Saturday, July 16, 2011
Relay for life event going on now
hey I haven't updated in a while while I've been meaning too, today I would like to encourage my readers to stop by the relay sims and light a luminary and make a donation to help in the fight against cancer, never been to a relay event in SL before? load up secondlife and type RFL in the map search and visit one of the many sims, walk the track and come see the displays setup donate if you got the L$'s and help support the fight against cancer.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Redzone 4 life group
Well it appears zfire xue slipped an alt by the lindens ban against him found a group titled "Redzone4Life" ran by a new account that goes by the name "Redzone4Life resident"
did a search on the group when I heard about it and in the group info it sais:
"Silently we stand in protest to the lie and accusation of Greenzone and their cyber terrorist ways of griefing sims, making sim owners lose business.. TOS VIOLATION!! PRIVACY INVASION!!"
the group barely has any membership, but I think the above wording sounds familiar, given that looking at the patterns and their writing style I think its pretty damned obvious who it is, and then the further spouting of false bullshit makes it even more obvious.
They accuse us of being cyber terrorists but, their the one that made the system that hunts down users and bans those they deem as undesirables falsely as copybot users and mass bans users with shared service such as college users and those from the UAE, and post up websites like the knights of mars website mentioned in a previous post which specializes in account intrusion and cancellation, ToS violation? were not the ones violating section 8.3 of the ToS which sais not to post spyware to the system, also a privacy violation? again were not the ones posting spyware.
and further on as their group states in itself... nuff said
This zf redzone stuff is full of shit and way out of hand and needs to go away, and as we can see zFire Xue is just simply banned from the system where he can go on to create new accounts, again the person behind redzone needs to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent so again like in the previous post, I encourage you people to file a complaint against him with the IC3
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
did a search on the group when I heard about it and in the group info it sais:
"Silently we stand in protest to the lie and accusation of Greenzone and their cyber terrorist ways of griefing sims, making sim owners lose business.. TOS VIOLATION!! PRIVACY INVASION!!"
the group barely has any membership, but I think the above wording sounds familiar, given that looking at the patterns and their writing style I think its pretty damned obvious who it is, and then the further spouting of false bullshit makes it even more obvious.
They accuse us of being cyber terrorists but, their the one that made the system that hunts down users and bans those they deem as undesirables falsely as copybot users and mass bans users with shared service such as college users and those from the UAE, and post up websites like the knights of mars website mentioned in a previous post which specializes in account intrusion and cancellation, ToS violation? were not the ones violating section 8.3 of the ToS which sais not to post spyware to the system, also a privacy violation? again were not the ones posting spyware.
and further on as their group states in itself... nuff said
This zf redzone stuff is full of shit and way out of hand and needs to go away, and as we can see zFire Xue is just simply banned from the system where he can go on to create new accounts, again the person behind redzone needs to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent so again like in the previous post, I encourage you people to file a complaint against him with the IC3
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
zfire xue gone from secondlife, how you can help keep him away!
not trying to take credit for zfire xues removal but this Tuesday he was removed, the Monday morning before I had filed a complaint with IC3(FBI's Internet crime complaints division) and had cited my own blog and some of the other blogs which gave details on his various violations against your privacy, with this as I would like to give special thanks to no2redzone, greenzone mouthpiece, forceme silverspar, and the many others who protested against these privacy violations sold under the guise of being a security system.
with that said I know its kinda beating a dead horse... but best to make sure its dead, I've decided even though the Lindens have removed zFire Xue, I'm not going to rescind my complaint with the IC3 in case it hasn't been seen, as a matter of fact it might be a good idea to file your own complaints against zfire xue as well and leave your blogs up with the evidence against him they contain, what he did was a pretty serious crime in the first place, and the more info that came out the more serious it obviously was, I'm hoping his removal was FBI crackdown, and I'm hoping he does some jail-time for this(it would certainly keep him out of the hair of the secondlife community for a while), but with the lindens keeping quiet on his removal there is no way to be sure exactly who made the final decision to kick him out the door and what evidence it was that lead to his downfall.
Also thanks to no2redzone blog and others we know he has a criminal record for fraud over ebay... no doubt zfire will be back at it again if he isn't locked up, so even though hes gone, I encourage those who have detailed knowledge of his criminal activity.... file a complaint and help keep him away!
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
with that said I know its kinda beating a dead horse... but best to make sure its dead, I've decided even though the Lindens have removed zFire Xue, I'm not going to rescind my complaint with the IC3 in case it hasn't been seen, as a matter of fact it might be a good idea to file your own complaints against zfire xue as well and leave your blogs up with the evidence against him they contain, what he did was a pretty serious crime in the first place, and the more info that came out the more serious it obviously was, I'm hoping his removal was FBI crackdown, and I'm hoping he does some jail-time for this(it would certainly keep him out of the hair of the secondlife community for a while), but with the lindens keeping quiet on his removal there is no way to be sure exactly who made the final decision to kick him out the door and what evidence it was that lead to his downfall.
Also thanks to no2redzone blog and others we know he has a criminal record for fraud over ebay... no doubt zfire will be back at it again if he isn't locked up, so even though hes gone, I encourage those who have detailed knowledge of his criminal activity.... file a complaint and help keep him away!
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Might be time to celebrate!
Just got a notice in the group "green zone users"
"""
As far as we know, the Redzone devices are no longer "phoning home". We have not heard anything official but there is no longer the need to post redzone places in group chat or talk to parcel owners.
Redzone users are likely confused right now so lets not add to their stress. It appears as though zfire xue is no longer a member of the SL community. We will keep you informaed as we know more. Remember, we are the good guys, ok???
"""
just did a search on him(zfire xue), and his sales associate(theBoris Gothly) their both gone! no longer listed! perhaps kaput!
I would still be cautious around the redzone orbs though.
"""
As far as we know, the Redzone devices are no longer "phoning home". We have not heard anything official but there is no longer the need to post redzone places in group chat or talk to parcel owners.
Redzone users are likely confused right now so lets not add to their stress. It appears as though zfire xue is no longer a member of the SL community. We will keep you informaed as we know more. Remember, we are the good guys, ok???
"""
just did a search on him(zfire xue), and his sales associate(theBoris Gothly) their both gone! no longer listed! perhaps kaput!
I would still be cautious around the redzone orbs though.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Change your password!
I Don't know how many of you watched the phoenix office hours when they announced their release of the media filter feature, but In it they state that they are neutral to redzone, I've always been suspicious of phoenix viewer and Don't use it myself, due to all the fiasco's that happened with Emerald and the retaining of the devs who didn't have their reputation spoiled by the emerald incident, So I've always been cautious about phoenix, So I haven't been considering it for use. anyhow did you feel their statements were neutral? while the speech was made to seem neutral I don't know if the tone was neutral throughout the speech made with stuff like Greenzone attacking redzone users. Greenzone is not an attack group but a protest group so when watching it with friends, I did have some nasty things to say but kept it to myself, however at the end of the speech and the Q&A on phoenix's media filter, they stated that they would be posting further info on the phoenix Blog at http://www.phoenixviewer.com/ there is a post titled "Media Filter" Dated Tue, 08 Mar 2011 that has a statement like this:
"""
I would kindly ask you to not discuss the Redzone debate in our in world support groups or contact our support people in its regard as it cripples our ability to provide support to our users who need it and has nothing to do with our project. Instead, discussions about Redzone should be taken to the Redzone Forums here:http://isellsl.ath.cx/madsci/forum/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=f38c40179f37209231be6a3f63c254eb.
"""
while It's not the intent to criticize phoenix in this blog post unfortunately some needs to be said, back when it was called Emerald I had suggested on their forums adding a media filter support and had to deal with trolls as a result. but the above statement, linking to the ISellSL forums and saying take the discussion here.... that was either Malicious or stupid and suggesting to take the discussion there kind of circumvents a good reason to have the media filter, but anyhow as said before the target of this blog post is not phoenix so I will not go into further detail about it, however when I first discovered redzone, I contacted theBoris Gothly and asked some questions about it as though a potential customer to confirm my suspicions, and then told him that it was a violation of privacy law, he got pissed off and after a while suggested I take it up with a rigged privacy poll they had at the same time, I stated I knew better than to sign up for your forums and why which lead to more bickering and cutting off the conversation but I always found it kind of suspicious that he was so up front about getting me to sign up for their forums to hit their privacy poll...
onto the next subject, back when emerald engaged in datamining they had linked the alt accounts of users within their own database along with IP's and some additional info, While I don't exactly like Alphaville, you can see a list of usernames that they had gathered information on(stripped of the info of course) here:
http://alphavilleherald.com/2010/05/emerald-devs-modular-systems-data-mine-tracks-16740-avatars.html
hit ctrl F if your browser doesn't flip out from huge name list and freeze and search for a name you know or a friend you may be concerned about but look at this too, search for linden, they've gathered data on the Lindens too, while Lindens can make themselves invisible to scripts, this isn't an always on functionality as they have managed to gather up info on various lindens
Well now as of Late and onto the point.... I got another link the other night:
http://no2redzone.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/zfire-xue-admits-he-hacks-sl-accounts/
give it a read through, this is exactly why I thought it would be stupid to sign up for an account on his forums, apparently one of those videos you can only display to certain people on youtube, or something of the like was discovered where zfire xue states something about getting into SL accounts.... but onto the point, it's his forum, whatever info you submit, can be viewed by zFire Xue, this includes IP address Forum Username password and anything else you submit, essentially you can sign up with a different name on the forums, and have it linked up to the IP redzone has logged, also apparently according to no2redzone blog zfire xue has been keeping record of the password his forum users use, and passwords that they have incorrectly typed in(we all know some people accidentally enter the wrong password on the wrong service), this way he can harvest the passwords of not only users who re-use passwords between many services, but also people who keep track of many passwords and occasionally enter the wrong one in the wrong service, or enter several passwords until they use the one they signed up for that service with.
what phoenix did, suggesting the argument goes to his forum, its really stupid, and anyone who took the advice, just the same, but now also I think if any redzone users have their secondlife accounts broken into, it serves them right, but with that all said, if there is password theft going on as suggested by no2redzone, how long do you think its going to be until he gets a linden detected by his redzone? bet lindens have alternate accounts, and I bet some of them use the same password between their home account and their work account, and login from both accounts at their home, now think of this, the Lindens on their off hours are like everyone else, hell some probably spend their time in SL doing what everyone else does, and some may even use the forums on the ISellSL website. Honestly, I think with Linden Labs turning their head up at the redzone issue by not banning zFire xue and theBoris Gothly, and the few others who have created spyware services like them, I think it's only a matter of time until someone gains administrative access who shouldnt have it, and I say this from personal experience. when setting up a network for a school 90% of the users of that network, used the same password in regards to every account it involved, and 90% of those users had obvious and easy to guess passwords, hell some users even had the same password with the teachers using obvious school supply related passwords.
Moral of the story...
Use a different password for everything! If you Accidentally type a password you use for something else into the wrong service, consider your account compromised and change your password!
EDIT:
Just got this link thought maybe everyone reading this should see:
http://alphavilleherald.com/2011/03/zf-redzone-security-breached-sl-passwords-compromised.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlphavilleHerald+%28Alphaville+Herald%29
EDIT+:
From:https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746?
WARNING:Potentially dangerous URL below
Google cache of "Knights of Mars" FAQ page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uhxAnqgoaDwJ:knightsofmars.com/kom/faq.php+knights+of+mars+faq&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com Note second item where it admits it violates SL TOS.
Now check out this photo of an error on that site: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/attachments/general-sl-discussion/18823d1299953237-redzone-epic-thread-part-deux-zfirekom.jpg Note isellSL domain, which is also the host for RedZone.
@Unya Tigerfish - There's your confession.
EDIT++: added Note "Knights of Mars" URL is potentially dangerous
Kinda makes me wonder if zfire xue has already intruded on a linden account
"""
I would kindly ask you to not discuss the Redzone debate in our in world support groups or contact our support people in its regard as it cripples our ability to provide support to our users who need it and has nothing to do with our project. Instead, discussions about Redzone should be taken to the Redzone Forums here:http://isellsl.ath.cx/madsci/forum/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=f38c40179f37209231be6a3f63c254eb.
"""
while It's not the intent to criticize phoenix in this blog post unfortunately some needs to be said, back when it was called Emerald I had suggested on their forums adding a media filter support and had to deal with trolls as a result. but the above statement, linking to the ISellSL forums and saying take the discussion here.... that was either Malicious or stupid and suggesting to take the discussion there kind of circumvents a good reason to have the media filter, but anyhow as said before the target of this blog post is not phoenix so I will not go into further detail about it, however when I first discovered redzone, I contacted theBoris Gothly and asked some questions about it as though a potential customer to confirm my suspicions, and then told him that it was a violation of privacy law, he got pissed off and after a while suggested I take it up with a rigged privacy poll they had at the same time, I stated I knew better than to sign up for your forums and why which lead to more bickering and cutting off the conversation but I always found it kind of suspicious that he was so up front about getting me to sign up for their forums to hit their privacy poll...
onto the next subject, back when emerald engaged in datamining they had linked the alt accounts of users within their own database along with IP's and some additional info, While I don't exactly like Alphaville, you can see a list of usernames that they had gathered information on(stripped of the info of course) here:
http://alphavilleherald.com/2010/05/emerald-devs-modular-systems-data-mine-tracks-16740-avatars.html
hit ctrl F if your browser doesn't flip out from huge name list and freeze and search for a name you know or a friend you may be concerned about but look at this too, search for linden, they've gathered data on the Lindens too, while Lindens can make themselves invisible to scripts, this isn't an always on functionality as they have managed to gather up info on various lindens
Well now as of Late and onto the point.... I got another link the other night:
http://no2redzone.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/zfire-xue-admits-he-hacks-sl-accounts/
give it a read through, this is exactly why I thought it would be stupid to sign up for an account on his forums, apparently one of those videos you can only display to certain people on youtube, or something of the like was discovered where zfire xue states something about getting into SL accounts.... but onto the point, it's his forum, whatever info you submit, can be viewed by zFire Xue, this includes IP address Forum Username password and anything else you submit, essentially you can sign up with a different name on the forums, and have it linked up to the IP redzone has logged, also apparently according to no2redzone blog zfire xue has been keeping record of the password his forum users use, and passwords that they have incorrectly typed in(we all know some people accidentally enter the wrong password on the wrong service), this way he can harvest the passwords of not only users who re-use passwords between many services, but also people who keep track of many passwords and occasionally enter the wrong one in the wrong service, or enter several passwords until they use the one they signed up for that service with.
what phoenix did, suggesting the argument goes to his forum, its really stupid, and anyone who took the advice, just the same, but now also I think if any redzone users have their secondlife accounts broken into, it serves them right, but with that all said, if there is password theft going on as suggested by no2redzone, how long do you think its going to be until he gets a linden detected by his redzone? bet lindens have alternate accounts, and I bet some of them use the same password between their home account and their work account, and login from both accounts at their home, now think of this, the Lindens on their off hours are like everyone else, hell some probably spend their time in SL doing what everyone else does, and some may even use the forums on the ISellSL website. Honestly, I think with Linden Labs turning their head up at the redzone issue by not banning zFire xue and theBoris Gothly, and the few others who have created spyware services like them, I think it's only a matter of time until someone gains administrative access who shouldnt have it, and I say this from personal experience. when setting up a network for a school 90% of the users of that network, used the same password in regards to every account it involved, and 90% of those users had obvious and easy to guess passwords, hell some users even had the same password with the teachers using obvious school supply related passwords.
Moral of the story...
Use a different password for everything! If you Accidentally type a password you use for something else into the wrong service, consider your account compromised and change your password!
EDIT:
Just got this link thought maybe everyone reading this should see:
http://alphavilleherald.com/2011/03/zf-redzone-security-breached-sl-passwords-compromised.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlphavilleHerald+%28Alphaville+Herald%29
EDIT+:
From:https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746?
WARNING:Potentially dangerous URL below
Google cache of "Knights of Mars" FAQ page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uhxAnqgoaDwJ:knightsofmars.com/kom/faq.php+knights+of+mars+faq&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com Note second item where it admits it violates SL TOS.
Now check out this photo of an error on that site: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/attachments/general-sl-discussion/18823d1299953237-redzone-epic-thread-part-deux-zfirekom.jpg Note isellSL domain, which is also the host for RedZone.
@Unya Tigerfish - There's your confession.
EDIT++: added Note "Knights of Mars" URL is potentially dangerous
Kinda makes me wonder if zfire xue has already intruded on a linden account
Monday, March 7, 2011
SL Viewer Survey
Just a couple nights ago I got a viewer survey, but the survey got me thinking about my viewer, and while answering the question I realized the benefits of using a Third Party Viewer were even better than I had ever thought, Anyhow the survey I got asked a lot of good questions, and just today a friend of mine passed it around to me so obviously this thing is getting around pretty good, but why not take the survey and share your opinion about the viewer you use.
http://www12.georgetown.edu/students/lsh25
http://www12.georgetown.edu/students/lsh25
Friday, March 4, 2011
zfires other terms and privacy violations
Well Redzone disappeared from marketplace... and re-appeared again only to be taken down for further violations, anyhow a friend of mine bixyl who normally doesn't cover redzone covered it in his own blog and did quite a good story on it which you can find in the URL below for further reading:
http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2011/03/linden-labs-acts-against-redzone.html
Anyhow as a response to the removal zfire started a online survey at:
http://isellsl.ath.cx/survey.php
It started off with public access and public view and started off with the below statement:
"""Welcome ,
We would like to ask you for your opinion, ideas and support.
In an effort to show Linden Labs Inc that security matters, and paying customers have a right to security,
Please fill out this surrvy for information that will be shared with Linden Labs.
Our goal is to show LL what is stands to gain from Tier paying creators, rather then a group of griefers and crimnals with something to hide.
We will do it without the cagers, orbiters, deformers, particles, harassment, DDOS, false ARs, hate blog lists, and IM spammers used by Greenzone.
We will display how much Linden Labs stands to gain by listening to Content Creators and paying users who demand security!
So check back later for real time results!"""
I found out about this survey because aside from it spamming all the owners of his illegal product to take the survey, some of the owners of the redzone device even went as far as to spam the group "green zone users", anyhow as per usual yet again, I filed yet another AR against zfire xue, this time for defaming individuals and groups, as he makes the false accusation that those who aren't users of his product are criminals. and if you've seen the previous posts in my blog you know hes in violation of privacy laws, so really who is the criminal? well checked back up on that to get a copy of it for todays blog post, found out I had to get a copy of it from my chat history from someone else I showed the statement to, as the survey is closed to only access of redzone users now, I guess he wasn't getting the results he wanted so he needed to close it off from the public, but really lets take a look at something else, remember when emerald viewer got banned? they got just one single chance to correct their activity, and they were then banned. for those who are new to SL and just tuning in Emerald is a viewer, that was previously used to commit DDoS attacks against a website, that also contained a driver that was licensed solely to Linden Labs use, and some members of their team engaged in privacy violating activity much like redzone does, by using their sims parcel media to link avatar alts together... so really I wonder... why is someone whos violating user privacy, and griefing those who dont scan correctly in his redzone system getting so many extra chances, and not outright banned from secondlife? his violations of privacy aren't just a single sim like the emerald team did, but rather violates privacy across several parcels and sims and links across many sims. but why does this guy get so many chances? It's a bunch of bull if you ask me, he really should be banned as he has violated user privacy in secondlife on a larger scale than anyone else.
but browsing theBoris Gothly's Secondlife Marketplace listings, the sales associate of zfire Xue I see other item listings which are quite questionable such as "Ring of Burning Death" which orbits people intentionally or ejects them from the sim leaving a burning pile of screaming bones in place of the user, I thought extremely violent items were supposed to be marked as adult and those specific for griefing weren't supposed to be listed at all. Also there is the zf 1911 pistol, yet another extremely violent weapon which turns users into a screaming bleeding mass of bones, yet again, not flagged as adult. There is also the logo for the Sit Script builder, Does anyone know who the copyright holder is for the art used to advertise it on secondlife marketplace? I really doubt the person using it is one in the same. Also Last but not least there is Also zFire Full Sim Scanner with features like quoted from the ad "Orbit (2 types, Nasty or Evil LOL) " , "Expando Foam! Lag Causing cage sphere! ", and "Full Sim Intercom! " you might not think full sim intercom is so bad, but really it goes both ways and is more like a chat spy, while I don't own one of these myself, zfire yet again, has the gall to advertise his illegal activities within secondlife. viewing the screenshots there is a picture of it in action displaying chat of remote avatars in hovertext with quotes such as "cant have a peepshow without popcorn!"
anyhow heres the screenshot here, I dunno whether links to secondlife marketplace product pictures are temporary or persistent but currently at time of posting you can view the snapshot here:
https://d1ij7zv8zivhs3.cloudfront.net/assets/1055050/view_large/1c8004f8e4140969c88df122bdaedaeb.jpg?1277186121
if not the product listing is here where you can click the screenshot and see the further privacy violation in action:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/zFire-Full-Sim-Scanner-v246-Eject-Ban-Orbit-Monitor-full-sim-instant-TP-Fog-Intercom-Anima/947484
It's the screenshot with the red text that sais "watch everything"
http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2011/03/linden-labs-acts-against-redzone.html
Anyhow as a response to the removal zfire started a online survey at:
http://isellsl.ath.cx/survey.php
It started off with public access and public view and started off with the below statement:
"""Welcome ,
We would like to ask you for your opinion, ideas and support.
In an effort to show Linden Labs Inc that security matters, and paying customers have a right to security,
Please fill out this surrvy for information that will be shared with Linden Labs.
Our goal is to show LL what is stands to gain from Tier paying creators, rather then a group of griefers and crimnals with something to hide.
We will do it without the cagers, orbiters, deformers, particles, harassment, DDOS, false ARs, hate blog lists, and IM spammers used by Greenzone.
We will display how much Linden Labs stands to gain by listening to Content Creators and paying users who demand security!
So check back later for real time results!"""
I found out about this survey because aside from it spamming all the owners of his illegal product to take the survey, some of the owners of the redzone device even went as far as to spam the group "green zone users", anyhow as per usual yet again, I filed yet another AR against zfire xue, this time for defaming individuals and groups, as he makes the false accusation that those who aren't users of his product are criminals. and if you've seen the previous posts in my blog you know hes in violation of privacy laws, so really who is the criminal? well checked back up on that to get a copy of it for todays blog post, found out I had to get a copy of it from my chat history from someone else I showed the statement to, as the survey is closed to only access of redzone users now, I guess he wasn't getting the results he wanted so he needed to close it off from the public, but really lets take a look at something else, remember when emerald viewer got banned? they got just one single chance to correct their activity, and they were then banned. for those who are new to SL and just tuning in Emerald is a viewer, that was previously used to commit DDoS attacks against a website, that also contained a driver that was licensed solely to Linden Labs use, and some members of their team engaged in privacy violating activity much like redzone does, by using their sims parcel media to link avatar alts together... so really I wonder... why is someone whos violating user privacy, and griefing those who dont scan correctly in his redzone system getting so many extra chances, and not outright banned from secondlife? his violations of privacy aren't just a single sim like the emerald team did, but rather violates privacy across several parcels and sims and links across many sims. but why does this guy get so many chances? It's a bunch of bull if you ask me, he really should be banned as he has violated user privacy in secondlife on a larger scale than anyone else.
but browsing theBoris Gothly's Secondlife Marketplace listings, the sales associate of zfire Xue I see other item listings which are quite questionable such as "Ring of Burning Death" which orbits people intentionally or ejects them from the sim leaving a burning pile of screaming bones in place of the user, I thought extremely violent items were supposed to be marked as adult and those specific for griefing weren't supposed to be listed at all. Also there is the zf 1911 pistol, yet another extremely violent weapon which turns users into a screaming bleeding mass of bones, yet again, not flagged as adult. There is also the logo for the Sit Script builder, Does anyone know who the copyright holder is for the art used to advertise it on secondlife marketplace? I really doubt the person using it is one in the same. Also Last but not least there is Also zFire Full Sim Scanner with features like quoted from the ad "Orbit (2 types, Nasty or Evil LOL) " , "Expando Foam! Lag Causing cage sphere! ", and "Full Sim Intercom! " you might not think full sim intercom is so bad, but really it goes both ways and is more like a chat spy, while I don't own one of these myself, zfire yet again, has the gall to advertise his illegal activities within secondlife. viewing the screenshots there is a picture of it in action displaying chat of remote avatars in hovertext with quotes such as "cant have a peepshow without popcorn!"
anyhow heres the screenshot here, I dunno whether links to secondlife marketplace product pictures are temporary or persistent but currently at time of posting you can view the snapshot here:
https://d1ij7zv8zivhs3.cloudfront.net/assets/1055050/view_large/1c8004f8e4140969c88df122bdaedaeb.jpg?1277186121
if not the product listing is here where you can click the screenshot and see the further privacy violation in action:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/zFire-Full-Sim-Scanner-v246-Eject-Ban-Orbit-Monitor-full-sim-instant-TP-Fog-Intercom-Anima/947484
It's the screenshot with the red text that sais "watch everything"
Friday, February 18, 2011
Redzone Dissapears from secondlife marketplace and Aventity Issues a Public Apology
Well I looked up secondlife marketplace today and did a search for redzone, it no longer shows, is this Linden Labs taking action finally? or a ploy by zfire xue to get the userbase off his back about privacy violations? you decide,I've seen things disappear from marketplace and users assume something was done about it for the content that was supposedly removed to be reposted, so user beware its too early to celebrate just yet.
Also today I viewed my blog and saw a user by the name of chef had left me a comment slandering me to be an alt of a supposed age player that I know nothing about, dunno how I defend myself against that being accused of being someone I know nothing about but it really goes to show what effectiveness redzone lacks I decided I would reply to them and point out their fallacy as I've been blogging against this redzone thing longer than this person they accused me of being has perhaps been banned, also as a result I contacted Mephitis Jezebel the owner of Aventity/Chimera regarding the slander her partner posted in my topic, and I will admit I did have a nasty choice of words against her but it was reasonable and to the point and the point was to notify her that if I was harassed by any member of Aventity any further I would be turning over an IC3 complaint for the violation, she did agree with me that the reaction of this user called chef her partner was inappropriate, and stated she got rid of Redzone soon as she realized it was a violation during the conversation with her there was a Vixen Resident who had a nasty attitude and was unreasonable so they've been muted as well as chef being banned from some sims we don't want Redzones HUD being used in. Anyhow I discussed the privacy violation with her and the harassment issue from her groupies and she apologized and stated about the removal of the Redzone orb and stated she hadn't used it for quite some time when someone else notified her of the violations. after the discussion she said she would be sending out a notice apologizing to her customers, I don't know if shes passing this apology to her customers on database, or her group or avatar makers guild or what but I asked for a copy of this apology and received a notecard titled "A public apology" as such I will Post a copy of this apology here:
"
It's recently come to my attention that a lot of people are worried (and rightfully upset) at me for choosing to use zfRedZone (a security orb that advertises its ability to ban copybotters and their alts) in the past. The only reason I used this system was to prevent an onslaught of copybotters from continuing to target products at .:chimera:.. The zfRedZone orb was only rezzed for a short period of time, was promptly deleted when a few people told me it violated ToS, and hasn't been rezzed for months. However, I want to personally apologize to everyone who had been logged by this system during the time it was active. It was not my intention at all to violate anyone's privacy.
For a more in-depth understanding of what I'm talking about, I would like to forward you all to Treminari's blog entries regarding security systems such as zfRedZone.
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/aventity-chimera-uses-zf-redzone-which.html
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/07/spywaretos-and-legal-violation-in.html
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/zf-redzone-can-disrupt-secondlife.html
In closing, I want to reassure all of you that .:chimera:. and the sim it's located in (Ascendant) has not used zfRedZone for months. We do not use any type of loggin/security system, and never will.
"
Anyhow she sent this to me and stated that she would be sending this out to others whether or not she has done it I don't know. As It's titled a public apology I assume its public and have duplicated it here, if your a past or current customer of Aventity you can choose whether or not to accept this apology and decide whether or not its sufficient. I'm not one for holding grudges except where its warranted like Zfire Xue, but I dunno if this is enough and while I was considering getting an Aventity white fox before taking notice to this in addition to some of their other well designed avatars, I've got mixed feelings for such a violation as when I first discovered Redzone on marketplace for myself considering the privacy violation and slander from her business partner, but it was my common sense that said it was illegal when I found it on Xstreet and lead me to researching it and finding it was in Violation of ToS 8.3 and BPC22575-22579. I'm still quite upset about the violation and Don't know whether or not I will return as a customer or not myself, I tend to collect lots of avatars and such, My hope is that Aventity at least shows better discretion in the future when using questionable countermeasures and that other content creators do the same, there are ways users can legally defend themselves from copybot clients such as reporting Piracy of their Content to the IC3 which is actually the FBI's internet crimes division and filing DMCA reports properly with Linden Labs, as avatar creators are copyright holders their rights are as the music industry has when they themselves sue over piracy, I do believe those who steal content should be held up to the same standards and strung up by the balls so to say with lawsuits just like the music industry does those who steal music, but also believe they have the same responsibility to defend themselves with legal means rather than this frontier justice style bullshit, and not take matters into their own hands making the situation worse for everyone else, I see zf Redzones spyware service the same as Sony did with their rootkits in a lawsuit which you can read about here: http://news.cnet.com/Sony-settles-rootkit-class-action-lawsuit/2100-1002_3-6012173.html as you can see there is such a thing as crossing the line and doing whatever you can to defend your product might not always be legal. I'm not saying you should go out and sue content creators who have used this illegal product, as their fears have been played on by zfire xue and they may or may not know what their doing is legal, but if their common sense doesn't say its sensible they need to learn and I would question their sense of ethics, and zfire xue is the operator of the database of this illegal service, so I really feel all responsibility for the privacy violations should fall on Him as he created and marketed this illegal product and is the one turning a profit from the exploit, also as a final note before closing, you content creators who use this product, really should think about it and consider my previous posts, It didn't protect Aventity as I stated in a previous blog post, it got me upset with them, and I'm sure I'm not the only customer they've lost as a result, and redzone is quite careless with the Bans it issues as you can see with the post about it disrupting service for UAE users, so your failing to kick copybots and kicking out legit customers which could potentially up your profits, but what I want you to consider is something most important of all which I will explain in more detail in a later post, by using redzone and settling for a half baked solution, your distracting from a legitimate and effective solution which may actually work by making others who might design a better solution settling for something less, so in essence, you really only help the copybot problem and put yourself at risk of upsetting and losing your customers. And as stated by aventity in this case “rightfully upset” customers.
Also today I viewed my blog and saw a user by the name of chef had left me a comment slandering me to be an alt of a supposed age player that I know nothing about, dunno how I defend myself against that being accused of being someone I know nothing about but it really goes to show what effectiveness redzone lacks I decided I would reply to them and point out their fallacy as I've been blogging against this redzone thing longer than this person they accused me of being has perhaps been banned, also as a result I contacted Mephitis Jezebel the owner of Aventity/Chimera regarding the slander her partner posted in my topic, and I will admit I did have a nasty choice of words against her but it was reasonable and to the point and the point was to notify her that if I was harassed by any member of Aventity any further I would be turning over an IC3 complaint for the violation, she did agree with me that the reaction of this user called chef her partner was inappropriate, and stated she got rid of Redzone soon as she realized it was a violation during the conversation with her there was a Vixen Resident who had a nasty attitude and was unreasonable so they've been muted as well as chef being banned from some sims we don't want Redzones HUD being used in. Anyhow I discussed the privacy violation with her and the harassment issue from her groupies and she apologized and stated about the removal of the Redzone orb and stated she hadn't used it for quite some time when someone else notified her of the violations. after the discussion she said she would be sending out a notice apologizing to her customers, I don't know if shes passing this apology to her customers on database, or her group or avatar makers guild or what but I asked for a copy of this apology and received a notecard titled "A public apology" as such I will Post a copy of this apology here:
"
It's recently come to my attention that a lot of people are worried (and rightfully upset) at me for choosing to use zfRedZone (a security orb that advertises its ability to ban copybotters and their alts) in the past. The only reason I used this system was to prevent an onslaught of copybotters from continuing to target products at .:chimera:.. The zfRedZone orb was only rezzed for a short period of time, was promptly deleted when a few people told me it violated ToS, and hasn't been rezzed for months. However, I want to personally apologize to everyone who had been logged by this system during the time it was active. It was not my intention at all to violate anyone's privacy.
For a more in-depth understanding of what I'm talking about, I would like to forward you all to Treminari's blog entries regarding security systems such as zfRedZone.
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/aventity-chimera-uses-zf-redzone-which.html
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/07/spywaretos-and-legal-violation-in.html
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/zf-redzone-can-disrupt-secondlife.html
In closing, I want to reassure all of you that .:chimera:. and the sim it's located in (Ascendant) has not used zfRedZone for months. We do not use any type of loggin/security system, and never will.
"
Anyhow she sent this to me and stated that she would be sending this out to others whether or not she has done it I don't know. As It's titled a public apology I assume its public and have duplicated it here, if your a past or current customer of Aventity you can choose whether or not to accept this apology and decide whether or not its sufficient. I'm not one for holding grudges except where its warranted like Zfire Xue, but I dunno if this is enough and while I was considering getting an Aventity white fox before taking notice to this in addition to some of their other well designed avatars, I've got mixed feelings for such a violation as when I first discovered Redzone on marketplace for myself considering the privacy violation and slander from her business partner, but it was my common sense that said it was illegal when I found it on Xstreet and lead me to researching it and finding it was in Violation of ToS 8.3 and BPC22575-22579. I'm still quite upset about the violation and Don't know whether or not I will return as a customer or not myself, I tend to collect lots of avatars and such, My hope is that Aventity at least shows better discretion in the future when using questionable countermeasures and that other content creators do the same, there are ways users can legally defend themselves from copybot clients such as reporting Piracy of their Content to the IC3 which is actually the FBI's internet crimes division and filing DMCA reports properly with Linden Labs, as avatar creators are copyright holders their rights are as the music industry has when they themselves sue over piracy, I do believe those who steal content should be held up to the same standards and strung up by the balls so to say with lawsuits just like the music industry does those who steal music, but also believe they have the same responsibility to defend themselves with legal means rather than this frontier justice style bullshit, and not take matters into their own hands making the situation worse for everyone else, I see zf Redzones spyware service the same as Sony did with their rootkits in a lawsuit which you can read about here: http://news.cnet.com/Sony-settles-rootkit-class-action-lawsuit/2100-1002_3-6012173.html as you can see there is such a thing as crossing the line and doing whatever you can to defend your product might not always be legal. I'm not saying you should go out and sue content creators who have used this illegal product, as their fears have been played on by zfire xue and they may or may not know what their doing is legal, but if their common sense doesn't say its sensible they need to learn and I would question their sense of ethics, and zfire xue is the operator of the database of this illegal service, so I really feel all responsibility for the privacy violations should fall on Him as he created and marketed this illegal product and is the one turning a profit from the exploit, also as a final note before closing, you content creators who use this product, really should think about it and consider my previous posts, It didn't protect Aventity as I stated in a previous blog post, it got me upset with them, and I'm sure I'm not the only customer they've lost as a result, and redzone is quite careless with the Bans it issues as you can see with the post about it disrupting service for UAE users, so your failing to kick copybots and kicking out legit customers which could potentially up your profits, but what I want you to consider is something most important of all which I will explain in more detail in a later post, by using redzone and settling for a half baked solution, your distracting from a legitimate and effective solution which may actually work by making others who might design a better solution settling for something less, so in essence, you really only help the copybot problem and put yourself at risk of upsetting and losing your customers. And as stated by aventity in this case “rightfully upset” customers.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Geo Location and beyond
Well we all know what geo-location is.... but thats an assumption, so I will explain it in brief, its a Process of tracking a packet across the Internet and reading the information on Internet routers in order to see where the packet goes, this process can locate city and state a user lives in, but may be inaccurate as far as city goes and may identify a city nearby, for example running a Geo Location service against me, would identify me as a user from Victorville California, While not from Victorville, It's so to say only a stones throw away from me, as we know zfire xue with their redzone product goes as far as to use Geo Location against a user, Well many ISP's have hoped to bring advertising to users to a more local level, not just simply ad's like" burn baby burn" for CD Burning software anyone can order, or "Hot girls in Victorville are looking for you" for a town that is likely the users residence or close by, but bringing users ad's for their local Grocery store or the like, Well some ISP's have figured out a way to share enough information to bring users more localized ad's in their web browsing experience, so that they could get a cut of the advertising revenue, while normally I provide links to news sites I've read and whatnot I feel it would be best to leave out this in the case of this blog article is read by privacy violators, however I would like to note, that if your ISP is involved in this advertising program or one of its affiliates, it is possible through HTTP requests such as those used by secondlifes media that an advertiser, or somebody wishing to violate privacy such as Redzone to obtain more detailed information. However unfortunately as it appears such privacy violating systems does not use such info(it would be more accurate than using an IP address as redzone does) I wont name or explain this system in detail or at all for that matter, however, I will say this much, I emailed a Linden involved with Linden Labs security the same article I read for their viewing and told them what Jira articles it related to VWR-21305, VWR-24746, and VWR-17044 and described to them why this is such a threat to users, to give an Idea as to how accurate this information is, where as I said Victorville is a stones throw from my home, the information revealed by ISP's involved in this advertising program can put someone within a half hours walking distance of my home, and also allow such privacy violators to know exactly the very post office I visit!
Anyhow, I would like to apologize for the lack of detail in this blogpost, and the lack of my usual transparency where I Provide links to my information sources, but I'm trying to avoid giving instructions as to how to do this, how to use this information, and avoid providing a means to see how, the only person I've told in Full Detail the potential nastiness for this exploit is the particular Linden I emailed, but I thought I would say the potential violation of privacy with this issue, again I apologize for the sloppy writing but its difficult when ommitting potentially abusable details.
Anyhow, I would like to apologize for the lack of detail in this blogpost, and the lack of my usual transparency where I Provide links to my information sources, but I'm trying to avoid giving instructions as to how to do this, how to use this information, and avoid providing a means to see how, the only person I've told in Full Detail the potential nastiness for this exploit is the particular Linden I emailed, but I thought I would say the potential violation of privacy with this issue, again I apologize for the sloppy writing but its difficult when ommitting potentially abusable details.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A couple Jira topics In Need of votes
Well theres a Jira topic that suggests fixing the issue that allows redzone to happen and yet another Jira topic suggesting we get rid of zf redzone, you can view and vote for both topics here:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-17044
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746
I noticed these both on the greenzone mouthpiece blog which you can view here:
http://greenzonemouthpiece.blogspot.com/?zx=c7242f21b6dfe88
anyhow In the topic suggesting a ban of redzone if you view the comments section you can see oz linden commenting that this is not a viewer issue and should be dealt with support, as we all know support only passes the buck after a week or two if they even get to you at all and sais file an AR where it is promptly ignored, I've filed several notifying LL of zfire xue's illegal activity, but oz linden didn't stop there, he even went as far as to threaten to revoke a Users Jira privileges because supposedly this is not a viewer issue, even though this is related to a security hole in the viewers media functionality
"Oz Linden added a comment - 08/Feb/11 12:54 PM
Regardless... this is still not a viewer issue.
If you reopen this here, your Jira privileges will be revoked."
given the extended time Linden Labs has not responded to the privacy violation issues and the stance a Linden has taken and the number of notices they have ignored regarding the illegal activity taking place on their servers, and numerous ignored abuse reports from me and many other secondlife users, it might be a good idea to start taking our complaints outside of secondlife and to organizations such as the FTC, IC3, BBB, and filing the complaints against Linden Labs itself, as redzone is not the only privacy violating tool on secondlife, I hear a system called CDS does the same thing as redzone and yet another system cropped up that does the same thing I found myself called quickware alts pro, if you know of another organization that handles such criminal activity inside or outside the US that might handle such complaints, other privacy laws these illegal tools violate inside or outside the US(like BPC22575-22579), feel free to leave a comment get it some mention and perhaps get this bad situation dealt with
Edit:Found an additional Jira article that addresses this issue:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-21305
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-17044
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746
I noticed these both on the greenzone mouthpiece blog which you can view here:
http://greenzonemouthpiece.blogspot.com/?zx=c7242f21b6dfe88
anyhow In the topic suggesting a ban of redzone if you view the comments section you can see oz linden commenting that this is not a viewer issue and should be dealt with support, as we all know support only passes the buck after a week or two if they even get to you at all and sais file an AR where it is promptly ignored, I've filed several notifying LL of zfire xue's illegal activity, but oz linden didn't stop there, he even went as far as to threaten to revoke a Users Jira privileges because supposedly this is not a viewer issue, even though this is related to a security hole in the viewers media functionality
"Oz Linden added a comment - 08/Feb/11 12:54 PM
Regardless... this is still not a viewer issue.
If you reopen this here, your Jira privileges will be revoked."
given the extended time Linden Labs has not responded to the privacy violation issues and the stance a Linden has taken and the number of notices they have ignored regarding the illegal activity taking place on their servers, and numerous ignored abuse reports from me and many other secondlife users, it might be a good idea to start taking our complaints outside of secondlife and to organizations such as the FTC, IC3, BBB, and filing the complaints against Linden Labs itself, as redzone is not the only privacy violating tool on secondlife, I hear a system called CDS does the same thing as redzone and yet another system cropped up that does the same thing I found myself called quickware alts pro, if you know of another organization that handles such criminal activity inside or outside the US that might handle such complaints, other privacy laws these illegal tools violate inside or outside the US(like BPC22575-22579), feel free to leave a comment get it some mention and perhaps get this bad situation dealt with
Edit:Found an additional Jira article that addresses this issue:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-21305
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Well this is disturbing
if you've ever confronted zfire xue or theBoris Gothly about privacy violations you've probably gotten the same rant I got, redzone is about protecting businesses in secondlife from copybot and the business owners don't care who your alts are well we all know thats bullshit and...... it gets worse.
http://forcemesilverspar.blogspot.com/2011/02/redzone-warning.html
Give the blog a read through if you have an alt and want any privacy.
so much for that alt I created to keep a separation between my personal and business life on SL.
http://forcemesilverspar.blogspot.com/2011/02/redzone-warning.html
Give the blog a read through if you have an alt and want any privacy.
so much for that alt I created to keep a separation between my personal and business life on SL.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Greenzone a counter Product to Redzone
Well over a week ago I came across a tool called greenzone on secondlife marketplace:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Not-sold-by-me-any-more-Click-to-read-why/1849012
now at:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Detect-zF-RedZone-Keep-your-privacy/1907392
anyhow at first I found it only provided a false sense of security with version 1.8, however I recently attached the tool and it sent an update to version 2.1 its now something I can recommend as I tested it and it seems to work great!
version 1.8 of greenzone had a major flaw, it could only detect redzone orbs within 96m and most users hide theirs high up in the sky and way out of the users reach, this could be a serious problem if your relying on this for security. as it would be likely that redzone spyware would detect a user before the user detected it. this limitation could compromise user security by giving a false sense of security, version 2.1 is much much better, I visited a sim that I knew had the redzone orb that I used to frequent called balcones which hosts the "extreme fetishists club", they have a redzone orb in plain view behind the bar counter of their club, I flew up to about 900m and the greenzone HUD attachment was still alerting me to the presence of a redzone orb.
while the script contained in the tool is no modify which makes me wonder how it works and whether or not its reliable enough to depend on for security(i still would recommend keeping media functionality disabled in your viewer) it does have a much higher chance of alerting you to zfire xues continued illegal activity and ToS violations in secondlife, and better yet, their transferable and copyable, I recommend picking one up from secondlife marketplace if you absolutely must use the media functions in your viewer time to time.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Detect-zF-RedZone-Keep-your-privacy/1907392
EDIT:forgot to mention theres another blog that lists discovered redzone privacy violations.
you can find it here: http://greenzonemouthpiece.blogspot.com/
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Not-sold-by-me-any-more-Click-to-read-why/1849012
now at:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Detect-zF-RedZone-Keep-your-privacy/1907392
anyhow at first I found it only provided a false sense of security with version 1.8, however I recently attached the tool and it sent an update to version 2.1 its now something I can recommend as I tested it and it seems to work great!
version 1.8 of greenzone had a major flaw, it could only detect redzone orbs within 96m and most users hide theirs high up in the sky and way out of the users reach, this could be a serious problem if your relying on this for security. as it would be likely that redzone spyware would detect a user before the user detected it. this limitation could compromise user security by giving a false sense of security, version 2.1 is much much better, I visited a sim that I knew had the redzone orb that I used to frequent called balcones which hosts the "extreme fetishists club", they have a redzone orb in plain view behind the bar counter of their club, I flew up to about 900m and the greenzone HUD attachment was still alerting me to the presence of a redzone orb.
while the script contained in the tool is no modify which makes me wonder how it works and whether or not its reliable enough to depend on for security(i still would recommend keeping media functionality disabled in your viewer) it does have a much higher chance of alerting you to zfire xues continued illegal activity and ToS violations in secondlife, and better yet, their transferable and copyable, I recommend picking one up from secondlife marketplace if you absolutely must use the media functions in your viewer time to time.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GreenZone-Detect-zF-RedZone-Keep-your-privacy/1907392
EDIT:forgot to mention theres another blog that lists discovered redzone privacy violations.
you can find it here: http://greenzonemouthpiece.blogspot.com/
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