Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Going off-topic to talk about COPYBOT

Friends, I'm going to deviate from my usual rhetoric, to talk about something that some people in SL just don't seem to understand.

Today, we talk about the EVIL COPYBOT! What makes COPYBOT so evil though? COPYBOT is just a script that makes calls to an outside source and then makes copies of things. But, my point is this, COPYBOT is nothing more then a program or script. Unless someone actually uses it, and then uses it for EVIL, then COPYBOT is nothing more then a script/program.

How COPYBOT is used should not determine if the Creator of COPYBOT is suspended and banned. If Linden Lab is so concerned about COPYBOT, why don't they develop the tools to log its use and find those USING it, instead of going after the Creator?

You see, when you decide to punish someone from the LSL Development community for their work, the rest of the Development Community could be severely hampered. I mean, who wants to stumble on a innovative way to back-up your hard work (building creations) only to find that Linden Lab says you are evil for thinking up something that would do that?

Linden Lab, and everyone else for that matter, shouldn't be crying for the Creator's head, but instead, should be making sure that WHOEVER is using COPYBOT, they are using it in a prescribed manner that is legal.

Just for a point of reference for everyone reading this, I've never USED COPYBOT, never OWNED IT, never even seen it in use. But I still support the free developement of all programs/scripts that we can use in SL to make our lives a little easier. Sure, there will always be people who use these programs for wrong, but does that make the creator evil?

I guess this is just a natural progression from my strong beliefs in FREE SPEECH. While I detest and abhor NAMBLA, I will fight for their right to speak. While I detest and abhor the KKK, I will fight for their right to speak. The minute you curtail one groups right to speak, you curtail us all, and my father and his brothers, didn't fight in a World War so our freedoms could be curtailed.

Let's therefore stop blaming the creator of COPYBOT for making an evil program. The program in and of itself isn't evil or good, it's just a program. The USE of such program though, can be evil or good, but that makes the USER evil or good, not the creator of the program.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree that CopyBot isn't evil unless it's used in an evil way such as copying another's creation without permission...I'd just like to correct you that CopyBot isn't written in LSL, it's written in C#.