Thu, 03/03/2011 - 15:04
I first wanted to just point out to this one blog posting that I have found while reading up on the ongoing 'RedZone' problem. Mostly, because it not only illustrates the total uselessness of the 'security' provided by such a system, but also, because it shows what kind of problems people face, when they try to ensure free and uncensored flow of information and knowledge when being behind such tightly controlled bottlenecks:
But then, once I sat down to write, the news hit. Soft Linden posted a comment on the JIRA entry regarding RedZone (https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746) and while doing so, made many people very happy:
“Hey, all. I got the go-ahead to give an update on zF Red Zone specifically. Again, thank you for the ARs with specific info about violations. These have been very helpful for letting Lindens know what's going on.
Tuesday morning, we removed zF Red Zone from the Marketplace for a second time. We removed the in-world vendor distributing the item as well. We determined that zF Red Zone was still in violation of our Terms of Service and Community Standards.
We asked for removal by no later than today of all zF Red Zone functionality that discloses any alternate account names. That is, even if consent is asked, the service may not act on the consent. In addition, we asked for removal by no later than Friday of the interface for and any remaining implementation of the zF Red Zone consent mechanism because it does not comply with our policies. If these updates are not made, we will take appropriate steps to remedy the violations.
As before, we appreciate your help in keeping an eye on content. If you find that any merchant's product is not in compliance with our TOS or our Community Standards, please file an abuse report about the product. Do this even if you filed against a previous version. Include a specific explanation of what you believe is a violation, and ideally select and report the in-world object at issue in case it behaves differently than what's in the Marketplace. Before reporting, make sure you have first-hand knowledge of the issue. Support can best react if you explain specific steps to reproduce or confirm a violation.”
(to see the comment: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=245943#comment-245943)
It is of course not really addressing the underlying problem of the media-exploit that allowed to gather IP addresses, but it creates a definite border as to how far security devices can go. The damage has been already done of course and until RedZone is gone completely it might even still be able to collect the data. And I guess that as long as it does, the discussion wont die down. The one on the sluniverse forum has reached 7740 posts on 310 pages as of the moment of writing this:
And the already mentioned JIRA has mots likely attracted more comments then all over JIRA entries put together. So this all has been a rather big issue and it is no wonder that LL took steps to address it. Now of course one might ask, what made LL to move on this? Was it the violation of privacy as it has been perceived by many, or was it the sheer volume of uproar combined with the less then acceptable behaviour of the creator of the system, that made LL finally announce this rather harsh ruling. It was later even reinforced after the zFire Xue apparently replaced the inworld vendor that has been removed by LL before because they have not seen that the steps taken by the creator to make the system comply with the new rules are sufficient. It might have been a combination of both and I think it is not the last that has been said about it.
A interesting point for now is, that I can not reach the website with the forum and information about RedZone right now, what might be a technical glitch, but considering what is going on the assumption of the creator having packed up get away is not too far fetched In my opinion.
We will see, so stay tuned for more.
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A small update
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The website has gone back online and a problem with the hosting service has been given as the explanation of what has happened.
