Alphaville Herald

Auto-Bans For Copybot Clients - SL Viewer Wars Escalate

Skills Hak's client detection system & ban relay fights copybot-capable clients - Transylvania vampires warn against running griefer clients

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs Desk

Taking Second Life anti-copying software as a service in a new direction, Skills Hak has released a client detection and ban relay system which Hak says "detects all known viewers with copybot/griefing functionality" with no false positives. Hak goes on to claim "So far there hasn't been a single reported false positive. You can trust the system, the technique is not something that can be wrong, it detects harmful viewers with a success rate over 80%".

 

Only L$700 to fight copybots on your land - for the first month

It is unclear from the sales literature at XStreet exactly how one might contest a ban by the system other than to appeal directly to Skills Hak, but Hak apparently is willing to discuss matters with those who feel slighted by his system. This certainly seems like an infinitely scalable approach to justice in the metaverse, assuming Hak prefers to spend his time in Second Life chatting with aggrieved griefers and copybot artists.

The system is currently being sold on XStreet where it currently ranks #10 in sales after reaching a peak rank of #4.

The Gemini Cybernetics CDS system has apparently sucessfully automated the compilation and sharing of banned Second Life residents among Hak's customer base. Accord to the XStreet ad, "In the first 3 beta weeks, the system detected over 1200 people with harmful clients in the few high-traffic test-regions."

Two obvious extensions to the product - automated estate bans and automated abuse reports are a planned for a future release. 

Saints of Hell MC Implicated In Second Life Content Theft - Part 1

Motorcycle and parts theft copybot outrage!

by Coke Supply, Investigative Reporter

[In this multipart tale of dark dealings in the Second Life motorcycle and parts trade Coke Supply delves into the shady activities of Black Lisle, AKA Biack Lisle, of the Saints of Hell Motorbike Club to reveal an astonishing level of complicity amongst the group's leadership with regards to the apparent theft of the most famous and skilfully crafted  motorbikes ever created in Second Life. - the editrix]

Content creators Redtail Magic, Karyn Vaher, Trinity Hunghi, and Hiiigh Jinx collaborated over a period of four months to create the Lakhota Rocket, arguably the most highly detailed and realistic sculpted bobber motorcycle on the grid. It has won first place in almost every single competition that it has been entered into during 2009, making it one of the most well-known motorbikes ever created in Second Life. The trophies won from these competitions are shown in the image to the left, alongside the real-life version of the bike that it was modeled from.

As you can see from the image below, this motorbike is a true work of art, painstakingly sculpted and textured by its creators over a period of several months to create one of the finest rideable motorbikes that Second Life has to offer.

OpenSim Regions Predicted to Overtake Second Life in 2011

OpenSim growth rates shame Linden Lab

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Citing an annualized OpenSim growth rate of 177%, Maria Korolov predicts the OpenSim grids will overtake Second Life in early 2011 in an article in Hypergrid Business. Ms. Korolov made her prediction after comparing the 29% increase in OpenSim regions between September and December 2009 with an anemic 6% growth in Second Life resident-owned land in 2009. Are the projections sustainable - and believable?

The OpenSim grids claimed 7,246 regions in December 2009, up from 5,613 regions in September. In contrast, Second Life's 6% annual growth resulted in 23,900 regions at the end of 2009. Korolov's crystal ball tells her that if it might even be possible for OpenSim to overtake Second Life in 2010 if current trends accelerate - driven by low costs starting with free and very inexpensive.

Korolov points out that more control and backups are also appealing to land owners, noting that "OpenSim region owners can save backups of their entire region on their local hard drive. If they want to shut down a region — or keep a historical record of how a region evolves — they can do this, and restore the region later". But this sort of backup-on-demand function will be difficult for Linden Lab to match without nerfing the DRM system on which the in-world economy is based.

Op/Ed: Facebook, IslandLife, Second Life, Lively, Metaplace - Why Worlds Fail

by Jessica Holyoke

As previously reported, IslandLife, which looks a lot like Metaplace, has opened on Facebook.  Metaplace is a virtual world that closed at the end of 2009.  Metaplace looked a lot like Google's Lively, which also closed. What does IslandLife in Facebook and the failure of Lively and Metaplace mean? Consider one world that hasn't closed, despite its flaws: Second Life has adapted in order to make money, and continues to adapt. 

When a Gaming Open Market - a real money trade currency exchange appeared and showed how the Lindens could coin more money, the Lab appropriated it.  With Google Search being bandied about as a possible option for Second Life search for the last 18 months or so, rest assured it is all about AdWords dollars.  Residents might have noticed AdWord-like advertisements already alongside Group Search -- just beware of click fraud entering the griefer's vocabulary.

The Lindens are all about making money.

Second Life metaLIFE Market Grows at XStreet's Expense

by Coke Supply

Ever since XStreet was taken over by Linden Lab, there has been a demand for independent sites that offer the same services due to resident fears that Linden Lab would run their site into the ground. Now that the Lab appears to be doing just that with the introduction of their new "XStreet Roadmap" pricing policy, a mass exodus of merchants is looking for a more customer-friendly service with which to conduct their business.

Slapt.me and metaLIFE are two of XStreet's leading competitors and, as a direct result of the Lab's latest error, residents are signing up to these sites in droves. In the last week or so, both sites have experienced a phenomenal growth rate which can only be a direct result of the Lab's recently announced policies. Indeed, according to Robbie Kiama, one of the founders of the metaLIFE merchant system, Linden Lab's recent actions have been hugely beneficial to his business.

RK:  When Xstreet made their announcement, it sent ripples across the Second Life community. Of course, news of LL's new policy reached metaLIFE very fast. And so it started - we got coverage across many blogs and websites, and people started comparing all of the available alternatives, metaLIFE included, and so lots of people discovered us during this period. So, we had an unexpected growth of people coming to our website and to our inworld HQ, trying our services. Users grew by 33%. We already had a lot of users who had tried our system at some point, but this time over a thousand new users joined MetaLIFE. Vendors more than doubled, growing by 56%, and currently 1200 vendors have been rezzed on the grid in the last 24 hours.

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

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.

Open Letter to Your Boss about SL

Help promote serious business in Second Life 

by Pappy Enoch

I done read the “Open Letter to Your Boss” that them Linden Gorillas put up on the Interweb thing and them Lindens done left out a thing or two. So I took a crack at that-there letter myself.  A city feller from a college (not wantin’ to do real work) helped me transmogrify it for folks who talks like big-bugs and so forth.

 

SLCC-09 participants' user generated content enhanced this real life business - why not yours?

-----------------------cut/paste-----------------------

‘Hello <insert your worthless manager's name here>,

Yesterday, when I mentioned that we should explore why I was masturbating while playing, I mean working, in Second Life. I thought that to save my job in the social-darwinist hell into which the world economy has descended, I might convince you how SL can benefit us as a collaboration, learning, recruiting, and marketing tool.  And make me rich.

You raised several concerns that many enterprises and government organizations have about Second Life. These include stability, rampant perversion, lost inventories, Baby Furs in dirty diapers, wholesale departure of major corporations from SL, Jumpman Lane, IP theft, and Pappy Enoch. I would like to share with you more information about how Second Life is a moral-building business tool we should consider using since we are soon going out of business anyway.

L$ Economy In Summer Slump?

Q2 in-world economic results

by Jessica Holyoke

If you haven't noticed on the log-on screen, the Lab has released their numbers for the economy this past week. Now the Herald Stat Department is able to provide the results of the SL Economy. 

User to User Transactions are the big story for T Linden as it shows a 94% growth over this time last year in amounts, and everyone mentions this growth as a sign of the strength of the SL economy.  But to the Herald, the important figure is Positive Monthly Linden Flow as a sign of in-world profits.  There are two numbers for PMLF, weighted and raw.  The weighted multiplies each category of PMLF by a number to reflect the effect of high wage earners against low wage earners.  Or in LL terms, the less than $10 USD per month users versus the greater than $5,000 USD wage earners.  When you compare the weighted over last quarter and Q2 08, we see a negative growth of 3.67% and a over year growth of 13%.  This matches the normal summer slump.  Q2 08 was 3.56% growth from Q1 08 which saw growth of 11.16% when comparing weighted PMLF.  When looking at raw numbers for PMLF, which is just numbers of users who experienced PMLF, there is -1.94% growth and 16% growth over this quarter last year. 

Sion’s Surprise Chicken License Fouls The Nest

Sion Labs may revoke your right to continue paying for virtual chicken food

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A Second Life chicken food monopoly is apparently not enough for Sion Zaius - the latest Sion Labs chickens include a surprise End User License Agreement that remains hidden until *after* your purchase. The stealth EULA grants Sion Labs rights that would make most greedheads blush -- but not Mr. Zauis.

While the lucrative chicken food market is claimed to feed over 100,000 chickens,  Mr. Zauis may be motivated by threats of legal action from farmers who suffered serious losses after Sion Labs released a botched update that destroyed farmers’ eggs.

According to The Chicken Blog, at least one farmer threatened legal action against Zaius for alleged fraud, and Mr. Zaius threatened to cut of food supplies to all farmers’ birds unless the critic apologized. Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and mass chicken starvation was avoided.

But now critical farmers are no longer an issue - the EULA states Sion Labs can terminate farmers’ chicken-use rights “for any reason or no reason” and restrict access to any and all Sion Products “by blacklisting you and any known alts and/or partners without notice or liability”.

In the event Sion Labs feels the need to reclaim birds, they grant themselves the right to do so “without compensation of any kind for any object or product removed, destroyed, killed or in any way removed from your possession”. Fowl fanciers must also agree to upgrade their chickens within 7 days when new versions are released or face “immediate, automatic termination of the license granted hereunder and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability”.

After spending L$440 on a sionChicken starter set and reading the EULA, I contacted Sion Labs for a refund. I’m still waiting.

Pixeleen Mistral: I bought a chicken start kit - but it didn't say there was a license agreement until AFTER I paid for it
Pixeleen Mistral: I do not agree with the license terms - and I want my money back

Second Life Shoppers - Be Smart, Get Slapt

Resident-run alternative to Linden game god’s Xstreet shopping site

by Coke Supply

When Linden Lab purchased the Xstreet shopping site in January, there was concern that the management of the site would be less than stellar. A group of entrepreneurs composed of long time Second Life residents - Lord Sullivan, Kosta Cela, Bykoff Sontse and Constanza Amsterdam - decided to capitalize on the the community's concerns and launched Slapt.me - an independent shopping site to give residents a viable alternative to Xstreet.

Slapt.me is a new web based marketplace in much the same vein as Xstreet, but with one important difference – the staff listens to its customer base.

I first heard about the Slapt.me website on the Xstreet forums, where it seemed to be discussed in remarkably favourable light compared to similar discussions about the Xstreet marketplace. Intrigued, I decided to take a closer look.

Upon arriving at the Slapt.me headquarters in a region named The Churchyard, I met with Constanza Amsterdam for an interview. The office was a respectable yet mildly humble affair, giving it an aura of both professionalism and approachability.

CS: Well first off, the most prominent question I have is, what initially prompted you and your team to create an alternative merchant site? Did you decide that xstreet lacked any particular features or had any problems?
CA: We have walked around with this idea for awhile and now after Xstreet was bought by LL (and) we thought this would be the best time to create an independent site, as Xstreet was.

CS: Yes, but what was your initial motivation, besides making money of course? Did you perceive any particular need for another merchant site, and if so, what was the reason?
CA: With Onrez and Xstreet being bought by LL, there was no independent website anymore, and people within Second Life want independence in general. Money was not the main reason, independence was.

Ex-Copybot Merchant Ignores BuilderBot Threat - Says Piracy Will Continue

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Reformed Copybot reseller Nimrod Yaffle shrugged off the BuilderBot threat to the in-world L$ spacebux economy and promised to continue selling his own pirate creations - flintlocks, bandanas and leather baldrics. The vote of confidence was in sharp contrast to the whinging content creators that swarmed RightAsRain Rimbaud’s blog monday, after the publicity-starved Rezzable entrepreneur sucessfully trolled the grid with threats plans to release an open source BuilderBot - a sim-wide copying tool  that can be used to move sims from Second Life to other grids such as OpenSim - and provide off-world backups of sim-spanning environments.

Nimrod Yaffle's pirate content will continue to be sold - despite the copy threat

Entirely predictable drama followed Mr. Rimbaud’s announcement, simultaneously inflating Rezzable’s visibility puncturing it’s reputation, as concerned content creators saw the possible BuilderBot release as reckless endangerment of the Second Life economy, and their own bottom lines. Those with weaker ties to the Second Life in-world economy argued in favor of freeing content from the Linden Lab’s servers, pointing out the Lab’s less than stellar abilities as a data custodian. The tempest was tamed tuesday, as Mr. Rimbaud backed away from earlier statements that an open source sim copying tool would be a universal good, handing BuilderBot’s opponents at least a partial victory.

The war of the content copying bots is far from over however - so I sought out Nimrod Yaffle, to see how the content piracy threat might affect his pirate content business. Nimrod Yaffle’s background in marketing the original DRM busting CopyBot - which he resold for a 10% commission  - and the quality time he spent in Linden Lab’s cornfield prison uniquely qualify him to comment on the BuilderBot situation.

Linden Land Stats Coverup Enters 5th Month

Lab too embarrassed to publish land data?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

In February, Linden Lab halted publication of resident land "ownership" statistics after what is believed to be thousands of regions were returned by players reeling from October's surprise OpenSpace price increase. In the aftermath of the negative economic news and removal of the raw statistical data feed, the Lab promised the land stats hiatus was a temporary measure while "we correct our reporting mechanisms to account for the recent addition of Openspaces and Homesteads" and went on to apologize for the "inconvenience".

Five months later, the Lab still refrains from sharing land ownership statistics, leading to speculation that the land market has yet to recover from the Lab's price hikes and a down real life economy. Shocks to the land market are far from over, with concerns that the forced migration to the new Adult-only continent and devaluation of existing Mainland holdings are unlikely to improve the situation as players are reminded that the Lindens changes the rules of the game to suit Lab interests - generally at player's expense.

Given how willing the Lindens are to publish other economic statistics here, we have to ask how bad things look on the land front. If the current statistics are able provide information on land in the process of being auctioned, why remain silent on the actual size of the world?

 

We'll let you know when there is good news

Mystery Inside Investor Sells Stake in Linden Lab

Someone unloaded their Linden Lab holdings - but who?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

With reports circulating that an individual investor's equity stake in the Lab had been sold to Stratim Capital, the rumor mill can be expected to go into overdrive speculating about exactly which insider sold their shares - and why.

Stratim Managing Partner Zach Abrams is reported to have said his firm "bought almost the entire position of an existing shareholder". Abrams also said the shareholder who sold out was not one of the venture capital firms that have funded Linden Lab to date. Avoiding the VCs may make some sense from Stratim's point of view - their web site claims "to target individual investments of $3-5 million".

While Stratim specializes in "late stage companies with profitable opertations and strong business prospects" at least one current or former Lab insider has apparently decided that their personal financial interests and the Lab's have diverged. The whirring sound you hear is the Second Life fanboi press revving up their spin - as well they might.

As M Linden continues to place his mark on Second Life there have been a number of recent high profile departures from top management - Cory, Robin, Zee, and Ginsu Linden come to mind - a group the previously handled technology, community, finance, and legal/business development areas. The equity stake sell off is sure to add a certain frisson to the speculation -- was the sell off for personal cash flow or due to bad feelings about future prospects for the Lab?

1st Quarter Second Life Economic Results In: QPC holding steady for now

by Jessica Holyoke

After weeks of waiting, Linden Lab recently finally released the numbers needed for the Herald's Economic Department to report Quarter 1's Quarterly Profit per Capita for SL (QPC).  Or at least, most of them.

For as long as the Herald has been publishing the QPC, it has been based on an average of each quarter's total hours logged in per month.  The weighted Positive Monthly Linden Flow (PMLF) is averaged for the quarter and then divided by the average Total Hours Logged to reach the QPC.   The QPC is used to track the in-world economy, not the financial success of Linden Lab.  

The numbers can be used to compare other things, such as the change of THL within a quarter.  Linden Lab, in publishing their statistics, uses a by quarter comparison.  In Q3 08, THL saw a 4.37% drop in THL from the first month of the quarter to the last. Fewer hours were logged in by the end of the quarter than were logged in at the beginning while the Lab reported a quarterly growth of 8.26% from the previous quarter for Q3 08. 

How Profitable is the Second Life Fashion Game?

by Tenshi Vielle

I recently ran a very informal survey at Shopping Cart Disco in attempt to learn what Second Life's fashion designers cash out of Second Life per month. The results are summarized in the table below -- the average earnings for all designers was $850 USD/month.

Inexperienced designers claiming to take home an average of $490/month and experienced designers make $1145 on average.

The figures in red represent claimed income (withdrawn from SL in United States Dollars) averages across the comment input board. Each column is labeled on the bottom for experienced or inexperienced designers.

Here are some comments  from both experienced (1+ years) and inexperienced (under 1 year) designers:

"I’m a new designer, I have a small store with less than 20 products in it and not even a customer group. The past couple months I’ve cashed out $100usd. I made more than that, that is what was left over after I shopped and played around all month, that also is the amount minus my land expenses, etc, and with me leaving some in SL to use. While a hundred dollars isn’t allot by any stretch, I can see how the larger stores with allot more products, a large customer base, as well as several bloggers and magazines that promote them, could be pulling in a living. I’d like to be there some day, but for now my store covers my costs, lets me play and buy what I want, and also gives me a little extra RL cash. :)"

Brunoo Loon Spends L$ Spacebux Fortune on Ads

Half million L$s to buy top spots in Second Life classified ads

by Alessandra Narayan

Look at SL’s search engine and you’ll find three or four companies spending 500’000$L per week in advertising, or around 2000$USD. Whether this should be considers a large or small fortune depends on your point of view, but in any case 500’000$L is a considerable sum.

To better understand the psychology of the big spenders, I interviewed Brunoo Loon, owner of Eish – a store dedicated to sneakers, caps, the IPod MP4 portable player and many other things.

My hope was to learn why Mr. Loon is investing so much money advertising his company instead of cashing it out into real life or donating a part to charity. The answers? Inconclusive. The best explanation? “Being in SL just for fun”, according to Brunoo Loon.

For many readers,  Mr. Loon’s approach may seem odd, especially as financial misery seems to be growing all over the world with a real life fiscal crisis that’s affecting the pocketbooks of nearly everyone - but not everyone can be Brunoo Loon.

Alessandra Narayan (AN) – How can anyone spend so much money in advertising?
Brunoo Loon (BL) – I spend that money with intention to pass Eish! word over Second Life Residents, like other shop owners do.

AN – I asked how not why. Everyone realizes you spend lots of money to advertise your store in the top spots. Anyway, your shop and others must have a big income, correct?
BL – Well, I had better days in my business, but not that bad. I win as many designers on SL win. I can’t compare my business with some famous shops on SL. I just take risks. Advertising is very important in the market so that people know about your shop.

AN – Do you invest money for advertising from your real life pocket or does that money come from the store's profit?
BL – Just SL cash.

Wholesale Fails In Second Life

Full permission sculpty packs – worse than BIABs?

by Tenshi Vielle

Remember the BIAB drama? Business in a box, where you could purchase clothes, eyes, skins, hair, shoes -- all full perm, in one transaction? Dudley Do-Rights in SL would set those up for sale to
make themselves a few hundred USD, while the grid and the fashion world became horribly spammed with the same items at varying prices.

The cool kids now skip the BIAB's and go straight for the full perm light-baked sculpty packs. Slap a texture on, and voila!  $200L instantly made. This does not apply to sculpty collars, jewels, or something like, say, leaves – I'm talking about full perm sculpty shoes or hats, something a creator could just take, re-texture, and sell. The entire practice would take twenty minutes, tops

This practice offends both consumers and creators. Sculpty-pack fashion hurts the consumers because they tend to be ripped off at every turn – purchase the shoes one place, find them textured similarly elsewhere at a cheaper price. Do you really want everything to be a cheap knock-off?

Financial Domme Stimulus Package for Second Life Economy?

by Tenshi Vielle

Financial Domming has recently popped up in Second Life, and is exactly what it sounds like -- there are submissives who fork over their Lindens to the Domme willingly.

This may be the greatest scheme in Second Life - even better than the ponzi schemes virtual banks - because all the rules are laid out for you. There is no going into this blindly, only stupidly - and people are STILL forking over thousands of Lindens for a Financial Domme's services.

One Financial Domme's Classified ad says it all:

"Yes, you've read right. I am looking for bored and lonely housewifes,Social Rejects, Welfare Chics. People with LOTS of time on their hands, to work at GODDESS INVESTMENT! We need good looking AV's, good emoting skills, to work as Dancers, Escorts, Mistress in a FEMDOM club! Just moved to a new location and need a packed Stall of skilled Sub/Domme  Personel. Shemales, Losers, Females,Tgirls, Manly Women Come by and pick up an application by the entrance."

What the ad doesn't say is that they're looking for horribly lonely, naive people, inexperienced people, to play with as well.

Habbo Reports $74 Million in Revenues.

By Urizenus Sklar, still trying to get his money back from uncle Bernie...

TechCrunch is reporting that Habbo hotel is claiming a slight profit of on $74 million US in revenues, principally from the sale of virtual items. However, TechCrunch author Erick Schonfeld snarkily calls it the sale of "nothing" because the virtual goods are "things that have zero marginal cost to produce", which makes me think someone should acquaint him with the concept of intellectual property (does he think there is a marginal cost to producing more copies of software? music? eBooks? soft tools? movies?). But enough about Mr. Schonfeld and the Bronze Age or whatever epoch he is writing from. Here is a 'graph from his article.

In 2008, Habbo’s revenues rose 20 percent to $74 million (50 million Euros), and posted positive operating cash flow (EBITDA) of $7 million (4.8 million Euros). It was even slightly profitable on a net income basis as well, however the company chose not to disclose that exact amount.

Perhaps the bulk of revenues are being plowed back into global expansion or to pay the salaries of Habbo’s 300 employees (yes, 300). But its sub-10% margins so far are underwhelming. And Habbo is supposed to be one of the shining examples of a real business based on a virtual economy. It also makes money from advertising, but the vast majority of its revenues comes from in-world gifting and virtual vanity items.

Virtual vanity items?

Carbonite Makers Cave to Blizzard Directive

by Dr. Legion, staff reporter

We recently posted a story about a dust-up in the WoW community over the new Blizzard policy about addons -- user made enhancements of the game interface. According to the new policy, addons can not be sold and donations can not be solicited in world. Now one target of the new policy -- the maker of Carbonite -- has decided to comply with the policy. They will only solicit donations from their web site (which is allowed by the new Blizzard policy).

It is difficult to know what to make of this. On the one hand it is good that addon makers will continue to develop their products, but on the other hand this sort of quick compliance might embolden Blizzard to flex its muscle against user/developers again in the future. In the meantime, we hope that the Carbonite makers will continue to be able to make money.

h/t WoW Insider

Drama: Online Advertising Cat Fight to the Death

by Urizenus Sklar, from the Failed Monetizing Strategy Watch Desk

Joseph Jaffe and the Crayonistas have departed from Second Life, which is too bad because I would love to have them weigh in on this cat fight. Seems Eric Clemens of the Wharton School had the temerity to suggest that the online advertising business model was fail, and then all hades broke loose. I have to say that Clemens' main  points resonate with this online media mogul:

• Users don’t trust ads
• Users don’t want to view ads
• Users don’t need ads
• Ads cannot be the sole source of funding for the internet
• Ad revenue will diminish because of brutal competition brought on by an oversupply of inventory, and it will be replaced in many instances by micropayments and subscription payments for content.
• There are numerous other business models that will work on the net, that will be tried, and that will succeed.

*nod*

It's time to start *charging* people to read the Herald!

Blizzard's War Against Addon Makers

You can make our game better, but you can't make money for doing so!

by Dr. Legion, staff reporter

Last week Blizzard made an announcement that has been causing a buzz in the usually politically comatose World of Warcraft community. WOW players are probably familiar with addons such as for Zygor Guides, Carbonite and QuestHelper, which are integrated with the WOW user interface (UI).  Some of the addons are wildly popular, and some of the developers make a living just off of donations from (and sale of) the addons.

Now, the owners of WOW, Blizzard, are pulling back on the leash, insisting that while such addons can be made, the makers cannot charge for the products and they cannot solicit donations for the products (they must also make their code transparent).  One side of this is the Blizzard side, which is to say the tiresome line that "it is their game and they can do what they want with it."  The case for the other side is presented by Adam in comments on T=Machine:

Will the Confusion Never End?

SL Fanboiz confooz cashing out with earnings!

by Urizenus Sklar, just off the the phone with Tim Geithner, and TARP money or not, Herald staffers are not giving up their phat bonuses!

In a recent post on New World Notes, Hamlet Au attempts to recharge the Second Life hype cycle by headlining the news that some Second Life businesses are estimated to cash out as much as 1.7 million dollars a year. And that means they are making millions, right? Well, no, but Hammie seems to think so:

"Robin Harper offered some extraordinary financial numbers from Second Life's internal economy: based on a quarterly annualization the company conducted, they discovered that several Resident business owners were cashing out Linden Dollars in excess of a million US dollars a year, with the top earner grossing an estimated $1.7 million."[emphasis mine]

But of course this has nothing to do with earnings. As Robin points out on her own blog, by 'cashing out' she meant just that... cashing out: "

By cashing out I mean literally exchanging L$ for US$. There is nothing implied in these numbers about whether or not any actual profit was made."

We can illustrate in the following way.  Some land owners are known to hold as many as 700 sims.  Suppose they bought them back in the day and the tier is grandfathered in at $190/month.  Let's make that $200/month to make the math easy.  700 simulators X 12 months X $200 = $1,680,000/year that they have to pay the Lindens just for tier.    If they are cashing out to pay them in US dollars, then they are cashing out just enough to pay tier.  This has nothing to do with earnings.  For all we know the business in question is losing money.

MMO Project Entropia to Get Banking License

Real life banking license for spacebux?

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

Project Entropia has long been known as a hype machine rivaled only by Second Life, and it has also been known as a de facto online virtual casino. Now, according to Ars Technica, it is applying for a banking license - as in a legitimate banking license:

MindArk PE AB, the company behind sci-fi MMO Entropia Universe will apparently be able to let players conduct real-world banking from within its online game. Of course, Entropia Universe actually features a cash-based economy already, where players can exchange real money for game currency at an exchange rate of 10:1 (ten in-game dollars to one U.S. dollar) and then buy in-game items with the money; the game itself has proven to be incredibly successful, having generated over $420 million last year.

Now, though, MindArk's going to be just like a bank in the real world: it will be backed by Sweden's $60,000 deposit insurance, offer interest-bearing accounts for its clients, feature direct deposit options, let players pay bills online, and apparently will offer loans to customers.

The interest, we suppose, is that other virtual world makers (or users) might do the same if this works out.

 h/t to Raph's blog

Metaplace Now Coins Spacebux

Jump starting a virtual world economy

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

While real world economists attempt to unfreeze the global financial system with fiscal stimulus plans, handouts to the needy, and anything else that might stimulate demand, the game gods of Metaplace are in the process of stimulating their own virtual economy - and move from the free-goods-for-all early beta phase into a market-based world.

Over the last few weeks, Metaplace added a virtual currency - originally called “gold” but now named “coins” - and players watched as they magically coined spacebux while visiting and rating other player’s worlds and other normal parts of MP gameplay.

To date, the in-game marketplace has not included a mechanism to charge for user-created content. This is all about to change according to Cuppycake - the MP community manager - and in the next few days there will be charges for both publishing items to the marketplace (250 coins), and a commission fee on sales of virtual goods (25 coins or 10% - whichever is greater).

The coin discussion in the Metaplace forum has raised some interesting issues - will new players start out with enough coin to make a world? could there be a “try-before-you-buy” feature? when will players be able to give coins to each other?

WeeWorld WeeMee Wears Justin Timberlake’s Wardrobe

by Sigmund Leominster

In my last excursion into the world of adolescents and ‘tweens, I became a new avatar, Pixeleen, and let loose my inner Barbie at the Barbie Girls™ virtual world. My latest trip was as a not-so-undercover reporter into WeeWorld, a virtual chat room populated by thousands of two-dimensional characters called WeeMees.

Sigmund Leominster goes WeeWee

WeeMees are not new. Users of Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Friends Reunited have been using WeeMees for years. You can create your own South Park-like avatars, kit them out in an assortment of outfits, and have them appear as your alter ego.
And now there’s a new dimension to the WeeMee phenomenon: WeeWorld. Now WeeMees from across the globe can meet in a real-time 2D virtual world and do all the things that Second Life residents can do.

Or not.

After signing up as Sigmund Leominster and giving my true age (which is old enough to have credit cards and remember that my first virtual world was inside a Commodore 64), I was given the opportunity to create a WeeMee just like me. The piece de resistance was the all-important reporter accessory – the microphone. Now I felt like a real newshound.

Quarter 4 Results - Lowest QPC on Record

Growth rates slow, spending lags residents logged in - bots to blame?

by Jessica Holyoke

Linden Lab has released the economic statistics for the last quarter of 2008, while also claiming the advent of new land offerings - OpenSpace, Homestead and Full sims - are a response to the demands of the majority of the residents. However, some are concerned at the level of spinning on the part of the Lab regarding land - but what do the statisticians from the Herald's economics office say about the other numbers?

Total hours logged in (THL) grew by 3.35% over the course of the quarter, turning positive after the 4.37% contraction over the 3rd quarter of 2008. However, compared to the 4th quarter of 2007, there was a growth rate decrease of 1.14% in Q4 2008.  Looking over the 4th quarter growth rate over the last 6 years, Q4 2008 ranks 5th in terms of % growth rate over a quarter.  The hyper growth of early Second Life seems to be over with anemic rates of growth in total hours logged in compared to the 40.15% growth rate of Q4  2003,  and 23.72% THL growth rate of Q4 of 2005.

LL Playing Gotcha With Land Baron?

IntLibber Brautigan's frozen accounts can’t sell L$ to pay bills

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

  A surprising note appeared on the Ancapistan Capital Exchange website tuesday evening - accord to the press release, IntLibber Brautigan’s virtual land business is having some difficulty covering land tier payments to Linden Lab due to the Lab’s L$ spacebux currency conversion limits.

Linden Lab has an officially sanctioned real money exchange - the Lindex - which players use to both purchase game currency and sell L$ for hard currency. While Linden Lab’s primary business is renting virtual land, a number of entrepreneurs act as middlemen between the Lab and ordinary game players, and accept payment for land rental fees (land tier) in L$. Although the Lab has promoted the in-world economy as a way to make real world money, it only accepts hard currency for land tier payments - and controls the amount of virtual currency that an individual can sell for hard currency.

Apparently, this has left IntLibber Brautigan in a bind, as he claims to have $8000 USD worth of virtual money trapped in accounts that are locked due to delinquent land tier payments.

SL In Deep Recession - Economic Indicators Implode!!!

Group creation and uploads drop 20% in December
LL panics, “temporarily” disables land statistics?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

The Linden Lab spinmeisters webmasters have chosen to “temporarily disable” convenient display of Islands owned and added on the  Economic Statistics page - perhaps hoping to draw attention away from the virtual economy that is well into a deep recession?

Despite the “disabled” statistics, observers note that the grim numbers are available at the Economic Statistics (Raw Data Files) page could explain the Lab’s sudden reticence - an 8% drop in total islands in November was followed by a further 8% drop in December for a net loss of 3825 islands in 60 days, bringing the island region total as of December 31st to 22,714.

The drop in virtual island ownership is attributed to a 66% price increase Linden Lab slapped on the most popular of the islands - a move many observer’s believe will raise more net revenue for the Lab, despite the number of resident fleeing the price increase. However, resident alienation from the game world’s economy may threaten its viability and further depress demand for Linden Lab’s main product - virtual land.

Resident flight from SL could explain why a number of economic indicators including classified advertising, texture upload charges, and in-world group creation fees shrunk by up to 22% in December. This sort of powerdive in non-bot based activity strongly suggests self-reinforcing economic trends that could lead to the sort of deflationary spiral that threaten a number of real world economies in SL's major markets.

Microsoft's Mundie: Photosynthetic World OK, User-Created -- No Way!

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Speaking at MIT's Emerging Technology conference, Microsoft egghead Craig Mundie said the 3D spatial web will be photorealistic and made by automatically creating models from pictures taken in the real world -- according to Ian Lamont’s report in The Industry Standard.

While there are certainly uses for a reality-based photosynthetic virtual world, it was a bit of a surprise to hear that Mr. Mundie went out of his way to diss SL’s content creators and the potential of social virtual worlds with user-created content. The Industry Standard reports Mr. Mundie said, "Many people are familiar with Second Life, which is a synthetic virtual world that people came quite enamored with. Our view was that there was a fairly limited audience who was willing to deal with the construction of avatars and operating in that virtual space". Apparently, Mr. Mundie has not yet embraced the charms of mech, steampunk, fur, and Gorean communities, or he would not be so eager to create a virtual world that is nearly indistinguishable from the real world. Has Mr. Mundie been so busy in his lab that he has never been to the movies and is unfamiliar with the concept of fantasy and entertainment?

Given its dominant position in desktop software and deep pockets, whenever Microsoft begins flailing about, the world takes notice, and Mr. Mundie's vision is a dismal prospect for any number of Second Life communities that exist precisely because they do not photographically model the real world. Do the paragons of creativity and user-empowerment at Microsoft understand the potential of the 3D web better than Linden Lab? Consider how successful Vista has been - and then consider the stalled growth curve for SL. Do either of these companies know what they are doing?

SL Sexbed Industry's Dirty Laundry -- Part 2

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Corsi Mousehold's content inside SexGen bed sold at Stroker Serpentine's store

In part 1 of this report, we heard from Stroker Serpentine - virtual sex entrepreneur and owner of the SexGen trademark - and learned he is now taking an active role in protecting the good name of SexGen.

To hear the other side of the story I contacted Corsi Mousehold - a community leader in FurNation and also a virtual sex entrepreneur. In interviews friday and saturday, I learned how sexbed scripter Briggi Bard had a falling out with Mr. Serpentine, how Corsi became involved in the creation of a 150 animation sexbed, and how Corsi plans to fight if a negotiated settlement cannot be reached. It seems clear that some sort of shakeup is likely in the Second Life virtual sex industry as money concerns and partnerships gone sour roil the waters.

SexGen Trademark Turmoil - SL Sexbed Industry's Dirty Laundry

Trademark owner Stroker Serpentine goes after Corsi Mousehold

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

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"I will be thrilled to talk at length about how he is selling my animations without permission and using Briggi's scripts without permission... I have been using the name SexGen with his blessing for TWO YEARS." - Corsi Mousehold

"Briggi doesnt deserve to be dragged into this. Corsi is the very reason we aren't partners to this day. I care a lot for Briggi. We were best friends for years - until the mouse came into the picture. Corsi is a manipulative leech." - Stroker Serpentine

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Cosri Mousehold - SexGen animator and a pet owed by the wonderful Mistress Briggi Bard - SexGen scripter

What has apparently been an ongoing struggle within the virtual world sex bed business went public friday, with Stroker Serpentine and his lawyer contacting the Herald to claim trademark infringement for unauthorized use of the term “SexGen” in a paid advertisement for Corsi’s Creations new line of sex beds - beds that animate avatars in a variety of sexually explicit poses.

Before responding to Mr. Serpentine and his lawyer’s request for removal of the disputed ad, the Herald consulted with Ms. Mousehold and suggesting that the advertisement had probably served it purpose. Hearing no strong objections from Ms. Mousehold, the ad was removed, but not before a bitter dispute between former collaborators was uncovered. Over the next day, I interviewing both Stroker Serpentine and Corsi Mousehold. The third member of what seems to be a love business triangle - Briggi Bard - was unavailable for comment.

SL SHOCK -- Counterfeit Collar Killer Frees Submissive Slaves!!!

Outrage! - Nothing as degrading as a Master Code controlling content creator

by Pixeleen Mistral, Subrealism Affairs desk

An acute reader sent a note to the Herald offices pointing to Marx Dudek's tale of woe - her beloved Amethyst obedience collar was intentionally broken by the creator Amethyst Rosencrans. A visit to Sensations sim confirmed that the "Sensations Collar Team" had placed scripted objects broadcasting commands on chat channel 1 -- commands that kill slave collars scripts.

According to the notecards at the store, this firm but fair discipline on wayward collars became necessary after Linden Lab failed to maintain strict digital rights management over user created content - an unfortunate incident resulting in previously protected collars becoming "fully permissive". With permissive collars being promiscuously copied and resold, the economic rationale for a vital metaverse lifestyle accessory was in danger - and the Sensations team swung into action to disable older versions of their product.

While collar killing may improve Sensations' bottom line, the emotional fallout from this business decision should not be underestimated. As silent commands cause pre-6.0 versions of the slave collar to crash, collared and leashed avatars are able to regain total control their own actions, and risk breaking the bond of trust the develops between a collared slave and master - a sordid end to a virtual romance. How many masters will believe their slaves accidentally broke their collars?

[16:37] MystiTool HUD 1.0.23: (Serenity Rosencrans) [Illegal Amethyst Killer - Ch.1]: *ThisIsSomeReallyLongTextThatWillCrashIllegalAmethystCollars! 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
[16:37] Amethyst Collar [script:Leash Script]: Script run-time error
[16:37] Amethyst Collar [script:Leash Script]: Stack-Heap Collision

W-Hat Goon's Land for Rent in Baku Sim

Intlibber Brautigan, Woodbury helping keep W-Hat afloat?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

rent where Plastic duck got his first ban - and the first mega prim was created

Metaverse urban renewal experts and history fans may want to look up IntLibber Brautigan at the Woodbury University suite at the Tampa Marriot Waterside during the SLCC this weekend - it seems that Mr. Brautigan has secured the rights to rent mall space in both the W-Hat sim retail area and the W-Hat land in Baku sim - both sites where the goons have gained a certain level of notoriety for controversial builds - and possibly other activities.

While controversy may upset some, it also creates traffic as curious onlookers come to gawk and anti-griefers come to abuse report imagery they find objectionable. High traffic creates opportunity, but the burden of with endless tier payments to Linden Lab has resulted in a new direction for Baku - an attempt to cash in on the traffic and offset the Second Life land tier payments.

SL's Economic Statistics Hold Steady

by Jessica Holyoke

Positive Monthly Linden Flow growth stays positive

There are a number of theories flying back and forth regarding the state of the Second Life economy, with some advocating for less regulation as a means to make the economy flourish, and others arguing that the performance of a company is the same thing as a virtual world's economy. The bottom line for Rivers Run Red, Electric Sheep Company, and even Linden Lab is in that the fortunes of these companies are in no way an economy. Any fiscal measurements of those companies are either a measurement of their success, or the strength of their specific sector. A company's RL performance is not the same as a virtual world's economy - or 6 economies -- despite what some graphophiliac gadflies might say at great length.

LL Voids Zorkmid Gambling!

Lab changes its mind about Z$ gambling scheme -- was Zara Linden overruled?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

1Z$ = 1L$ -- now closed until further notice

Second Life’s Z$ casinos disappeared Monday, after the Linden game gods apparently changed their minds about the legality of the Zorkmid Z$ gambling system. Z$ casino owners had claimed their system exploits a loophole in the TOS and RL laws by using a fictional currency for gambling, and allowing players to play a game of skill to turn the Z$ fictional currency into the L$ fictional currency. Linden Lab and others provide foreign exchange markets that allow L$ to be converted into non-fictional currency such as $USD.

As I toured the devastated fictional casinos, the owners did not seem pleased with Linden Lab. denjobi Odell told me, “well it was a loophole .. never official .. and so .. LL changed its position again and told all the loophole gambling systems to shut down before monday”.

Casino Gambling Returns To Second Life

Does Linden Lab approve of gambling for Z$s purchased with L$s ?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Z$s cannot be converted to L$s -- so you can cash out here

Just over a year ago, Linden Lab banned gambling in Second Life, a change that sent the in-world economy into a tailspin as virtual casinos across the grid shut down and gamblers took flight from the Lab’s virtual world entertainment product. But now, the casinos are back -- operating under an interesting interpretation of both US law, and apparently within the Linden’s Terms of Service, according to the virtual casino owners.

How is this possible? The creators of the Z$ Zorkmid fictitious currency claim there is a loophole in both the TOS and US law. By using a fictitious currency which cannot be converted directly into L$s, playing games of chance is not really gambling - instead it is a harmless and legal entertainment.

After not gambling on roulette, slot machines, black jack, and similar amusements, pretend punters can pay L$1 to play a game of skill and convert their Z$ winnings into L$s. The object of this game is to match pairs of identical images - with a two minute time limit. The level of skill required is such that most metaverse residents are very unlikely to lose unless they are subject to one of the seemingly random crashes of the SL client software - or massive lag.

One-Hour Abortion Clinic Opens In Second Life Mall

Mall cop says Minerva Linden deleted prim fetus after pro-life group abuse reports --
W-Hat Goons’ Whatview Valley Mall also features Apple Store, Rei’s Rocks, Invisible Prim store

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

teens welcome

Shoppers in WHAT sim will be pleased to learn that the conveniently located Whatview Valley Mall claims to have Second Life’s first and only prim baby abortion clinic. Teens are welcome, and prices start at L$1999, with souvenir photographs available for L$500. A number of virtual world business analysts are now touting this development as a business opportunity with strong growth prospects, given the prevalence of unprotected cybersex in SL, and recession-proof demand for convenient prim baby termination services.

However, there are still challenges for the virtual abortion industry. According to Whatview Valley mall cop Zac Wilcke, there has been some trouble at the abortion clinic recently due to pro-life Second Life residents - leading to abuse reports and and a visit from game god Minerva Linden who apparently deleted the fetus from an in-progress partial birth abortion.

Investors in the clinic were relieved to note that Minerva Linden left in place the shopvac and blood spraying from one of the customers being serviced, sending a clear message about Linden Lab's “Community Standards” enforcement - and also establishing a precedent that allows for at least some sorts of avatar abortions, although not those held to be illegal in the United States. The US Supreme court recently upheld a law banning the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, so Linden Lab may be seen as simply complying with the law of the land - and helping bring Second Life even closer to real life.

Second Life Herald Opens Lively Office

by Idoru Wellamn, staff writer

Pixeleen Mistral today announced that the Second Life Herald is expanding it's “always fairly unbalanced” coverage of the most vital virtual worlds’ news, by opening a branch office in Lively - internet advertising behemoth Google’s first step toward monetizing the immersive social experience.

Ms. Mistral relaxes in a goth chair on the beach in Lively

Taking a break from decorating the Herald's Lively Google news island with pink google pigs, goth chairs, goth candles, and anything else that might pass as techno-pagan decor, Ms. Mistral said, "Herald readers should look forward to seeing our trademark in-depth reporting and critical analysis expand beyond Second Life and also encompass Google - a company that regularly needs to reminds itself to not be evil. Besides, we can now hold Herald staff meetings somewhere that does not crash continually - running Lively on my MacBook Pro under Parallels is working great!"

Second Life Image Tarnished by Users?

RiversRunRed CEO warns against allowing residents to create 3D content

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

MIT Technology Review writer Brian White advises the metaverse that users may make “shoddy and even offensive content” if allowed to create in 3D worlds -- sentiments echoed by the CEO of RiversRunRed Justin Bovington who praised internet advertising giant Google for hiring partnering with RiversRunRed to create content, and warned against unfettered access to creative tools saying “Many brands have experienced pollution and even counterfeit of their brands in other 3-D worlds or environments--not to mention the questionable material that users put forth that led to a tarnished image for Second Life.”

The controlled content creation issue raises concerns for significant parts of the Second Life population. Goreans, BDSM communities, ageplayers, virtual escort service workers, furries, and others created much of the novelty that attracted both press and players to the Second Life platform as an escape from a humdrum real life. Unfortunately for these groups, the ad-driven worlds appear to be moving in lockstep toward a real-life in virtual-life vision, while being cheered on by the Technology Review. Recent comments by Linden Lab's own Mitch Kapor also suggest that the freewheeling era may be passing.

Although spreading the corporate message may be less effective while allowing players to actually play their own games in an ad-sponsored social space, the boredom factor may force Google’s hand, as the Technology Review story goes on to state that Google is considering allowing user content creation at some unspecified future date. Presumably the danger of brand pollution must be weighed against to lure of free content to drive viewers to tightly targeted ads - Google's stock in trade.

AOL Tightens Belt, Massively Chokes Off SL News?

"Massively Staff" blogs for free at AOL properties after gaming writers are told to stop posting

by Idoru Wellman, staff writer

Techcrunch reports that AOL has savagely cut their blogging empire's staff, chopping personel budgets up to 25% and telling writers to take a few weeks off while they wait and see if they have a job sometime in August. Even more shocking, AOL has apparently decided to discontinue free bagels - a move likely to send shockwaves through the baking industry as bakers struggle to recover from a one-two punch of fewer blog stories and declining corporate bagel sales.

Reliable sources confirmed to the Herald that a budget-induced blogging gag-order is in effect, and a quick visit to one of AOL's properties - Massively - suggests this is true. The normally steady drizzle of corporate-friendly "news" about Second Life seems to have halted, depriving resident of vital information such as the number of user signups in the last 24 hours - statistics mined from Linden Lab's web site, then uncritically posted along with seemingly identical graphs and an obligatory screen shot from in-world -- a continuation of the proud legacy of the now defunct Second Life Blingsider.

Everett Linden Exposes Penis at SL5B!!!

Linden staffer discovers PG-Penis -- leading in-world economic indicators turn strongly positive

by Kris Dibou & Pixeleen Mistral

Marble PG-P OK, wooden boobs-- no way! Game gods roil virtual commodities markets

The first signs of an economic turnaround in the mining industry were evident today, as the overseas futures market in marble textures went wild. The cause? A reliable source informed the Herald that Everett Linden was role-playing a game god when he accidentally gave the OK for David's wedding tackle to flap in the SL breeze- for him to disrobe his probe- for his banan-o to go commando- indeed, for his totem to tan on his scrotum.

As news of the PG penis TOS workaround spread across the metaverse, certain anti-communist columnists and long time supporters of in-world decency averted their eyes -- but the more pragmatic residents rushed to buy options on a few select texture vendors specializing in marble and granite. Given the expected demand for the rare PG-P (PG Penis), the smart money says the fashionable virtual man-about-the-metaverse will soon be sporting a marble chubbie sculptie - driving up the stocks of both classic sculptors, and virtual marble miners.

Meanwhile, the economic prospects for logging concerns in snow sims looked bleak as wooden textured nipples continued to be nixed by Linden Lab, with a number of sources citing the danger of adults pretending to be children seeing the banned boobs in PG rated land.

While a depressed timber industry in the snow sims continue to struggle, marble miners seem to be emerging from a prolonged in-world economic recession. The surprise turnaround was sparked by this conversation, recorded for posterity by several bots who got lost on the way to a their job camping at a deserted virtual shopping mall. The recovered conversation went as follows:

LL - Please Take My Money!!!

Sayden Westland has Second Life billing problems

I HATE SECOND LIFE!!!

Well, actually I LOVE IT, but I need help and cant find anyone to help me. I have submitted support tickets, left notecards at the info center and for numerous Lindens, talked with experienced residents, endlessly searched the info island and help desks and library, scouraged through the video tutorials and called your support lines like 100 times now, and am ready to leave SL, not because I don't love it, but because no one will HELP ME!!!!!! and in fact I just need SL to take my money so I may upgrade my account to premium, is that to much to ask? My support ticket # is 4051-4888995 but I have not received an response and have given up hope that I ever will!!

And I would love to give SL my money, upgrade my account to premium, and buy land and numerous other items but: to no avail, the SL website will not neccessarily take my Credit Card but after weeks of numerous entries and waiting, calling the support lines, it still says UPDATE PENDING!!!!!!, ugh, I cant see that anymore.... Trust me I have checked the Credit Card, even entered several different ones to be sure,*_*KEEP READING::

YES, I have called my Credit Card company and checked all type of security issues so that Linden Labs or Linden Research can debit on my card, in fact my Credit Card company says they don't even see an attempt by Linden Labs or Research to debit on the card or any sort of contact at all, I have checked its validity, and have even entered it on SL Exchange and other sites and boughten Linden dollars successfully..Therefor it has worked with other sites, and I have successfully transfered USD from my Credit Card to SL Exchange and turned it into Lindens and uploaded it onto my in-world account... (at least they want my money). Funny, that it works elsewhere, but not on SL's Website where I can upgrade my account to premium!!!!

ESC to IRS: We Want Beef!!!

Giff Constable and Michael Morton refuse to repay workers for taxes the IRS says the Sheep should pay

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

After acknowledging an IRS ruling stating Second Life in-world greeters the Electric Sheep Company employed to help visitors to the CSI:NY metaverse/television cross promotional event are ESC employees rather than contractors, the ESC is now changing it’s tune.

Rather than compensating employees for the employer tax/social security contributions the ESC should have made assuming that the workers are actual employees, the company is now taking a defiant line - and says that the IRS ruling is wrong.

While this approach will certainly result in more publicity for the Electric Sheep Company, some observers wonder at the potential costs - wouldn’t it be simpler to just pay the back taxes and move on to developing the metaverse? Or are the ESC accountants and lawyers simply enjoying a bit of roleplay after already having written off the tax costs for misclassified employees? Perhaps it is cheaper to pay the lawyers and accountants than the employees?

IRS Says Virtual Greeters Are Real Employees

Electric Sheep Company VP Giff Constable confirms IRS ruling

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Misty and Maia are employees - not contractors

This weekend, the Second Life Herald learned that the Internal Revenue Serivce has ruled the greeters employed by the Electric Sheep Company for the CSI:NY metaverse/television cross promotional event are ESC employees rather than contractors. The ruling is significant - it suggests a number of Second Life players-turned workers had their employment status misclassified over the last 6 months. By treating workers as contractors, ESC minimized its paperwork and avoided responsibility for federal tax withholding - as well as sidestepping the employer’s social security withholding contribution.

The CSI:NY hypervent was met with mixed success, but continues on a reduced scale providing work for a number of metaverse residents. I spoke with two greeters in-world sunday evening who confirmed that they were still treated as contractors between assisting confused new players:

Pixeleen Mistral: so... are you an employee of the Electric Sheep Company? or a contractor?
Misty Durant: Pixeleen, we are all contractors
Misty Durant: and that's about all we are free to share with you
Pixeleen Mistral: the ESC says so, right? but what if the IRS says otherwise?

Minnu Model Skins PhotoSourced from Renderosity???

Metaverse shocker -- pirated skins being sold in SL!!!

by Tenshi Vielle, fabulous fashionista - courtesy of shoppingcartdisco

Do you remember a while back, when we were talking about "what ifs" regarding stolen content across virtual worlds?

I think the best case has to be Renderosity.com artists' work being bought then redistributed without their permission (and against their own TOS) within Second Life. And of course, the general community in Second Life is mostly ignorant about what goes on at art sites like Renderosity - or, at least, doesn't think to check there first to see if the content they just purchased in SL is stolen.

One sharp-eyed Second Life community member did notice that a skin she purchased recently appeared to be stolen from Renderosity.com - and emailed the creator, which in turn caused the creator to email me to ask for help and find out how stolen things were handled in Second Life. I guided her towards a DCMA, but I would like to share her email and accompanying screenshots with all of you.

Do you recognize this skin? It's actually from Renderosity.com, Danae's Manhattan collection. It's been warped to fit the templates in Second Life… by none other than Minnu Pallen, the "great" skin creator.

More info below the cut, including Danae's original email to me:

Slexchange ATM Script Cracked?

Secret requested when Secret is unknown

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

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UPDATE: According to über-scripter Day Oh, the bytecode/scripting exploit described in this story is real, but was fixed a month ago. Mr. Oh told the Herald that when crossing between regions, sometimes sims would randomly send sim-to-sim packets to clients. If scripts need to be handed between regions this makes a certain amount of sense - particularly if there were bugs in the server code that resulted in mis-directed messages going to clients -- a plausible explanation for how the server-side bytecode could leak. While it is comforting to hear that the problem has been fixed, the Herald suggests Linden Lab might want to clarify how long this exploit was active and why they have been less than forthcoming with news about this problem and its solution. Meanwhile, those with sensitive scripts might want to update them, on the chance that they have been a victim of server bytecode leakage.

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Friday, IntLibber Brautigan posted a warning of an exploit allowing technically savvy residents to “capture ATM scripts in bytecode format”. This is a significant development given the number of successful Second Life businesses that use LSL scripts to transfer goods and money -- an un-patched exploit could be a significant blow to the in-world economy.

Because the real wold dollar value of typical SL transactions is low, it is common to automate these transactions. However, automation generally means the scripted transactions are run with minimal human supervision and depend on secrecy for security. This may present a problem. As Mr. Brautigan told the Herald, “with the code obtained, one can make an SLX terminal give you ANY product listed on SLX for free in any quantity or clean out the avatar owning the ATM - all their money - these capabilities have been tested I am told”.

Some observers are concerned that this sort of exploit could destabilize the in-world economy, and Mr. Brautigan reports that his source “has already notified Soft Linden about this vulnerability - he also tried to notify SLX but they said ‘our system is uncrackable’". There we no Linden Lab staff online friday evening willing to speak with the Herald on the record.

While the game gods remained silent, the Herald was able to interview Second Life resident Uildiar Kuhn to learn more about the exploit.

SL Fashion - Copying or Inspiration?

by Tenshi Vielle

I've noticed a lot of confusion about copying and inspiration from other designers, whether it be in real life or in a virtual world. Let’s look at the subject and "where the line is" -- it might help all of everyone clarify where they stand.

Maximilian Milos had an experience last year with Herman Miller. Maximilian really enjoyed the HM designs, and wished to bring them in world. He did what few other designers do - he contacted Herman Miller for permission. HM granted Max permission to replicate their designs.

"Bulletproof Babyphat 2" on sale at SLExchange

However, after a bit, HM began looking into Second Life and around the time that Armani was moving in, HM contracted Rivers Run Red to replicate their products for Second Life. Max was a little concerned, so he contacted HM again and was assured that he was fine, and not to worry.

Max did stop selling his HM recreations after finding out that Rivers Run Red would be doing direct work with the company. He exercised caution - something other people might not have time to do.

Two weeks later, Max logged in to discover that all of his HM creations were missing from his sim - the Lindens had deleted them. Whether this was action from Herman Miller or Rivers Run Red, Maximilian isn't positive. He never received a cease and desist letter -- his items were simply gone. Maximilian wasn't trying to pass the items off as his own designs; he takes care to always clearly credit the original designer. HM wanted it gone, and thus it was so - the Lindens made sure of it. You can read Maximilian's reaction at SLNN

New, Improved Copybot Demonstrated

Remote-controlled bot copies prims, linksets, textures, clones avatar profiles and outfits & saves copies to the user's hard drive

by Proper Prim

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[UPDATE: Apparently a similar (or perhaps identical) copybot is being sold on slexchange here. Should slexchange remove this user-created content? Might the Lindens decide to have a word with bot creator Marki Young? As we watch this story unfold, I'd like to thank Herald reader Miki for pointing us to the slexchange page. Perhaps Herald reader Robin Linden will will have something to say about this at some point? - the Editrix]

click to enlarge slexchange sreenshot

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In partnership with d3adlyc0d3c, last week I began conducting an investigation into reports of rampant content theft across Second Life. Some of these claims included allegations that Copybot was being used- allegations that many of us did not believe initially.

Unfortunately for content creators in Second Life, Copybot DOES still exist and is more advanced than ever. Several sources have told the Herald that Copybot had never left SL in the first place as many had hoped - instead, copybot engineers concentrated on a series of improvements to the original model.

'Not only did Copybot continue to function and evolve in SL over the course of the past year, but trying to break it is a futile excercise as it is entirely impossible for Linden Labs to ever prevent individuals from being able to use this or similar functionality' our source told us Thursday afternoon.

After the initial interviews, d3adlyc0d3c was able to acquire a copybot from certain SL 'underground' contacts - he then used the bot to create a youtube video demonstrating some of the capabilities of this software. In the video, we copy one of Apotheus Silverman's large complex builds. After the video was done, we threw the copy away, Apotheus - honest.