Vanity Skin Fair and RedZone

zf redzone

Vanity Skin Fair

Vanity Skin Fair is going on now. Loads of skin makers are participating and displaying their new skins. The event hosts have chosen to give us an example of what future event may look like. There are a ton of problems.

Crowds

We all know crowded regions lag. What most residents do not know is what causes lag. What even fewer residents know is what causes significant lag and what causes insignificant lag. From that confusion come the Lag Nazis and the Lag Fascists. I think the Nazis suffer from a delusion induced by a desire to control others and a depreciation of individual freedom. The fascists often also think they are doing good and helping others, but like governments achieve the opposite result of their intension.

The hosts of Vanity Skin Fair I’ll class in the fascist group. I know that is probably unfair and will hurt their feelings, but they appear to have failed to understand the rights of those attending the fair and to respect said rights and we have hard evidence of that.

Script Ejection

I wore a necklace into the fair with over 100 scripts. It never occurred to me that the necklace had resizing scripts, over 100! I use Phoenix’s S. Count (right-click your avatar, it is in the pie/drop down menu) to check new hair and shoes before and after I remove scripts. So, I was surprised to see a high script count (104 – which is not that high unless you are going to an event). While I was trying to figure out what I was wearing with all the scripts, I got ejected. Then I found the necklace and each ear ring has scripts. Triggering the scripts brought up the built-n script remover.

Back to the fair. Yay! I did not get ejected.

Is this an intrusion on your privacy rights? I think it is not. Second Life has script limits written into its future. While such a limit may help or hurt SL when implemented, we don’t know how it will be implemented or how people will react to a given implementation. But, this experience of script discrimination may become common place.

I understand the need for such discrimination at events. People wear things without noticing they have high script counts. People often never learn they have some duty to reduce lag in SL. Such discrimination is a bit of a wakeup.

So, I’m not calling the Vanity Universe folks names for ejecting me on script count. I think that is within their rights and I personally chose to respect that right.

RedZonw

RedZone Eject - Image by: M Kuramoto

RedZone Scan

Another person posted on SLUniverse the chat log from their RedZone ejection.

If you have read my article, RedZone Privacy Issues Develop – Review, you may recognize the URL of the link they send one to for submitting appeals. The URL is the reason I say it is RedZone.

The copybot theft and privacy issues are where rights in SL come into conflict. This is why I feel justified in assigning such negative labels. RedZone, CDS, and Quickware have and are creating a level of conflict while taking advantage of ignorance and disregard for personal freedoms.

Devious?

It is hard to know what the Vanity Universe Team was thinking. One is greeted by a chat blurb when entering the region.

Nalates Urriah welcome to the 3. International Second Life Skin Fair at Vanity Universe.

To avoid massive lag please make sure to remove all prims you don’t need:
Don´t wear blings, scripted hair, scripted shoes, scripted or sculpty attachments, animation overriders (AO´s) and sensor HUDs, mystitools, anti spy shields, or other HUDs.

Thanks a lot & enjoy the Fair!
Your Vanity Universe Team

I suppose it could make ‘lag reduction sense’ to ask that spy shields be removed. But, that certainly opens up access to your information. Were they thinking about GreenZone? I don’t know. I’m jaded and devious… I suppose it comes from dealing with men… that’s chauvinistic and unfair…  it’s also a bit of a joke, sorry. It is more accurate to say, dealing with humans and businesses.

One can also wonder whether the Vanity Universe Team knew or was ignorant of RedZone’s inability to stop copybot’ing. If they are ignorant, well… they are ignorant and not keeping up on SL tech. Many residents have that sin in their resume. But, if they knew…  that is a whole other thing. We may never know which it is.

Boycott?

One may consider boycotting the Vanity Skin Fair, that’s your choice. I’m NOT calling for that. I think you would do better to go to the fair, collect a list of the creators you like and complain to the creators about the dissing of your privacy rights by use of RedZone.

Example letter to creator:

Dear [wonderful_skin_creator_name],

I saw one of your skins at the Vanity Skin Fair that is attractive and I am considering purchasing. However, the hosts of the fair seem to have failed to consider the privacy rights of those visiting the fair. The scanner RedZone was in use (See #1). I am concerned that you too may be using RedZone, CDS, Quickware, or something similar.

I am aware there is a copybot and similar type of theft that is a problem for content creators in SL. I have no idea how that can be handled. I can empathize. But, in my thinking, violation of my privacy rights is not an acceptable solution.

Please let me know if RedZone, CDS, Quickware, or something similar that captures information about my avatar without my permission is in use in your shops.

Thank you, [your_avatar_name]

#1 – http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/47314-zf-redzone-disclosure-secondlife-alts-149.html#post1164274

While you can send such a note and it is obvious they can lie, there are tools like GreenZone that can supposedly detect the scanners. So, there is considerable risk of a horrible backlash if a liar is caught. So, smart shopkeepers are going to be up front and likely to point you to their Market Place store in the event they use something like RedZone. But, this is SL, so expect some drama.

zf redzone

Slow Rez Displays

I personally will be going back to the Vanity Skin Fair. But, I’ll use protection.

 

Protect Yourself

The article RedZone Privacy Issues Develop – Review includes information on how to block RedZone, CDS, and Quickware.

Summary

The problem of content theft and privacy is complex. The problem has not been solved in RL and is an issue for the Internet in general. The music associations have never successfully prevented music DVD’s from being copied. The same for movies and games. If it is digital and can be run on your computer, it can be duplicated and stolen. No one has ever figured out how to protect digital content.

Blaming Linden Lab for failing to protect content reveals one’s ignorance of the problem. That Linden Lab has not found a fool proof solution to a worldwide problem, virtual and RL, is not surprising. Blaming them for not finding a solution is unfair.

That content creators are frustrated is understandable. But, their choosing to disregard the privacy of the majority of honest residents in a vain attempt to prevent copybot thefts is unacceptable. The resulting boycotts are the majority’s answer to such violations.

There are smarter solutions that reduce the theft problem. I have not researched the solutions available, but I have read several. They seem to be effective and I’m not finding much telling me they don’t work.

3 thoughts on “Vanity Skin Fair and RedZone

    • Subtle, but I get your point. Your comment contained an ad hominem slur… which is why I edited it.

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