zFire Xue and Redzone Collide with Banhammer
by Pixeleen Mistral on 16/03/11 at 5:55 pm
Tuesday evening Soft Linden ventured in-world to delete zFire Xue’s merchandise after banning Mr. Xue from Second Life. Word spread quickly and a crowd of zf Redzone critics gathered at the empty Mad Sci City Shopping Mall to witness the historic event. When I visited, the sim had reached its capacity – 40 avatars slowly rezed into view along with a number of pro-privacy signs.
zf Redzone protesters: no more datamining!
The crowd was well behaved and several players were kind enough to leave the sim after taking a few pictures so that others might enter.
zFire Xue’s store is empty
I IMed Soft Linden asking if he could tell me exactly what had led to the zF Redzone ban, but Soft was not responding to Herald inquiries – as usual. Shortly after I arrived, the entire crowd was ejected from the Mad Scientists plot by Pussy Guisse – a member of the Mad Scientist Inc group.
Pussy Guisse
As I picked myself up from where I landed in the adjacent plot, talk among the assembled crowd turned to holding party to celebrate. While there was general agreement that zf Redzone was far from the last battle to be fought, this was an event the privacy faction will long remember.
I had seen enough, but after a flurry of posts to the SLUniverse.com forums – a rallying point for the pro-privacy movement – a celebration was organized and captured for posterity on YouTube.
Privacy advocates party after zFire Xue collides with LL Banhammer
While the victorious faction danced the night away, Linden Lab staff continued their work and ownership of the Mad Sci City Shopping Mall reverted to Governor Linden.
Linden repo job on land abandoned after deadly banhammer collision
Although the fall of zFire Xue may mark the close of this battle, the struggle between those that would trade privacy – or at least someone else’s privacy – for a feeling of security is sure to continue in Second Life and real life.
Darien Caldwell
Mar 16th, 2011
Kinda reminds me of the Libya protests. Another despot falls.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 16th, 2011
Betcha zFire’s already back on SL with one of his hacked customer’s accounts.
Bunjie
Mar 16th, 2011
So how long before everyone in those screenshots + video becomes a target of said person bawww! hammered?
During the forum threads on SLU it’s hard to pick people out of that crowd situation, as it was epic and is hard to follow who’s really against and willing to act against him in more than words.
Twitter is a smaller environment and easier to pick out who’s re-tweeting stuff.
I’m not on his side but when you gloat like that you only make yourself a target for griefing, credit card fraud and or identity theft due to the person you’ve just been dealing with as a group and now seen standing around as people who care enough to TP to see him banned.
If this really was about privacy then you should have insisted that pix only takes photos with no user name tags showing, so you can group gloat without fear of being picked out and marked by said person bawww! hammered.
Who by the way has your IP’s + account names and is not afraid to go to jail.
Bunjie
Mar 16th, 2011
Did that make sense to you? I’m not sure I need more coffee!
DO A drama roll!
Azure Twine
Mar 16th, 2011
@Bunjie…
Was that a threat? they aren’t gloating as much as they were witnessing an epic event in SL. This is the first time in my SL I have seen Linden Lab actually listen to the will of the citizens.
They were celebrating.
Debbie
Mar 16th, 2011
I think this was not really about privacy , than it was more about getting rid of a security device. So I wonder who is next on the list, Psyke Phaeton and his PDS HomeSecurity™ Orb? Or maybe any of the other ones. Time will tell when we see the real reason behind all these attacks. The attacks against any type of security orb.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 17th, 2011
@ Debbie
What you think is totally irrelevant to the underlying facts.
You could be charged with murder and say “I think I did not kill him, despite the fact that I did”, but guess how much good that’ll do?
It’s been proven time and time again that zF RedZone is a complete and utter scam. It does not work. It invades users’ privacy. It even attempts to steal SL account passwords. We’re talking huge computer crimes here.
Furthermore, it was peddled by a convicted computer criminal and con artist who sells “how to beat the dealer” DVDs and pornography, not to mention who actually runs an SL griefing ring that is no doubt to blame for the attacks you were “protected from” before RedZone got banned that you claim are now getting through. Nothing’s “getting through”. zF has just instructed his group of griefers to start attacking full force (especially in sims that previously employed RedZone) so that his loyal users now complain to LL about griefers coming out of the woodwork thanks to RZ’s banishment.
To top it all off, how does he do it? He uses hijacked accounts that were ex-RedZone owners. Not only is he involved in a massive protection racket, he’s actually using the accounts of those who defect (or worse, those who loyally stayed by his side the whole time) to grief and cause chaos.
I do not understand how you could possibly justify this with “it protects me from griefers”.
And besides, I was under the impression that you would not be around to find out?
“Well now that the copybotters have won, I have no more security against them. I therefore will no longer create content for SL so it can be stolen. I have closed out my MP account and taken down my vendors and servers for them.”
- no2redzone comments: http://no2redzone.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/latest-news-redzone-is-gone-zfire-xue-and-alts-are-banned
Good riddance, we don’t want your ilk here.
But wait, ladies and gentlemen, it gets even better!
http://isellsl.ath.cx/nwatch.php?avi=zfire%20xue
If zFire doesn’t delete these before you get them, the last 4 entries on his Neighborhood Watch page are all +2 from… you guessed it… Debbie Infinity. Didn’t even bother to leave a location OR a comment on each one. Gee whiz, I wonder…
… especially when all the others are -2, and the only other dissenter is “Tank Camino” who can’t seem to type out his thoughts past the legibility of a 4th grader’s txtspeak.
Ah, but it’s not over yet! Let’s take a cursory glance at your profile…
… you’re involved with 2 job-seeker groups. Guess that in-world business must not be going so well, eh?
Oh, and your first life picture is a joke. You’re single, and you look like a pornstar? Sure thing, hun. I highly doubt you’ve got the slightest bit of estrogen in you.
But don’t worry, it’s not about privacy! I’m not invading your privacy or anything, believe me. I mean, you ARE unwanted here, so that gives me grounds to poke around your personal life, right? Right?
Pappy Enoch
Mar 17th, 2011
How about that-there raccoon who were forced to wear them diapers? What done happened to him?
General Drama
Mar 17th, 2011
Poor Boris’ got his videos on youtube quashed. Now he has no videography to refer to when he applies to replace Charlie Sheen. Sizzle! Losing! DUH!
That annoying bitch
Mar 17th, 2011
For zFire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOCkF_JBPD4
Oh noes
Mar 17th, 2011
“We’re talking huge computer crimes here.” – Nelson.
See if pussy will do the post 6.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 17th, 2011
@ Oh noes
I’m assuming he’s got a court order to stay the fuck away from internet businesses since he has a history of internet fraud by way of eBay scams, so yes, it is some pretty srs bzniss.
Yet even more proof against this guy. Convicted of wire fraud (i.e. internet scam), yet everyone’s hailing him as the poster boy for SL’s new JLU/CIA/whatever justice department. Sorry, 90% of criminals never change. Prime example of that. (Get it? Prime? As in Mike Prime?)
Yep
Mar 17th, 2011
Go getem Tiger
Marx Dudek
Mar 17th, 2011
I landed out of curiosity after everyone was bumped off of zF’s sim. A couple of the people present were mocking Ms. Guisse, and it left me feeling a bit queasy and I said as much before leaving about a minute later.
I realize that there are a lot of RedZone customers out there who feel that they’ve lost something in all of this. The fact is that RZ was never, ever, ever an effective tool against illegal copying of inworld digital content. The “copybot” database was manually maintained, and maintained by someone with more of a personal agenda against critics than someone with a verifiable means of detecting copybot users. Worse, he allegedly targeted his own customers by harvesting failed login attempts and saving them as potential SL passwords of RedZone users. In short, everyone got scammed by zFire – those who embraced RedZone and those who opposed it.
I can’t celebrate the fact that he’s gone. He’s already inflicted far too much damage upon user confidence in the SL platform. If there’s a silver lining to all of this, it’s that we’ve all received an education in how unscrupulous people can use the grid’s infrastructure to their advantage. And that things like this have been going on for far longer than RedZone’s existence. The main difference with RZ was that the data it scraped was sold to anyone willing to part with four thousand linden dollars. They didn’t have to go through any kind of background check, they didn’t have to sign any agreement to use the information gained from using it only for ethical purposes specifically limited to granting or hindering access to land parcels. The only requirement was a willingness to part with seventeen bucks US.
RedZone was an alt-detector first and foremost. That was made plain once a HUD was provided to allow customers to “zap” anyone they came in contact with. It’s primary feature was not to provide security but to breach it – not to provide privacy but to invade it.
I can’t celebrate. There’s too much trust that people had that is now replaced by fear and paranoia. And zFire will be back – his alleged background proves that even the long arm of the law hasn’t deterred him from acting in a manner that is disruptive to the lives of others.
The Pandora’s box has been opened and it’s doubtful that it will ever be closed. It’s actually been open for some time – it just took someone with apparently sociopathic tendencies and a love for attention to bring our attention to it.
What we do now is the next big question.
April Cordeaux
Mar 17th, 2011
Debbie: No one has an issue with defense systems in SL just systems that data mine your personal information. BTW, the trouble with the Psyke system is it disarms when your sim resets. You are better off just setting your parcel to group if you want to keep people out.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 17th, 2011
@ Debbie
I find it even more hilarious that you continue to inflate zFire’s score on a website that, quite literally, means absolutely fucking nothing at this point. Just digging yourself a deeper hole.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 17th, 2011
@ Debbie (lol double post)
So you inflate zFire’s score… then someone that rates him -2 is rated down -4 by you, and you claim she’s a “known copybotter” and “should be banned from SL” immediately after she votes him down? What evidence do you have of this? Oh, I forgot, this is RedZone, you can call anyone a copybotter just because you have a grudge against them. As of right now, you’ve rated her -16 (her current score in the now-useless Neighborhood Watch) all within the course of 3 minutes. And you probably believe that Neighborhood Watch was a useful tool for landowners, eh? You’re the reason it died. YOU killed it.
Then you attack sunbunny Moonites “for being a stalker”? Really? He voted zFire down -2 and said, and I quote, “why are you trying to build this score up debbie?? a lil weird.” Sorry, hun, you’re the stalker in this situation, what with your boner for alt detection. But I digress.
Let’s move on to Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia. Rated ‘em -2 for being a “griefer” mere minutes after they left a -2 on zFire’s page. Nice.
Maybe RLVScripter Resident could get on the action with his rating of -2 for Mr. Xue? Sure can! I guess he’s a “griefer” too with his brand-new -2 score.
Oh, but this is the real kicker – you know that Tank Camino guy who types like a 4th grader? Here, let me copy down his comment for reference: “b4 this you guys know redzone worked for you if u had one …dnt let false doctored proof sway you and i do realize that allot of you are innocent ppl caught up in the false hype , i hope z can proove his innocence from the cyber lynch mob that is trying to hang him without real proof” Hey Debbie, “dnt” forget to “proove” that he’s one of the “innocent ppl” too! Good thing you voted him +4 for no reason.
Or perhaps Swedishfox Ghost, who rated -2 and commented on how he’ll sue if his accounts are hacked – so he gets a -2 from you “for being a ding ding”. Mature and professional. Just what I would expect from a premiere content creator such as yourself.
Don’t you get it? YOU ARE THE REASON REDZONE DIED. You are the reason that nobody in their right mind would trust the Neighborhood Watch. You are the reason that everyone is laughing at you. You are wrong, wrong, wrong. 100% incorrect. Goodbye. You lost.
IntLibber
Mar 17th, 2011
Lol, ratings systems. Nothing more than popularity pages and easily gamed when anybody can post unlimited ratings, positive or negative, for anybody else.
Thats why LL got rid of the old negative scores on the old ratings system we used to have on our profiles way back in the early days of SL: people would organize negrating campaigns against people they didnt like, and of course plenty of Lindens got neg ratings from irate customers.
You can’t replace an open and transparent justice system, that includes the participation of residents, with secret police gestapo (g-team) or popularity contests (ratings) or vigilantes (JLU).
That said, have to say that with the Emerald take-down, and now the Red Zone take-down, seems like LL is at least getting a few things right, for once.
Yep
Mar 17th, 2011
YAY!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J1ydwNGMvU&feature=related
Candy Fayray
Mar 17th, 2011
YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 17th, 2011
Correction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi4NUOTqc3I&feature=related
Yep
Mar 17th, 2011
That is to cute
Gundel Gaukelei
Mar 18th, 2011
Dear zFire,
let me tell you the most basic rules of how to become an evil overlord:
1) Don’t expect the “good guys” to play by the rules
2) Never piss off the guy who is making the rules
3) Play by the rules
Obvious Schism
Mar 18th, 2011
Panic’s over folks! Looks like the raccoon is OK!!
http://kelvinthelion.deviantart.com/art/Ringtail-Raccoon-in-diapers-25943392
MKAYYY
Mar 19th, 2011
uhmmm why some shops still kick me out if Redzone has been removed from the grid ????
Oh noes
Mar 20th, 2011
Thank god, now we can get back to real news again.
By that I mean pictures of tits.
Judge Joker
Mar 20th, 2011
@MKAYYY
Because there’s nothing stopping them adding your name manually to another product.
Perhaps they keep a list or perhaps redzone ‘fans’ gave out a notecard with your name on it, and just added all of them to a standard GTFO script.
copiable NO TRANSFER
Mar 20th, 2011
MKAY,
Don’t shop there, don’t even TP in, they don’t deserve the traffic or sales.
IntLibber
Mar 21st, 2011
MKAY, cause your name has been applied to the parcel ban list by the red zone unit, albeit likely temporarily, a temp ban can go for literally billions of seconds.
Lilith
Mar 23rd, 2011
Lulz I found this funny
http://img109.imageshack.us/i/nrcopybotarmor.png/
Seems all the teens on The Grid have brought Copybot Armor to our grid, and are distributing stolen items around the Grid to residents as Freebies.
ZomgZfire Help US!!!!
Dave Bell
Mar 23rd, 2011
I’ve come across a blatant copyright breach in the Marketplace. Going by what I’ve seen, the account was set up to handle the Marketplace store (not a huge alarm in itself), and the content creator sent in a DMCA about 2 months ago.
Part of why the RedZone scam was sustained for so long, I suspect, was the feeling that Linden Lab won’t doing anything. Looking at how the Zyngo games were re-worked, and at how the RedZone problem was handled, they’re saying far less in public about what they’re doing than they did at the time of Emeraldgate. And now, despite a scare story that went out about removed content, it looks as though they’re not even doing the private stuff.
Acting on a DMCA notice isn’t something you have to do, but it it gets you out from under the threat of legal action from a copyright holder. You can bet that if $_BigCorp sends a DMCA over one of their products, the Labs will act. Most content creators can’t justify the cost of a lawsuit. And maybe $_BigCorp doesn’t even use the DMCA–they have trademarks to protect stuff which looks like their product.
If it comes to that, when did Bay City get expanded?
The Labs have cut staff, changed how they communicate with their customers, and are starting to look as though they work in ivory-towered isolation.
Oh, and maybe CNN are dropping their presence in SL.
Yep
Mar 23rd, 2011
@Lilith
Dating prims is an outdated way of checking to see if an item has been copyboted. There are a number of creaters who have their own sandboxes on other grids and just import their builds into SL for sale on the market place. I do not blame people for doing this. Grid A charges next to nothing for a full sim while LL charges over 1000 Real Dollars down and hundreds of Real Dollars a month for the same thing.
smegma
Aug 31st, 2011
My my my Nelson Jenkins, what a hero, brain the size of a pea and thinks they know it all. well you actually know nothing and since you troll these comments pages like its your job perhaps you could just outline your allegiance to Phake Psyeton or whatever that fraud is called. It was he that was behind the whole thing and it all the twats over at their boring little forum did amounted to nothing but commercial sabbotage. the people who started all the commotion are basically profiting from phakes orb and Skills haks phishing scams
But then you would know that wouldnt you.
BTW I do hope you get a job soon so you have something to do thats better than posting at the alphaville rag!
youre a very boring person to read