They can be a minor nuisance or cause considerable damage. These people have different names depending on the virtual world you are in. In Second Life, these people are called Griefers. Many SL residents, especially those new to SL, have had encounters with these people.

Some feel helpless when it comes to Griefers, but not Marijuana Janus. She decided to fight back by starting Griefers-Exposed.com.

“Fantasy is fantasy, but when it’s on a level where your work is stolen or you have some other things happen to you caused by others, that’s not fantasy, that’s abuse,” Janus says. “Some people believe they are acting out their fantasy in Second Life, which is all well and good for those that want to be victim's of someone else's abuses, but for those that don't, Second Life becomes a nightmare.”

Janus has set up a small office in Malvern (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Malvern/120/249/93). Residents can sign up to join her group or visit with her about their experiences. She also encourages residents to take a packet of note cards that have information on abuse and other topics. She encourages SL residents to hand out the packets to others, especially those new to the SL world.

Another large part of her effort is a Web site at http://greifers-exposed.com/?cat=1. Residents are encouraged to upload a photo of the abuser to the Web site.

“Residents can upload information about their experience of being a victim,” Janus says. “If the Griefer wants to argue the case against them, they can do so openly so that we can all see who is telling the truth. However, none of those listed has ever attempted to deny what people are saying about them, even though they have the opportunity.”

Janus believes that if people are griefing for the fun of it in SL, they also may be doing it in real life.

“If a Griefer doesn’t have the guts to seek mental health treatment in real life, then exposing them here in SL may help that person recognize that they have a problem before they act out their threats in real life."

She set up the group a few months ago, but admits it has been a little slow in growing. “I really haven’t had the time to go out and promote it much, but it’s there,” she says.

Linden Lab says it is trying to do its part in the fight against Griefers.

“If residents believe they have encountered griefing or other violations of Linden Lab’s Terms of Service or Community Standards, they can file an abuse report with the Linden Lab governance team,” says Cyn Skyberg, Linden Lab customer relations vice president. “Residents can easily do this using the Help section of the toolbar in the Second Life Viewer (more details about the process is available on the Second Life site at http://secondlife.com/policy/security/harassment.php).”

Once a report is filed, the governance team accesses the log information inside SL, reviews the activity and then decides on an appropriate response.

“It often just takes an official warning to sort out a complaint, but in more serious cases Linden Lab’s response may include suspension of the account and alternate accounts, and in the most egregious cases, a permanent ban from Second Life for the resident, and potentially for alternate accounts as well, depending on the severity of the issues,” Skyberg says. “In cases where the resident feels our response is unfair or that they want to provide more information, we have an appeals process. This straightforward reporting and review process has enabled us to maintain an open platform for our growing global community.”

When asked, Janus would not comment on what type of abuse she may have suffered, but did have more to say to potential Griefers: “Please remember that Second Life is a public access Internet interactive game. Your fantasy can be exposed to the public, so don't embarrass yourself if you are a Griefer!”

Copying is a fact. Copying has happened over the millenia. The first cavemen copied fire from lava flows or burning trees. Cultural advancements were based on copying. Things like a number system and written language got copied. Copying helped win wars. Copying helps fighting AIDS in Africa. Copying comes with a whole variety of names like "learning" or "inspiration". Babies copy their parent's behaviour when growing up. Copying is deeply ingrained in the human nature.

I am not saying copying is right. People spend a lot of time and effort into creating things for commercial gain. Those people have all the rights to be extremely pissed if someone copies them and threatens their business model. Again it is not as black and white as it seems, when it comes to cases were the copy is superior to the original, or where the original is so simple that it could be considered as public domain, but that is a different blog post altogether. Someone whose fruits of labor get copied should have a way to seek compensation, and most countries have legislation in place where this can be achieved. The machinery grinds a bit when it becomes international or when different standards come into play, but basically it works.

Exact digital copies change the game

Admittedly, the digital technology we have since the Seventies/Eighties makes copying extremely easy. While copying a painting by a Dutch Master took the contemporaries an equal, if not longer amount of time and work, copying a DVD in 2009 is a matter of 30 minutes instead of the 15 months the movie making needed, not to mention the cost. If you look at copying as an arms race, the side of the copiers has quite an advantage nowadays.

The answer to this is Digital Rights Management - DRM. It's the technological answer to the technological reality of exact digital copies. But DRM is nothing more than an illusion of security. DRM puts up a huge smokescreen and repeats the mantra "You are safe, you are safe" over and over. It's the 21st Centuries equivalent of dried frog pills and love potions. If digital content is to be consumed by humans apart from being encoded digitally it needs to be decoded again. And the decoding process can be reverse engineered, and sooner or later will be reverse engineered. So while DRM does not discourage the determined, it does however annoy the compliant customers by limiting their experience.

What is the best protection?

What is your best protection against being copied? Innovation! Let's take the fashion industry - a prime target of copying not only in the atomic world but also in Second Life. What Diesel or Armani or Calvin Klein or Gucci show on the catwalks in Milan and Paris will flood the trash boutiques on High Street all over the world a few months later as copies "inspired by...". The large labels are definitely not thrilled about that, but do they call for "Design Rights Management"? Do they ask that at airports or railway stations or in police controls, women get stripped who wear copied dresses? No. Do they demand show trials where women who bought copycatted dresses get charged for thousand times the worth of the dress? No! They do two things:

1. From the commercial side they make their initial, innovative releases incredibly expensive. This enables the folks who can afford them to feel part of a rich elite, as well as as cover the design and production cost plus a hefty margin.
   Or they may take the approach of going for the masses, showing their new creations on the catwalk only to sell it by the millions themselves as long as they have the head start.
   


2. While the copycats pick up on the new releases and the sales of the old collection starts to dwindle, they are already busy making the next collection, working on new designs, only to surprise the fashion world with their new creations in Milan or Paris again. They either sell few for high prices, or many for low prices, they collect their margin, eventually they get copied but by then they have their next collection in the works already. Lather, rinse, repeat.

From the atomic to the virtual world

Let's finally come to Second Life, a world with a DRM system weaved into the very fabric of the system. The DRM system was certainly part of the success of SL, since for a while it gave content creators security and a commercial model that allowed them to receive economic gain for their work. I do not blame anybody for believing this system was foolproof. Not everybody is technically interested, and the advocates of DRM never stop claiming that DRM is safe and the answer to all problems.

However it was only a matter of time until the inherent vulnerabilities got exploited. Intercepting the the OpenGL protocol to retrieve textures was the first step, working on the viewer protocol to retrieve prim parameters and other attributes only the second step. Rika Watanabe made a short but drastic summary what can be copied and what can not be copied. It should be mandatory to read for every content creator.

Was it foreseeable that copying happened? Yes. Could it have been prevented? No. The way Second Life works is that your viewer gets a kind of blueprint, and recreates what your avatar sees locally on your computer. And for that, all parameters and all textures need to be transferred to you. The only way to prevent this would be if the Second Life servers would transfer only frames of a kind of movie to you - every action would happen inside the server. And this is simply not feasible.

Accepting copying as inevitable is one thing. Making it too easy is another thing. Burglary is as inevitable, but you don't leave your door open to make it easier for the thief. So when earlier this week UK-based metaverse development company Rezzable announced the release of BuilderBot, a tool that could copy a whole sim regardless who owns the items on it, emotions ran high. Rezzable back paddled two days later, announcing it will keep the source code of the program under tabs and implement DRM conformity. The discussion is the same since over a year ago the tool "Second Inventory" was released. In its first versions, "Second Inventory" did not bother as well who the creator of items was. Quickly, the author was convinced to include DRM checks as well.

As of today, copying of all content from Second Life (with few exception - see Rika's article linked above) is possible for everyone. However, special technical understanding is required not many people possess. Tools like "Second Inventory", export features like included in the Gemini Viewer or BuilderBot, aimed for the masses, limit copyable content to content you created yourself or where you have full modify rights for. And I think this is good as it is. You can't prevent the determined from copying, but that does not mean to make the technology available to all.

Getting copied sucks. Getting copied hurts. Getting copied wants you make to drop everything and go lick your wounds. But it is a fact, and throwing technology at the problem will not prevent it from happening, but make life more difficult for the legitimate users. If you got copied, by all means, report the person and seek legal action if possible. But stop asking for a technical solution, because there can't be a technical solution!

Copybotters don't innovate! Copybotters can only feed on what actually exists. Beat them with what you can best: create! Create amazing content for Second Life! Refine your skills. Don't waste energy on worrying about being copied. Use the energy to innovate. Be ahead of the copybotters. Don't focus on people who don't buy in your shop anyways (those who buy copied content), focus on the people who are willing to spend money! Don't let the copybotters win. Show them you are better, faster, more innovative.

Stop worrying now. Start creating now!

On occasion it has been known for Second Life residents to be at a loss as to what to do that afternoon or evening with themselves in-world. Sometimes you can feel like you have seen it all and experienced everything Second Life has to offer you. Have you tried games in-world, and no I don't mean the plethora of board game/ hud/ trivia games on offer in the shops, I mean actual interactive, use your mind games. If you've not tried in-world games, MadPea may very well save you from an evening unsure what to do next.


MadPea Productions create interactive games in Second Life and these aren't your average game either. With well thought out and constructed story boards, scripted HUDs, clues, action, mystery and adventure these games have captivated a lot of residents already which has earned MadPea quite a following. Question is when will you join in?

I managed to speak quickly to Kiana Writer, the founder of MadPea about the games and the concept behind MadPea Productions itself.


Can you tell us what the main aim of MadPea Productions is?

Our main goal is to create high quality and exciting content in Second Life. We like to push the limits of the engine and show people what is possible to do. We want to create a community around our games, so that the players are not alone, they can meet like-minded people or get the help if needed.

What game development experience did you have before coming to Second Life?

Hmm.. does it count that I created a Batman board game when I was little? ;) I honestly had none, I'm a real life writer. When I realized that my stories could involve into interactive games and people were enjoying them, I truly found my calling there.

How does a game come together, how it is conceived and converted into an in-world entertainment zone?

We are a bit chaotic here.. usually we start with my story and build the surroundings around it. Sometimes though, one of us creates an amazing build or we have a HUD idea we like to test and then make a storyline to fit that. Our games all include three main elements: it has to have an interesting story, that actually makes sense and is not just a filler to show off some fantastic graphics (sadly I think a lot of games are like that.. :( ), it has to be interactive and it has to be built so that the player loses himself into the whole experience.

Have you faced any complications when bringing a vision into Second Life?

Not really, sometimes we have to make minor changes to the storyline to better fit the platform restrictions. We imagine and build in SL, so we are not facing the difficulties of trying to import the game from another platform to here.


What sort of feedback have you received from the Second Life community?

So far, the feedback has been really great and positive.We have a large group called madpeas, that is really supportive to all members. We love to hear feedback of all kind so that we can improve. Sometimes people don't understand that this is our hobby and that we are doing the games on our sparetime and for free, at times we are getting demands that are just impossible to meet. With thanks to Orange we have had the space to create on their islands. We are hoping to find more real life companies as sponsors to be able to test our ideas and bring out quality entertainment in Second Life. Sometimes sadly, the money is a huge restriction on what we can create. We have even had some of the Lindens playing our games (and of course we've been spying on them then ;) ).

What’s in the pipeline for MadPea?

We have a big event coming on the 26th at our headquarters, where we are revealing some future plans. We have at least one bigger game coming out this summer. Right now, we're all taking a little time off for holidays and for planning the next year.


Wether you're a romantic helping to discover the ending in Firefly, or a would-be Ethan Hunt trying to finish Within, or even a top class sleuth trying to solve the mystery of the Swamp Hotel, if you're the sort of person who enjoys thinking outside the box and solving mysteries then get along to MadPea, I guarantee you won't regret it.

MadPea Productions HQ

*All images reposted with the kind permission of MadPea Productions*

One of the constant challenges voiced by anyone within the Secondlife music community is the concept of getting the word out. With the grid being such a large place, and so many things going on at any one time, actually getting a following, or even getting anyone to turn up to your event, is a long and difficult slog, with predominantly word of mouth being the main way to get publicity. Yet, of course, this does mean that you run the risk that, no matter how much you play, it may end up feeling that you are playing your gigs to the same small group of friends, night after night.

Fortunately, there are people trying to wave the banner of live music in SL, and one such man is Fox Reisch, the owner and operator of Indiespectrum Radio a website and online radio station playing exclusively original music by SL artists. I met up with him, to find out a little more about how this project came about, why he does it, and what it could do for the talented musicians inworld.


Voodoo Buwan: How long has Indiespectrum been operating?
Fox Reinsch: Since November 2007
Voodoo Buwan: And what was the inspiration behind starting it?
Fox Reinsch: I wanted to help a musician friend promote her music here. Figured in RL they use radio so I would start a SL artist's radio station.
Voodoo Buwan: Was it at all difficult getting going at the start?
Fox Reinsch: Figuring out how to stream was Ok but setting up the web page to take requests was hard. Getting music turned out to be hard work too. I knew a few musicians that sent music but everyone else I have to chase after. They are on my Artists' Links page in the order they signed on.

Voodoo Buwan: Was there any problems with the issues of copyright, since I know how sensative artists, especially those inworld, can be about such things?
Fox Reinsch: Well I probably have the only legal station in SL. All the artists sign an on-line agreement that they personally own the music and give me permission to play it. All indendant artists' original music. No covers! Under the creative commons act the record companies really cannot bother me. Also they cannot bother any virtual businesses that play it.
Voodoo Buwan: So, once you've got the station, and the music to play, how did you spread the word? Do you have any idea how many people listen?
Fox Reinsch: I just tell people about it and the word spreads. Also I give out free radios here. and on Xstreet. I had 31,000 tune ins last month and over 100,000 hits to the web page. The station is also listed on iTunes under the eclectic genre. The problem is that word spreads fast in the live music community but it has been hard to get outside to the rest of the people in SL. I was in SL amost a year before I found out about live music here!
Voodoo Buwan: So, there's a challenge in getting the word out inworld, let alone getting recognition of inworld talent out in the real world?
Fox Reinsch: It seems impossible to tell all of SL about live music. I need help. I pretty much do everything myself. It would be great if my free radios were out as freebies at the high traffic shopping places in SL and they played SL my station not out of SL copyrighted web stations.
Voodoo Buwan: Apart from landowners using your stream, if someone wanted to help, what could they do?
Fox Reinsch: Anyone with any SL business can expose people to the great talent here in SL by playing my station. They can put out my free IndieSpectrum Radio radios vendor too. Also have now playing signs for them, like the one above my head or with hover text.
Voodoo Buwan: Are there any challenges with funding an operation like this, or does it all come out of your pocket?
Fox Reinsch: I do it just for fun as I love the music here and make many good friends. It is not a business but I do get some donations. I would like to have some volunteer helpers too. Publicity and to run live music fund raisers shows at my venue. I think most people running venues and supporting live music here are not making money but some do consider them businesses. So I have a listener supported station but mostly I support it and am a listener.
Voodoo Buwan: Finally, with all the music by SL musicians you must listen too, who are the acts that you would personally recommend as must see performers, for someone interested in hunting out the best that the scene has to offer?
Fox Reinsch: Well I don't think I should say. But I do enjoy all of the music no matter how good or bad. Listen to the station, you choose.
Voodoo Buwan: Very diplomatic of you.
Fox Reinsch: I play all of the music I get. If an artist sends 1 song it gets played much more than each of the songs from an artist that sends me dozens. The artists that send alot of songs do get played more. I try to be fair to everyone. Don't think there is any bad music on the station, there is a huge varity. Over 130 artists and over 1000 original songs. Everything from classical flute to hip hop. The full "spectrum".