The Alphaville Herald

Saints of Hell MC Implicated In Second Life Content Theft – Part 3

by Alphaville Herald on 15/02/10 at 7:34 am

Enforcers at the Saints of Hell Sim, Brutus McMahon inspects a bike, and another theft occurs

by Coke Supply, Investigative Reporter

[Coke Supply's motorcycle copybot investigation continues - the editrix ]

MY VISIT TO THE SAINTS OF HELL SIM

I decided to take Sims up on her offer and hang around the landing point at the Saints of Hell sim in order to catch these alleged griefers. I sat at the table near the landing point and observed. The area was busy, mainly with the Saints of Hell group members. I noticed a new addition to their store front in the form of a sign telling visitors to “kindly go fuck yourself” if they thought the bikes might be stolen, complete with the claim that the bike parts can be “found all over Second Life”, obviously contradicting Sims Rang's initial statement that the Saints of Hell do not use other people's parts in their supposedly copyrighted bikes.

It was not long before I was spoken to by one of their “enforcers”.

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LadyLynn Zabaleta: Hey Bomb,  how are you doing?
Bomb Tremor: I'm fine, thank you. I was speaking to Sims Rang earlier and I told her that I wanted to write a story for the Alphaville Herald about the griefing that has been happening here lately. She told me that I should sit here and wait for the griefers to turn up because it's been happening all the time lately.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Yes, she told me you would be here.
Bomb Tremor: Oh good. I was worried because she said the enforcers might not like a reporter being here.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Well, as along as you remain cool, I don't object.
Bomb Tremor: I wanted to just sit here and see if the griefers turn  up so that I can write about them for the herald. I won't cause any problems unless I fall asleep.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: OK, I will talk to Sasha, the other enforcer, and tell her that you are going to hang around but that you promise to behave.
Bomb Tremor: Yes, you have my word. Oh, I have a question that I forgot to ask Sims. Why do you think these people want to cause problems for this sim? I know that they are saying that the bikes are copied but if that's not true then I was wondering why they would even come here in the first place. Is it a rivalry thing between bike gangs or something like that?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Just to start trouble. I'm not sure why they are doing it. I guess they are bored.
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Usually, in defence of their crimes, perpetrators will often fall back on such an excuse as a tried and tested means to discredit their detractors. I was highly unimpressed by this disingenuous response, and it only added weight to my suspicions that the Saints of Hell group were covering up for Black/Biack's theft.

I decided to test this theory, and stood a fair distance from the bikes in question, so that everyone present could see my selection beam as I started examining the bikes. I was immediately contacted by LadyLynn.

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LadyLynn Zabaleta: What are you doing?
Bomb Tremor: I was told to have a look at the build dates on the bikes.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Yes, and? So? They all have the same time stamp.
Bomb Tremor: Yes.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Who told you to look at the dates?
Bomb Tremor: Pixeleen Mistral, the Herald editor.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Well, if Pixeleen knows anything about building, she would know that multiple items can have the same time stamp.
Bomb Tremor: I was told to look at the date itself.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: So what is the date going to prove?
Bomb Tremor: I was told that the one with the earliest date would be the one that was created first.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: So?
Bomb Tremor: Well, I haven't examined Redtail's bike yet. His store has disappeared.
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Unknown to me at this time, it seemed that the owner of the sim in which Red had his store had not paid their teer fees, and therefore everyone's property was returned and the sim set up for sale! When Red logged back in, he informed me of the new location to his store.

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LadyLynn Zabaleta: Do you know who LL is?
Bomb Tremor: Linden Lab.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Yes. And they have investigated and found nothing wrong. So it needs to be dropped.
Bomb Tremor: Yes, I heard that too.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Well then… End of story. Nothing wrong was found.
Bomb Tremor: I'm just writing a story for the herald about the problems you have had, that's all.
LadyLynn Zabaleta:  Go interview Linden Lab.
Bomb Tremor: They won't talk about it.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: So people who know really nothing about the truth is who you are getting your information from?
Bomb Tremor: Well so far, I have only spoken to people here. How well do you know Biack?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Very well. Why?
Bomb Tremor: Well, Sims says that the store doesn't use other people's parts, but then puts out a sign saying that the parts for the bikes are found all over Second Life. Would you be able to find out from Biack where he got the parts from?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: No, I wouldn't, but you can ask Black yourself. As far as I know you were given permission last night to interview griefers that came here ONLY.
Bomb Tremor: I wanted to catch the griefers themselves, yes.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: They were the only ones that you were given permission to talk to. If you want to know how Black makes his stuff, ask him.
Bomb Tremor: Why don't I have permission to investigate the story?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: You asked to interview the griefers, and you were given permission to do that. Anything else has to go through Sims.
Bomb Tremor: No, I only said that's why I came here. I didn't ask for permission for anything. I thought that you people would be happy to talk if you were innocent.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Well you were given permission for griefers only. Anything else could get you ejected.
Bomb Tremor: Do your customers need permission to examine the build dates, LadyLynn?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: You can examine anything you want. I'm talking interviews.
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This was a strange situation. After examining the bikes, I was being threatened with ejection, with the reason being that I was violating a rule that Sims had not communicated to me. She had indeed ordered her enforcers not to answer questions from anyone about the thefts and had already admitted that to me. But I had no knowledge of restrictions placed on myself for asking those same questions. Had Sims already told her enforcers to block my enquiries ahead of my visit to their sim?

By this time, I was already suspicious that the Saints of Hell management's complicity in the theft of the bikes sold in their sim, and the behaviour of LadyLynn had pretty much confirmed those suspicions. Now I was almost certain.

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Bomb Tremor: I haven't interviewed anyone except for Sims and you so far.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: OK, let's keep it that way.
Bomb Tremor: But why be so alarmed at the possibility of me interviewing others? Surely you should be happy for them to give testimony. It would make sense if no foul play was involved, would it not?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: We don't give interviews. You can talk to the griefers. If people had a brain cell left, they would know Linden Lab is letting him sell these bikes and nothing wrong was done.
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The Black account had only just been closed at this point, meaning that LadyLynn's reasoning for Black's innocence was a rather moot point. I wondered if she even knew.

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Bomb Tremor: Well that is true, but I have yet to see evidence of a DMCA being filed in the first place for these bikes. They are only 9 days old, after all. The one that I'm told was copybotted was first copied last year. So, if a DMCA was filed on the copies made last year, then it makes sense that these ones are still here, if they are new copies. I'm not saying they ARE copies, I'm still investigating.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Are you from Linden Lab?
Bomb Tremor: Why do you ask?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Well they are the only ones that have any business investigating anything. But you interview the griefers like you asked. Linden Lab will handle the rest.
Bomb Tremor: Why object to an investigation? I'm sure the bikes are perfectly legal, so what would the problem be?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: That is up to Sims and Black if they want interviews. I was given orders and they WILL be carried out. I was told you was allowed to be here last night to interview griefers ONLY. And that is the way it is going to be until I am told othewise. If you do not agree to that, then you can leave.
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Ah, so Sims HAD ordered her enforcers to prevent me from interviewing anyone. It was hardly a move that displayed innocence on her part.

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Bomb Tremor: OK, but why be so evasive? Surely you can understand why it's making me suspicious?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: I was given an order. Anything will make you or anyone suspicious.
Bomb Tremor: At the time, did you wonder why you were given that order?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Oh and and by the way, this is NOT an interview and you DO NOT have my permission to print anything I say. And I do keep logs of every word said.
Bomb Tremor: Don't worry, I won't print any of this. But you have made me very suspicious now, LadyLynn.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Why is that? Because I trust what Linden Lab found and you do not? That is your problem, not mine.
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Again, given that Linden Lab had resolved the DMCA in Redtail's favour, LadyLynn's reasoning was null and void, and again I was tempted to inform her of the disappearance of the Black Lisle account.

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Bomb Tremor: Well, if everyone here was so innocent, then there would not be such secrecy.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: It's not a secret.
Bomb Tremor: It's a secret if I can't interview people, LadyLynn!
LadyLynn Zabaleta: It was investigated and NOTHING was found to be wrong. Why can't people understand that?
Bomb Tremor: Because we have no evidence that they investigated anything, I suppose?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Because there is nothing to investagate. That is not my problem.
Bomb Tremor: Mind you, if they DID investigate, I suppose that might explain why the Black Lisle account was deleted. Don't worry though LadyLynn, you are not under suspicion at this time.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: I will never be under suspicion.
Bomb Tremor: I hope not. I'm suspicious of Biack now, but let me be clear – it is because of you that I am suspicious.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Why me?
Bomb Tremor: Because of how you want to prevent any investigation. If you or Biack or Sims had nothing to hide, you would not be trying so hard to prevent people investigating, would you?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: I don't want to prevent it, I will be glad when everyone understands that it has been investigated.
Bomb Tremor: So long as you are there to stop them? What the fuck, LadyLynn!
LadyLynn Zabaleta: But it seems that no one can understand English. I am not stopping anyone.
Bomb Tremor: Oh, so it's everyone else at fault, and not you? You were sure as hell stopping me, weren't you? You won't even let me put this into the herald now!
LadyLynn Zabaleta: I just said that you were given permission to talk to griefers.
Bomb Tremor: Well, tell you what, I give you permission to tell me everything you know. Feel better now?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Yes. What I know, I've already told you.
Bomb Tremor: Well, I know an awful lot more about this case than any of you realise, LadyLynn. I've been investigating for about a week now.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: I'm sure you do, but you have lied to me already, and that is why I don't trust you.
Bomb Tremor: Tell me what that lie was, Lady?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Go ask anything you want.
Bomb Tremor: What was my lie?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Go back and read what you have said to me and you will know. And for now I am done talking with you, as I have to go to work.
Bomb Tremor: So you can't tell me? It would save some time, there's a lot of text in the chat log.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: You are the expert. If you don't know when you lie, maybe you shouldn't be a reporter.
Bomb Tremor: If you can't point a lie out to me, maybe you shouldn't pass judgment.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: And you shouldn't either. Now have a good night.
Bomb Tremor: Well, the article will contain evidence that people can pass their own judgment on. I will try to make it fair but you're not making it easy.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: And please take a corse(sic) in understanding English.
Bomb Tremor: That should be "course".
LadyLynn Zabaleta: Sorry, I'm not a spelling major, nor a reporter.
Bomb Tremor: And I got straight A's in English class by the way.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: So? I got straight A's in nursing but that doesn't make me God.
Bomb Tremor: I have a God complex now? Is that what you said to the others that came to investigate?
LadyLynn Zabaleta: No-one but you has been here that I know of.
=========================

This was obviously untrue – I had already learned that Ezra Rasmuson was ejected by LadyLynn from the Saints of Hell sim before I arrived, when he told her that the bikes were stolen. I figured that the “griefers” must have been the original content creators, merchants and their friends that had descended upon the sim after hearing of the theft. Besides, at this point I had already seen the chat logs that showed several of the Saints of Hell enforcers abusing and ejecting anyone that came to investigate the theft.

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Bomb Tremor: I see. They must be making up their chat logs then, I guess.
LadyLynn Zabaleta: You can do that.
Bomb Tremor: So you're still not going to tell me where I lied? You could have told me by now!
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LadyLynn stopped responding after this. I looked at the ban list, which showed that many of the creators of the Lakhota Rocket and Wild Injun that had previously come to the sim to complain had been banned. I left the Saints of Hell sim after spying on them for three full days. During that time, not a single griefer visited their sim.

BRUTUS MCMAHON INSPECTS THE ORIGINAL LAKHOTA ROCKET

At this point, I received a teleport from Muziekfreak1980 Miles, who wanted to speak to me regarding what he had uncovered during his own investigations. However, as we were talking, we noticed that Brutus McMahon, the Saints of Hell vice president, had appeared in the sim close to Redtail's store. After a short private IM between Muziekfreak1980 and Brutus, the three of us found ourselves in Redtail's store, examining the Lakhota Rocket motorbike on display there.

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Coke Supply: Ah, the bike was made from that real life picture? Wow.
Brutus McMahon: Yeah, it's a sick bike.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: Yeah. Trinity Hunghi is the main sculpter. It's all custom. I gotta say, respect for you bro, that you at least take the time to come.
Coke Supply: Yeah. We didn't think anyone was going to listen.
Brutus McMahon: I listen to everyone, as long as they show me respect. I grew up around real life Hell's Angels and I hold their values and back a brother no matter what.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: The bitch of all this is, I do really believe that the club itself has nothing to do with what is going on. They see Black as a great builder, and I would too… if I didn't have the knowledge of building. Any builder, biker or no biker, will agree you cannot build this in 30 seconds. If you look at the bikes in your sim there, they all have creation dates that are impossible. XML imported files – that's how a copybot works – it rezzes the bike in-world in the rezzer's name, full perm. Then you see this bike here… the rest is ancient history. The problem is, the club suffers under it this way. If you want more proof bro I can provide it. There is a bike with an engine of Karyn Vaher's in it. I can show you that engine as well.
Coke Supply: Just right-click and inspect this one, it's got everyone's names, 5 of them.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: Yup yup.
Brutus McMahon: Yeah I did.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: He can see the timestamps as well.
Brutus McMahon: Well, you all do what you gotta do, I can't tell you not to. All I can say is, don't bring Saints of Hell into it or print our name in any of this mess. Linden Lab will figure it out, even though they have already investigated and cleared him.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: They're back on it. We got that confirmed. We don't want to involve the club. I talked to people. They see him as a god. They have no clue of all this at all.
Coke Supply: Really? Why?
Muziekfreak1980 Miles: Now you understand us too, I hope.
Brutus McMahon: He is my sergeant at arms, so people respect him.
Coke Supply: Well this might change things a bit in that respect then.
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I was stunned. Brutus seemed to still believe that Black/Biack was innocent of theft, even after examining the originals from which the copies were obviously taken and seeing the creation dates with his own eyes. Not only that, but Brutus claimed that the thief was the Saints of Hell's sergeant at arms too!

Back at Redtail's, I sat with the creators of the Lakhota Rocket and a few of the other investigators as we contemplated the situation.

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Coke Supply: It seems that Black has been caught stealing since as early as January 2009, and that Sims Rang was protecting him back then too.
Redtail Magic : Yup yup. Talking with Loon now. He was copied by Black about a year ago, only the bike had a different name on the parts.
Coke Supply: Bambii Boucher. That reminds me, Motor's story coincides with yours – he says that the Saints of Hell group thought that he was sending you guys over to accuse them of theft, so they came looking for him! But apparently they apologised after they had a chat with him. Also, Sims Rang was saying she was a copyright lawyer and that the bike was legitimately theirs, and that she owned the copyright. But when I spoke to her using an alt, I found out that was a lie. She also says she saw the bike being made by Black Lisle with her own eyes, which I think we can all safely say by now is another lie. Besides, I got her to admit that she saw them uploaded all at once. And when Ezra came to the sim and told LadyLynn that the bikes were stolen, she had no interest in looking into his claims and ejected and banned him. We also got Brutus McMahon to look at the creator names and build dates on the original bike personally. He couldn't argue with what he saw, but he just repeated what the rest of them are saying – that Black's name has been cleared. Which we know isn't true, because the DMCA removed the items from his account and the account no longer exists. So, it seems that Sims is covering for Black, and so is LadyLynn Zabaleta, Brutus McMahon, Amelia Hainsworth and November Shelman. I've got their chat logs, I've got the pics of the creation dates for both bikes that were stolen, I've got testimony from half a dozen people that all say that Black copied their work, and I've got a transcript of a DMCA response that was found in your favour in the same week that the Black account disappeared. Apparently, Muziek says that one of his friends recognises ALL of the bike parts as stolen, and I wanted to get them matched up to their original creators so I can ask if they ever released their sculpt maps. But everything in the store has Black's name on it so one of you guys will have to do it for me by eye. But to be honest, I don't think that it even matters at this point – We've got more than enough to prove that Black/Biack is a thief, and that the Saints of Hell group are all covering up for him.
Redtail Magic: Oh wow. You have done so much. I can't thank you enough. I've got some images I've taken of the bikes too, with inspect windows, if you want them. Jinx called a lot of guys over to see the bikes too so you might want to follow that up. Some big names in Second Life. Others have had a lot more grief but he was treated really well. If you get any grief at all, every one of the bikers will back you up.
Lincoln Braveheart: Feel free to cite my name. I want them to know.  They should be exposed.
Coke Supply: If Biack tries this again, it should be reasonable to ask Linden Lab to terminate that account too.
Lincoln Braveheart: It's my opinion that his ISP should be shut down.
Coke Supply: They should shut down the whole sim at this rate!
Lincoln Braveheart : What I do not understand, regardless of a club, is why protect someone who is making the rest look bad?
Coke Supply : They are either covering for him, or they are all dumb enough to believe him. But at this point I think it's safe to say that they are covering for him. Which means the whole lot of them are guilty, as far as I'm concerned. My guess is that they are all working together, and using the Black account as the fall guy, the target for all the DMCAs.
Lincoln Braveheart : Did you find out how many others have been affected by their thievery?
Coke Supply : I don't know, but Muziek says he's getting others to take a look round their store. But the story for me is that the whole lot of them know he's a thief and they're all covering for him. Brutus sure knows, he inspected the bike and I was there to witness that.
Lincoln Braveheart : They knew all along. They're not kidding anyone.
Coke Supply : Yeah I agree. But the thing is, Sims said she would file a counter claim if you go ahead with a DMCA. So I'm not sure what's going to happen next.
Lincoln Braveheart : Let her. She has no legs to stand on.
Coke Supply : Yes that's how I see it. From what I've seen, they're all covering up for Black, but I'm sure that they will say that Black had them all fooled after this story hits the Herald.
Hiiigh Jinx: Well it doesn't seem easy to get Linden Lab to do something. We have the proof, we have the physical evidence. And when he stole the Wild Injun, Linden Lab did nothing except remove the item from his inventory. And they have history on this guy as well. I got a 3 day ban for harrassing a copybotter that Linden Lab did nothing about. They banned ME!
Coke Supply: Yeah they suspended me once for the same thing. I bet the black market makes a lot of money for Linden Lab.
Hiiigh Jinx: Well how do these particular "builders" continually get away with it? We have evidence of at least one sale of a stolen bike, it's right in front of us. So we know they have profited and transferred a copybotted item to another avatar clearly breaching the Second Life Terms of Service. I want to know why Sims Rang and Black Lisle are seemingly untouchable. My gripe is with this Sims Rang, she not only swears to have witnessed the copybotter actually build this item, but in return she tells everyone that we are the copybotters, which could not be further from the truth. As you know I went there calmly to fix this issue. Then Rang started her mouth running. Now as I understand, it is NOT illegal to copybot, it IS however illegal to share that item or trade or sell it – and we have irrefutable evidence that this occured AFTER Linden Lab removed the item, supposedly, from his avatar.
Coke Supply: So it's a repeat offense, it was just uploaded again after Linden Lab removed it.
Hiiigh Jinx: Apparently yes. It's back in world. I think so far 8 DMCAs have been filed.
Coke Supply: EIGHT?!!
Redtail Magic: 29th December was my fist AR and DMCA for the Lakhota Rocket.
Coke Supply: So you guys complain, they remove the bikes, and then the bikes are on sale again by the same people the next day? What the fuck! Their accounts should be closed for this shit. And if they really are working in a group, they will all have copies of the same item. Sims even said that Black showed her how to upload the bike in less than a minute! A lot of content creators work alone but if the thieves work in a group then they will get away with this shit – If one of them gets their account deleted, it doesn't affect their group's operations.
Redtail Magic: Oh my God! I've just seen something. Look at the dial on the tank. He's left the "Lakhota" texture on there, on my dial.
muziekfreak1980 Miles: Hahaha!
Redtail Magic: If you take note of the spelling of "Lakhota", people normally only ever see that spelled "Lakota". I spell it that way because that's how it should be spelt. Only a native American will know that. That texture took me freaking hours to get right. It's not easy to texture that particular sculpty… and I still have the original PSD files.

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…AAAAAAND ANOTHER THEFT

As I was preparing this article to be published in the Herald, Motor Loon had decided to investigate the Saints of Hell bike store for himself. Upon arriving, he took a look around the store and found no less than 19 separate objects that contained his stolen work, filed an abuse report and sent me the images below.

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Coke Supply: Give me your statement regarding this new theft.
Motor Loon: I went to Black's store after hearing from several people that he had some of my parts on his bikes. The store was more or less cleared when I got there and I didn't find anything of mine, so I left. But after hearing recently that Redtail's DMCA had been processed, I was told that Black had changed to his alt account Biack and had once again set up his store with all the stolen shit. So, I went there again, and certainly found quite a few items that he was not supposed to have rights to. A total of 19 separate copyright violations, in fact.
Coke Supply: And this is all in January 2010?
Motor Loon: Yes. I had an incident with him in January 2009 too, but no DMCA was filed back then. Of the parts I filed this time, one of them was a part that he was using back then too.
Coke Supply: This is wonderful! It means that you actually visited at the time he was switching over everything in his store. You caught the switch.
Motor Loon: Yep. Now I'm asking Linden Lab to take down 19 separate objects, because they all contain parts that I hold copyrights on, plus whatever is in his inventory with the same names.
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