Stop Copying Me....

Have you heard of CopyBot? No? OK, go read this. Caught up? Good. There has been a resurgance of the panic that is a precursor to copybot lately because of legitimate software tools that are being marketed to people like me. People who build. The most egregious (wow big word) 'offender' lately has been Second Inventory whose marketing spiel says....

"Second Inventory allows you to save all your creations directly to your hard drive. This includes, Skins, Textures, Scripts and even complex multi-prim objects! Your precious time and investments in Second Life® content can now be securely protected off world"

So this is a legitimate use of the copying tools that were originally come up with. Do we have to trust this won't be hacked? Yes. Do we think that it's possible it could be? Sure. Are we worried? No. I haven't bought this yet, but I plan to, especially as the Open Sourcing of Linden Labs continues and I move my builds to other 'worlds' this will become an invaluable tool. There is nothing to be gained by reviling such a product or the people who create it. It's like reviling the people who make gloves because someone might steal wearing them. OK I know, bad metaphor but think about it... The problem isn't the tool, it's the person who aims the tool and pulls the trigger. (Another bad metaphor.)

The true concern I have as a content creator is not that people may steal my creations, either by tool or by reverse engineering, but that I'll never find out about it. This is what we should be concerned about. When the virtual world gets to the point that we have researchers and lawyers looking for things that 'infringe' on your creations then we'll be talking about a robust sustainable environment. Do I look forward to that point? Not really because it will become another business expense. Do I hope it happens because it means 'real' money and time is worth it? Yes.

In fact I know these people already exist in SL, trying to get a jump on when it's such big business. Don't be worried about a piece of code, be worried about the social implications that we are not good at policing ourselves. Mom isn't going to stop the car and paddle one of us, we have to be adults now.