noone to blame but themselves.

If you want to be a real hero, man up, and admit this whole game of yours has gone beyond fun and has become a twisted morality play in which nothing good will come.

The thread devolves for a while into shenanigans. Everyone becomes a superhero, Joshua asks about penises. You know, business as usual. Also, Atlas Saintlouis wants you to pet his dead meeroos. Good times, good times.

• GLE confirms that the most recent posted transcripts from the bwiki are indeed accurate.

• I tell GLE in no uncertain terms that KalEl is a significant liability. I also ask him where the IP database dump came from. I never do find out the answer to this. I go on to put a very fine point on what GLE's difficulty is here: he doesn't second guess his superiors.

• Unfortunately GLE doesn't take this on board, and goes on to try to paint the leaking of the bwiki as the real crime here- after all, this was the JLU's data that got cracked and disseminated.

• This goes over about as well as a lead balloon, and I conduct a lesson about the word "context."
  

tl;dr: The JLU supports alt detection. Their only concern is the stringent letter of the changes to the LL TOS. They are opposed to the spirit in which it was written. There is also RL personal medical information contained in the bwiki. Information can be accessed by JLU members from this offsite database while inworld. They keep tapdancing around the technicalities of this, but that's the bottom line here.

Also, Atlas wants you to pet his dead meeroos, Joshua wants to know how big your penis is, and everyone gets to be a superhero.

This summarizes pages 25-50. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening.

/Bronx out.

[Jayden Angelus]

Thanks Bronxelf, I made it through most of the original thread and literally gave up. You summarized nicely and actually pointed out a few facts I missed in all the confusion.

[Loraan Fierrens]

Thanks for the summary Bronx. I appreciate the effort... although to be honest, I still don't know who 90% of the posters are at this point. We need some sort of players' scorecard. Also, you still didn't answer my questions about my tele-novellas!!!

And as for Joshua... I don't know about the rest of you, but if he really wants to know the size of my bits, he's going to have to work for the knowledge: dinner and a movie are absolute minimum requirements... port, dark chocolate, and an evening of romantic misunderstandings would be best. I have standards!

ETA: oh and no supers please... those tacky spandex suits leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.

[bronxelf]

Originally Posted by Loraan Fierrens

Thanks for the summary Bronx. I appreciate the effort... although to be honest, I still don't know who 90% of the posters are at this point. We need some sort of players' scorecard. Also, you still didn't answer my questions about my tele-novellas!!!

And as for Joshua... I don't know about the rest of you, but if he really wants to know the size of my bits, he's going to have to work for the knowledge: dinner and a movie are absolute minimum requirements... port, dark chocolate, and an evening of romantic misunderstandings would be best. I have standards!

ETA: oh and no supers please... those tacky spandex suits leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Hm. I might be able to do a dramatis personae tomorrow. Okay I'll give that a shot for you, Loraan.

[Loraan Fierrens]

Originally Posted by bronxelf

Hm. I might be able to do a dramatis personae tomorrow. Okay I'll give that a shot for you, Loraan.

Oh no no no! I was kidding about the scorecard, so don't feel you have to put that together (you're doing more than enough of a service summarizing all this business). I don't know who all these people are (never heard of any of this stuff before the thread was created) but don't really need to. The object lesson is the important part... that and avoiding people wearing elasticized codpieces (but one does that anyway, doesn't one?).

[Genevieve Piek]

Migraine #750 Calgon take me away and I need a Drink after reading that. Dear God

[Ann Otoole]

The new superman has no red underwear. And the new villainess robbed several SL creators for her outfit

[Loraan Fierrens]

Originally Posted by Ann Otoole

The new superman has no red underwear. And the new villainess robbed several SL creators for her outfit

What, her skirts are made of flexible conic sections and her breasts have been replaced by blobby meshes encoded in JPEGs? I don't understand.

ETA: and wouldn't the new superman be a bit drafty (not to say immodest)?

[Aemeth]

Or, if you prefer:

[bronxelf]

SUMMARY, PART THREE: PAGES 50-75

When we last left off, focus had shifted from the Phantom Zone device itself to the fact that it had become crystal clear the JLU was not only in support of alt identification and matching, but in fact was definitely doing it somehow. Not only that, but they were collecting incredible amounts of RL information on people (medical information, info about people's families- including children, their jobs, etc.) and storing it in their (insecure) bwiki.

The JLU's position at this point is that they have done nothing wrong, as they did not *technically* breach the LL TOS, and that's all that matters(they are VERY big on splitting hairs on this technicality). In addition, they believe the real wrongdoers are those who cracked and leaked the info- and seem to not understand at all that people are upset with them for collecting it in the first place. They still strenuously reiterate that the Phantom Zone device does not collect IP addresses.

This claim has been disputed by IT professionals amongst us, who insist that even if the IP addresses are hashed on their way out of SL and then decoded invisibly and matched via a technical process that cannot be witnessed, it is still an IP rip. (someone correct me if I have that one wrong- Im not an IT pro- this is merely my understanding of what was said.)

Green Lantern Excelsior (GLE), still speaking on behalf of himself and the JLU, claims (with a heap of privilege that I can't even begin to dig through) with more than a little condescension that there is no reason to be concerned if ones info is in the wiki(if you haven't done anything why should you be scared? Or, "Im not scared, so no one else should be either.") This... does not go over well.

Let us begin. As always assume name or link errors are accidental and please alert me to them so I may fix them. Thanks

• Velvet Bickin gives an example of why one might have a problem with their RL info being in this wiki. The fact that he has to do this at all is kind of boggling, to be honest, but there you are.

• GLE reiterates his belief that because he is safe, everyone else should be also. In this case he's referring to his being a veteran- the same as zip paz.

This post is not taken well by the community. Not really surprising as it shows a blinding arrogance and privilege rarely admitted to in public. People continue to hammer on GLE for some time. They are not happy with his attitude here.

• GLE, frustrated at this treatment tells everyone he was only trying to be a nice guy by answering questions and now sees he should not have bothered.

• Victor1st steps in to give us a different perspective. He has worked with Rod Humble previously, IRL. He suggests that Rod is going to upset the JLU/Police Dept. contingent in SL quite a bit with his promised anti-griefing initiatives.

• I point out that despite all the similarities to zFire and RZ, this is actually worse. zFire was a crook. His motive was profit. This is something else, and much more dangerous.

• Ashiri introduces us to a new term that many have not heard before: Doxing. Doxing is the unauthorized outing of personal RL information over the internet. She notes that TheListSL's doxing of JLU members is no better than the info the JLU is gathering.

The thread then degenerates into shenanigans and silliness for a time, as these things are prone to do.

• Mercedes brings things back to serious business. She explains very firmly and clearly what the problem is with this type of information gathering to GLE.

• Debi Dastardly adds her voice to that as a victim of stalking and asks GLE to please remove any info about her from that wiki.

• Ryokashi points out to GLE (again) that his boss, KalEl Venkman is in violation of the LL TOS *already* for what he did to the W-Hat group.

• NotoriousD shows a cut and paste from the bwiki. Its date is October 24 2010. It is evidence that the JLU has tied together on the back end its brainiac wiki (and device that can give information to JLU members inworld) to the police department SL's IP grabbing device. This device was mentioned during the Red Zone scandal- it was incorrectly believed that the PD was running a red zone. They weren't. They had their own gadget not only doing the same thing, but feeding the info back to the JLU via a backchannel.

In short, INNULA IS PSYCHIC. ALL HAIL INNULA. (no really that shit was genius.) However, at this stage there is no smoking gun to indicate this system is still in use. Wait for it, people. Get more popcorn.

• Astolat, as a veteran reporter, a cancer survivor and as a decent human being is livid at these latest revelations, particularly about their gathering of medical information.

• Cathiee, trying another tack, asks the JLU to please produce their data protection protocols. She never does get an answer to this, despite her asking quite a number of times. That's because they really don't have any beyond password protection. Since the bwiki has been cracked several times now, it's safe to say it's not worth much.

• DontSpill McGinnis reminds us again that despite what JLU representatives are saying, that the Phantom Zone device is not operating as advertised. That it is overriding local sim owner ban preferences with global JLU ban preferences. He goes on to say what many are already thinking:

I for one am getting tired of the "Its okay to break ToS in the name of Justice" Mantra.

• First, it was Innula who got prophetic. Today it's Qie's turn. He wonders if there are any of those Police Department IP rippers still on the grid, and if they're still talking to the JLU by a backchannel. Hm. We'll come back to that.

• Sione, clearly frustrated (and for good reason) tells LL to grow a pair and just start using their "we will ban your ass" clause and stop allowing TOS hairs to be split.

• Tux, in response to Qie, points out (again) that KalEl has already broken TOS enough such that he should have his accounts banned for what he did to the w-hat group under the guise of his alt. He also talks about JLU plans(leaked from the bwiki) to use "forced media":

We know from the leaked information the was talking about forced media which would render the need of IP harvesting redundant. It also would work without the victim being able to stop it. In one of the logs it explains how they hash the information to prevent LL from seeing it.

• The ListSL comes in to remind us(via screencap) that KalEl is really fucking creepy.

[bronxelf]

AND THEN.... FOR GREAT JUSTICE.... Serendipity Undercroft swoops in to tell us the money shot is nigh:

I visited the Sweet Icon sim (home of the Police Department I believe) yesterday and the media filter threw up an policedepartment url that terminated in =avatarname?Serendipity Undercroft.

I just popped in world to the same location and now the media stream is empty and I didn't get a warning. So maybe they're feeling the heat and turned it off.

For all those who missed the important part of that:
I visited the Sweet Icon sim (home of the Police Department I believe) yesterday and the media filter threw up an policedepartment url that terminated in =avatarname?Serendipity Undercroft.

Let's break it down further into a one word thing:

yesterday
yesterday
yesterday

So how about that TOS change when RZ got pulled from the grid, huh?

• Eunoli returns and reiterates what others have said- that gathering all this information and putting it in one place puts REAL LIVE PEOPLE AT RISK.
  

At this point we'd like to take a break in our regularly scheduled insanity for a notice from the management. Cristiano reiterates that if people link to sites that have RL information in them, or produces RL information on SLU they are going to be banned for it.

• Paglialite has done some digging of her own. She asks Tux to explain a possible connection between himself and racist groups. Tux does explain, and says the JLU has misidentified the context. Whether you personally, as a reader think they did or not, hold on to the "misidentified context" thing. It will come up in a pop quiz later.

• Velvet Bikcin says that the JLU simply don't care what people think of them. Their arrogance is too great. Atlas disagrees and explains why. Since the agree button isn't enough for me, I agree with Atlas too.

• Tux posts a screencap showing KalEl seriously dissing Green Zone supporters.

At this point, TheListSL announces that he has made a NEW website that contains NO RL info, so people may freely link to it and not break any SLU rules. There is much rejoicing.(yay.)

• Mercedes once again asks the JLU members to do some serious introspection.
  

• GreenLantern Excelsior (GLE) returns to show us that Soft Linden is on the side of the JLU! He posts Soft's statement in the closing of the wiki that KalEl had opened earlier. Sadly for GLE it would seem he didn't read it for comprehension, since it doesn't say what he thinks it does. Go read it yourself, and decide. He replies to me, polishing his halo that it's *shock* not the JLU collecting the IP addresses. It's the SL POLICE DEPARTMENT that's doing it, and they haven't done it for a long time now. It's not the JLU, honest, you mean goth lady!

I'd like at this time to point upward to that bit where Serendipity noted media calls coming from the PD sim... YESTERDAY. Oh and also that bit in October about the back end linkup between the PD's little toy and the JLU's database. Guess he didn't have time to read those before he posted.

• GLE tells us all that the big secret is that the JLU has used Google to amass all this information in their bwiki. Now actually, and sort of sadly, assuming he's being truthful about this, it means that the JLU has spent HOURS scouring the internet for bits and pieces of each person they're "investigating", cross referencing and filtering in order to compile their dossier info. Cause that's not creepy or anything at all, right?

• Atlas points out again that the JLU is incapable of securing the bwiki.

• GLE tells Atlas that it wasn't the JLU who released the info- that it was safely protected... until Atlas' friends cracked it. Again. So it's not the JLU's fault at all! He then goes on to reply to another post, but contained within that reply is this gem:

JLU never had a list of IP addresses. PD didn't either. The system correlated IP addresses behind the scenes and linked the associated accounts.

I apologize to the damage to your forehead from beating your head against your desk just then.

• Autumn Palen asks if JLU members share the info they have with one another. GLE confirms that yes, the info is shared.
  

• GLE, continuing his string of statements that channel zFire, indicates that the reason people dislike the JLU is mostly because they've been suspended because of the evidence the JLU provided. The point. He misses it.

Several people then try to get through to GLE and explain that that's not the problem and not the point. Sadly, yet somewhat predictably, this effort fails.