Onyx project goes public with copybot client reviews
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
The Emerald developers have gone public with Onyx - a previously secret project to catalog and potentially fix exploits in various unofficial Second Life viewers.
In a blog post at the ModularSystems web site, Mr. Fractured Crystal states "These viewers generally remain private, closely guarded and shared either with close friends or for a significant fee, the reason being that exploits are quickly identified and neutralized when released in a public manner. The result of this is that nobody can be sure of the capabilities of these viewers, information posted on blogs and forums is woefully inaccurate at the best of times, and even more often misinformation spread by those who want the public to remain in the dark."
Will naming and shaming rouge viewers developers cut down on content theft and sim crashes in Second Life - or will Onyx act as a consumer guide to unofficial viewers with certain capabilities that Linden Lab does not sanction? Expect to see some controversy over what is likely to become a counterpoint to Linden Lab's official third party viewer list.
LOL...They went *pubic* with Onyx
Posted by: User | March 05, 2010 at 08:53 AM
This Onyx project is such a joke.
It's interesting that the two most-used, and most-hated viewers of the Emerald team (the NeilLife-based viewers) are ones said to IM username/pw combinations to accounts, though this is just conjecture and Neil doesn't even have stable accounts in SL. There is also the smear campaign being run against NeilLife that has been touted by these same people at http://neillife.com/.
Note also that the malicious viewers developed by Emerald devs, such as CryoLife, vLife, and PhoxSL are all written off as being "obsolete," and this Onyx project doesn't "name and shame" its own staff by the cop-out of saying "well, they aren't ACTIVELY" developing them. They also don't release the information on the private viewers that came after those so-called obsolete viewers such as Cryo's Sapphire viewer.
Gee, it's almost like with the release of Skills Hak's Gemini CDS, that there's a motive behind trying to smear these alternative viewers-- oh except the ones run by Emerald Devs, because they aren't under "active development" right now. This will fool them.
Posted by: Kae | March 05, 2010 at 08:54 AM
I like Closed source clients like Chocolate Life, and SecondLife professional Edition Personally more, because they give so many more features than Emerald does, and That is why I no longer use emerald. Back when SLPE became open sourced I was really angry, and still am because someone betray us users of it, I know it was not me,And since everyone knows Ill talk about it.
SLPE has a better radar than emerald does, Allows instant look at of people playing sounds, or griefing Region wide, EVen across multiple regions, Which makes it better than Emerald. SLPE also has asset ID Window, Which allows you to open any sound, or preview any sounds griefers maybe using on your estates, again making it better than emerald.
As far as asset viewing Technology I LOVE IT!!! I dont Steal with it, never have, But I absolutely Love SLPE, and closed source viewers for reasons they have SO Much more than emerald will, because they put everyone on a leash and say It can be used to grief, We dont give you it. Totally Dumb in my opinion, So I will continue to support closed source viewers, and their creators Fully Under the Freedom OF Information Act. Its not their fault peopel choose to steal with them, and We all Deserve the right to use whatever we want as long as it does not harm another resident in secondlife in any way.
This is why I like Closed Source Viewers, Yes People IF Open sourced will illegally use them to commit theft, and that is why they dont open source them, unlike other people who Think its funny to do, they are suppose to be kept private for a reason.
Posted by: Kinoko | March 05, 2010 at 09:18 AM
Whoopee.
Posted by: Alyx Stoklitsky | March 05, 2010 at 09:39 AM
That was a stupid move. A phonebook for 1337 haxx0r third-party viewers? Good work. I can see the hordes running off to Google now.
Posted by: Nelson Jenkins | March 05, 2010 at 09:45 AM
Well all in all, I don't like any 3rd party viewer that depends on open jpg libraries, whether ubercool ha>
Posted by: Patasha Marikh | March 05, 2010 at 11:04 AM
@kinoko
What does the Freedom of Information Act have to do with it? The FOIA details the rights of U.S. citizens to access documents under control of the federal government of the United States with certain specified exceptions. It doesn't even apply to individual state or local governments. I don't think Second Life or Second Life based viewers are covered.
As far as the right to use whatever software you want, yes you can, but LL has the right to limit what can be used to access their servers. Their ability to limit the viewers that can access SL seems to be limited and the wisdom of limiting access to certain viewers is a whole other question.
Posted by: Otto | March 05, 2010 at 01:11 PM
I think the list is A - ok all if not most of these clients are dead and um the emerald team saying all the shit they made is defunct is true. so yeah they are hippocrits but most of the lolzy shit in viewers came from emerald team they can take it away. back when i made my viewer i ripped most of the spam and object stealing functions from vlife, kore, riv and a couple others.
Posted by: NebulaCS | March 05, 2010 at 04:06 PM
FYI: CLOSED SOURCE = ILLEGAL
Posted by: oh murr | March 05, 2010 at 09:34 PM
FYI: CLOSED SOURCE = ILLEGAL
Posted by: oh murr
------------------
More properly described as privately distributed. You need to pay attention to what particular open source license original code is released under. For instance, an MIT license is distinct from a GNU license and has different provisions for your ability to keep your own code private and closed.
Posted by: General Drama | March 06, 2010 at 05:54 AM
It's odd though. Faron Karu and me have stable accounts in SL. This should give to think why there's something fishy about the list.
On the other hand, those who know about what happened between the Emerald team and me can see, why I am listed. Any attempts to show I am not involved in fLife are ignored.
Also it's sad that people like Darling Brody jump on the libel train and ban everyone they can see on the list.
Thank you very much onyx team for your retaliation and ruining my virtual identity.
You can read my statements at http://drop.io/onyx_ts
Posted by: Thomas Shikami | March 06, 2010 at 08:08 AM
Also I must say it's a pretty rockin' business model for the emerald devs to write a bunch of copybot clients, abandon their development and go legit, and then charge $3 a month for a system to detect people using their old clients and clients based on their code.
Even better than Sion's model!
Posted by: Alyx Stoklitsky | March 06, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Kind of ironic thinking that LordGregGreg (One of head developers of emerald) is personally responsible for inventing many of the griefer tools used today
Posted by: Tuomy Boa | March 07, 2010 at 03:36 AM
Everyone in SL is a griefer behind closed doors.
Posted by: vince braver | March 07, 2010 at 06:38 PM
@Kinoko: Given that the SL viewer's code is GPL to begin with, unless SLPE and other closed source viewers were written from the ground up with 100% original code, then technically, those "closed source" viewers are, in fact, pirating open source software (and thus defrauding you by selling you a stolen product).
Posted by: Baloo Uriza | March 08, 2010 at 06:23 AM
@Tuomy Boa: The main heads behind onyx are Lonely Bluebird and Fractured Crystal.
If you want to know about LordGregGreg's affiliation with that project, ask himself.
Alyx Stoklitsky: CDS is scripted and programmed by Skills. She doesn't let anyone see that code. Additional people that I know who handle appeals and have access to the internal CDS IRC are Ash Qin and Lonely Bluebird. They also have limited query permissions against the database.
Posted by: Thomas Shikami | March 08, 2010 at 08:27 AM