Time for the Simethicone
by prokofy on 09/12/06 at 11:39 pm
By Prokofy Neva, Attendant, Ambulatory Pediatric Care Unit
Second Life experienced what Jeska Linden called “strange hiccups,” this evening, with teleports going haywire, profile strangeness (?), and inventory erm…”not loading,” as she explained.
Another word for that is *missing* — a word that apparently is on the list of taboo words for the Blob.
But many of the 62 residents who wrote in to comment about what the “strangeness” could be were more frank. “Lost about 2 hours of work,” said Alyona Chernov. “My whole avatar was completely invisible,” said Kathryn Mahoney.
The issue resolved itself and some — but not all — got their m*****g stuff back, but one customers struggled to think of a charitable way to put it, and couldn’t: “I just love it how there are issues which resolve themselves. I wonder, these self-resolving problems: does anybody ever figure out what causes it and tackle the problem?”
Usually infants are over the colicky phase at 3 months, but it can drag on for 3 years…Raph Koster has some advice for new parents this week — your faithful correspondent swears by the vacuum cleaner.
bluesapphire
Dec 10th, 2006
Prok, I thought you quit? Or were you wild allegations about eSheep creating the Copybot, just that, wild allegations. Your credability as a serious pundit is severly damaged. Shame on you Prok.
Hiro Pendragon
Dec 10th, 2006
I think the *REAL* story is who the heck let Prok have posting rights back after the libelous fiasco a few weeks ago?
bluesapphire
Dec 10th, 2006
Hiro, I agree. This is outrageous, Prok is still yet to answer for a libelous rants and accusations. I would hope eSheep would seek answers from the editor, don’t they sponsor Mark Wallace?
I know for a fact, Prok would not let anyone else get away with this. Why should he get away with it?
Prok answer your critics, in the sameway you ‘question and prod’ everyone else in Second Life.
astro
Dec 10th, 2006
this is more like it!Welcome back Prok!
Urizenus
Dec 10th, 2006
>I would hope eSheep would seek answers from the editor, don’t they sponsor Mark Wallace?
bluesapphire, are you suggesting that ESC use their position as sponsor of Mark’s other blog to pressure him to remove posting rights for Prokofy? Just wondered, because that’s what it *seems* like you are saying.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 10th, 2006
As I’ve already stated elsewhere, I resigned from the Herald immediately simply because my posting privileges were removed. I was offered to continue to have a byline but without direct posting privileges. I insisted that I retain posting privileges, just as on any other group blog writing effort like SLOG. After some negotiations, this was conceded. This was an internal Herald affair, and I don’t see any evidence whatsoever that ESC was allegedly involved in pressuring Walker/Mark Wallace in any way. His blog is sponsored by ESC, but as you can see here at the Herald, what Walker himself wrote back in the comments on this story “Fleeced,” he said a) my byline continues to be welcome at the Herald; b) if there is a story, then get the facts and publish it. So please put that canard to bed.
I have not written anything “libelous”. I reported a story that I believed to be true from sources that had provided true information in the past. It turned out to be false, and was corrected. That’s not libel.
At the time of the “Fleeced” story, when presented with a convincing correction of one part of the story, I checked it, and I printed a correction the next day, I made a public retraction, and Walker edited the story and corrected the one piece of it.
Since then, I’ve continued to investigate the story, as have others, and I continue to be disatisfied with the evasive and incomplete answers I’ve gotten, particularly from the various players at libsl, on issues central to this story, which I’ve taken up on my own blog. Let me briefly rehearse these problems:
1. The Sheep were found again last week to be testing some kind of device that appeared to copy outfits on to mannequins, and this was photographed and discussed. They said this wasn’t CopyBot, but something like it — and several said that while they couldn’t discuss it, we had to take it on faith that they weren’t doing something harmful to the rest of the community. The relationship of this device to libsecond and CopyBot simply isn’t described by ESC, and held in secret still. I’m a big believer, in RL as in SL, in not letting a company itself decide what is or isn’t harmful, and I definitely support the public’s right to know about developments that affect them.
2. As I stated in the other thread, when I look at the statements that ESC says it had “no involvement in CopyBot” and “did not create CopyBot,” while I can understand they state it as narrowly and literally true, and I accept that, surely they must see, that they open up the issue for questioning again when they are found to have something very like CopyBot working on their island (after CopyBot is first declared a TOS violation if it is misused, and then declared as “broken” by a patch). A relationship to ESC is also documented when Sheep are reported to be at the debut of CopyBot back in November.
Most importantly, a relationship is shown when FlipperPA Peregrine, suddenly admits that he knew about CopyBot days before the scandal, recognized its danngers, and tried to call two friends of his in libsl and get them to stop it and leave it to the Lindens. He admits then that he failed to do so. This *is* involvement — it’s not creation, it’s not selling, but it’s *involvement and even trying to make it stop, signifying possible control over it*. He tries to dismiss the concerns by saying that *now* it is widely believed that the CopyBot wasn’t much of a threat and isn’t now — but at the time, that was *not known, nor stated*.
3. Johnny Ming of SecondCast who now works for ESC has let slip the idea that 19 separate avatars were needed to log on to 19 separate islands for something like the NBC Christmas tree lighting. Just as you can copy buildings to make the sims identical, you’d want to copy avatars, like an NPC Santa or something. We all understood that would be a cool thing for SL. But it also raised again the question of whether any of those surrounding the libsl/CopyBot story were working for clients of any type or were working to achieve their own business gain at the expense of having all the small businesses in SL lose their copyright protection instantly.
We all realize the Internet copies stuff; we all realize that Napster is inevitable; but what those who keep hammering on these lessons need to understand is that there’s no reason to make the inevitable devastating and sudden and create enormous businesses losses for those who faithfully supported Second Life for years — nor is there, in fact, anything “inevitable” about “everything being copied” *even on the Internet*. You can’t download for free at Napster anymore, and there were many long political and legal battles fought along the way.
bluesapphire
Dec 10th, 2006
No Uzi, I’m not saying that, what I’m saying though, the SLHerald should be held responsible for its reporting. It doesn’t matter that this is a blog, this still a potentially libelious story.
As for your long post Prok, this still feels she-said-he-said type of research. If you’re so sure of this position you should do something about it, as the implications are huge. eSheep are being protected by the powers that be. Or at the very least, Linden Lab are now haunted by their statement about SecondlifeLib being ‘cool and admired’.
My real question though, are the people who created it still active in Second Life?
My final thing Prok, you left the Herald in a blaze of anguish and gnashing of teeth, now you’re back… you’re starting to make more come backs than Torrid Midnight!
Urizenus
Dec 10th, 2006
The bottom line is that no one *cares* who created copybot or how or why, and accusing someone of being involved is basically on the level of saying they farted in the elevator. Not an accusation you want to hear, whether you did it or not, but not exactly libelous either way.
Copybot is just a tangible instantiation of the fact that no content of any form is safe given that it must be ultimately rendered by client computers. It is the same problem being faced by the music industry. If the content must be rendered so as to be audible to end users, well then then can copy it for themselves. Or to put it in other terms: everyone farts and even if you refuse to do it in the elevator, you are going to have to smell someone else’s anyway.
The only thing more mysterious to me than Prok’s obsession with CopyBot are the subsequent obsessive denials of any involvement in any way shape or form with CopyBot and the absurd threats of libel suits and whatnot.
Who is copybot? What is copybot?
*I* am CopyBot. (and i have the MP3s to prove it)
Prokofy Neva
Dec 10th, 2006
I didn’t leave in any blaze of gnashing of teeth, that’s silly. I resigned over the narrow issue of direct posting rights. I continued to post comments the whole time. I wrote several articles that were cited here in the Herald and linked to my blog. Hardly the stuff of the drama of Torrid at all. After some negotiations, we all worked out a system for direct posts and collaboration. That’s it.
There is absolutely nothing libelous in anything I’ve said, or potentially libelous. While you can keep baiting me on this, I won’t budge on this because it’s a very, very clearcut legal case — no libel.
As for “doing someting about it,” my way of being able to “do something” about these huge implications is to research them, talk to people, write about them to the best of my ability. Others will then have to “do something” if they feel moved to do so.
Re: “Or at the very least, Linden Lab are now haunted by their statement about SecondlifeLib being ‘cool and admired’”
Of course they’re haunted, and that’s why I asked Cory Linden why he continued to stand by this statement, and that’s why I’m banned now from the official blog comments. It’s a very sensitive issue, clearly.
Uri, as I’ve stated elsewhere, in your zeal to prove the abstract truth of your proposition, which is only abstractly true (“everyone can copy everything”), you are inattentive to the failure of this truth to substantiate in every instance. In SL, more is NOT copied than is copied at this point due to the still-working permissions and the badly-working bots.
So — to stay on topic in this post here — just like the music industry made everybody take simethicone drops for their gas, so do the Lindens.