There has been an ongoing controversy within the greenzone users group... many suspect some of voodoo's products to violate your privacy much in the same way redzone did... some members herald it as the second redzone while others are indifferent to it, Don't know what voodoo products are? their a couple of blacklisting products related to sploders and clubs, there are a couple of articles about them on both sides of the controversy which I feel provide an accurate assessment as to what voodoo is:
http://forcemesilverspar.blogspot.com/2011/08/voodoooooo-magic.html?zx=434fbb899ab14566
http://www.examiner.com/second-life-in-national/voodoo-anti-bot-detection-software-police-protection-for-bingo-traffic
anyhow there is a debate as to whether or not it's functionality is redzone like, like on forceme's blog voodoo sploders need their users to check in which includes being sent to a website to be checked out which users can opt out of by simply not playing the sploder... however the voodoo anti bot product there is some debate as to how it works(such as some suggesting it uses the media loophole if you don't voluntarily verify), voodoo's description is there are bot hunters that go around using a series of tools(undefined tools created by them and third parties) to determine who is a bot and who is not.
further blowing this controversy out of control the creator of these products "Monkey Wonder" has been kicking the hornets nest on a regular basis, joining the group chats of greenzone users, and harassing its members, I remember one time lecturing him about not appreciating being slandered over a few outspoken people within the group.... less than a week later I could see what I hate to say was completely disregarded with more slander and libel against the group
of course it don't help that the greenzone HUD alerts its users to the presence of a voodoo sploder like it would any other redzone like system, however the notification only goes to the wearer of the greenzone HUD, so based on what side of the controversy regarding voodoo products they believe, they can take it or leave it when they get an alert as to a voodoo product being present...
After getting tired of seeing Monkey Wonder in the group chat harassing the members I decided I would myself test the voodoo products for a media exploit... My finding's were similar to Forceme's in the above blog... and I decided the results were inconclusive....
I visited several locations that included voodoo products at the time... this is some time back early on into the controversy... but I had a difficult time finding enough for testing despite the products claimed popularity at some locations, I did find attempts in media to send to a specific IP and port number... the locations had matching IP's but varying port numbers.... and some locations had different URL's... unfortunately due to finding few locations I was unable to rule out what I did see recurring as the possibility of another products that sets media URL's such as a harmless shoutcast DJ board.... so thus then I decided things were inconclusive and would need to be tested another time before coming out and saying voodoo is harmless... or as some suspect a redzone like product.
of course on and on since then there have been several more incidents of Monkey Wonder kicking the hornets nest getting the group in a stir and the argument between greenzone and voodoo escalating as a result... I participate in the group Greenzone users not to hear him harassing the group members... but so that I can watch the group chat a short period of time, oftentimes as many people as there are your not the first to discover a problem so its nice to login and hear chatter of stuff like "NCSA alt detector" created by "NCSA resident" after the disbanding of the redzone system... Obviously a redzone like spyware system where the creator is trying to Impersonate the National Cyber Security Alliance... due to group chatter and LL being informed as a result that little scam didn't last long... and It's very very rarely I chat in the group unless there is some chatter that is radically different from my research or I have questions to ask... but nonetheless I participate in the group as a listener as if something else like Redzone, NCSA or quickware etc comes out... it's very likely to get the chat in a stir where I can hear about it.
Well as of recent I as well as many other users of the group received a blackmail message threatening us:
[15:14] Voodoo Notecard Giver owned by Monkey Wonder gave you 'WARNING: You, your land and creations BLACKLISTED' ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morenci/210/252/22 ).
Anyhow the notcard content was as follows
(((Start of Notecard)))
Dear Greenzone griefing group member,
Following mass defamation, griefing, propoganda, scamming and false abuse reports initiated by members of Greenzone griefing group recently on a scale never before seen in SL, Voodoo has taken the decision to protect our customers and other residents of Second Life from your activities.
Greenzone once had a legitimate purpose in Second Life, protecting the privacy of residents from systems such as Red Zone.
Red Zone is long gone, and Greenzone now operates more like the Anonymous hacking collective. The moderators have lost control, and the group is now a leaderless organisation that anyone with a grudge can join to attack others in the name of Greenzone.
Voodoo produces an extremely popular free Sploder tracking HUD which is owned by thousands and used everyday by many people, we have a user base of over 40,000 avatars. The next version of these HUDs, to be released imminently, will announce any nearby Greenzone griefers in local chat by name, along with any land owned by these griefers and any objects created by them. We believe your creations and land are not safe as you are a member of a group well known for griefing.
We do however understand that there is a minority of legitimate business owners currently in the griefing group, who joined long before Greenzone was hijacked by trouble makers. Due to this, we are allowing 12 hours for you to leave the group and avoid any damage to your business.
Voodoo has been at the forefront of SL security for many years and we take it and peoples privacy very seriously.
We do not wish to become ememies of any group, but we simply cannot tolerate people who choose to attack or scam others.
Thank you for your understanding and please make the right decision.
Monkey Wonder
Owner of Voodoo SL
(((End of Notecard)))
I Personally had a neutral stance on voodoo products up until now, even though sploders are an illegal gambling product under the SL ToS and California Law the state Linden Labs is headquartered in... I personally have no interest in gambling... but many other users do and despite Linden and State Policy sploder systems are such miniscule small scale stuff and are so common across so many different clubs they are generally widely accepted despite not being legal... but I am starting to see the reasons for these laws personally even though its something I personally avoid... you get sore losers... then you get controversies like this over tools like this... anyhow regardless of the gambling element and the bot protect which as forceme truthfully put... a ban list of anyone voodoo dont like.... we can see obviously this is a very emotionally influenced notecard... and it threatens to blacklist members of greenzone not for what the bot protect product targets.... but because their members of a group....
the general message of the notecard I feel is leave your discussion group or I will do something very bad to you... obviously meant to coerce people into leaving which is the very definition of blackmail
From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail
"to force or coerce into a particular action"
obviously I'm getting a sense of that a extortion scheme which seems to be quite common around the gambling scene go figure the sploder problem has been ignored and it has exploded into threats...
anyhow onto the threat which you've probably seen in the the notecard that slanderously and libelously and falsely describes its recipients such as myself it appears that he claims he has 40,000 users walking around with HUD's related to his products, and the next version of these HUD's is going to via Public chat slander members of the greenzone users group such as myself... a very different action from what the greenzone HUD does which is only bothering its wearer about a potentially unsafe object... the Voodoo Hud is supposedly going to be updated according to this notecard to say in public chat that someone such as myself is a griefer when were around...
to put this in perspective.... while the greenzone HUD bothers only its owner.... the voodoo HUD's are going to bother everyone in the vicinity of the wearer according to this... to slander someone that is nearby the HUD
Obviously this will all happen if you don't submit to Monkey Wonders threat... even worse yet is Monkey goes on to acknowledge there are business owners in the group and that they have 12 hours to leave to avoid damage to their business... so he acknowledges he will be doing something to damage your business out of his maliciousness for a group you may participate in...
Given this while I felt it debatable whether or not Monkey Wonders Voodoo fell into the spyware category.... however given these threats based on someone that operates an emotionally charged blacklist to quote forceme's blog """Really... this should not be called "Anti-bot" but rather "Anti-anyone we Voodoo people don't like""" I really feel voodoo has crossed the line from having a service that was of debatable stance... Into a service that can be accurately described as Malware...
this is also specifically prohibited under the secondlife terms of service section 8.2 "You will not post or transmit prohibited Content, including any Content that is illegal, harassing or violates any person's rights.", "(v) Post, display or transmit Content that is harmful, threatening or harassing, defamatory, libelous, false, inaccurate, misleading, or invades another person's privacy;"
In the case of voodoo this would be harassing content as it is designed to single out certain people... and transmit to those around them falsely that they are a griefer, and also aside from that the very notecard sent out was threatening to the group members so whether or not the action is taken, I really feel for me the debate as to whether voodoo is a malicious product or not is over... with this recent action from the voodoo group and violating the above action... I find voodoo's products to be content that is harassing and violates the rights of those around it... as in section 8.2 of SL's ToS... also I as per subsection V I find it to be harmful, threatening harasing defamatory libelous false inaccurate as well as misleading... the notecard itself threatens a users rights to participate in the discussion group and exercise their thus then first ammendment... so yes the voodoo system does infringe upon actual rights of users of Secondlife.
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