Friday, February 19, 2010

I have been banned!

This may very well be my last post here. Since I have bee labelled as a copybotter/griefer according to the new Gemini Cybernetic CDS that was released on Xstreet within the last couple of days.

Apparently all that work I did for my previous post - the rezzing of over 200 hairstyles, inspecting to check who the creators were listed as, checking their profiles for legit looks, taking photos of all the unknown ones, sorting the photos for blog post, writing the blog post, chasing up original creators to alert them that their hair was copied......RALLYING AGAINST COPYBOTTERS!!!! - was all for nothing.

I'll start at the beginning so grab a coffee cause this is going to be a long read if you are really interested in reading from top to bottom.

As some of you may know - yesterday I freaked out in plurk (link will not work if you are not on my friends list..sorry) about being banned from a sim (which I left un-named for that persons privacy at the time) due to this new Gemini Cybernetics CDS. This is a system that I myself was passing the link on to friends to show them. This is a great tool - IF it works properly and fairly.

After all that time I spent staring at the copied hair I fell in love with a couple of them. And since I had done a horrible post about all this copy botting nastiness I wanted to do a nice one and pay the credit to the original designers. So shopping time it was. Btw - Shop Seu....awesome freckled skin and the cutest hair do's suitable for kiddie avvies. Curl Up and Dye - OMG at those curlers and the fantasy hair....WOOHOO! These were two names I had not heard of until someone spotted their designs in the list of botted hair photos. After checking them out I was most happy with my new purchases.

Another store that I had heard of in the past but always forgot to get there and check it out myself was Deviant Kitties. Helyanwe was alerted to my blog through a friends plurk and I was sad to hear her say that she spotted over 20 of her designs in there. It made me feel sick for her. I can only imagine what she was feeling at seeing the blog. Time to go there and grab a few more hair do's...afterall....the 100 odd hair dos I have already is clearly not enough! >.<

Requesting TP, arriving at location.....black screen. Hmm this can't be good. Requesting TP...what???? I didn't hit TP. Hover mouse over 'cancel TP', click......wait a second, what's that. A blue box pops up as I click and all I managed to catch was 'being teleported home from Gemini CDS' - or words to that effect. I sat there staring at my screen thinking....noo that can't be right...WTF!

Now it was only THAT DAY that I had spoken to Hely in plurk about her designs being botted and said that when I logged on I would send her a notecard with the details. Which I did. So when I saw this I was most confused. I don't have Hely on my contact list in SL or in plurk. She was not online in SL - so I went to plurk to send her a PP (private plurk, basically like an IM in SL) hoping she might be around. I struck gold...she was online.



So there you have it....I was banned using the Gemini Cybernetics CDS at Deviant Kitties. Great huh. So now my name is spread across SL to ANYONE and EVERYONE that rezzes one of these systems and I am instantly banned on their sim/parcel too. I mean that's such a great and awesome tool to have and the knowledge that a botter will no longer be able to hack your designs or that of your friends.....but me....an anti botter??

Some of you may also know that I live with my SL sister, Ember Farina, in RL. As soon as this happened I was swearing at my computer and going "what the hell is going on". Naturally being in the same house she asked what was wrong. Upon telling her she instantly went into help mode, as she does, posting a question on the emerald users forum. Now as you can see, Ember did not name me, nor the sim I was at. But she did offer to give the details to an admin in IM. The creator of this Gemini Cybernetics CDS replied to her post there - using my name, naming a viewer and a sim that I was apparently at. Not only that....and I quote - "so your friend is either confusing Neillife with Emerald or lying straight into your face. Sorry if this is causing you grief but it is her own fault if she is using tools like that". Publicly accusing me of lying and using tools on a copybotting client. Defamation of character does not go down easily with me.

Now whilst this was going on on Embers computer I myself had been pointed in the direction of a blog. A blog written, which I now know, by an apparent friend of the creator of the Gemini Cybernetics CDS. Now I say apparent as I have no idea who either of these people are. I don't know them from a bar of soap and I can only go by the words of one person. And that one person, Fine - mentioned they knew the creator and backed them 100%. Alas I only knew this information after I posted a comment on their blog. Seems a waste of time publishing a negative comment on a blog if the person who owns the blog is friends with the creator. Hindsight is a marvelous thing folks. In any case I was confused as to why I was banned and ejected while using the Emerald viewer. I stated this in my post and left it at that. A little while later I went back to the blog to see if anyone had replied and looky here.

Again...lets go and spread my name, not just my first name...but my full name this time. Oh and lets tell people I was using a copy bot viewer and that I was at a well known sim. FAIL! Defamation of character a second time on a seperate forum. Oh and false information. I was not using neillife and nor was I at Magika.

At this point in time I was furious. I had been flitting between blogs, forums, plurk Xstreet and SL reading up on this system trying to find some answers. And in the meantime writing a notecard to the creator as they were showing as offline in SL asking for an appeal as this was entirely false and tarnishing my name unfairly.

I tried to put it all behind me and just sit for a few hours for the rest of the evening with my SL daughter and hope that in the morning I would have a response from the creator in regards to my appeal. Or that it was all a bad dream or something. We decided to go look at some clothes together so my daughter TP'd to Babydoll's. If you haven't heard of it and you have a daughter in SL. I highly recommend it. Very high quality clothing there. And affordable too.

TP from daughter - Join me in Starlight Starbright.....click.....requesting teleport...arriving at location. Bounce...was that a building...why am I upside down....requesting teleport...little blue box "You are no longer allowed at this location. You are being teleported to your home location". O.o *laughs* and IM's daughter thinking she may have been facing someones parcel that was home security orbed so when I landed I got sent home. TP again....arriving at location....why are there ban lines 3 inches from my face. WTF....I am now parcelled off and stuck in a small box surrounded by banlines. Interesting. IM the owner and wait for a response. We both chatted for a bit and it turns out that she too has a Gemini Cybernetics CDS rezzed. She was more than happy to remove me from the ban list after I had explained all the ongoings of the night. I gave her the links to all the forums and blogs and plurk that had been talking about it. One thing that stood out though.. She had no idea why my name had a timer count down beside it. In the about land options my name was added to the ban list and it had a timer down of some 8000 odd seconds remaining. She removed my name from the list...ban lines disappeared and my daughter and I went shopping.

What confuses me though is why the pop up box was like a home security orb message than the one I had received at Deviant Kitties telling me it was the Gemini Cybernetics CDS. In any case I was bummed. My SL life is now tarnished and it is going to be a matter of hit and miss as to the shops I can now visit. All the big name stores will no doubt be getting this new system to safe guard themselves and I don't blame them. But those are the stores I shop at. They will no longer be getting my business. Which totally sucks. I know I am jut one out of how many thousands of people....but still...I blog about my findings...I tell my friends about great new outfits I buy...I can no longer pass on those good news vibes.

Time to go to bed I've had a horror of a night and I still have not heard from the creator of the system. Even though they have made a couple of comments on the blogs in this said time frame....my issue is in SL...I sent them a notecard and I wait for a response to my problem.

Good morning world....ahhhh....*stretches*....last night was just a bad nightmare right.....a voice from the door way "Morning sleepyhead. Skills replied to the blog"....ugh.....*roll back over and bury head under pillow*

Ok but good news maybe....the creator has apparently replied to the blog...maybe with some good news. Hopefully they have also accepted my notecard and replied to that too. All important morning rituals done...time to turn on the box and see what damage has been fixed.

Now this time the creator...on two of the previous mentioned forums has changed their wording slightly and also lied. On the 'Fine, thanks you' blog (as mentioned a few paragraphs up) the creator now says that they checked again and low and behold I was detected weeks ago at magika. Right...so the "my system can't produce a false negative" theory is in fact.....false? Considering this person was telling everyone the night before that I was banned at Magika last night. Hmmm....*scratches chin in thought* Now here is the interesting thing....According to the creators comments I was at Magika on the 30th of January. I went through my transaction history....because believe me if I am in Magika then I am sure as hell spending money there. The last time I was at Magika was the 20th of January purchasing hair for my blog post on a Bloggers Challenge.

I'm confused....if I am a copy botter...why am I buying hair? Why have I spent around $3000L at Magika on skin and hair? I am an honest person. I buy what I want. I out people who copy. Not only that on the 30th of January, when I was supposedly at Magika, I was elsewhere being wooed by a gentleman. And then proceeded to go traipse around SL with him and my SL sister and ended up at a quaint little dancing spot. The transactions for that day in my Transaction History show no mention of me being near Magika at all. And that is because I wasn't. It was also the day after I had bought my new sim...and was deep in rebuilding/terraforming it. As also shown in pictures on my blog.

The creator has also made mention on the Xstreet item discussion thread .....again I quote...." still have to hear back from someone though, who hasn't tried to contact me". I guess this person does not want to read the notecard with all the proof that I am innocent and chooses to lie about it instead and hope that I will be like all the other REAL copy botters and fade away into the distance and they won't have to admit that ok maybe there is a hiccup somewhere.

I am not out to prove this system does not work. I am all for it. I want to stop the botting going on in SL. But what I do want is my name, that has now been tarnished across the Emerald Forum and this Fine persons blog, removed from this accusation that is put against me. I want to be able to continue to SHOP at the places that I love to shop at. As I have done for the previous 3 or so years I have been in SL. (yes my avvie is not that old but I still have my original account. And no it was not closed I am not running from being caught out before or what ever people may want to think for me changing accounts. People do it all the time. I went through a bad breakup with my partner on SL who I was also with in RL so I changed because of that....ok).

I am innocent here. The proof is all in this blog post. Transaction histories, accounts of where I was, what viewer I use. The defamation of character is uncalled for. The pointing fingers and accusing me before actually finding out the facts is uncalled for.

I guess there was always going to be a bug somewhere and something would go wrong sooner or later. It's a computer program...all computer programs are susceptible to a virus, bug, downfall SOMETHING sooner or later. I guess I pulled the short straw in pointing out said hiccup. Lucky it was early on so that this can be rectified and the system can continue to work effectively in the future.

As for now???? I feel a victim of grief and wrongful accusation.





31 comments:

  1. It makes my blood boil when innocent people are put through grief and stress by a half-baked idea. I cannot believe they put this out there on the assumption that anyone caught is a thief so we don't need an appeals process. I hope you can sort this out soon Rors and please do not let these stoopid people drive you from SL!

    *hugs*

    Mabbs

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  2. Far out! First of all *hugs* that this happened to anyone is just awful.

    I am disturbed that these people you spoke to while trying to rectify the situation, would have such extreme blind faith in technology. If SL teaches us anything, it is that things can and DO go wrong. The fact that they were so quick to accuse is appalling, but that they publicly defamed you and your character is unacceptable on every level.

    I wont be installing that system on our sim or at my store; a/ clearly it's faulty and the creator shows zero interest in acknowledging that he is human and therefor fallible as are his creations b/ I choose to not live in or perpetuate a society of fear. If someone wants to rip my stuff, I'll leave them for karma to deal with later on... If ever there was a cautionary tale of the solution causing as much grief than the problem, this would be it.


    I hope this is resolved soon & that store owners see this as a reason to be cautious in implementing this system. BTW, I'm sure you know, but just to reiterate after your shocking ordeal; You are always welcome at my store :)

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  3. There's no way of knowing who's on any of the lists via the CDS itself. In my blog, the one with the brown background, screenshotted above, it clearly states to contact Skills Hak in both the article and the comments portion.

    [11:08:34 PM] Fine Caliber: can you tell me if Rors got in direct contact with you in-world?
    [11:08:45 PM] Skills Hak: no she still didnt

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  4. I like the way you focus on your blog screen shot Fine...Nicely done. Perhaps you scrolled past the screen shot of my contacting Skills via notecard of information *shrugs*

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  5. First off, i am sorry this has happened to you, i can imagine you are upset if you really feel you are innocent. When i checked your record it said Neillife user, and i answered your question on fine's blog where you posted *with your name first*. I later digged more deeply and found out that you were indeed using Emerald when you have been ejected, but you have been detected using Neillife some time ago, when the auto-ban system wasn't active yet. I can see why you are confused since you were running Emerald when the ban happened, but you are obviously not denying the fact you have used Neillife before.

    I didn't get your notecard as my messages must have capped during the night, with all the stuff going on, but let's talk inworld when you have time. We are currently discussing ways of giving people the ability to appeal a ban in case they have used one of the banned viewers "by accident" or however you want to call it.

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  6. Im so sorry this happened to you, such a great person. I would AR this skills person as far as I am concerned she is griefing you. And I would look into legal action not only for defaming you but in SLU she claims it stores info about your PC.

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  7. I am gutted about this. It churns my stomach. I am an IT Manager in RL and work closely testing new software for our company with the programmers. The amount of "bugs" I experience from programmers who CANNOT test their products fully until it is in the mainstream. Think of Microsoft. How many homes in the world has their Operating systems? Products which are tested as far as the programmer can go in his office, before it's hit by millions of users who then find the bugs. Bugs which are fixed. Now I KNOW for a fact that Microsoft have more money than anybody here in SL. And Microsoft are flawed and have to fix their software.

    The point? The point is that this detection system has been proved to be flawed. But this is where the damaging difference is coming in. It's not making your computer have a wobble, it's not making you simply reload some drivers or hitting you with a blue screen.

    The point is, it's tarnished somebody's life in SL. It's caused discussion with their name spread around like muck. It's potentially going to make Ror's want to leave SL. What kind of software HAS THAT RIGHT ?

    Now I believe Ror's. But lets pretend that she has had Neillife installed at some point in the past. Firstly, I do not believe that IF she had Neillife on her computer that she would use it for copybot. I don't know Neillife, but I am guessing it's an alternate viewer which 'has the potential/facility' for copybotting. So now this raises another question... I have a car in RL. I use it every day. But it 'has the potential/facility' to kill somebody if I use it in the wrong way. But does that mean that I should be taken off the road because I am a murderer? NO. Unless of course I USE that potential, drive recklessly and indeed kill somebody.

    So, to the owners of this CDS security software. Be big, be brave, admit you're wrong. Save your own name and reputation and correct this blip before it goes out of control. And for gods sake get Arora's name cleared.

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  8. Andee i think you are missing the point here. There has been no "bug", she has indeed been detected correctly in the past. The land owners that chose this device chose to opt-in to bans against people who are known to use or have used 'bad' viewers.

    The NeilLife/Car analogy is not very fitting, it would be better to compare it to carrying an outlawed weapon. As for clearing her name, i'm afraid it is too late for that, she decided to blog and plurk about it already, knowing she used an illegitimate client in the past. I didn't out her at all.

    Btw, interesting article here http://arabellasteadham.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/client-detection-system-cds/

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  9. So, your saying that if I had installed Neillife in my earlier years in SL realised that it wasn't a good viewer and changed.. didn't use it to copybot, but had been detected as having installed it at some point, then I too would get banned? Even if I hadn't been involved in copying, the fact that I had installed this program at some point would tarnish me?

    Fair comment about the NeilLife/Car analogy, and I agree that Neillife is to be compared to a an outlawed weapon, but I saw a reporter on the TV the other day talking about dangerous weapons, and holding up a gun that was under discussion as "dangerous" and that had been "outlawed" does this mean that he had used the gun? does this mean that he was to be branded in any way?

    I think you'll find too, that the database has already branded her badly by the fact it's registered her name and shared it around other sims to other units, kicking her out of a shopping are.. that was BEFORE she blogged and plurked about it.

    And yes, that was an interesting article, thanks.

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  10. I wonder how many other honest designers/bloggers/contributors to the community are on that ban list because they were curious about something like Neillife. It seems only natural that people want to know what they're up against. I can imagine a scenario where a designer was taking a look at a bad viewer, got a TP from a friend to check something out, and without thinking anything of it, TP'd to Magika or Truth, and are now banned for life (maybe even from their own shop!). It's important to know the enemy and their capabilities, and running a bad viewer does not mean one is automatically a criminal.

    Situations like what Arora is going through should not have to happen. The law in the real world allows a jury of one's peers to decide one's fate. Arora should have the same benefit here.

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  11. @isabel: no problem, we can remove those entries from the database where people simply wanted to try the viewer to see what it can do, even outside their home sim.

    I had a chat with Arora and removed her from the database completely. I really do believe she is a genuine, good person, it turned out her account may have been compromised due to a unsecure password. I hope that has been fixed and caused her no long-term harm. I just wish we could have discussed this more discretely instead of making it public first, silly timezones.

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  12. I think i need to make this point more clear, do NOT use any illegitimate viewers to log on to the SL grid, even for testing, and not with your main account. Not only can you get caught running them, but they most likely contain viruses or trojans too. Don't trust code from people you don't know, for example never download Emerald from other sites than modularsystems.sl

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  13. Hi everyone! I am Sabina, the owner of Magika. I wanted to clear this whole thing up. I hope many people get to read this post.

    Arora Zanzibar have indeed been banned from Magika for the use of Neillife. Skills have taken the time to double check and it is true. Arora is just trying desperatly to clear her name, therefor this blogpost and all the fuzz that comes with it, fairly annoying if you ask me. It has come to her attention several times by other people on here to contact ME about it. She has not contacted me.
    Arora might not be a frequent user of neillife, but she has been caught at some point using it. Anyone using Neillife, Cryolife, Fucklife etc is not ever welcome at Magika. There is no use blaming Skills for this. It is MY choise and my choise alone to use this system and keep her banned. Anyone who disagrees. well buhu lol.

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  14. No Sabina I did not contact you. Skills is the creator and the programmer behind the system hence why I needed to speak to her. I appreciate your concern though yes this is just my word against hers. But I am innocent. I will continue to defend my name. Simple as that. I am sick of being labelled a liar and someone who got caught and wants to clear her name. I did not get caught because I did not do anything wrong. But after finally being able to speak to Skills this has all been resolved. Thank you

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  15. Sabina that was a spiteful and irrelevant comment to post on Arora's blog. The situation has been explained in comments made hours before yours. Why would you do that? I get that you have been hurt by copybotters, but that is no excuse.

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  16. What strikes me as bizarre in this whole situation is that there are quite a lot of users out there who consider Emerald itself being a rogue viewer, and hold deep suspicions against the viewer and its creators. I know quite a lot of people personally who would not touch Emerald with a 10 foot pole.

    Considering the vast number of residents using Emerald, and the lack of any solid proof of a single abuse on behalf of Emerald, this might be seen as irrational. Still the large number of people not trusting Emerald can't be ignored.

    It gets even more bizarre when you see some strong advocates of shutting down 3rd party viewers in general now praising this system.

    What this whole debate shows, however, is that content creators feel the pain, and feel the need to turn to take the law in their own hands out of frustration that LL does not do anything. THIS is the REAL issue here.

    There are suggestions enough, some good compromises - some extreme demands. But there IS a vivid discussion among residents. And LL seems to do nothing.

    I do not trust a fully automated system. I work in software development and have quite a critical distance to fully automated systems. The question is not IF they screw up, but WHEN they screw up. But I can't blame a single content creator to buy and use such a system. However the deployers of such a system take on a HUGE responsibility. LL gets blamed a lot for the intransparent shoot-first-ask-questions-maybe-later process of Abuse Reports. The developers and deployers of this system seem to run into the same trap. An automated system without a clear, transparent appeal process is a loose weapon. This whole incident has made this very clear.

    I am a marketing and PR specialist, and from my professional view this was a close call to a complete PR desaster. The developers of the system have a great chance to give the community an effective tool. But it needs transparency of procedures and clear communications.

    Maybe this incident was a warning shot.

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. Long diatribe. But a couple of inconstancies...

    You claim to have been using the Emerald viewer, yet the creator of the CDS (Skills Hak) is one of the developers of the Emerald viewer. Incredibly fishy-sounding to claim you were using the Emerald viewer and thus, one of the creators of that very viewer created a system that will ban the users of the very viewer they helped create.

    Reiteration: Create viewer; create banning system that targets viewers with "illegal functions"; include viewer I help create to the black list of the banning system I created... Something is wrong with this logic on all kinds of levels.

    Oxymoron, anyone?

    Also - and no emotion here, consider me stoic and speaking matter-of-factly: you sound like a copybot witch-hunter. Cobybot witch-hunters create a lot more problems for innocents than they ever could for actual copybotters (try shift-dragging anything you have copy/mod rights to - boom! You're a copybotter now). What does this have to do with your being copybotbanned?

    Sorry to rain on your parade, but frankly your story just doesn't hold-up the way I see it. I am not accusing you of anything, only saying your story isn't quite lining-up where it should and that could just be in the way you are telling it.

    I suspect there is the possibility that you are innocent in this as such: you do have the Neillife viewer. If for no other reason than to understand how it works (I am in this category also). You were using the Neillife viewer when you became banned.

    This poses two points: The CDS is accurate and works as advertised: it banned you while using the very viewer you no-doubt rail against. Secondly, for whatever reason you were using the Neillife viewer at the time, you should celebrate that the CDS system works. As it will help alleviate your witch-hunting burden somewhat.

    Solution...
    Step one:contact Skills Hak and make your case. Logs and all that stuff can easily be checked and you will be vinidcated as being th first false-positive ever with the CDS system. In which case, congratulations.

    Step two: submit a ticket to Linden Lab, they have access to considerably more detailed, in-depth logs than Skills or any resident could possibly have and they can vindicate you beyond any possibility of doubt whatsoever.

    Your call. But if you have been genuinely wronged, then take the steps to vindicate yourself. Because if you don't, then lay in the bed you made and swim in the permanent doubt all others will forever have about you..

    I use the CDS. When I see you at my shop - not being ejected, I will know you are vindicated, then - and only then will I have even the slightest doubt with regard to the "err on the safe side" this system has. It already has ejected bundles of nare-fo-wells from my places.

    Until then...

    /me shrugs and moves on.

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  19. well for sl was born in the usa, why not playing wild west and break a butterfly on the wheel? vigilantism has always been done in the states, so i do not wonder. and the best part is: the so called emerald developer were the bad guys in past, at least a bunch of them. they created griefer viewers in the past, and still most copybot function are coded in emerald, just not activated. this guy with his leasing system is having his pension paid from the fear. there are groups from content creators to fight against copybotting, this lady here is not the only one running a blog against this, if there is some big stealing going around the social community is informed very qucik and took action against it in the past. how much money damage do this copybotter do REALLY? would any user of copybotted items ever buy the "real thing" ? i see now people accusing me supporting stealing, no i don`t. but the talking about the damage they do seems overrated to the damge this system is doing against people who did`nt steal anything.

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  20. Ari, feel free to tell me the name of your store and I will TP there and prove my vindication. And just in case you missed it in my blog - since it was very long - 1st: I did contact Skills Hak and provided logs, transactions histories etc etc. 2nd: I also did contact Linden Labs with the exact same information provided to Skills. My name was removed from the system. Each to their own beliefs. I know I did nothing wrong. I proved this to the people that count. Think what you will. Thanks

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  21. You know what kills me, is that Skills says "I checked and she was detected in the past. " and people just believe it. As if checking her own system somehow makes it true. She's got no credibility, and that she even irresponsibly released a near-virus like her product on the grid, absent features that prevent its use as a griefing tool or harming the innocent, AND refusing to detail its methods so we know why it happens, is a testament to why she shouldn't. Further, she claims that detections occurred DURING THE TESTING PROCESS. That's like handing someone a ticket where the radar gun was wildly miscalibrated.

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  22. As an aside: If you think Skills did this for any reason other than to nullify bad press, you're a crazy person. If this had been anyone else, anyone less visible, then the ban would still be in place.

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  23. I'm really concerned that there are no checks and balances on this system. If it throws a false positive, all we have is the word of the creator throwing around "well, at some point, in the past, that we can't divulge any information about, you may have been using something that we ban now, but we can't tell you how we know" any time it happens. That's bullshit.

    Apparently the name was well chosen though, Skills appears to be a Hack of a coder. From what I've read recently, all the questionable viewers out there are starting to identify as Emerald now anyway, so moot point in the end.

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  24. just as sidenotice. skills or one of his slaves did put you on the list because they didnt like you, thats what happend to me... and goodbye sl cause of shit that i never did.
    You will be lucky if you not find soon your accounts inacressible.

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  25. I think very interesting to attract your attention to a well documented Spanish Language Site talking about some Fallacies of Second Life. Their first article has been devoted to the fallacy of CDS and 3rd party viewers. I think their reflections are very clever and indeed very interesting, as well as the answers.

    http://secondlifefallacies.blogspot.com/

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  26. This is just another of the many sickening things perpetrated by the gang of CDS and Onyx and Emerald devs. Skills Hack even has the cheek to come here and tell us it is safe to download Emerald only from the modularsystems.sl website.

    The current version of Emerald, which they have dishonestly certified as complying with the new SL rules for TPV (third party viewers) actually breaks an important rule about users privacy. Every time an Emerald user logs on, the viewer sends your full av name and IP{ number to the modularsystems website.

    That illegally collected information could be used, for example, to match all your alts as being the same RL person. Some people need to use an alt to protect themselves from harassment by a griefer who is persuing them inworld.

    The same info could be used to tell what country you are from, and even which town, if you use a local ISP company - and match that info to the full name of every alt you have.

    They have been asked on their own forums to fix that security fault and have refused. Most Emerald users are unaware that the program secretly sends their private info to the Emerald devs.

    Really, for that gang to be involved in protecting content creators from malware such as thieving viewers (which several Emerald devs have developed in the past) is letting the fox protect the chicken coop.

    Skills Hack who sells protection for L.700 per month to shop owners, also works with the hackers who contributed to the thieving viewers which make that protection necessary.

    It's a racket.

    "Mary" (posted anonymously because I fear reprisals from these skilled griefers)

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  27. Has anyone used the appeal process through the website and gotten any sort of response? I'm having a hard time getting my ban resolved and when I sent a notecard to Skills I got a reply that she doesn't handle appeals in game.. If anyone has any information I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

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  28. I will be 100% Honest here, because I do not believe in Lies.

    I did get CDS banned, and I did deserve such. No I did not Commit Theft, or Copybot, But I did In fact Log into many Copybot viewers and test them, so I wont deny such. My account is over 3 Years Old, and I have full profile, own Hundreds of USD in virtual Items Bought from merchants around our grid.

    However I am reeally angry not just because of myself getting banend, But Because I Appealed, and Recieved no response for myself getting banned, or such. Many of my friends using Emerald probabily like yourself got banned mistaken as Neil Life clients, and Appealed, No Appeals were granted to any of us, some of us content Creators ourselves.

    The Result, I dont Support CDS in any way, and I respect all merchants in SL, and report content theft all the time I see it, when It can be proven who did it, as I am aware of all Copybot spoofing methods due to Studying them myself before the new TOS locked them all out.

    What I would fully support 100% is a System which is fully Controlled by the owner of the Simulator, or Owner of the parcel, and You appeal your bans that way directly with them, not one group, or one person, but I will not support CDS, or any other system that is controlled by one group of people and open to abuse.

    I cant say that people will agree, or what people will think of me for even logging into a copybot viewer in the past when I was added, But I hope you feel the same way I do, because CDS is seperating our Community as a whole, It is violation of International Laws, and needs to be removed. Decisions to ban should be Left up to Linden Lab, no one else Period.

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  29. jodeelynn cyberstarJune 19, 2010 at 10:52 PM

    Im sorry this is happening to you. I am just a no body, i dont create anything but I love to shop and this has been happening to me for awhile now. I am on the secondlife 2.0 viewer and I appealed it one time and they said it was sorted out and it should all be OK now. but today I went to one of my favorite shops to look at the 60l item (they always have the best stuff)and I land and poof i was tp'd back home. I contacted the owner and she took me off the list and i tried to tp again but still same outcome....she put me on the safe list, I still got tp'd home. I have appealed again 2 times today, I am aggravated and part of me just wants to give up and quit playing, But I love secondlife and have some wonderful friends here so Im not going to let this make me quit! I signed on again later today and went to check out a cute little store and was there for about 5 mins or more and then all of a sudden poof i got booted and then when i got home I got a message telling me tp failed if this continues to happen please log off and try again...but this message continued to keep flashing on my screen and would not stop, I couldnt even x out to sign off I had to re boot my whole computer to make it stop. I am an honest player, I would give up everything I have to proove that and to be on a Black list really upsets me. I have shopped at alot of wonderful shops and it is sad now that one of my favorites is now one I am no longer welcome in because of a faulty security system. I hope that this is fixed soon and they realize that this is not just removing the bad people from there shops but also alot of innocent people like you and I.

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  30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pqOgigK7fc NUFF SAID?

    Same thing happend to me except mine was a bit different, but can he prove I copybot is the question Innocent Until Proven Guilty, OR Proven Guilty First?

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