Second Life faces threat to its virtual economy

By Daniel Terdiman, GameSpotPosted Nov 15, 2006 12:45 pm PT

Copybot cramps freewheeling style of virtual-world residents; did the gamemakers see this coming?

Groups of Second Life content creators were gathering digitally Tuesday to protest the dissemination of a program they worry could badly damage the virtual world's nascent economy.

The controversy gathered steam Monday when Linden Lab, which publishes Second Life, posted a blog alerting residents of the virtual world to the existence of a program or bot called CopyBot, which allows someone to copy any object in Second Life. That includes goods such as clothing that people purchase for their in-world avatars, and even the virtual PCs that computer giant Dell announced Tuesday it is going to sell in the digital world.

Second Life users can purchase virtual items with a pretend currency called Linden dollars--named for game creator Linden Lab. But they use real-life currency to acquire that virtual coin. In fact, there's an exchange rate between the two: One US dollar will buy 271 Lindens, enough to buy a basic outfit for an avatar, which is the digital representation of a person.

Problem is, it's not clear yet if there's anything Linden Lab can do to stop people from using the bot. Linden Lab said Second Life content creators who had their wares stolen had few immediate options for stopping the thefts and that the best recourse for them could be to file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint--in the real world--against offenders.

Some virtual entrepreneurs now worry their livelihoods are at stake, and some are threatening to shut down their in-world businesses before they get fleeced.

"The problem with the DMCA is that it takes many weeks," said Jim Mallon, a Second Life content creator who has been in the virtual world since its 2003 beta. "By that time, someone's work could be [copied and stolen] and distributed all over the grid. I am so surprised Linden Lab did not see this coming and stop it."

Second Life is an open-ended, 3D, digital virtual world in which members can create nearly anything they can imagine, and in which anyone owns the intellectual property rights to what they create. As a result, there are hundreds of businesses selling clothing, vehicles, furniture and the like, all for Linden dollars. A complex and stable economy has sprung up around such commerce.

The reaction to CopyBot is not the first virtual revolt. Many Second Life residents recently complained when Linden Lab announced it was raising the price for the in-world "islands" it sells. As a result, the company said it would delay the price hikes for two weeks.

Residents have also complained about other issues, such as problems with the user interface and previous issues related to the security of created content.

On Tuesday afternoon, even as the controversy raged, Linden Lab posted a second blog entry addressing CopyBot and the resulting fallout.

Titled "Use of CopyBot and similar tools a [terms of service] violation," the post by Cory Ondrejka, Linden Lab's chief technology officer, attempted to ease concern that in-world merchants were at risk of having valuable goods stolen.

"Second Life needs features to provide more information about assets and the results of copying them," Ondrejka's post began. "Unfortunately, these are not yet in place. Until they are, the use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation and may result in your account[s] being banned."

To "Baba Yamamoto," the Second Life name of one of the members of the group that created CopyBot, the uproar over the software is understandable but disappointing.

Yamamoto told CNET News.com that CopyBot was created as a tool for testing and demonstrations and was never intended to be used for illegal theft. But because the tool was created using an open-source license, some Second Life users have gotten hold of it and are now freely using and distributing it.

"It's not that the code is some kind of exploit," Yamamoto said. "It deals with legitimate client data that every client receives, but it takes that data and converts it to a packet and sends it back to the servers, duplicating the appearance of objects and avatars. It acts like an import/export tool."

LibSecondLife, the group that created CopyBot, lists as its mission statement being "an open-source effort to create a stable platform for third-party Second Life development." However altruistic its motivations may have been, the group appears to have lost control of its tool.

And many residents are very unhappy about that.

"The essence of the creativity in this world is largely because of creators and their work being protected," Mallon said. "This tool defeats all protection. So if you labor to build a business like we all have, your work can be stolen."

Another resident, Isabella Lazarno, agreed. "Everything that everyone has worked for in here is now affected," Lazarno said.

As an example, resident Damanios Thetan demonstrated how easy it is to use CopyBot to copy objects.

Thetan showed News.com that copying an in-world car took no more than a few seconds. Similarly, Thetan created a quick copy of the author's avatar.

"My [alternate avatar] is run by CopyBot," said Thetan, explaining the process. "It copies the complete car, or everything I have attached. After it's copied, [I have] full permissions, meaning I can make as many copies as I want."

Other residents think that the fear of CopyBot may be overblown. Eric Rice, a blogger known in-world as "Spin Martin," said that he has long seen Second Life content as digital artifacts that could be replicated.

"Their [businesses are] in the digital space, which may or may not have been obvious in the sense [that] data [has always been] copyable from day one," Rice said. "We just live with that truth."

But Rice added that he understands why content creators are worried the rug may be pulled out from under their businesses.

"I'm fascinated about the RIAA-ish angle--content people protecting their stuff passionately," he said.

Meanwhile, as content creators continue to meet throughout Second Life, Linden Lab is trying to put the controversy in context.

Ondrejka wrote in his blog post that anyone who feels their content is being stolen using CopyBot should inform Linden Lab in addition to filing a DMCA claim. Presumably, the company will take action on behalf of such content creators.

But Ondrejka also tried to explain why Linden Lab isn't able to immediately halt the use of CopyBot and other such tools.

"Like the World Wide Web, it will never be possible to prevent data that is drawn on your screen from being copied," he wrote. "While Linden Lab could get into an arms race with residents in an attempt to stop this copying, those attempts would surely fail and could harm legitimate projects within Second Life."

60 Comments

  • Cloud737

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 5:57 am PT

    Sigh...This should have been expected, as anything that is digital can be copied with ease. That`s why I think that virtual economy will never happen if people`s attitudes towards one another don`t change.
    Oh well, that`s life.

  • KuroriKenshin

    Posted Nov 28, 2006 6:22 am PT

    Its understandable that people want to protect their "assests" considering that these virtual assets can be turned into real world cash. Of course people would want to protect their ability to make money while playing a game.

  • mskittykat

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 12:15 pm PT

    I don't actually play Second Life (honestly just learned about it a few days ago) but it's kind of disappointing the seemingly lck luster attitude the developer has against the issue at hand. -- For those out there claiming it's just "virtual stuff", it's no different than taking a hobby that you worked so hard to maintain, and have some one come by and snatch it from you....speaking as a modeller myself, no different than a modeller selling his virtual creations for use in very real games. Bottom line of how fun or serious the gamers take this game, this is a very serious problem, one that needs to be rectified. Honestly there's too much at stake not to for the gaming audience out there.

  • Sam_Lowery

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 11:16 am PT

    Too bad I don't play MMORPGS. If I was into this game, I'd make a car that looked like a cow, and make a milion copies and leave them everwhere.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 23, 2006 2:50 pm PT

    "CopyBot" what an original name

  • gozalo

    Posted Nov 20, 2006 7:08 am PT

    so this is another one of those, oooh i look so pretty kinda games?

  • nhavas

    Posted Nov 20, 2006 12:51 am PT

    i don't understand why everyone here is constantly blamming Second Life. It's a game just like any other, but when someone insult WoW people pitch a hissy fit. I've been playing SL for over five months and i love it. it's a fantastic way to socialize, meet new people, learn new skills, and generally just have fun. The copybot thing is, in my opinion, far too overblown, and i am keeping my stores open just to prove that it's only a small thorn in people's sides.

    The only thing that scares me is: one scared person is simply afraid. thousands of scared people are a mob, and mobs have a tendency of screwing things up...

  • MichaelMorbid

    Posted Nov 19, 2006 10:33 am PT

    maybe more people will stick to their first life instead.

  • zero9167

    Posted Nov 18, 2006 7:42 am PT

    wow this game sounds so interesting. it sucks to see it being ruind by hackers. i would actually look into playing this game if the graphics were better

  • Erebus

    Posted Nov 17, 2006 2:48 am PT

    I am intrigued.

  • UrbanMessiah

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 6:34 pm PT

    I've never tried Second Life out, but it seems like an interesting case of life imitating fiction, as we are getting closer to the virtual worlds that William Gibson likes to write about, or like something out of Ghost In The Shell. Anyway, what I don't understand is this; How are you, videogame players, console and PC alike, going to make fun of and insult people that play Second Life? You realize that the things I've read in these comments, the negative ones, sound a lot like the things that people that don't play video games say about video game players like you? Get the hell over yourselves already... -=p

  • AncientDozer

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 3:53 pm PT

    I sense someone got rejected and disrespected on Second Life.

  • hybridusaker1

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:55 pm PT

    lol lindens pyramid scheme.

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 8:50 am PT

    Can the DMCA really help stop this?

  • ZEELIX

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 6:38 am PT

    wtf would play this $#!+?

  • princeofgames90

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 5:31 am PT

    Hahahah All that because of lindens

  • nitrog

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 2:52 am PT

    "CheddarLimbo
    "content creators who had their wares stolen had few immediate options for stopping the thefts and that the best recourse for them could be to file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint--in the real world--against offenders. "

    Wrong. The first option is to stop playing this game. Once their revenue is affected, the developers will find a way to stop this. "

    Obvoiusly you don't really understand whats going on here. It's counterfeiting. Do you understand why that is illegal when it comes to real money? Do you hear about people making dollars in their basment and say oh well I just won't go to work tomarrow? This is a working economy reguardless of what your personal opinions of how pathetic it is to spend "real life" money on "virtual" money. This is still an economy working and stable. There is also by the way something called a Global Economy that is a theory by which when one econ fails it has a domino effect on econ around it. If Dell is actually Taking the time to make virtual computers for people to buy in game.....don't you think that might be just a little investment of time and money on their part? If this goes under they will take a loss. The only question is how much has second life intergrated into the american economy or the british economy or any of the worlds economy. If this tanks now it actually could have effects on the "real world". Ok think about it this way what if World of Warcraft just up and closed off everything tomorrow never to be reopened again. thousands and thousands of people would be out of a job. Blizzard would have a major chunk of it's revenue gone and may never recover from it. Blizzard goes down all of it's shareholders just lost fortunes. the effect keeps going from there but becomes highly speculative. My point is these are real economies just like the one you live under no matter how "virtual" they seem people are doing work getting paid and spending that pay on items. In what way was that not like what you did when you got up this morning?

  • nitrog

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 2:33 am PT

    "Corvin
    I just can't feel too sorry for these people. They create content and objects for a digital, fake world. I don't care how real or immersing it may be its still just a computer program run by some company. If they like digitally designing objects so much why not go work for a company that does it for real? Honestly these "digital economies" kinda scare me. Do we really need to bring all the retarded crap of our real world economics to our games and virtual worlds? "

    The thing you have to realize is that the real economy is actualy no diffrent anymore then a "virtual" econ. Think about it this way. You do work in real life. Do you go to work for 8 hours then they give you a 32" television to take home? no it's a virtual payment. The money they give you only has value because everyone says it does. The same as the money in the "virtual" econ. That's why exchange rates work and the econ is stable. Because people are doing work in game (creating new code for items in the game) and they make lindies the way we do it here in the real world. They sell the items they make, for a profit. I have played this game.......and yes it does blow harder the paris hilton on nightvision. But reguardless you can't be afraid of the econ in this game or any other MMO because guess what we have exactly the same system going on in every day life your just more used to it. I am however against free exchange of american dollars for any "imaginary" currency not because it does not have a value. But entirly because it's a bad idea, you do not own the money you just bought. You can create code and become owner of that code but without the running software I.E. the program it's running in, it is no good at all. It's like buying a next gen console for your friend so you can play it. You may think it's the most stable relationship in the world but guess what if for some reason he decides to stop letting you use it it's in his house he is the owner and there is nothing you can do about it.

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