Copybot Infestation in Amella
by Pixeleen Mistral on 11/04/07 at 1:24 am
Lindens suggest filing bot abuse reports one at a time – for hundreds of bots
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
When I swung by the Herald offices this evening, the red “hot tip” light was blinking, and two photographs of what appear to be avatar-copying copybots in action were in the inbox – along with a note that said:
hey pixeleen,
a friend of me – rosuto kanami – seems to have a bad case of copybot. yes, that old avatar-copying variant of copybot. they show up on her place repeatedly. I myself was there when weird bots showed up on her place and vanished after a bit without a word – none of them actually copied me or her at that time. But she still has them coming in and several of them copied her and a friend of her.
I’ll send along with this notecard two screenshots she sent me about this. She tells me that she had lindens there to observe the bots, but they told her they won’t do anything until an absurd high number of abuse reports was made on the bots.
I told her to collect all evidence she has and maybe drop it on you, as I thought a return of the copybot (as was to be expected to happen, since the changes to the protocols that broke the old copybot are documented in the current libsl and the client sources, and so it was just a question of time until someone ported those changes back to the old copybot source) might be a story.
bye, Barney
When I went to investigate, I saw three bots appear in the course of 30 minutes – and one of them seemed to have copied my pants – so I can confirm what appears to be a new infestation of copybots in the metaverse tonight.
An hour ago, I caught up with Rosuto Kanami to learn more. Ms. Kanami has set up a sort of bell jar over a 3 meter radius where the copybots appear and put a logger inside the jar to track names of bots appearing at this spot. I learned from Ms. Kanami that the bots had only started appearing after news got out that she is working on a Resident Evil 4 build – previously there had been no bots present – though she had been at the location for months.
Rosuto Kanami has a nasty copybot infestation – and unsympathtic Lindens
To try to work in peace, Ms. Kanami said she had spent over L$20,000 in security programs but none seem to block the bots effectively. While banning the bots works, it would seem almost hopeless in the long run as new bots appear at the rate of about 30 a day.
The distractions of fighting off the bots caused Rosuto to stop her work and relocate her workshop. But the flow of bots into Amella has not diminished – in the last few days Rosuto has logged 77 bots appearing at exactly the same spot.
another bot appears while we talk
While many of the bots are clothed in “missing texture” Rosuto told me that one of the bots is horribly ugly – “it tried to copy 4 avatars at once didn’t go so well”. I asked about how effective abuse reports to the Linden Lab game gods are:
Pixeleen Mistral: the Lindens won’t do anything till there are hundreds of abuse reports?
Rosuto Kanami: that is what they said the will not bother with it unless i send abuse reports on ever account
Rosuto Kanami: now ordinarily this is fine
Rosuto Kanami: but as they are aware that it is hundreds of accounts
Rosuto Kanami: they should understand and try and cooperate with me more
Pixeleen Mistral: you would hope so
Rosuto Kanami: you would expect it in such a case this harsh
For those interested in the bot census, Rosuto’s current log is below. It is possible that this log contains a few human avatars who climbed inside the 3 meter bell jar – but for now the Amella bot mystery is unsovled and the only clues are the names of the bots that have appeared. Has anyone seen these bots elsewhere? Who owns them?
Cebrane Marx gets the copybot treatment as well
Bot Log: Vala Demme
Bot Log: Diana Fizgig
Bot Log: Quinn Iredell
Bot Log: xenions2002 Allen
Bot Log: Christine Jackalope
Bot Log: Kathryn Boyle
Bot Log: Samantha Cromulent
Bot Log: Francesca Damask
Bot Log: Cornelia Descenna
Bot Log: alinstard Flanagan
Bot Log: Maryloo Ritt
Bot Log: Claudia Creber
Bot Log: Paris Egoyan
Bot Log: Clarinha Milner
Bot Log: Nudels Ackland
Bot Log: Mandy Brenner
Bot Log: Jayne Smalls
Bot Log: Tiny Auer
Bot Log: Vala Connoisseur
Bot Log: Diana1982 Brink
Bot Log: Pia Guffroy
Bot Log: Alina Boucher
Bot Log: Linda Chapman
Bot Log: Emily Heston
Bot Log: Cornelia Huldschinsky
Bot Log: Carolina Schridde
Bot Log: Wiked Weissenberger
Bot Log: Josy Ihnen
Bot Log: adalberto Market
Bot Log: Ari Upshaw
Bot Log: Jose Leven
Bot Log: Aylin Ferraris
Bot Log: Veronica Sawley
Bot Log: Bianze Cazalet
Bot Log: Pucky Lusch
Bot Log: Zumi Zond
Bot Log: Valentina Ashby
Bot Log: OnYx Rodenberger
Bot Log: NRA1776 Heston
Bot Log: Sandra Inglis
Bot Log: Christof Reve
Bot Log: Silvia Ebbage
Bot Log: Mary28 Basevi
Bot Log: Vala16 Edman
Bot Log: Valentina Humphreys
Bot Log: Cornelia Decosta
Bot Log: Pia Furse
Bot Log: Christine212 Dovgal
Bot Log: Nicole2 Bikcin
Bot Log: Claudia6 Heckroth
Bot Log: Monica30 Daviau
Bot Log: Valentina Chaffe
Bot Log: fasten Ashton
Bot Log: Witney Connolly
Bot Log: Stephsteph Oh
Bot Log: Alessandra Gherardi
Bot Log: Michael Grimes
Bot Log: Selma DeCuir
Bot Log: Abel Papp
Bot Log: McNeil Bleac
Bot Log: Nattalia1 Capalini
Bot Log: Cornelia Dagger
Bot Log: Vivian3 Hammerer
Bot Log: Mariah27 Ewing
Bot Log: Cindy6 Boucher
Bot Log: Pamela23 Hifeng
Bot Log: Danika Delcon
Bot Log: Beautyful Sands
Bot Log: Alana Anatine
Bot Log: axel Pennell
Bot Log: Cacala Manga
Bot Log: Redfirewitch Woodbury
Bot Log: scarface Saenz
Bot Log: Kyrri Perse
Bot Log: FirstLife Bade
Bot Log: Raquel Palmer
Sera
Apr 11th, 2007
Just as a warning, if you try to go to the Amella sim, she set her landing zone to inside of the jar <.<
Rosuto Kanami
Apr 11th, 2007
yes tho if you find my account on sl you and go into my pick’s you can click GrimeTek Main and tp there u wil not be placed in the jar the store isent actualy selling much but those who want to look can and P.S. those copybot programs they are pushing on slexchange ect, ect dont work dont buy them it is just a waste of money ive tryed the all :/ fell free to contact me inworld
Eddy Stryker
Apr 11th, 2007
My guess: There used to be camping chairs or something of interest there at one point, and the avatars are attempting to disguise themselves by cloning random parts of nearby avs and mashing them up together. so they’re seeing the bots sit around for a bit, realize there is nothing to do there, and leave. Either that or it was a data entry error and bots are heading there instead of a casino.
Copying bits and pieces of nearby avatar outfits doesn’t benefit the bot owner at all except for an attempt to “blend in” with the surroundings. If they really wanted to take someone’s outfit and keep it the bot(s) could silently export the assets and textures to the hard drive without anyone realizing it, so the fact that it is actually donning the borrowed appearances is telling. Not to mention that you don’t need hundreds of avatars to copy outfits, unless they are trying to grief you (by raising your traffic count?). But the griefing angle doesn’t fit either as they could do a whole lot worse than showing up and cloning your pants.
As a final note, the fact that it can’t copy attachments is telling that it’s not based on the original Copybot source code, but a few lines of code whipped up by a random programmer.
Gaius Goodliffe
Apr 11th, 2007
“As a final note, the fact that it can’t copy attachments is telling that it’s not based on the original Copybot source code, but a few lines of code whipped up by a random programmer.”
Yes, “copybot” appears to have become the generic word for bot, even bots utterly unrelated both in code and in purpose to the actual Copybot. It’s a buzzword that draws people’s attention and generates controversy, so expect it to be used frequently around here even where it’s completely inappropriate and misleading.
Prokofy Neva
Apr 11th, 2007
>even where it’s completely inappropriate and misleading.
Um, why is it “inappropriate and misleading” when the bot *copies clothing*. Duh?
Jorus Xi
Apr 11th, 2007
Because CopyBot is the name of a specific program that does specific things and was written by a specific group. Calling a Dorito a Cheetoh because they are both tasty cheesy snacks doesn’t mean its right.
Joshua Nightshade
Apr 11th, 2007
You’re so literal, Jorus. And a griefer rapist.
Nimrod
Apr 11th, 2007
Anshe said something in another report on this site that a chinese camping company came to her with millions of Lindens they recieved from camping… Maybe what Eddy said was a combination of this?
Tenshi Vielle
Apr 11th, 2007
This is lovely, really.
Nimrod
Apr 11th, 2007
zhaowei Allen and wahaha Allen are bots as well. They were doing the “bot squat” then stuck in the animation when you fall. They are in the NW corner of Bendenham if anyone wants to see. They are about 120m up in the sky.
Nimrod
Apr 11th, 2007
zhaowei Allen and wahaha Allen are bots as well. They were doing the “bot squat” then stuck in the animation when you fall. They are in the NW corner of Bendenham if anyone wants to see. They are about 120m up in the sky. One is bouncing on ban lines, and has been for over an hour. Another is doing the “bot squat” at 120m in the sky…
Nimrod
Apr 11th, 2007
Odd.. “Flatrix Cortes” Tped to the sim, then the bots disappeared, then he TPed out. No response to my IM to him.
Prokofy Neva
Apr 11th, 2007
Because CopyBot is the name of a specific program that does specific things and was written by a specific group
Um, guess what, brain surgeon. It’s a generic name for any bot that copies in Second Life, that’s the usage of it — number one.
Number two, at one time it was kinda sorta in open source, and it was sold. So….it’s quite conceivable that people made clones, variants, offshoots of it and it retains an overall name or shell or something that still makes it identifiably Copybot.
To get all anal-retentive and persnickety about something that only John Hurliman programmed on November 7, 2006 as being the only “authentic” Copybot is just.plain.fucking.ridiculous.
Gorean Furry
Apr 12th, 2007
Hey Prok, do you call Internet Explorer “Netscape”, or “Firefox” maybe? They perform the same function. Capitalist as you claim to be, don’t dilute the CopyBot brand! Don’t let CopyBot be another Xerox, Thermos or Primus!