Linden bans CopyBot following resident protests
By Adam Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Linden Lab has banned the use of the avatar cloning tool CopyBot amid widespread protests by retailers and other residents who feared that it would allow others to illicitly copy and sell their creations.
“The use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation of Section 4.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service and may result in your account(s) being banned from Second Life,” Cory Linden said in a blog post on Tuesday afternoon.
The sale of the CopyBot, originally created as part of the libsecondlife project to reverse engineer the Second Life software, drew angry protesters bearing signs (see right, in a photo by Kronos Kirkorian), eventually forcing a would-be retailer to close shop.
Store owners across Second Life also shuttered their businesses in protest.
Cory Linden told residents to file an abuse report if someone used CopyBot to make an infringing copy of their content, but said that in the long term the company had no desire to be “in the copyright enforcement business.”
“I continue to feel that libsecondlife is an incredibly important part of Second Life’s development and community,” he added. “I do not extend those feelings to residents attempting to profit off of infringing use of CopyBot.”
