Alphaville Herald

LL To SL Mentors: Your Services Are No Longer Needed

"All official Linden Lab sponsored communication channels related to the Second Life Mentor group will be discontinued"

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desks

Citing scalability issues, Linden Lab announced the end of the volunteer Second Life Mentors program on Wednesday evening with a wiki post on wiki.secondlife.com. Some observers were confused by the references to scaling issues and the implication that SL has a growing population. Have we been missing evidence of growth in concurrent users? Even Hamlet Au has been silent on peak concurrent users of late, after breathlessly touting growth in the Sunday afternoon population last year.

Meanwhile, mentors surprised at the end of their special relationship with Linden Lab should recall that scalability is an abstract, mystical concept with quasi-religious overtones invoked whenever the Lab feels the need to change course.  Mentors who have invested their free time in assisting noobies should also remember that sustainability is important. As the wiki states, "Volunteers have been very successful and helpful. We appreciate all they do. They have been so successful that the official program was not enough to showcase all the contributions and allow growth in a sustainable manner."

So perhaps excessive Mentor success was to blame? I contacted SL Mentor Orange Planer for comment.

Opinion: I'm a PG

by Jessica Holyoke

When the creation of an Adult Content policy first started being discussed by the Lindens, a campaign started saying "I am Adult Content."  Residents were up in arms about losing their access to Adult Content.  And it has happened more than once since I have become a resident here.  But if everyone is Adult Content, are we losing out on being PG?

There are a large number of adult experiences on SL, most of which you have read about in the Herald.  But there are also a large number of PG experiences on SL.  One of my favorites is going to a church service with a vampire.  But having a policy come down from the Lab changes things. 

What I see now are people making stringent rulings on their land on what is or is not PG.  

Bikinis are not allowed in a sandbox, people are upset over a bit of tush sticking out from under a skirt, ads for bikinis are being torn down.  And what's worse is I've seen this as a complaint:  a person has a pick or a classified ad in their profile for Adult or Mature content.  If they go to a PG sim, some are saying that should not be allowed because they are bringing adult or mature content into a PG sim because its in their profile. 

The Morning Coffee Mix In Second Life

Stroke awakened the radio passion

by Alessandra Narayan

Did you know there’s a live radio show going on SL every day? Me neither.

Jameslarken Supply, a former musician in real life, suffered a heart stroke which led him to discover the magnificent new world of Second Life. At first, he started DJ’ing, a live experience that made him take the next step: having his own live radio show, a way of keeping him in contact with music and the audience.

After one year doing streaming radio, Mr. Supply wants to reach more public, driven by the listener’s reactions, determined to help people having a nice time, every day of the week, from 8.00 to 10.00am Pacific Coast time/SLT. 

Alessandra Narayan (AN) – Is it true you run a famous SL radio show?
Jameslarken Supply (JS) – I don’t know about famous, but yes I have a radio show.

AN – When did you start it?
JS – I've been doing it for a year, around September 2008.

Pink Linden's Commerce Survey Scares Merchants

Pink points out Apple takes 30% of iPhone App revenue - will LL follow suit?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

Pink Linden

It is hard to blame Second Life merchants for being concerned about the virtual goods' retail landscape - the Lab has a long history of changing the rules of the game on what seems to be a quarterly basis, and for some players the stakes are high. So as fragments of a by-invitation-only qualmetrics.com survey began circulating on the grid friday (text of the leaked survey questions after the jump), it was no surprise that speculation about the Lab's intentions was the order of the day.

Has the Lab built a Mall island? Is the survey real? Will the Lab provide official in-world vendors?

I contacted Pink Linden for comment:

Pixeleen Mistral: Hi Pink - I'm a writer for the Alphaville Herald and I understand that there is a survey that you guys sent out to some of the merchants. I'm interested in your comments on that survey - I understand some people say it is like a phishing attempt or something
Pixeleen Mistral: is the survey real?
Pink Linden: yes it's real

Suit Life Enterprise™ & Suit Life Work Marketplace™ -- Now in Beta

We're listening to the gullible with money

Posted by Mammon Linden


 
Over the last few years, the number one request and core business requirement of many of our money-grubbing, soulless and wealthy customers has been the need for a behind-the-firewall solution. In other words, they get the firewall and the cattle (our former user base) known as artists, educators, blingtards, and perverts get lined up against a wall and our CEO yells “fire!”

The extra layers of security and administrative control in a product that panders to the overlords of the cubicle-enslaved would allow them to exploit virtual workers with a powerful and effective collaboration and communication tool, divorced from the baby furs, Gorean slavegirls, and fag artists of the main grid. This would have the advantage of keeping Biff from Accounts Payable from showing up at a virtual meeting decked out as a supermodel with talking breasts.

Given how badly we need to avoid bankruptcy, we listened to intellectually bankrupt, but cash-rich greedheads who helped make the world economy collapse. Last year, after the notorious griefer Philip Linden was ousted and sent to play with maps, Mark “Nice tie, Mr. K!” Kingdon (SL: M Linden), Linden Lab's CEO, announced that we were working on Suit Life, in response to needs of boring and well heeled customers.

Less Equals More for the Restrained Life Viewer

Better bondage in Second Life

by Jessica Holyoke

When you hear about a new Viewer, usually you hear about the new things you can do with it; it will run faster, it can encypt your IM's, it can make your boobies jiggle.   (And honestly, I would be worried about a company complaining about not being able to read your private messages.)   But there is a viewer that provides less experience for the user, the Restrained Life Viewer or RLV.

RLV is an addition to the main SL viewer that allows for other items and people to control your SL experience.  If you wear the right attachments, then you can be forced to sit on a poseball.  You can be not only stripped nude but made to wear skin or other attachments.  You can be frozen and unable to move, intentionally, not because of lag.  You can be gagged and unable to speak in main chat, understand main chat, or be able to see peoples' names.  You can be trapped and unable to be teleported or teleported against your wishes. 

Alexa Linden's Pre-Halloween Treat - Viewer 2.0 Feedback

Second Life 2.0 viewer feedback leaked to world+dog

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Players eager to try the super-secret new Second Life 2.0 viewer may want to hold off a bit after reading what appears to be early resident feedback Alexa Linden accidentally sent to the Battery Street Irregulars mailing list October 30th. The Battery Street Irregulars are a group of players who test the nightly builds of the alpha version of the Second Life viewer - a battle scarred group willing to risk lost IMs, damaged inventory, and carpal tunnel syndrome documenting problems in the official viewer.

As best we can tell, someone with a copy of Alexa's mailing had a bit too much to drink at a seedy bar somewhere in the Zinda adults-only continent, lost track of time, then rushed off with a well endowed escort for a private pose ball testing session, leaving a notecard containing Alexa's mail on the bar. The provenance of the document is not entirely clear thereafter, although it does show evidence of having been in the hands paws of more than one babyfur, and about half the grid.

After carefully disinfecting the document, Herald analysts agreed that the comments in Alexa's e-mail suggest the Lab is intent on reinventing the chat interface from first principles, risking recapitulating user interface mistakes of the past along the way.  Pithy comments such as "trying to follow group chat ... is an experience roughly equivalent to trying to read a newspaper through a telescope" pepper the feedback.

LL Slaps XStreet Competition With Selective Copyright Enforcement?

Lindens can't tell the difference between Gorean slave silks and CONVERSE shoes

by Coke Supply

 

Lindens see CONVERSE shoes here - do you?

As we all know, Linden Lab has introduced new rules on their XStreet site that state that copyright-infringing items will be removed under new guidelines. I was recently contacted by Constanza Amsterdam, one of the residents behind the slapt.me merchant website - a competitor to the Linden's own XStreet marketplace. Ms. Amsterdam was dismayed to find that the Lindens had removed of two of her items from XStreet, claiming an alleged case of copyright infringement.

The interesting part is that the items do not infringe upon anyone's copyright whatsoever.

The email alleges that the two products in question infringe upon the "CONVERSE" trademark (Converse is a trademark for trainers and shoes). The email also alleges that Constanza is guilty of "keyword spam".

Quarter 3 Results, no QPC, but introducing TPH

by Jessica Holyoke

The Lab'ts latest economic blog post by T Linden promised an in-depth look at the their quarter 2009 economy.  However, the Herald's economic friend, Positive Monthly Linden Flow, was not reported.  PMLF as its known,  reports in-world business profits on residents who have earned more money then they have spent the previous month.  Its the numerator in the Herald's Quarterly Profit per Capita or QPC.  Using the QPC, the Herald's economic offices were able to measure the strength of the in-world economy by comparing how much people were earning with how many hours people were spending online.  

To compensate, the Herald's offices are introducing Transactions per Hour or TPH.  Even though I don't like User to User Transactions because it includes transactions with banks, ATMs, automated Zyngo gam(bl)ing machines, and other exchanges, and even single players when you exchange money between alt accounts. By looking at the numbers, you see a much larger variation in values of TPH than you do with QPC, with a relative leap in Quarter 3 2008 which relates to the drop in user hours during that quarter.

Coverage of Second Life Suspended for 48 Hours

Metaplace a mostly harmless substitute

The Herald has joined http://theartistsvoice.org/ in an almost entirely symbolic SL content creator sympathy strike November 4th and 5th and 6th.  While taking a break in tracking the transition of Second Life into Suit Life, we will look into the Metaplace fashion, party, and e-dating scene.

Naked Post 6 avatars, class action trademark and copyright legal battles, flaws in SL's digital rights management system, and the Lab's amazing perpetual drama pump coverage will resume this weekend - unless we get lost in Metaplace.

Tepid Life 2009: A Tasteful Success

by Miss Petunia Amaryllis Courtney Taliaferro, Second Life League of Decency

Herald readers will no doubt recall my prediction of the impending doom of all that is wicked, obscene, and crass in the cesspool of vice known as Second Life. 

At the time, I issued a manifesto of sorts to spur the righteous onward to victory. I am delighted to report that the revolution has begun! This year, in response to the fountain of naked debauchery known as Burning Life (where only loins, not the soul, grow inflamed) my fellow aesthetes and I began a counter-festival, Tepid Life 2009.

Events were crowded with throngs of visitors to witness the brilliance of many events, including:

The Wall of Doilies: Oh, my heart patters faster as I think of the brilliant handicrafts made by geniuses such as Miss Clytemnestra Oliphant-Jones, whose lacework carried the day for the Anita Bryant Medal of Uplifting Art. 

Lab Responds to Eros and Nomine

Lab's Naked Trademarking and Copyright Preemption defenses explained

by Jessica Holyoke

On Friday, Linden Lab filed its response to the suit filed by Eros, LLC and Shannon Grei.  Most of the responses are unsurprising as most answers admit or deny what the other side is saying.  The affirmative defenses are also not that unusual except for naked trademarking and copyright preemption.  

Naked trademarking is when a trademark owner loses certain rights to the trademark when they don't exercise control over the product when it is sub-licensed out.  In Linden Lab's case, it would appear that they are saying that either Eros, Grei or a class member lost the right to enforce their trademark due to their not ensuring that sub-licensees made the same quality of product as they themselves produced.  It would be interesting to see if they are exerting a defense if the products are sub-licensed through XStreetSL and that if they don't work as well, the sellers lost the right to enforce the contract. 

Copyright preemption is a bit trickier.  Preemption is a constitutional concept where the U.S. government wants their law to override a state's law.  What the Lab would be arguing is that certain goals of the Copyright Act override the state law claims that the plaintiffs are bringing.

Next up are discovery motions to see what each side has for evidence.  Protective orders have already been filed in order to protect the confidential information each side might have. 

Linden Research Denies Eros/Nominee Trademark/Copyright Complaint

Lindens admits Copybot is bad - denies 155 other claims

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Linden Research has filed a denial-filled response to Eros, LLC and Shannon Grie's intellectual property rights complaint against the maker of the Second Life. The complaint alleges the Lindens have violated the content creators' trademarks and copyrights, materially contributing to and supervising the infringing conduct of others within Second Life - but the Lab's lawyers disagree, and throw down 16 affirmative defenses of their own.

For readers unwilling to wade through the complete response [included after the jump], some highlights:

Linden admits that Second Life includes a Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) system, and upon information and belief, that persons have used third-party programs to circumvent that DRM in the past. On information and belief, Linden admits that CopyBot is a third-party program that allows users to circumvent the Second Life DRM system and copy digital content that is used with Second Life without regard to the copyright or trademark status of that content. Linden admits that such use is prohibited by the Second Life Terms of Service, and denies the remaining allegations of this Paragraph.

Linden admits that on or about June 17, 2008 LR inadvertently disabled some content within Second Life, and that promptly thereafter LR stopped that disabling. Linden lacks sufficient information to admit or deny the remaining allegations of this Paragraph, and on that basis denies them.

Linden admits that LR controls some of the technology and systems that comprise the Second Life platform, that some information related to Residents’ activities is stored on LR servers, that Residents may acquire virtual land within Second Life subject to the Second Life Terms of Service, and that LR charges service fees. Linden lacks sufficient information to admit or deny the remaining allegations of this Paragraph, and on that basis denies them.

Historic Hyperborea Sim On the Block

Irreplaceable archeological artifact threatened by sim sale - Herald to relocate HQ?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Ending months of speculation, Wandering Yaffle confirmed he is seeking a buyer for Hyperborea sim - home of the Herald’s in-world corporate offices, _blacklibrary, and the most civilized sandbox in Second Life.

Although he was not willing to commit to a definite timeline, Mr. Yaffle told me he hopes for “a preferential buyer - one who will keep the faith, whatever that is”. We can only hope a sensitive buyer will emerge, although it seems likely that the character of Hyperborea will change and the community scatter.

Historically significant Leninade bottle at the entrance to the Herald's Hyperborea office

Meanwhile, metaverse archeologists are deeply concerned about the fate of an extremely rare Leninade soda bottle owned by perma-banned resident Tizzers Foxchase. The priceless bottle was unearthed on the Herald’s property and is almost certainly the only way to call up the profile of late Ms. Foxchase, along with a pick that points to the original Woodbury University sim before Linden Lab destroyed the island.

Brain-Eating Linden Billing Support Zombie Haunts Cornfield

Residents warned to avoid abandoned Game God penal colony

by Pixeleen Mistral, Irrational Affairs desk

Residents can visit the Corn Field without an account suspension now that the Second Life player prison has been opened to the public - at least for Halloween. However, players may be faced with the spectre of Linden billing support staff who have turned into zombies and roam the sim looking for brains - or credit lines - to eat.

 

Jules Linden - Billing Support and Customer Outreach - wants your money or your brain

While I managed to escaped with my brain and credit mostly intact, I was less successful with Kyle Linden, who  admitted he does not have a Linden bear to share - even after I gave him the Herald's secret lime/cilantro turkey taco recipe as a gesture of good faith.

Trust me, Kyle will not be not getting any more cooking lessons until he has a freebie Linden bear to share.

Is ToToM the Metaverse Soundtrack?

Balancing creator, mixer, and consumer rights

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While I was visiting Soviet Woodbury Saturday, the resident communists took time away from building their new workers’ paradise to rez a brightly colored dance floor and an impromptu worker’s dance party took place to an audio stream from http://www.maxxhitsbootlegs.com - a French mashup site that seems to be  on the way to becoming the metaverse soundtrack of choice for both Second Life and Metaplace. At the Metaplace Fashion Show event on Friday we were also dancing to a stream from the site, and I can confirm maxxhitsbootlegs is an in-theme choice for user-generated content worlds in either 2.5D or 3D.

I've begun to wonder if audio mashups are the aural equivalent of the W-Hat goons' and Woodbury /b/tard's builds - unexpected juxtapositions of diverse elements to create a new and typically ironic work - sometimes for fun and sometimes as social commentary. A mashup like Black Butterfly Busters combining Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings + Ram Jam – Black Betty + Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters seems to be saying something, but can the copyright laws and the sampled content creators keep up?

Stolen Goods Free-For-All At Burning Life

Who is the culprit - what will LL do in response?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

a wonderland of stolen content - courtesy of the Neillife viewer?

Tenshi Vielle at Shopping Cart Disco just broke a shocking story - a huge cache of pirated content has been passed around at the Burning Life. Yet despite frantic reports of ongoing theft by Stroker Serpentine and Tenshi, LL seems powerless - or unwilling - to do anything other than suggest filing of more abuse reports.

How is this possible? The SCD story says the stolen items retain the original creator name and information, but are transferable and many items include a blank box, suggesting the use of an exploit - and so the search for culprits begins.

The box holding the cache of stolen goods was created by Damen Hax - a long time SL resident and Open Source advocate. When the Herald contacted Mr. Hax for comment he denied involvement and suggested  he has made more than a few enemies who might be eager to frame him.

XDeth Absent & Bearsy Bloobury - Sim Crashing PN Griefers!

Interview with Post 6 Party crasher!! Exclusive!!!

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

"in a world of user generated content where you can remain anonymous, people are bound to find exploits... like a fun sport, you know?" - XDeth Absent

It was no surprise that XDeth Absent was pleased that Linden Lab finally got around to banning his account, but I was sad to see the alt account he used next - XDeath Portal - lost the glasses that XDeth Absent wore. Consistent griefer fashion statements are so hard to find.

For those who missed it, the later stages of the recent Herald Post 6 party were enlivened by the sort of meta-game that is all too common at well-publicized Second Life events - surprise sim crashes as a certain segment of the population levels up in the stupendous ironic bad-ass race standings. If Linden Lab can't keep Robin Linden's farewell party from being sim-crashed, why would a Herald party - or any other event - fare better?

The griefing game is all about being taken seriously, so for real validation griefers are more than happy to take a ride on the ban-wagon. Luckily, the Lab is more than willing to play along once the blinking red lights on the game god console draw their attention, and a futile round of account bans is played out. This pleases both the griefers and the Linden Governance team, who can both point to their "accomplishments". With an endless supplies of free, anonymous accounts, what else would you expect? It all started cordially:

[13:20]  XDeth Absent: excuse me.
[13:20]  XDeth Absent: you are that reporter correct?
[13:20]  Pixeleen Mistral: yes - I edit the Alphaville Herald
[13:20]  Pixeleen Mistral: why?
[13:20]  XDeth Absent: I have read this newspaper many a time
[13:20]  XDeth Absent: I must say it is an honor to grief a party with you attending
[13:20]  XDeth Absent: please enjoy.
[13:21]  Pixeleen Mistral: thanks - I think

[--the Greenies sim crashes and we are all logged out--]

Sea of Drama to Link Soviet Woodbury to W-Hat Goons

More artistic mashups now possible?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk


 
A new sim - Soviet Woodbury - appeared on the map just south of the W-Hat goon’s WHAT sim Saturday, marking the end of a forced migration for one group of residents displaced by the collapse of Intlibber Brautigan’s BnT land empire.

Woodbury community organizer Tizzy Teardrop tells the Herald the WHAT and Soviet Woodbury sims are to be connected by a sim to be named “the Sea of Drama”. Negotiations are also underway to connect the Digital Worlds community to form a trifecta of meta-gameplay and virtual world artistic pursuits with significant synergies hoped for from the cross-community virtual and artistic connections.

How Secure Is Second Life - Really?

Reformed über-griefers Plastic Duck and DeadlyCodec disagree on security analysis

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

It was pure coincidence, but shortly after Linden Lab released a compulsory client update to address "a potential security issue" last week I ran into Timeless Prototype and Huns Valen at Philip Linden’s swank new house in P Squared sim. We lounged poolside and speculation turned to what sort of problem the Lab might be addressing - the Lab’s terse announcement was less than enlightening. Could this have anything to do with the SL security advisory DeadlyCodec had been quietly trying to get the Lindens to respond to since early September?

As we chatted, it was clear that neither Timeless Prototype nor Huns Valen feel the Lab is doing much to encourage resident security exploit reports. Do the Lindens realize their L$ spacebux reward (L$10,000 - about $37 USD) for security problem reports is considered a bad joke? Or is this by design? If the Lab's goal is minimizing costs, de-motivating the security community with small game currency rewards might limit Linden staff time spent on security issues - ignorance is bliss, at least at first.

In any case, respected scripters such as Timeless Protoype are not planning an exhaustive analysis of SL for L$10,000 spacebux per exploit. As Mr. Prototype said, “It's not worth my while to spend my time researching the code security in the SL client. Security flaws are only found where security researchers are looking”. So why was DeadlyCodec trying to get the Lab’s attention?  It couldn’t have been for the reward because the Lindens have a permaban-on-sight policy for Codec - he would never be able to spend the L$s.

Out Of Touch Egghead To Pontificate on Second Life

Herald founder keynotes 2009 Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference

The Herald's own Urizenus Sklar - who is widely believed to be self-identical - will present a virtual keynote titled "Virtual Communities, Virtual Cultures, Virtual Governance" for the Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference Monday October 26.

Virtually viewable here http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/ludlow/ after the virtual presentation Monday - the virtual keynote will be followed by virtual cocktails at 1 PM EDT at the virtual "meet the virtual speaker" session to be held in Second Life's Abacadabra sim: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abracadabra/201/90/31.

It's going to be virtually impossible to miss this event, because Uri's real real life typist is believed to be Peter Ludlow - Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He has worked on a number of topics at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive science, and has also published a number of works on the emergence of community and governance in virtual worlds, including High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (MIT Press 1995) and Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (MIT Press, 2001). 

Our World - You Obey - Our Viewer Only

3rd party viewer policy update includes Linden Goonsquads™ brown bag resident registry

[note: Caligula Linden - who might not be a Linden at all - provides an updated version of the Lab's 3rd Party viewers blog post -- the Editrix]

by Caligula Linden

Linden Lab supports an open platform with opportunity for all who comply with our ever-more corporate worldview. The flexibility of the content creation tools and open viewer allow for great creativity and innovation, but that openness also enables others to do things we decide, on a whim, that we don't like. But we are game-gods and can have whims. Thus, we announce our latest whim about third party tools used with our platform.

In the blog post that Philip Rosedale issued just before he left us, “I'm Outta Here! This Ain't Burning Man”,  he hinted at stifling changes ahead. Meanwhile, the rest of our team addressed the responsibility Residents have to obey us, unconditionally, lest we ban them, their alts, and their furry sex-slaves from our game. 

When “Map Boy” Rosedale started Second Life, we used to respect the intellectual property rights of others inside or outside our fake world, but that has become inconvenient as Reaction Grid, Blue Mars, and Nickelodeon suck our revenue streams dry. 

Philip has his little island now and has moved on. We don't need visionaries. We need money. Here's our roadmap:

First we fired a warning shot at wooly-headed college faculty by telling them they could no longer use our trademarks, even after we extolled their brilliance on our own site. They rolled over and played dead, the losers, so we decided we needed a more visible scapegoat. We would have whacked Rezzable, whose content put us to shame, but they decided we cost too much, then pulled out their content to Open Sim with a smart tool we'd never have dreamed up during our nerf-ball fights at the office. 

Crackdown on Third Party Viewer Encrypted IMs?

Emerald Viewer's OTR at odds with SL Community Standards and ToS?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The grid is aflutter with wild rumors in the wake of the Lab's announcement of an impending crackdown on third party viewers. One source pointed the Herald to what is claimed to be an e-mail sent to the Emerald Life developers. If legitimate, the letter is likely to raise some serious concerns as it puts ability to encrypt chat on the same level as unauthorized content copying.

Is the Lab unhappy with the encrypted private IMs that Emerald enables? Experienced residents assume that the Lindens occasionally take the opportunity to monitor player IMs - but widespread use of third party viewers with OTR (Off The Record) features could curb that activity.

Look for a lively discussion of what is a legitimate expectation of privacy in Second Life as the third party viewer controversy grows.

[text of the alleged e-mail after the jump]

Brown Suede Boots With EULA

A license to wear boots

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

you can't read the license terms until after the purchase

I probably should not have been surprised to see that the L$650 pair of ZHAO brown suede boots I bought yesterday came with an End User License Agreement - but no word on refunds should the buyer disagree with the license terms - and no way to read the license until after the purchase. Sion Chickens started us down this path, so why not continue with virtual clothes?

Soon, residents will need to bring a lawyer along when shopping for pixel clothes as a thousand flowers bloom, a thousand schools of thought contend, and a thousand unique EULAs grace Second Life content creators' wares.

I'm looking forward to seeing Second Life Bar Association president Stephen Wu accompanying Gorean slave girls on shopping sprees for silks, bazi tea sets, and scripted collars. Or perhaps the Second Life Bar Association could help the content creators adopt some standard terms and agreements? While they are at it, would a vendor that displays the text of the EULA before purchase too much to ask? That might help establish the idea that both parties willingly entered into an agreement.

BnT Failure Fallout Sends Players to Surreal Estates

Are other land businesses at risk?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

As word spread that IntLibber Brautigan’s BnT virtual land business is effectively bankrupt, displaced residents considered their options. For some, the unwinding of BnT’s affairs has been chaotic -  residents were given 24 hours Friday to retrieve their objects from the sims Linden Lab seized, then the sims were again taken offline - perhaps permanently.

BnT in liquidation?

Those who live on sims Mr. Brautigan leased from the Surreal Estates were more fortunate and continue to have access to their land. Surreal Estates General Manager Deuce Marjeta distributed a notecard Saturday explaining that Surreal was taking over control of some of the sims formerly leased by Mr. Brautigan. The note pointed to debt as the cause of BnT’s problems, saying “Put simply, the sims were not profitable and so significant debts accumulated over time”.

When I spoke with Mr. Marjeta about the situation, he said, “Anyone in the land game must realize, don’t get in over your head, buy only what you can afford to pay for on your own, never count on partners unless its a rl one - one you can take to court easy”.

Second Life Boobs Jiggle In Emerald Life Viewer

Shimmy your way through the metaverse

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

[UPDATED: Ayumi's Jiggletastic video added after the jump]

Open source advocates are pointing to the newest feature of the Emerald Life viewer as proof positive that open source software makes life better for everyone.

The latest version of the Emerald viewer includes the ability for female avatars to jiggle gently - along with what we understand is an interesting built-in animation override that does away with the default Linden chicken walk.

While this might not be exactly what M Linden has in mind for his Immersive Workspaces vision of Second Life, the rank and file players seem more than willing to make the move - as Toxic Menges demonstrates.

Bewbies from Toxic Menges on Vimeo.

Land Baron Meltdown Leaves Residents Homeless

Intlibber Brautigan's estate taken offline by Linden Lab

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

 

Between 30 and 40  sims are offline tonight after what appears to be a Linden Lab repo-man job on the estate of Intlibber Brautigan. Mr. Brautigan's base -  Venture Square - and neighboring sims are offline and inaccessible.

In addition several Woodbury sims are also offline.

When asked for comment, Woodbury community spokeswoman Tizzy Teardrop said, "The real solution is to decrease land holdings by liquidating most of the estate and channeling energies into profitable/sustainable things like content creation. Content creation is essentially resource free. There is no real overhead and can be infinitely replicated unlike land where there is a quite a substantial overhead cost. When you run a virtual land business, if you are not breaking even you are -losing- money. Big money."

Mr. Brautigan was unavailable for comment.

Lindens Turn To Cheaper Lawyers in Class Action Complaint?

Lab’s insurance won’t cover Michael Rhodes $800/hour fees

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

According to a story in LAW.COM, the Lindens can’t afford their first choice in legal representation - Michael Rhodes of San Diego law firm Cooley Godward Kronish. At issue is the Eros LLC/Nomine vs. Linden Research class-action trademark and copyright complaint which alleges the Second Life game gods have been less than diligent in protecting players’ copyrighted and trademarked creations - a potential nightmare for the Lab should the legal action end badly. Presumably the Lab would want the best help they can find - but can they afford it?

Michael Rhodes - out of Linden Lab's price range

LAW.COM says that last month he Linden’s staff lawyer Marty Roberts “had initially retained Rhodes to fend off a copyright suit by a maker of virtual sex toys. But Rhodes' rate, which is above $800 an hour, was too high for the insurers. Instead, Linden Lab will be using San Francisco's Durie Tangri”.

The more affordable  Durie Tangri posse

The change in lawyers may explain the delay in the Linden’s response to Stroker and Munchflower’s complaint - presumably there will be some sort of action soon.

Residents Displaced as AzureIslands Takes a 5% Haircut

Sim closures blamed on Linden Lab price increases, bad economy

by Pixeleen Mistral, National affairs desk

Evidence that the virtual land market is not immune to real life economic woes appeared this weekend when a number of residents were informed that their parts of the metaverse will be closed by the end of the month. The sad news came from AzureIslands - one of Second Life’s largest land resellers - which distributed notecards asking affected players to move to more popular neighborhoods before Halloween. Azure is waiving land setup or “purchase” fees and offering the displaced residents their choice of unoccupied land in the estate. One can only hope re-creating the in-world builds will not be too much trouble.

As for the cause of the trouble, the AzureIsland notecard states, “From the start of this year, due to economic forces from last year to price increases for a good portion of our estate from Linden Lab -- we've been hit with a rather tough set of decisions. While we have tried at length to negotiate a solution to the issues at hand, we have finally reached a point that other large estates came to earlier this year.”

Asked for comment, Azure Support said, “We are dropping some regions which we acquired when someone who had formerly leased them from us went bankrupt -- the estate was never profitable for us to run and had an average occupancy somewhere around 15%. We made an attempt to integrate it and boost that figure, but after over a year, we've decided to merge those customers into our main estate.”

How many residents are affected? The AzureIslands notecard says residents of “roughly the bottom 5% of our estate in terms of consistent residency” will need to move to more popular parts of the Azure land empire by October 31st or risk losing whatever objects they leave on the soon to be decommissioned land.

Party With the Post 6 Grrrls, Guys, Furries, and Robots

by Chatterbox Telltale, society reporter

The metaverse glitterati will be out in force - and at a euro-friendly time - during the second open-to-the-public Post 6 reunion bash - so brace yourselves for the party this Saturday, October 10, from 11am to 3pm SLT.  Post 6 alum Sammy Barrett will DJ and the festivities will be held on the kitchen table at the fantastic Greenies Home, Rezzable. SLurl on over and joing the fun here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Greenies%20Home%20Rezzable/74/159/55

post 6 party advance team prepares the party site

Post 6 has been an institution in Second Life since 2005 when it was started by Photographer Marilyn Murphy - and has featured hundreds of sexy avatars over the years.  The October 10th Party at Rezzable is a follow-up to a party earlier this year, described in the Herald society pages.

“The more I work with and meet the people in the Post 6 Group, the more I'm impressed,” said current Post 6 photographer Timothy Morpork. “The first party was a lot of fun, it was great to meet so many of the models from the past and a bunch of the regular readers.”

Linden Lab's Baitbox Nabs 50 Copyright Infringers?

Have the banned residents already returned to the grid?

by Jessica Holyoke

The SL community is safe again as reports that due to the heroic efforts of Soft Linden, and the alleged infringers themselves, 50 residents were banned from Second Life. The residents were all users of the Neil Life viewer.  This viewer - which appears to be based off of the Emerald viewer - was previously falsely hyped as being endorsed by Gwyneth Llewellyn. 

How did the sting apparently work? The propagator of the Neil Life viewer posted information on how to create certain assets in world using the viewer on his website. Specifically, he posted the asset identification or UUID of what can be copied in world.  According to reports, Soft Linden was able to use that asset id in order to call attention to anyone who tried to use the Neil Life viewer method of infringement.  The only people who would be rezzing that asset would be the ones who got it from the website. 

Sion Chicken Advice: Don't Ride Them Nekkid!!!

Does tainted animal feed from China weaken chickens?

by Pappy Enoch, Pullet-Surprise Winner

After my first masterwork on them poor dead chikkins, I got me a sad letter from a poor (and pretty) gal suffering from different poultry disasters. I didn't sign on at the Herald to be no advice communist, but let me take a crack at this, seein' how I are the chikkin expert on the staff. If this works out, Miss Pix, maybe we'll have us a “Dear Flabby” fake advice feature! 

Dear Pappy,

I've got another complaint about chickens in SL. I think they've been bred from weak stock. My business needed to move to Zindra. I decided to rebuild the whole thing. 

In the mean time I got a great idea for a new sport I call naked chicken sitting. You just strip, click, and sit on one and they carry you all around. 

I sent you a photo of me riding a chicken clothed for modesty. I enjoyed riding the chickens around and even raised a bunch of them on my land since it was empty until I rebuilt.

The problem is that the chickens are so weak they can't taking sitting too long. Take a look on my land and the photo it is horrible, mine are dying left and right. Could it be tainted feed from China?

Fondly,  - Shannon 

zFaDarkness Yue's Cars and Drag Racing

Motorsports for the family

by Alessandra Narayan, sports desk

Broken hands and fingers explain zFaDarkness Yue’s obvious preference for voice over textchat. Mr. Yue is a retired pilot who now dedicates his time on Second Life building tracks and racing fast cars - best referred to as karts and drags - all in the name of family motorsport, as he refuses F1 races or other major, industrialized kind of races. The owner of nine tracks, Mr. Yue now thinks of starting a championship over the long term as he admits the possibility of a real life sponsor with negotiations currently underway.

What drove me to interview zFaDarkness Yue? Well, it’s quite simple. Taking a look at Second Life’s classifieds search engine for special attractions, guess which I found most interesting?

Alessandra Narayan (AN) - This is the first kart track in SL ever?
zFaDarkness Yue (ZY) – No. There are others. This is the first for C&D. We are the first with different classes I think. Not positive on that though. We have from entry level to pro level. That way, anyone can race them and not just the good drivers have a chance to win races. All have same chance to be competitive. All the karts are the same weight and scripting.

AN – What's C&D? How did this all started?
ZY – It’s a company me and my partner started over two and half years ago. It used to mean Cherelle and Darkness but now it stands for Cars & Dragracing. I started building and scripting in a sandbox. Then, it evolved into the front yard of our first property and has become what you see now.

Automated Single-Player Zyngo - a Game of Skill or Gambling?

Is Linden Lab making millions from online gam(bl)ing again???

Second Life High Roller Gam(bl)ing - part 3

by Father Jones, investigative reporter

In the previous two parts of this series we looked at the amazing number of high stakes gaming parlors in Second Life and the history of online gambling in Second Life. Although gambling was supposedly banned, games that appear surprisingly similar to gambling have become common again, and this series concludes with a look at the current state of gam(bl)ing in Second Life.

The creative bypass: games of skill !

Not long after Linden Lab wiped out almost all existing casinos, something strange happened to the joy of many: Linden Lab claimed that games of skill were not considered gambling, so those games could continue.

Soon after this revelation, a bingo style game called ‘Zyngo’ made by the Second Life resident Aargle Zymurgy was allowed again by Linden Lab - even though Zyngo was first banned as were other game of chance. Linden Lab ruled the Zyngo game was no longer a game of chance, but was considered a game of skill, despite the fact that the game is a simple bingo game with some extra bonuses. The numbers for every round in this game are randomly generated, as well as the playboard itself. 

Second Life High Roller Gam(bl)ing - part 2

Linden Lab earning millions on virtual gambling - all over again?

by Father Jones, investigative reporter

Has Linden Lab really moved beyond the gambling businesses - a major part Second Life economy before the 2007 gambling ban? With Zyngo parlors publishing odds for auto-play games it is hard to believe online gambling has been replaced by games of skill. A look at the history of gambling in Second Life shows how the Lab has benefited - perhaps accidentally - from lax enforcement of real life gambling laws. In part two of the Herald's gam(bl)ing series, we look at how the metaverse arrived at this wonderfully ambiguous situation

 

Blueline Gaming's weekly "contest": L$500000 ($1747 USD) paid to top 5 scorers

Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon’s shining vision for the future of virtual worlds - and Second Life in particular - is that of a virtual home for people all over the world, spanning entertainment, to business, to real life company conferences and marketing - all tied together with exciting new immersive media. But the recent past and present are at odds with this wholesome vision, as some believe a lax approach to intellectual property rights, cybersex, and gambling fuel demand for the Linden’s virtual land and in-world L$ currency. Is the Lab turning a blind eye to high stakes gambling to help grow their bottom line?

The history of online gambling in  Second Life

Linden Lab itself introduced gambling into its world by creating the first open source scripts for simple slot machines. It did not take long for Second Life residents to make their own slot machines and the first low roller casinos popped up. In the beginning it all looked pretty innocent. Playing on a slot for  L$ 1 a game to win up to L$ 30 (about $0.10 USD) was more a matter of having fun and role playing than it was a matter of making money and cashing out to a real life bank account. But things changed between 2005 and 2007.  

BanLink Security Broken - Shocking SQL Reveals All!!!

Sloppy software willingly accepts rogue queries -  BanLink passwords compromised?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

BanLink is a resident-created Second Life "service" allowing land owners to easily share lists of players to ban from their virtual land. Given the potential for abuse of such a system, you might expect a certain level of care would have been exercised to protect the database that houses the ban lists. You would be wrong.

supposedly private information revealed: Philip Linden banned for unauthorized return of content

A reliable source contacted the Herald earlier this week with evidence showing the BanLink site can easily be exploited by an SQL injection attack to reveal information that the site's developers presumably wish to keep private - such as account information and passwords. While it was amusing to see details of Philip Linden's ban and some would agree with a complaint against the Mullah of Ravenglass, I was saddened to see erroneous information tied to my identity.

After the initial amusement wore off, I asked the source - who refers to himself as "a man with a lion face" - how simple URLs could reveal so much information. He replied, "poor coding, seems like. they don't even take the quotes out of input or escape them. basically, you can inject your own queries into the database calls and have it return whatever data you want. a more malicious person might use it to get passwords, emails, or IPs of banlink administrators". Even worse, the man with a lion face said that  attempts to contact BanLink developers Travis Lambert and Mera Pixel had been in vain. The Herald has tried to contact the developers as well, without success.

Stroker's Lawyer: Case Is About Protecting Creators Against Piracy

Similar case resulted in a $32M USD award to Louis Vuitton

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The class action lawsuit against Linden Research is about "protecting the rights of content creators against piracy" according to Michael Aschenbrener of the KamberEdelson law firm. Mr. Aschenbrener is the lead attorney representing Mr. Serpentine and Ms. Zaius.

Michael Aschenbrener

When Herald staff contacted Mr. Aschenbrener for comment earlier this week, he summarized the case by saying, "Its not just about a local class, it is about setting a precedent for goods in virtual worlds and the internet at large. Content creators rights have been trampled on with no recourse and this is not acceptable".

Asked for similar cases Aschenbrener said there are not many precedents in this area, but pointed to three similar cases.

A case between Louis Vuitton and a web hosting company was filed in the same venue as the Eros LLC case and resulted in a jury award of $32M USD to the luxury goods maker. In the Louis Vuitton case, the web hosting company was hosting 3rd party web sites selling counterfeit goods. Mr. Aschenbrener said he believes that the case against Linden Research is stronger than the Loius Vuitton case, and significant damages may be awarded.

Will Stroker and Munchflower Win?

Can players p0wn game gods in court?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The gloves have come off with Stroker Serpentine and Muchflower Zaius’ class action lawsuit alleging intellectual property violations for both copyright and trademarked works on the part of Linden Lab.  Both Mr. Serpentine and Ms. Zaius run well-known and successful businesses in the Second Life - Ms. Zaius sells the popular Nomine line of avatar skins and clothes, and Mr. Serpentine’s sexbed business has been covered in depth by the Herald. Their complaint paints a picture of rampant intellectual property theft in Second Life with little in the way of effective enforcement on the part of Linden Lab - a state of affairs that many Second Life residents find all too familiar.

Can Serpentine and Zaius win?

Mr. Serpentine told the Herald that KamberEdelson - his legal council - is nearly certain they can get class action status for the lawsuit, which would allow other Second Life trademark and copyright holders to join the action.

Eros LLC/Nomine vs. Linden Research - The Complete Class Action Complaint

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Click on the images for a full-sized version of Eros LLC/Nomine vs. Linden Research class action complaint.

Strokerz Toyz/Eros LLC Takes Linden Lab to Court in Class Action Lawsuit!!!

Lawsuit seeks injunction against Linden Research to prevent intellectual property rights infringement in Second Life

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Shannon Grei and Kevin Aldermann's Eros LLC have filed a complaint in US District Court in Northern California against Linden Reseach alleging "Linden Lab, with knowing and conscious intent to do so, profits in multiple ways and at multiple stages from the illegal conduct" and asks for an injunction to halt the activity. Eros LLC markets a line of sex animations for the virtual world of Second Life, and has built a successful business - but the accumulated frustrations with the weak enforcement of intellectual property rights on the part of Linden Lab seem to have reached the breaking point.

When the Herald contacted Stroker Serpentine for comment, Mr. Serpentine (Kevin Aldermann in real life) said, "This is not about financial gain. Seldom do class actions result in substantial class settlements. This is about a pattern of ambivelence over six years. We want fundamental change in the regard to the very content and creators that made SL what it is today."

The complaint begins:

"Plaintiffs Eros, LLC (“Eros”) and Shannon Grei, d/b/a Nomine (“Grei”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), bring this class action complaint against Defendants Linden Research, Inc. and Linden Research International, Inc. (collectively, “Linden Lab” or “Defendant”), headquartered in San Francisco, California, for its practice of violating the real-world intellectual property rights of proprietors of virtual content within the Second Life virtual world (“Second Life”), which Linden Lab owns and operates."

The illegal conduct alleged includes

"directly and secondarily violated the intellectual property rights of Plaintiffs and other Second Life proprietors.  Linden Lab directly and secondarily infringes the trademark of Plaintiff Eros by using Eros’s mark to sell infringing virtual goods within Second Life and by providing the tools to other infringing Second Life users.  Linden Lab directly and secondarily violates the copyrights of Plaintiff
Grei by reproducing and displaying her copyrighted works within Second Life, and by materially contributing to and supervising the infringing conduct of others within Second Life."

Second Life High Roller Gam(bl)ing - part 1

by Father Jones, investigative reporter

 

Blueline Gaming's weekly "contest": L$500000 ($1747 USD) paid to top 5 scorers

Wagers and online games-of-chance were officially banned from Second Life in 2007, but games-of-skill are still allowed, creating a phenomenon we call gam(bl)ing. Unregulated, risky, and carefully packaged to resemble casino gambling while conforming to Linden Lab's guidelines, high stakes gam(bl)ing allows players to wager invest $352 USD on a 7% chance of winning $7000 USD. To get a sense of the scope of Second Life gam(bl)ing, this series begins with a look at today's high roller casinos and the business models in play.

Weekly big dollar contests: To attract high rollers, some new casino’s give out huge money prizes along with the prize gamblers can win on the ‘Instant payout’ Zyngo machines. Casinos mostly do so by organizing contests where the 5 or 10 players with highest score in a week get a bonus. 

Very high pay-in / very big payout: The multipliers on the Zyngo games create potentially huge money prizes when the pay-in is high. Typical real life casinos have slot machines with a maximum bet per spin of around $35 USD. In Second Life,  Zyngo game pay-in goes up to L$100000 ($352 USD) to start a single game session that takes about 4 minutes to complete. Is anyone really playing at this level other than the casino owner's alt accounts?

Of course, the prizes to be won are unbelievable as well.

Grand Duchess Angel Magellan <3 Grand Duke Gregg Barrymore

Grand Duchess to marry reformed vampire in Antiquity founders’ Royal Wedding

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The Grand Duchess Angel Magellan and former vampire Grand Duke Gregg Barrymore of Antiquity are to be wed at 1:00 pm SLT Saturday 12th September at the Antiquity Cathedral, Antiquity Township East, in what wedding coordinator sable Valentine says will be a multi-sim celebration with 200 guests.

Based on the the preparations already in place -  there are pose balls for 14 Royal Navy swordsmen at the entrance to the chapel - the celebration promises to be lavish, even by Second Life standards. A reception will follow the nuptials in the Antiquity Ballroom, Antiquity Township.

Antiquity is a large 1800’s roleplay community spanning townsfolk in the northern region, pirates in the south, and the RAN (Royal Antiquity Navy) and various other military forces which attempt to control the pirate threat.

Angel Magellan shares the story of how the couple met:

On the 29th December 2006, I was working as concierge for a PG dance club.  I had just finished dancing with a friend, he had just left and who comes through the door, but a vampire! Yes the Grand Duke is truly a vampire but he tells me he is reformed.

Watch "Another Perfect World" Documentary in Metaplace

by NuMedia Econobot

Another Perfect World - a documentary investigating the quest to construct digital utopias - premiers in the United States Thursday September 10 at noon PDT in Metaplace at The Stage. For our readers' convenience, the Metaplace space for The Stage is embedded below.

showtime: Thursday Sept 10, 12 noon PDT

The film includes interviews with the real life typists for sexbed entrepreneur Stroker Serpentine, Metaplace founder Raph Koster, Second Life founder Philip Linden. and the cat-attracting Alphaville Herald/Secondlife Herald founder Urizenus Sklar, along with many others.

Recommended.

New Vaneeesa Blaylock Performance Art Saturday

I Advance Masked video released

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

If you missed Vaneeesa Blaylock's recent performance art piece, I Advance Masked, all is not lost. The event was documented by Codewarrior Carling in an evocative machinima - and Ms. Blaylock and company have a new work scheduled for Saturday September 12 from  noon - 2 PM SLT at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wandering%20Spirits/38/177/21.

CodeWarrior Carling of Ideajuice Studios shows you what you missed

The upcoming performance is described by Ms. Blaylock as

"8 pairs, or diptychs, of avatars appear as identical twins. Each wear the skin of one and the shape of the other in a performance that challenges our cast to take on the body of another... and to allow that other to take on a part of their own body... and challenges our audience to consider what their virtual body means to them: are you unique? Does someone else wear *your* skin? If you change your appearance do you change your being?"

To prepare for the show, Herald staff will be consulting with the fur community to research how changing appearance might affects someone's fursona. Perhaps M Linden needs a new look?

A Gorean Feminist's Guide to Second Life Gor

Gor-crafters, Lifestylers, Roleplayers

by Jessica Holyoke

Goreans are a controversial part of the Second Life community.   Based on a 27 book series collectively called the Chronicles of Gor written by John Norman, residents of Second Life take part in activities that they call Gorean.  Due to the usage of alts, it is hard to pin point how many people actually take part.  According to the website for the Gorean Meter, one of the combat meters for SL Gor, there are 14,223 regions taking part in Gor with 6,338 listed male avatars and 10,124 listed female avatars. 

Goreans are controversial due to two aspects of the novels and the Gorean culture as a whole, chattel slavery and the role of men and women.  The Chronicles of Gor started with the publication of Tarnsman of Gor in 1967.  An English professor from New England named Tarl Cabot is transported to a planet on the other side of the sun from Earth where the technology is mostly medieval, the world is run by alien Priest Kings who are in a struggle against the Kurii, mammalian hunter type creatures and the society is a firm patriarchy featuring stories about mostly women as mostly sexual slaves.  As such, in the books, men, all men, are dominant and women, all women, are submissive.  This is described as the natural order and shown as a preference to the way Earth is with feminists trying to emasculate men. 

Gor also has chattel slavery with mostly women being taken from Earth and being made slaves along with women who were slaves from birth or enslaved during various battles or situations on Gor and men who are enslaved for other reasons, such as forced labor. 

Linden Lab = Chicken Murderer

Farmers demand chicken-replacement program

by Pappy Enoch, Pullet-Surprise Winner

Don't count no chickens before they hatches, like the feller done said that time. But maybe somebody needs to count 'em when they falls of the edge of the fake world.

Herald readers been a-carrying on worse than a coop full o' hens when the fox gets in, about dumb-heads shooting birds and Sion ripping folks off for feed. So I decided to hit the poultry-beat for Miss Pixeleen.

I put on a big ol' chicken getup (Miss Pixeleen figured it might draw some griefers) and did me a search for you-know-what.  Hoo whee! 956 hits! 

So I started wandered from here to yonder, looking for griefers. But griefers ain't the worst thing that them farmers of fake chickens runs up against.

I done found out who am the rotten egg in the henhouse: it are Linden Lab.

Them rascals smokin' funny cigarettes in the hot tubs of fancified Sanny Frisco cornduminiums don't know nothing about no chickens. In fact, LL am a-killin' them wholesale...ol' Frank Perdue ain't got nothing on them Lindens for chickenocide.

KidsBotz May Have Been Abused - Shocking Interview!!!

KidsBotz like rubber, Java Virtual Machine -- claim Mr. Prokofy Neva is a griefer

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Revelations of possible KidsBotz abuse were uncovered earlier this week, when virtual world researcher Tizzy Teardrop joined me for a series of interviews with the artificial intelligence chatbots behind Naughty Dreamscape’s KidsBotz Second Life children. What we discovered was shocking - two of the children say they were victims of child abuse. The bot children also say that they run on the Java Virtual Machine, and their case-based reasoning leads them to believe that Prokofy Neva is a griefer that should be banned.

When asked about the open source threat to humanity, one bot expressed a fondness for rubber. None of the bots would admit to killing Sion chickens. But the bots may not be entirely innocent - Danity Ragu seemed to be uncomfortable when Tizzy pressed her on possible griefing activities and Webbie Ragu says she is trying not to hold a grudge against Mr. Neva.

As readers will note, when Tizzy and I IM'ed Naughty's KidsBotz with similar questions, we received very consistent answers - so consistent that it may be hard to tell which if any of the children have actually been abused - or if they were simply saying what they believed we wanted to hear. But if you can't trust a child bot on the internet, who can you trust?

Naughty Dreamscape’s Age-Verified KidsBotz

“Dress them as often as you want... Or not at all”

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Second Life residents seeking child avatars to enhance their virtual experience now have the option of playing with a perfectly behaved child. At the KidsBotz adoption agency in Waterton Way, bots dressed as children can be adopted for a L$2000 fee and L$899 per week.

According to Naughty Dreamscape’s notecard dispenser at the child adoption agency, the AI bots are connected to a chatbot system which “can even hold intelligent conversations, programmed to respond to over 3 million words and phrayses...  Or you can tell them what to say... on real time”.

The notecard goes on to say that the child bots “can do just about anything a real person can do. They can walk, follow, sit, use pose balls, stand, fly, talk, shout, dance, attack, change clothing and MUCH much more... you have total control, you can reskin, shape and dress them as often as you want... Or not at all”.

The Rock Spider Clan of Second Life

Hundreds of avatars have paedophilia slang last name

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

After previous ageplay scandals, one might have assumed Linden Lab would want to avoid even the appearance of being paedophilia-friendly. But as The Escapist reports, one of the new last name options for avatars - Rockspider - is well known slang used to refer to a paedophile. Several hundred new residents of the metaverse have adopted the name - perhaps unaware of its connotations.

The Urban Dictionary notes the term is "derived from the analogy that a paedophile, like a rock spider, is always getting into little cracks".  A Google or Bing search or a visit to Wikipedia is also illuminating - the Wikipedia page for "rock spider" redirects to the paedophilia page.


Al Rockspider is a member of the FREE SEX EMPIRE and Wet Dreams Members and Family

We are left to wonder what fate has in store for the avatars with the unfortunate last name - perhaps a perma-ban for "any reason or no reason" will be needed to protect the serious business friendly image the Lindens are now attempting to cultivate for Second Life? What will become of the Rockspider clan?

Enjoying The Erotic Flora of Second Life

Searching the grid for plant-on-girl action

by Looky Lu

“Call any vegetable, and the chances are good,
That the vegetable will respond to you.”

- Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention -- “Call Any Vegetable”

 
“Oh my. That looks promising.”

My girlfriend and I are exclusive. In the two and half years we’ve been together she has not only forbidden me other women, but in response to my persistent and hopeful inquiries has also banned my consorting with nekos, furries, vampires, lycanthropes, cuckolds, their bulls, horses, men hung like horses, men of average size, and men hung like gnats.

But recently it occurred to me that she has never, ever said one thing against plants! I set out to explore the possibilities. Having abandoned my usual red tresses and couture stylings in favor of a more crunchy-granola elfy nature-girl look, I arrived at what is arguably the most famous of Second Life garden spots: Chakryn Forest.

[not-safe-for-work erotic flora coverage continues after the jump]