Editorials

• J.J. Abrams' New Sci-Fi Series "Revolution" Coming to NBC May 16, 2012

  A look at new sci-fi, by Senior Editor, PK
  

  It may be another in a long line of post-apocalyptic stories, can NBC pull it off?

   

  I’m not always able to watch the latest shows and movies due to being so busy, but when something grabs my attention I’ll make time. And when I came across this, to say I’m skeptical is a bit of an understatement. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi science, grew up with the techno-babble of Star Trek and so many other shows, but Revolution may be falling a bit flat on the b.s. O’meter side of science fiction. Revolution follows the adventures of a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic society, where for some unknown reason, everything electrical refuses to work. Including machine guns, which are actually not electric. 15 years after the worst brown-out in human history, humanity has reverted to a medieval-esque style society and all of the world governments have fallen. In its place, militias and dictators have risen to rule supreme over small communities who thrive in the ruins of technology and rusted out Chevrolets.

  Post-apoc stories have been the in-thing for the last 10 year or so years, from video games to movies, to tv shows, we just can’t seem to get enough of what we went through during the 1980′s. It’s Mad Max minus the gaudy outfits and Aussie accents, and no souped up battle cars to race about in either. Just from watching the trailer, many questions come to mind. The most classic question that comes up whenever we encounter stories where electricity has been destroyed, is what’s causing it and why doesn’t it seem to effect certain things? Like any episode of any version of Star Trek, ship encounters dampening field, power goes out, but tricorders, hand held phasers and artificial gravity still seem to magically work. You’d think Geordie would lose power to his visor every single time they ran into some evil alien with a dampening field in his pocket, but no,our heroes save the day again through suspension of disbelief.
  
  
  
  Admittedly, in Revolution they do tackle that interesting issue. Instead of just electrical in general not working, they make anything with power die. Including batteries and the like, but with this show, the most obvious question I have; is why would a super powerful dampening field (presumably the cause), capable of killing everything electric on the planet, affect machines that are primarily mechanical? When the bad guys show up wielding muskets, it makes me stop and wonder why something like a musket will work, but not a M-16? Both are mechanical in nature, and use chemically propelled objects to kill the target. Someone must have made the muskets, and the tech to build muskets is not too far away from making a simple machine gun. I know, I may be over thinking it, but as a fan of sci-fi, who has almost unlimited shows and movies to choose from, Revolution doesn’t really seem to grab me in the way that will make me take an hour out of my busy schedule to sit and watch it. Technology aside, the basic story is questionable in my mind. I have no doubt that society would grind to a halt if all electricity failed, there would be millions of deaths. But reverting to a medieval style society with barons and militias trying to run our post-apoc lives after only 15 years?

  I know it’s also the Hollywood effect, but when you have no access to electricity and presumably no real hygiene products, why do most of your characters still look like they’ve come straight from a photo-shoot for sexy teens and able-bodied older gentlemen? And as for new world order via small pockets of dictatorships, well, if I couldn’t log into Facebook or hangout at my local Starbucks to chug down a frapa-mocha-chino-thingy, then yeah I might go insane and try to overthrow my local government to. On a more technical side, the production values seem pretty typical of any big-budget science fiction series with huge names behind it. The music featured in the preview was of the typical dramatic “we’re gonna blow you’re nerdy mind” type, and overall the story just barely passes the yawn factor.

  We’ve come to expect the extraordinary from TV/Hollywood, and when you’ve been blasted with cool and amazing for so many years, you start to wonder what’s left to dazzle us with. Revolution, you so far have failed to make me raise an eyebrow of interest beyond watching the show’s trailer. But you did manage to make me roll my eyes a bit, and wonder what else is on.

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  Show description:

  Our entire way of life depends on electricity. So what would happen if it just stopped working? Well, one day, like a switch turned off, the world is suddenly thrust back into the dark ages. Planes fall from the sky, hospitals shut down, and communication is impossible. And without any modern technology, who can tell us why?

  Now, 15 years later, life is back to what it once was long before the industrial revolution: families living in quiet cul-de-sacs, and when the sun goes down, the lanterns and candles are lit. Life is slower and sweeter. Or is it?

  On the fringes of small farming communities, danger lurks. And a young woman’s life is dramatically changed when a local militia arrives and kills her father, who mysteriously – and unbeknownst to her – had something to do with the blackout. This brutal encounter sets her and two unlikely companions off on a daring coming-of-age journey to find answers about the past in the hopes of reclaiming the future.

  From director Jon Favreau (“Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2″) and the fertile imaginations of J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke (“Supernatural”), comes a surprising “what if” action-adventure series, where an unlikely hero will lead the world out of the dark. Literally.

  Links:
  NBC’s Revolution

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• Music And Friendship - Ballad Of The Brony: A Video Documentary May 6, 2012

  A Krypton Radio Special Review by Producer, PK
  

  Krypton Radio looks at new music additions and finds a surprise in the Brony fandom

  

  My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

  We’ve heard about the Brony culture before, but for the first time Krypton Radio takes an in-depth look at what we never knew about the show, the music, and the fans.

  We’re always looking for new and interesting music that fits in the genres we cater to, primarily Superhero, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fantasy, and Gaming. But lately we’ve been getting suggestions for music based on a different fandom that was a little surprising. Some of the KR staffers had been bringing up songs from an animated children’s show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic which debuted in 2010, and admittedly an initial reaction to what looks like a little girls cartoon was that of skepticism. Although we’re hard pressed to turn down a good song, so when checking out some of the fan made music, it peaked our interest enough to look at the actual show music as well.

  I agree, when someone comes to you and says I got some great music from a show featuring brightly colored talking ponies named Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie; it’s a little hard to take seriously at first. But we gave it a chance, and yes not all of the music seems appropriate for the bulk of our audience (although we’re digging the Discord EuroChoas Mix like crazy). Though during our searches on YouTube and related fan sites, we’ve come to develop an appreciation for a fanbase that has many parallels to that of mainstream Science Fiction and Fantasy. Whose fanbase’s have also suffered from ridicule and misunderstandings among some media and the public. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM) while primarily aimed at young girls in the 7-10 year-old range, has drawn some attention and criticism for attracting many male adult fans, commonly known as Bronies.

  Despite its origins and current target audience, the show has displayed that time and time again that it has interesting and engaging characters,  humor that even adults can enjoy, and stories that help teach people of all ages important life lessons. From a musical standpoint, which is what attracted us initially, the show’s music is expertly crafted by composers Daniel Ingram and William Anderson. Rivaling and even surpassing some big-budget movie music productions for similar children’s content, with Broadway inspired musical segments of such joyful quality you can’t help but smile. The fan created music has truly blown us away on professionalism, with animated shorts, music videos, and original compositions that look as though they were from a major Hollywood studio.

  During our search we came across a documentary on MLP:FiM by a YouTube user called Saberspark,which he created for a school project on the subject of deviant cultures. Saberspark does an excellent job of exploring aspects of the show’s history, characters, and fan culture. Although despite a slightly sarcasm laden fanboy defending his turf approach, the video covers important details to bring non-fans up to speed on why the show has become wildly popular and how it’s impacted pop-culture and people’s lives.

  The video was published in December of 2011 and has been updated as of March 2012.
  

  Watch the documentary after the break:

  This documentary is a third-party fan production, as such some views expressed in the video are not necessarily shared or endorsed by the staff of Krypton Radio. Video is over one-hour long and contains some brief mild adult language with cartoonish violence from film clips used from works of parody – Parental Guidance is suggested for those under 10 years of age.

  Changes since the video was published:

  The character of Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves was the focus of a small group of people, some being parents of underage fans, who blasted the character as being discriminatory towards the handicap. The normally background character which featured misaligned eyes, eventually had a momentary speaking part in an episode of season-two of the show, and was shown talking in a slow-witted fashion along with being extremely clumsy in a comical way in relation to being called Derpy.

  As it was stated in the documentary, the character was named Derpy in season-two as a nod to the fans who spotted the character during the first season and pointed out an animation mistake with the eyes, nicknaming her Derpy Hooves. The character was renamed despite being originally referenced in the first season as Ditzy Doo. The term Derpy traditionally refers to someone who is acting in an asinine or stupid manner, or being generally silly in a dimwitted way.

  However some parents and others took the name to be derogatory in nature combined with the character’s antics, and accused the show of depicting mentally handicap people in a negative light. The show’s creators stated this was never the intention and the character was not considered to be handicapped, just silly and slow-witted. A response from the episode’s writer was posted on Equestria Daily, a fan site operated by a member of the show’s production team. Amy Keating Rogers, who wrote the episode, indicated that she received overwhelmingly positive reviews of the way Derpy was depicted, but ultimately it was not her call to make on what was done with her.

  Hasbro, the owners of the My Little Pony franchise along with The Hub, the television network the show is carried on, took the unusual approach of pulling the episode from the lineup and re-casting Derpy’s voice. The brief line in the episode where the character’s name is mentioned was edited out for rebroadcast, this lead to many outraged fans calling for the restoration of the character’s season-two name and voice actor. Through various blog posts and other commentary, many fans stated that it was hypocritical to sensor a character that was perceived as handicap, since the premise of the show is friendship and being understanding of others differences.

  As a side note, KR staff writers reviewed the entire episode in question, (the unedited version) and we as educated adults who are open minded did not feel offended by the name and the character’s actions. Some pointed out that popular cartoon characters such as Spongebob Squarepants, are much more graphic and potentially offensive than Ditzy/Derpy. It was also pointed out that as a way to restore continuity, the character could be called Ditzy Derpy Doo, since the wording of the name by general acceptance is not offensive and it would allow for the use of both names. Interestingly enough, the character has developed such a fan following, that she has her own music, fan-art, and fiction where she’s many times depicted as being a loving mother to a female foal character created by fans named Dinky.

  Saberspark‘s documentary additionally mentioned that Hasbro was not taking action against videos of episodes posted online of the show, however this was proven to be incorrect as Hasbro has been in the process of filing copyright claims against some users on YouTube, to have MLP:FiM videos taken offline. In December of 2011, the same month as the documentary was published, Hasbro initiated a copyright take down of a Sweden based website called PonyArchive, which hosted fully downloadable copies of the MLP:FiM episodes. Many episodes of the show are still available on YouTube, with the recent season-two finale being posted online within hours of its broadcast.

  Based on commentary from different fan sites, it is unclear what decision making process Hasbro uses to determine what content they will file a copyright claim on. As some fans seemed to believe they are at times leaving YouTube episodes alone,  we have however sent a request for information to the Hasbro/MLP Team to get clarification on what they are targeting with the copyright claims. We’ll update this section as information is made available.

  Controversy over the fandom

  Like any fanbase, there will always be controversy over its members. This is one unique culture as its movement began primarily online, and has rapidly grown into real life conventions that show creators and stars have attended. It’s also interesting to see how fast the creators and executives of the show embraced feedback from fans, which is not particularly unheard of, but what made this unusual was the fanbase being comprised of a large number of adults. The show makers have even gone so far as to include fan interests in the show from time to time. Some may disagree, but looking at the fandom as a whole, it’s hard to say that the Bronies are any different than a bunch of geeks dressed up as Klingons or a group of fantasy lovers obsessing over elves and warlocks. It comes down to a group of people embracing their love of certain characters or particular storyline, and our being obsessed comic loving geeks ourselves we can’t find fault with that.

  So why have Bronies drawn so much criticism from some groups when others go largely untouched? The fandom is looked at from many different points of view, some remember the early days of the fans online movement starting in 4Chan and the site’s dubious reputation. And while I didn’t pay much attention originally, I was introduced to the culture via popular media and those who openly bashed and parodied it. The most vocal detractors of the fandom have associated it with homosexuality, gender identity issues and similar fandoms such as furries, who are fans of anthropomorphic animals and are incorrectly associated with a minority group of people interested in having sexual relations with animals. These stereotypes have been perpetuated by those who haven’t taken the time to sit down and actually explore the back-story to the fandom, and resort to publicly denouncing what they don’t understand.

  It’s true that adding an adult element to any kids cartoon risks the wrath of the more prudish, although I see this as being common in any fan-culture. Furries which are arguably related to Bronies in ways, for example are looked down upon by many due to a large segment of their culture embracing a sexualized version of the fandom. It’s just an evolution of natural human desires and well, rule #34 of the internet. The same can be said with some of the, well, overly adult artwork I’ve come across when looking for information on MLP:FiM. A segment of the fanbase does embrace an adult version of the content, but there’s also a significant number of fans who enjoy the show as is and keep their fan contributions family friendly. Those who oppose the fandom are quick to latch on to the adult element and use that as part of the hate speech against adult fans, claiming it shows proof of deviance and a desire to corrupt our youth in some cases. I feel my response to those who bash any fandom without doing some unbiased research first is: As far as I’m concerned, abnormality is the normality around this locality.

   

  What’s the appeal?

  Lauren Faust who was the driving force behind the modern adaptation of the show, brought together a talented team which has worked tirelessly to create stories, characters, music, and animation that anyone of any age or gender can appreciate and connect with. And while she may have initially helped create a show that was aimed at the young, regardless of gender, MLP:FiM with its rich storyline and colorful characters (slight pun intended), is followed by a devoted fanbase that embraces the ideals of the show. The ideals of friendship, understanding, and mutual respect.

  For me in particular, my first exposure was getting sent some links to the show’s music. I was deeply intrigued by the melodic sounds of the singing, and what appeared to be a distinct Broadway feel to it. I haven’t seen a musical performance in a cartoon like that in a long time, so I decided to check out the show even further. I watched episodes and looked up more music from the show, and was amazed by the quality of it. But then I started to really pay attention to the messages of the episodes, and it made me sit back and think about old friends and how situations could have been handled differently. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, has turned out to be much more than what they intended it to be, it’s a show that can truly speak to people of all ages and demographics. And sometimes in a messed up world like we live in, it’s nice to turn on a show about characters trying to find common ground and solve problems without bloodshed, excessive violence (cartoon or  otherwise), or having to swear every other word.

  And thanks to the brilliant writers and voice actors used in the show’s production, they’re able convey serious issues with a sometimes twisted but somehow truly innocent sense of humor. I know what some men will think – but liking the show doesn’t mean one is gay or feminine, it means you’re enjoying a quality show and you don’t care what others think of you. Although the show is no longer the single point of inspiration anymore, it’s also the incredible fanbase that has sprung up around it. People from all walks of life coming together not just to share their admiration for a wonderful piece of animation, but also coming together as artists themselves. The show inspires me on many levels, but the fans and their work are what pushed me to really believe in embracing it all. I came for the documentary, but stayed for the music and friends, and if liking the show makes me a Brony, then so be it.

   

  -30-

   

  As lovers of rocking music, we’re proud to play some of the incredible fan-work that has come out of the Pony/Brony community. Stay tuned to Krypton Radio’s stream as we’ll be playing selections from the Brony music community, in addition to our regular and never ending lineup of Superhero, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fantasy, and Gaming hits.

  We do want to caution readers, that if you are not familiar with the Pony fandom, as with any fandom there is adult and sometimes graphic content associated with it. If you decide to explore the fandom on artistic and social sites not endorsed by the show’s creators, you may encounter content that you may find objectionable. Keep in mind that this happens with any fandom, and is not exclusive to the Pony/Brony culture.

  Some of the amazing fan made music we’ve come across for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

  The following videos are safe for all ages (other videos not listed on this site by these and other artists may contain objectionable content and have not been reviewed by Krypton Radio) Not all of the music listed below will be added to our station playlist, we just wanted to share some of the creative selections we found.

   
  
  

  Links:

  • Equestria Daily (Main MLP:FiM Fan Site)
  • BronyCon 2012
  • Saberspark’s Facebook Page

  Updates

  As of April 29, 2012 – Saberspark is in the process of raising funds to create an updated documentary, and if you’re willing to aide him you can get more information here, link.

  PS: From a few of the KR Staffers: Long story short, show is awesome, music is unbelievably good, and we’re happy to play some of the best selections. Brohoof!

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• CISPA, The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011: Privacy or Protected Power? April 29, 2012

  by Krypton Radio Staff Writer Jennifer Sawyer

  April 29, 2012 – The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 also known as H.R. 3253 have gained a lot of controversy over the last year and no doubt with good cause. Under section 1104 and subsection (7) the bill is quoted as saying,

  “(7) PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION- The Federal Government may, consistent with the need to protect Federal systems and critical information infrastructure from cyber security threats and to mitigate such threats, undertake reasonable efforts to limit the impact on privacy and civil liberties of the sharing of cyber threat information with the Federal Government pursuant to this subsection.  The most recent Amendment to the act passed the House of Representatives on April 26, 2012.

  The final tally of votes was 206 Republicans in favor, and 28 opposed. Of the Democrats, 42 were in favor of and 140 were opposed. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and author of CISPA, is quoted as saying, “Stand for America! Support this bill!” and claims the bill would not endanger the privacy of America in any way.  The bill would allow for the ease of sharing information between the U.S government and technology and telecommunications companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and AT&T for the prevention of cyber-attacks to Americans on American soil; so why the great debate? Many people feel that the bill would give the government free reign and authority over the personal information of its citizens. Is the government really looking to be nosey about who we have coffee with or is it an attempt to protect citizens from the scrupulous actions of terrorists and hackers?

  The bigger question may in fact be can we as Americans afford not to have an added layer of security over internet privacy? The CISPA act does not say that it will grant authorities the power to use our own personal information against us but rather in the event that terroristic or harmful information present itself it can and will be channeled to the proper security authorities for further investigation without the red tape, legal hassle of previous privacy laws. As Americans we can either choose to chalk it up to another business practice designed to further the strength of America over the information highway or we can choose to continue to chronically complain about someone else’s views in an effort to make ourselves feel better.

  Whichever side of the fence you are on, rest assured the internet is here to stay. It is fast and it is changing and above all it is grey. It is through such bills as CISPA that the once blurred facets of the internet can emerge into a black and white path.

  You can view the text of the bill in its entirety at thomas.loc.gov.

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• James Cameron & Google Founders to Launch Deep Space Mining Ship "Red Dwarf" April 22, 2012

  Krpton Radio Newswire A smegged Editorial by Senior Editor, PK

  Smoke’em a Kipper, They’ll Be Back For Breakfast!

  I’ve been extremely busy lately, laying shipwrecked and comatose with goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes. I awoke to a fully stocked mango juice bar, and the news that James Cameron and others were going to be launching an asteroid mining company. My first thought was “smeg, which one is going to be Rimmer?”. Although on a more serious note, this is a very important time in human history, people seen as pioneers in important industries are joining forces to help humanity explore space and possibly bring millions of new jobs to a struggling world economy.

  I’m sure many of us had thought it would be faceless monolithic corporations who would be launching the space race; looking for those precious materials we’re having trouble getting enough of on our own planet. And as many others have pointed out, the incredible irony of James Cameron, the man who made a film about humans being the ultimate space bastards and trying to conquer an inhabited planet for its resources, would be part of this.

  Planetary Resources Inc., is the flagship company under which Cameron with known partners Peter Diamandis, Google members Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Ram Shriram; Charles Simonyi a former Microsoft Exec, and Ross Perot Jr., will be operating. I personally think they should have gone with Jupiter Mining Corporation, but their loss. Admittedly other media outlets have already done some extensive coverage on this already, and the more important details which haven’t been released yet will be disclosed at a major press conference on April 24th.

  Many scientists have been quick to point out that while the initial goals of Cameron and his space buddies are laudable, the shear technical challenge of building a mining ship (or whatever apparatus they’re intending to use) and taking on the hazards of space exploration of the kind that Planetary Resources hopes to achieve will cost billions, if not trillions up front just to get off the ground. Not to mention that while the company is hoping to bring trillions of dollars in revenue to our planet’s economy, this venture could take anywhere from 10-20 years to fully develop.

  However like any huge business venture, the “experts” who are usually on the outside looking in with little details will speculate wildly about what they think will happen. So for now, I think we should all just lean back and wait for the details to come out on their own. For all we know, Cameron and friends may have much more planned out already than we know about. Out of all this, something more important has come to my mind, the fact that the ones leading this quest to finally get us into continued space exploration, are like us.

  They’re the dreamers, the nerds, the geeks, the ones like us who are obsessed with making that sci-fi dream of yesterday become the reality of tomorrow. I’ll always be realistic in my expectations of what these people can do, but I’m not going to let that stop me from dreaming about what they could actually make happen. And while I’m like some, and kind of wishing that the next major space venture would be launching a real life Enterprise, or Star Wars type craft, something that might end up like Red Dwarf is all that much sweeter to my twisted sense of humor.

  Stay tuned to Krypton Radio, as we’ll be updating you with more details as they become available!

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  Links:

  • Planetary Resources, Inc.

   

   

   

   

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• Common Sense Wins Lawsuit Against Parents April 8, 2012

  Who’s Feeding Your Child – You or McDonald’s?

  An Editorial by, PK

  I admit this isn’t the kind of story that I’d normally cover, or give a big public opinion on, but I felt it was important enough to warrant a mention. I’ve followed the story of McDonald’s legal battle with Monet Parham with some interest, since it involves a restaurant I frequent. The heart of the matter comes down to Ms. Parham suing McDonald’s over their children’s meals, more specifically the toys offered inside them.

  Ms. Parham filed suit on behalf of herself and like-minded individuals against McDonald’s, claiming that the toys offered in their well known Happy Meals, were a way for the burger giant to lure children into buying the meals, which she claims are unhealthy. Therefore the use of the toys and the advertising thereof, was a breach of California law, namely deceptive business practices. McDonald’s argued that the offering of the toys was an incentive yes, but ultimately the parent’s are the ones who make the final decision on what their child eats.

  That’s the big “ah-ha” moment right there, “Parent’s are the ones who make the final decision on what their child eats”. The whole mess smelled of some parents complaining that their kids were fat and it must be the fast food place’s fault, right? Wrong, if little Johnny or little Susie waddle up to you and start begging for a Happy Meal, because it has the latest movie related toy inside, do you have to go get one for them? No of course not, it’s your personal responsibility to take care of your child and deny them that greasy meal.

  Ultimately the Judge in the case agreed, McDonald’s may advertise its toys as an added incentive to buy their Happy Meals, but there was no deception involved. And its not as if your eight-year old is racking up frequent eater points at the local Micky D’s on his own dime; if he or she is there, good bet it’s you that’s paying the bill. As someone who grew up having had his share of the boxy meals, and having been told “no” on more than one occasion when I wanted one, my message to parents is to take some responsibility.

  If your child is sucking down the brightly colored meals, then you’re the one who has the power to stop it. And while I’m not a fan of the mega corporations, I for once applaud McDonald’s for sticking to their guns and pointing out the obvious; it’s up to the parents to buy the meals and regulate their child’s fat intake, if you don’t want your bundle of joy eating at McDonald’s, then don’t buy anything there. Folks, embrace what is many times forgotten, use some common sense and don’t be so ready to blame the other guy for your problems or your kid’s problems, look in the mirror first.

  -30-

  I know, I said it was a greasy meal, and yes those burgers are not exactly health food. But If I remember right, McDonald’s does offer healthier alternatives to it’s burgers and fries now. So if your spawn has managed to brow-beat you into buying some fast food, then at least look at getting the alternatives, such as apple slices or chicken nuggets, or whatever it is that they have now.

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• Linden Lab Acquires 'Little Text People'... Who? February 25, 2012

  Editorial by Vagabond 'Tony' Carter

  

  Linden Lab, creators and operators of the popular MMO 'Second Life', is based in San Francisco, California.

  The bloggers are abuzz about Linden Labs recent acquisition of Little Text People Game studio. Often the same short article is repeated over and over about this with whisperings of AI conversation in NPCs and relations to Rodviks hinted ideas about path-finding. But… Who are Little Text People?

  Google returns nothing but the news that Linden Lab purchased them, though there are mentions of GDC 12 and socially engaging AI. The company seems to be owned and run by duo Richard Evans and Emily Short. However, it is what is missing that leaves me puzzled. LittleTextPeople appears to have no web presence, no credits in any well known games or projects and I’ve certainly never heard them mentioned on G4 TV. Perhaps I’m simply out of the loop, lacking a smartphone, but you’d think that even if this were a case of some iPhone/android app there would be more.

  Little Text People appear, for now, to have rezzed naked, ruthed and alone with this announcement of their purchase by Linden Lab. We the residents await eagerly news of what this means for Second Life, if anything. So far it is unclear if LittleTextPeople will be added to the Second Life platform or remain a separate project or product for Linden Lab.

  The company appears to have made a single interactive fiction game, almost entirely text based, and revealed at last year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California.   – and Linden Lab wants what they built for their game for use in a project supposedly unrelated to Second Life which they’re quixotically calling “Project 3″.  Which implies that there was, or is, a “Project 2″.  It also implies that they’re interested in the artificial intelligence routines used in the game.  But for what purpose?  Even the pundits, who usually know everything, don’t know.

  Know something more about Little Text People? Please share it,  either in comments here or with me via email me at ironinbox(at)kryptonradio.com.  Second Life users – and there are millions of them – are curious.  And so am I.

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• Son of SOPA & PIPA: Meet ACTA (And Be Afraid) February 6, 2012

  By Samantha Lowell

  

  SOPA and PIPA could effectively destroy the Internet as it exists today, along with entire economies built on it. ACTA is even worse, and could enable the creation of police states around the world.

  Internet activists and civil rights groups worldwide are alarmed at the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), one of the harshest crackdowns on internet piracy, which was signed by 22 nations in 2011 and awaits ratification by the European Union Parliament. Negotiated and signed in secret, ACTA was signed on October 1 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. On January 29, 2012, the European Union and 22 of its member states signed as well, bringing the total number of signatories to 31. If ACTA is ratified by six member states, the convention will become law; however, lack of ratification by the EU would effectively kill the measure.

  If ratified, ACTA would criminalize sharing of copyrighted material on an unprecedented scale, and even certain signatories have begun to criticize several provisions of the treaty as being excessively broad in their scope and extreme in enforcement provisions. ACTA, as written, would criminalize such acts as sharing a newspaper article or uploading a video of a party where copyrighted music is played. Violators of any breach would be subject to criminal charges. The ACTA committee would have carte blanche to change its own rules and sanctions with no legal oversight.

  Legal scholars and privacy rights advocates object that ACTA would not only allow legal authorities to monitor personal online communications in secrecy and requiring ISPs to closely monitor suspected trademark violators, without court recourse, but that those falsely or erroneously accused would be without legal recourse.

  The overly broad language of violation and enforcement would also result in criminalization of generic drugs as pirated material, an undoubted boon to pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer. However, critics and protests are already spreading across the EU and support among some signatories is beginning to waver. EU representatives have worked closely with corporate lobbyists-(principally the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) -to craft new rules and an enforcement organization described variously as “draconian” and  “dangerously powerful”.  

  As with SOPA and PIPA, ACTA has been heavily lobbied by media giants such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In a statement which has alarmed civil libertarians, an MPAA representative, in a 2010 private ACTA meeting in Mexico, said to negotiators, “Bring in a censoring firewall to block piracy and you can use it to shut off sites that embarrass your government, like Wikileaks.”  WikiLeaks is the website that first leaked information about ACTA to the public in 2008.

  ACTA is being criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Consumers International and not only for its overly broad language and harsh provisions, but also for its lack of transparency during the deliberation process and as a threat to privacy and that the measure had been “sneaked in” without legal or public review. Others have called it a way to backdoor the immensely unpopular SOPA in worldwide.
  

  ACTA was lobbied heavily during the Bush and Obama administrations by the MPAA and other media giants. Though the White House has refused to release the full text of the deliberations, stating such disclosure would be contrary to the interests of national security, ACTA continues to draw fire nationwide. The White House has defended both the lack of transparency of the ACTA deliberations and its signing without Congressional approval , asserting ACTA is not a treaty, and therefore requires no Congressional oversight, a move which has drawn protests across party lines in and out of Congress and has shocked the administration’s supporters.

  In an open letter, The EFF and co signatories wrote in a recent protest letter to the EU Parliament, “The current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy.”

  Though the Act has been signed, it has yet to be ratified, and some signatories are having serious second thoughts. In the face of massive public protests, Helena Drnovek Zorko, who signed the measure on behalf of Slovenia, has publicly apologized for signing.

  Zorko stated, “I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention. Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I had been instructed to sign with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children.”

  While protests mount across Europe, ACTA faces questions on the eve of its ratification in the EU Parliament. On February 4, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he had suspended the domestic ratification process for ACTA, citing the need for extensive study before the agreement can be signed into law and citing a lack of research on the subject at present. Opposition is beginning to mount elsewhere: In a recent statement, the government of Bulgaria has stated it will not unilaterally sign ACTA and several African governments has expressed concern about language that would criminalize generic drugs, citing a need for inexpensive medication to combat Africa’s AIDS epidemic. Kader Arif, the French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has resigned his position in charge of negotiating ACTA, saying it “goes too far” by potentially cutting access to lifesaving generic drugs and restricting internet freedom.
  -30-

  Update

  On the eve of protests, Germany backs away from ACTA.  The United States has already signed it. Germany had promised to sign the horrific legislation, but now is waiting to see what the rest of the European Union does with it.  Not exactly the strongest statement they could have made, but it’s a glimmer of hope.  Since Germany is one of the bigger economies in the EU, what they say and do about it is going to have a strong effect on what the other smaller countries think about it.  The United States has already signed ACTA, with President Obama stating that the action was an “executive agreement” and would not require changes to United States law.  Since the agreement is directly related to trade, many believe that it should be considered as a trade treaty, and should go before the Senate for ratification.
  Mr. Obama, really now.

  Links

  • Avaaz.org – ACTA, the New Threat to the Internet
  • Electronic Freedom Foundation page on ACTA
  • Whitehouse.gov – petition to end ACTA and protect our right to privacy on the internet – you’ll need to create an account for yourself
  • Whitehouse.gov – petition to force submission of ACTA to the Senate for ratification as required of any international trade agreements – you’ll need to create an account for yourself
  • The actual text of ACTA in PDF format

  
  

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• Hollywood's Brain-Drain Hits Broadway With "Back To The Future" Musical February 5, 2012

  1980′s Movies Being Brought Back as Broadway Musicals – Stop the Madness!

  A Random Rant by Staff Editor, PK
  (Pulled and re-published, now with extended rant)

  As I’m cruising the interwebs, I heard a lot of screaming and crying mixed with a bit of golf clapping. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that Broadway has broken into the 1980′s section of the net and was found pillaging old movie scripts for ideas for new shows. I pulled my web-browser over and hopped out, quickly grabbing one of the Broadway Producers by the shirt and begging him for an answer, “why are you digging up old 80′s movies for shows?” He looked at me with lifeless eyes and pointed to the wallet in my pocket, “money” he groaned like a zombie. The 80′s was a special part of my life; classic Nintendo games, the early days of hardcore movies like Die Hard, and there was just something about a cute girl with chemically irradiated big hair, Swatch Watches and neon green tube socks.

  And while I respect that Hollywood has the right to occasionally dig up a good movie and remake it, I have to ask, do you think they’re going a bit far with all the remakes? For every few brand-new movies with original stories, it feels like we’re being inundated with five or six remakes every year or so. Hollywood’s brain-drained obsession with making a fast buck off established stories from 20-30 years ago, has become contagious and spread to Broadway. News has come out that Back To The Future is being strongly considered for adaptation for a Broadway musical, and that sound you just heard is BTTF fans around the world fainting. Now I know I can’t speak for all fans, but this news really just made me groan in pain.

  If it was just BTTF it might not be so painful, but word is coming down the pipe that movies  ”Newsies,” “Ghost,” “Big Fish,” “Austin Powers,” “Rocky,” “The Goonies,” and “Dave“, are being developed for the stage. Movie wise, modern day versions of “RoboCop“, “Total Recall“, and what appears to be a 5th installment in the Terminator movie series are being worked on. RoboCop is set to release sometime in 2013, while Total Recall is planned for this year. This is sort of a two-pronged rant on the movie and stage industry, they’ve helped our lives by bringing to the screen and stage, stories that have shaped us and our culture beyond belief. In a way I can understand film makers pulling old movies out of the vault and adding effects or even entire scenes years later, but I think many would agree that it detracts from the original movie and is an insult to those who worked on the film in the first place and to the fans.

  I’ve only had brief exposure to the stage works, but have seen some on television. It’s the original form of organized entertainment, and it deserves more respect than taking a bunch of movies (some of which may not translate well) and trying to cram them onto the stage. I think my main gripe is the constant remaking of movies, and those in the stage industry not trying to just come up with their own original works. I admit that it’s extremely hard to come up with purely original content these days, everything is influenced by something else. And that’s not specifically a bad thing, but it makes it harder for people like me to become engaged in the story. Especially when it feels like a retelling of a retelling of something else, ya’know. Now I know that not all of the movies listed above are from the 80′s, but they still don’t deserve the horror of a Broadway treatment, not when there’s perfectly good story-lines out there that are more suited for stage production.

   

  Cinema and Stage fans the world over beg those in power to stop the madness of endless remakes and sequels that are sure to be painful!

  These are all excellent movies, but do they need to be remade or sequel’d as movies or Broadway shows?,

  Sincerely,

  One Old Angry 80′s Nerd

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• "The Avengers" Cologne Set "Do you want to smell like a Superhero?" January 26, 2012

  Now You To Can Smell Like a Hulking Green Super Beast

  By Staff Editor, PK

  It’s been a while since I’ve stepped into a comic shop, and I knew that they could order almost anything that my geeky little heart desires, but cologne? That’s right folks, you to can now smell like one of Marvel’s The Avengers! Smell like the hulking tank smashing beast who’s been wearing those same purple shorts far past their launder date! Smell like the billionaire playboy who’s spent one too-many hours locked in a metal suit and desperately needs a shower! Smell like… Water lily? Not the fragrance I would associate with Bruce Banner’s sweaty alter ego, but hey, if you make it, nerds will buy it.

  From JADS International, LLC., comes The Avengers Cologne Set, with the tag line “Finally four unique fragrances assembled for the first time!“. And forgive my sarcastic nature, but I couldn’t help but suddenly develop this mental image of a skinny nerd with horned rimmed glasses looking bewildered as a beautiful woman blows him off over his offer of a date; standing there with a tear dripping from his eye and thinking, “but I smell like Iron Man, how could she turn me down?”. But believe it or not, if you desire to smell like Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, or Thor; all you have to do is hit up your local comic retailer who can order you up a batch for only $59.99.

  If you thought JADS International was a familiar name in the geek/nerd world, you’d be right. JADS has also brought us cologne collections involving Star Trek and Star Wars; with scents such as Shirtless Kirk Cologne and Red Shirt Cologne, for when you feel the need to be that expendable unnamed guy in the landing party. But if you’re more in the swinging mood, and want to meld your favorite nerd girl, check out Pon Farr Perfume for Her. Or if she’s looking to be your little Slave Girl to your Jabba the Hut, (bad mental image there) then check out Slave Leia Perfume.

  

  The Patriot “Captain America Cologne”

   

  PATRIOT Cologne

  A cologne that pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard working average Joe in every man. PATRIOT Cologne is both reserved and sexy; like a symbol on a shield or a moniker on a motorcycle helmet. Fresh notes of green lime and white pepper are the first to hit with dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila accords finishing the adventure. Perfect for any time or place, PATRIOT Cologne puts the Novus Mundus in your strong, sensuous hands for you to embrace and discover.

  PATRIOT Cologne
  Your Attack Plan.
  
  
  

  

  Mark VII "Iron Man Cologne"

  Mark VII Cologne

  A resolutely sophisticated cologne forged from the sea, the sun, the earth, and a touch of devil-may-care whimsy. Transparent, aromatic, and modern in nature, Mark VII combines mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of “I don’t play well with others” confidence; leaving you always ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter along the way.

  Mark VII Cologne
  Armor Up.

  
  

  

  Smash! "The Hulk Cologne"

   

  SMASH!

  Very unusual and rare materials have been brought together to create a woody aquatic cologne evoking both a serene sense of timeless freedom and a single-minded, unbridled passion for life. Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar. Complimentary to a full range of emotions, it wears well no matter where—at work, the lab or an evening out on the town.

  SMASH!
  Be Angry.

  
  

  

  Worthy Cologne "Smell like Thor"

   

  Worthy Cologne

  This woody citrus cologne is a unique, meaningful combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered deeply with aromatic cypress. Basenotes are possessed with sensual, seductive tones of dark amber and cedarwood, protecting and enhancing a deep, dry masculine (dare we say almost God-like?) musk.

  Worthy Cologne
  Possess the Power.
  
  

  Links:

  JADS International, LLC.

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• SOPA Has Become Toxic January 25, 2012
  

  SOPA and PIPA could effectively destroy the Internet as it exists today, along with entire economies built on it around the world.

  A message for our readers, received from Donny Shaw of fightforthefuture.org:

  Now that Congress has had time to process last week’s internet blackout, a consensus has emerged: SOPA and PIPA are toxic for politicians, and going anywhere near them could cost them their re-election.

  Freedom is winning.

  Together, we’ve done something amazing– never have so many people stood up to defend a free and open internet.  Here’s a San Francisco Chronicle article about how it all came together: The Largest Online Protest in History Started Here.

  And here’s Carl Franzen at Talking Points Memo:

  “Behind the scenes, Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle confirmed to TPM that the entire piracy debate had become so ‘toxic’ that virtually no lawmakers were likely to be ready to re-engage it anytime soon.”

  Experienced Congress-watchers are telling us they’ve never seen anything like this.

  Internet users, tech companies, and non-profits joined together to defend fundamental rights on the internet. To a lot of elites in Congress and the corporate world, the internet is just something that lazy teenagers use to spam people with pictures of photoshopped unicorns. The blackout showed that the peer-to-peer internet is about empowerment, and that when we work together we can defeat the corrupt politics of Washington D.C.

  The New York Times and Talking Points Memo have both published good articles on how the web blackout was organized.

  For months, four senators were the only force blocking passage of PIPA/SOPA. They even promised to filibuster the bill back when most politicians were against them. We need to make sure we support and vote for leaders like them who are willing to going to go out on a limb and oppose SOPA before it was popular to do so. It’s great that we pressured all those other shlubs into opposing web censorship, but these guys deserve the real cred and our support: Click here to donate (scroll down).

  What’s next?  The Fight is not over, already new threats to web freedom are starting to emerge (particularly in Europe) and we’re getting ready.  Stay tuned, and for more updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

  Thank you again for standing up for a free and open internet!

  - Donny and Fight for the Future

  Fight for the Future is a non-profit helping to organize the historic strike against the web censorship bills SOPA and PIPA on our site sopastrike.com – go there for a list of websites that are striking and more information.

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• Back to Basics Internet Safety: Passwords January 23, 2012

  This is the first in a series of articles with some simple but important tips on how you can keep safe on the internet.

  By Staff Editor, PK

   

  The internet is one of the most marvelous inventions of the 20^th century; you have the power to keep in touch with friends and family across the world, and interact with vast online communities of like-minded individuals. You can access massive warehouse’s worth of information and media, in ways that were pure science fiction a mere twenty-five or so years ago. Many of us have even come to consider our time on the net as a different life, separated from our existence in the real world. And while this may have been somewhat inevitable, our digital personas do have a very real effect on our real world lives.

   Most of the people who read our website are already fairly tech-savvy, but I know that they’re a few who are probably in need of a refresher course on those little things out there that can let cyber-criminals ruin your day in more ways than one. If you also happen to be one of the net’s newer denizens, my hope is you’ll take some advice from an old fogey who has seen his share of newcomers get taken advantage of.

  Recently I discovered a friend’s email account had been broken into when I started receiving spam messages from him, messages on the latest way to win the lottery, and how to lose a hundred pounds in only a month. I knew my friend wasn’t the sort of person to send these kinds of emails, so it was obvious right away his account had been compromised. And despite the terror that hacking groups like Anonymous and LulzSec have spread across the net with their crime sprees against major corporations and government agencies, I already knew this breach of digital security was something far simpler.

  A lot of people I’ve talked to over the years have called me in a panic, saying that their email or other online account has been hacked. To say that your account has been hacked, are many times somewhat of a misnomer. The purest use of the word hacked, is to use a program or other method to exploit a security loophole in a system and then brute force breach it with multiple computers working together, for the purposes of obtaining data/information that is supposed to be kept private. The issues with email accounts being broken into, are very intertwined with crimes such as Phishing Scams.

  I’ll cover that in my next article, but today let’s focus on Passwords and Password Security. My experience as a citizen of the net, is telling me that you just laughed and said to yourself; “no one will ever guess my password”. Are you sure about that? Are you willing to bet your life savings on it? Are you willing to bet your digital privacy on that? I bet some of you just looked around the room and sheepishly said “yes’, in an attempt to feel better about yourselves, and not feel like a total newb as you search your memory for your various passwords and wonder if they’re really that secure.

  I’m not trying to be mean, but what some don’t understand is, is that major net terrorist groups like Anonymous, are not your biggest personal threat. It’s the small groups and individuals who spend their days looking for ways to compromise passwords so they can break in and steal your information, and more importantly steal money. The issue of password security is something I find to be a bigger problem with the very young, and the older portions of our world population. The young’ns out there think no one will bother them since they’re new; while older people simply want an easy to remember password.

  I wouldn’t be too surprised if you or others are still thinking that you have a secure password for whatever online accounts you have, and that I won’t be able to suggest anything you haven’t already thought of. This ties in with my next article on Phishing Scams; but for example, if you happen to be an aficionado of say petunias, do you happen to have a password with “petunia” in it? You’d be shocked at how many people would answer yes to that question, and it’s a common problem, people using words or combination of words that are easy to guess in their passwords.

   Let’s look at what you should use in your passwords:

  • Your best bet is to use random letters and numbers.
  • The better websites and services will let you also use symbols such as (&^%$#@) in your passwords.
  • Most websites use case sensitive passwords, so make your passwords UPPER and lower case.
  • Always use a password that is a minimum of eight characters long, but make yours as long as possible.
  • An example of a bad password: poodleskirt34 or just poodleskirt
  • An example of a good password: &Aa2xD76@Jf224 (since I’ve used this as an example, please don’t use this as your password.)
  • It’s a good idea to change your passwords every six months to a year, if someone has been diligently hammering away on figuring out your passwords, then it’s a champion of an idea to change them every so often.

  What you should never use in your passwords:

  • Never use your birthday in a password.
  • Never use your name, the names of friends, relatives, pets, your children, and or their birthdates.
  • Never use the name or birthday of your favorite actor or athlete.
  • Never use words associated with your favorite sports team(s), or anything associated with activities you enjoy or participate in.
  • Never use words associated with items you own and that others may know about, like your car or brand of toothpaste.
  • NEVER use the same password for more than one website, if one of your accounts is compromised, the others are sure to follow if you’ve used the same password repeatedly on other websites.

  If you happen to be one of those who use the same password for more than one account (I hope you don’t), then it would be a very good idea to have more than one email address. Many websites and companies require you to use your email address as your login/username; so if one of your passwords is compromised, it wouldn’t cause an immediate cascade effect on your other accounts that the cyber-criminal may know about. I know that may sound like a pain, but it’s prudent, so set up two or three email accounts. Use one for your banking and bills, one for your personal correspondence, and the other you can use for online accounts such as gaming or virtual communities.

  “But I can’t remember passwords that complex!” I hear that a lot, so let’s see what we can do about that. If you’re like some and just don’t have the memory for complex passwords, then it’s ok to write them down. Swing by your local store and get yourself a good diary type book; write down your accounts and your passwords so you can look them up when you need to. You could save them in a spreadsheet or notepad file on your computer, but I would strongly advise against it. On the off chance someone does break into your computer, they’ll be looking for files with account information and passwords. Make sure and keep your book of passwords in a safe place in your dwelling; it would also be wise to have a paper shredder on hand for when you need to throw out papers with old info on them like that.

  Part of your having a strong password, is the password reset information. This is more for the Social Engineering article, but it’s important to set this up when doing your passwords. When you set up an account, you’re normally asked for ways that the company can help verify who you are, in the event you forget your password and need to reset it. Outside of guessing your password, this is how most thieves break into accounts. They look at all of your public information, info you’ve posted about yourself or information they’ve gathered from stealing your physical mail, etc. The cyber-thief will take what he/she knows about you and answer your reset questions in order to allow them to make their own password and get into your account.

  Even today, despite what I and others would see as going against common sense, many websites still ask you to put where you were born or where your mother was born as your reset question/answer. For example, if you and your mother are friends on Facebook, and both of you have public profiles, it’s not going to be hard to figure out where both of you were born if you list that sort of information. A good website will let you write your own reset question, but the best thing you can do is no matter what question you set, is put an answer that is total gibberish. So if one of the limited questions you can use is, “Where were you born?” put something like “The sloppy side of pancake mountain”. As long as you use answers that no one should be able to figure out from public information about you, your account is much more secure.

   

  Stay tuned to Krypton Radio, and my next article on Back to Basics Internet Safety: Phishing Scams.

  -30-

   

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• Op-Ed: SOPA and PIPA, The War Isn't Over January 20, 2012

  by Samantha Lowell, Guest Editorialist

  

  SOPA and PIPA could effectively destroy the Internet as it exists today, along with entire economies built on it around the world

  SOPA and PIPA are the victims of industrial hubris and overreach, of arrogant proponents who  didn’t even bother to consider the extremism of their own work, much less that anyone would ever oppose them. Our Congressional representatives are choosing to acknowledge that endorsing these acts in a contentious election year is political suicide, so internet activists can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Yet troubling questions remain.

  Why were they supporting these bills in the first place? Most claims by  the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other proponents of SOPA claimed a loss of revenue and jobs in the entertainment industry, but there was no credible data to back it up. Legislative fact sheets distributed by industry lobbyists such as former Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) cite numbers like $250 billion and 750,000 jobs lost annually to piracy, but nobody seemed to know exactly where these numbers came from. While piracy has of course cost the media industry money, were the losses really as serious as portrayed? As it turns out, the figures SOPA backers such as the MPAA and lobbyists cite come seem to be coming from a variety of biased sources, the most notably damning of which is the highly pro-business lobbying group/think tank, the CATO Institute….and anyone knows never to trust statistics coming from anyone with an axe to grind.

  And  if even the MPAA  and others admit openly that eliminating piracy is a technical impossibility, whyo why the sudden push for SOPA and PIPA?  In the wake of second thoughts on SOPA and PIPA by the House and Senate, Congressional watchers and media analysts have begun to point to a less noble motive than protecting Intellectual Property rights: Eliminating competition.

  The very broad and undefined language of SOPA and PIPA would have given media companies and ISPs carte blanche to eliminate any sector of the internet they chose under the pretext of piracy and with virtually no supervision-a dangerous concentration of power in anyone’s hands. Anyone erroneously censored would be powerless against any such claim. Media analysts in recent days have pointed out that media giants in the United States would find in SOPA and PIPA the ideal  tool to use piracy as an excuse to squelch not only file sharing but, far more importantly, foreign competitors.

  If this weren’t an election year, this may not have come to ahead so fast or dramatically, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Read (D-NV) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have both said that SOPA and PIPA are only stopped for the time being.  Lobbyists and lawmakers learn quickly. The SOPA and PIPA “Nuclear Option” was an unprecedented public relations nightmare. The next such initiative will very likely be every bit as destructive as SOPA, but take a more stealthy form.  A battle has been won, but hardly the war.

  Update, January 20, 2012

  We received this press release from Fight for the Future, which ran the largest organizing sites for the recent SOPA protests (sopastrike.com and americancensorship.org), applauds the announcement that the Senate and House have postponed action on the proposed web censorship bills.

  “We sent the MPAA back to the drawing board,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Holmes Wilson, “But any law that lets the copyright lobby block our websites, censor our search results, or cut off our Paypal accounts–without even going through a judge–will be soundly defeated.”

  “This was the largest online protest in history,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, “The MPAA was trying to quietly force this bill through Congress, but when internet users started paying attention, real democracy happened.  This is a watershed moment in the fight against lobbyists’ influence on politics.”

  “The MPAA could have proposed a law to address copyright infringement,” said Holmes Wilson, “Instead, they proposed giving rightsholders veto power over online innovation and free expression.  At that point, it was just a matter of getting the public involved.”

  Links

  • A timeline of the SOPA protests: http://sopastrike.com/timeline
  • Statistics from the January 18 protest: http://sopastrike.com/numbers
  • Statistics from the November 16 protest: http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html
  • http://fightforthefuture.org

  - 30 -

   

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• January 18, 2012 - SOPA and PIPA Effectively Dead January 19, 2012

  The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) Have been Stopped… For Now

  An Editorial Update, by Staff Editor PK

  A message posted by Wikipedia, following the lifting of their website’s blackout.

  Thank you.

  The Wikipedia blackout is over — and you have spoken.

  More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.

  For us, this is not about money. It’s about knowledge. As a community of authors, editors, photographers, and programmers, we invite everyone to share and build upon our work.

  Our mission is to empower and engage people to document the sum of all human knowledge, and to make it available to all humanity, in perpetuity. We care passionately about the rights of authors, because we are authors.

  SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The Internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you’ve directed your energy to protecting it.

  We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly.

  January 18th of 2012, truly is a day that will live in Infamy for the history of the internet. It was the day that millions of people from across the United States, and from around the world stood up and told the American government, that they will not tolerate the passing of two bills that had the very real potential to cause harm to the internet, the world’s greatest resource of human knowledge. On January 18th, thousands of websites went dark in protest of the legislation which would give governments and private companies, the ability to shut down websites and tamper with the very inner workings of the internet, in an attempt to stop copyright infringement and electronic piracy of protected content.

  
  We strongly encourage Krypton Radio listeners to continue helping support the full removal of these bills, and let your government representatives know that existing laws with the right adjustments will help to combat the issues of online piracy and copyright infringement. The real truth is, that there is no permanent way to stop these illegal activities; and SOPA and PIPA would simply give private companies and law enforcement agencies the power to gut sections of the internet without warning, in an overtly futile attempt to stop the theft and piracy.

  Senators Notice the Stink

  So far, according to Ars Technica, eighteen U.S. Senators have backed away from PIPA, the Senate version of the nuclear-option bill that would give big media the legal right to carve off hunks of the Internet with a chain saw whenever they see something they don’t like on a web site (whether it’s on American soil or not).  The opposition expressed by millions of voices could not be ignored, and neither can the stink from their briefcases.  At one point there was a majority in support of the bill in the Senate, but this is now not the case.  Most of the retractions of support are from the Republican side, which is a surprise – only three of the retractions are Democrats.   The chances of the bill passing now are slim, but letting them up off the mat now would be a mistake.  We as a people need to make sure they don’t try this idea again.

  Related to this, in a disturbing 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that copyrighted works that have passed into the public domain can now be re-copyrighted to conform with the duration of copyright durations observed by other countries in accordance with the an international copyright treaty known as the Berne Convention.  This will only affect certain works, and only for the time it takes for the period of discrepancy between the United States period of copyright and the period described by the Berne Convention to elapse.  Still, it’s a problem for people who make their livings on public domain material who now discover that what they once had free access to is now taken away from them.

   

  Links

  • House Kills SOPA – Denver Computers | Examiner.com 
  • Make the Call – Stop the Wall: The Protect IP Act Could Create the Great Firewall of America
  • Popular Sites Going Dark in SOPA/PIPA Protest
  • WordPress > Help Stop SOPA/PIPA
  • Reddit – SOPA
  • Stop American Censorship
  • Wikipedia – Stop Online Piracy Act
  • EFF – Take Action
  • Why Rackspace opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act
  • Mozilla – Protect The Internet

  Incoming search terms:

  • radio scripts perfume
  • little text people roles
  • intake form for stalking victims
  • ironman mk VII scene 10
  
• Marvel Mutants Not Human (And What This Has To Do With SOPA) January 11, 2012

  Editorial by Gene Turnbow

  

  Marvel Comics contemplates its next move...

  In 2003, the United States Court of International Trade (a branch of the federal judiciary most of us have never heard of) declared in a judgment in the case of Toy Biz v. United States that many of their action figures were toys, not dolls, and were therefore owed a refund in import tariffs as dolls are taxed at double the rate toys are for some reason.

  This happened to include action figures of Marvel Comic’s X-Men and Fantastic Four. To get the court to agree to this, Toy Biz had to convince the court that these characters had properties and qualities that no human being has, and by extrapolation were therefore not legally dolls, but toys.

  On January 3, 2003, after examining more than 60 action figures, Judge Judith Barzilay ruled in their favor, granting Toy Biz reimbursement for import taxes on previous toys.

  The internet is buzzing with this news this month. So why is this news in 2012 when the whole thing happened nine years ago?

  We have a general sense of right and wrong. But in general, collectively, we are only dimly aware of the weird stuff going on around us that can negatively impact our way of life. In 2003, the fact that Marvel would go along with the proposal that their all too human characters were inhuman despite spending decades convincing us of their quintessential humanity despite the powers with which they’d been gifted didn’t have much of an impact other than to outrage a few loyal fans who felt that Marvel had turned its back on its own creations.

  This year, however, even the most apolitical of the world of comics fandom is starting to see a pattern in what Marvel has been doing. Of course just last week we reported on the plight of Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich who somehow managed to sign away all his rights to his own creation to the Marvel corporate machine, who properly counter-sued when he illegally used his own creation in the design of a poster.

  Okay, yes, more cold corporate equations being applied to real people. He was foolish, and should not have just signed his rights away. Was it really necessary for Marvel not to have tried to take good care of the creative wellsprings from which every scrap of its success ultimately derives? This seems short sighted on their part, at least, and more than a little heartless.

  And now there’s SOPA, which to the surprise of many, Marvel supports. As with most major media companies, Marvel subscribes to the myopic belief that they will be able to use SOPA to curb online piracy of their books and movies by removing the domain names of the infringing sites from the name servers that the entire internet uses to attach names to web servers. What they haven’t thought about is how much damage this will do to the Internet as a whole. It would also force internet service providers to police intellectual property rights on their clients’ web sites and to become experts in copyright and trademark law. It’s not a stretch to say that every web server would need a lawyer attached in some way. Then there’s the threat this poses to major services like blogger.com. To do name service blocking like what SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA would require would could potentially billion-dollar companies along with every smaller commercial operation or business that depends on these large hosting companies. It sounds melodramatic, but a number of the best minds in the industry believe that a catastrophic result is most certainly on the table should either of these bills pass and be signed into law.

  And there Marvel stands supporting this madness, once again blinded to everything but their short term self-interest. They’re not alone, of course. There’s a short list of major supporters of the legislation, including GoDaddy, one of the biggest domain registrars on the planet.

  To quote the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

  “As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet’s domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users’ attempts to reach certain websites’ URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.

  It gets worse: Under SOPA’s provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

  Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has placed a hold on the Senate version of the bill, taking a principled stand against a very dangerous bill. But every Senator and Representative should be opposing the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA. Contact your members of Congress today to speak out!”

  The point I’m making here is that Marvel has gotten more and more corporate and litigiously minded – possibly because of their having been bought by Disney in 2009, (Disney also supports SOPA, by the way).  By the time anyone starts asking us to sacrifice our freedoms so they can line their pockets, it starts being noticed.

  I think that’s why this “Marvel Mutants Declared Inhuman” headline is making such a splash now even though the news itself is nine years old.  People are starting to wake up to smell the napalm, and it’s not a friendly smell at all.

  - 30 -

  Links

  • CNN – Disney Buys Marvel for $4 Billion
  • “Controversial Copyright Bills Would Violate First Amendment–Letters to Congress by Laurence Tribe and Me” by Marvin Ammori
  • List of SOPA Supporters
  • “How SOPA Will Destroy Internet Security” by Cory Doctorow
  • “US State Department not for internet freedom” by Trevor Timm
  • “Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation” by the EFF – learn what you can do to stop this horrific bill from becoming law
  • Keep the Web Open, a site recommended by Congressman Jarid Polis of Colorado

  Incoming search terms:

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• Truth and Lies - the League Response August 31, 2011

  

  How A Few Facts and a Lot of Lies Swayed An Unknowing Public

  Krypton Radio Newswire

  Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

  - Isaac Asimov

  There have been public debates recently over whether the Justice League Unlimited group operating in Second Life has been harvesting IP addresses and is currently holding private information about Second Life citizens.  The answer is a simple “no”.  The League has never harvested IP addresses, and currently holds no private information about Second Life users.

  Many people on various forums and some in-world venues, are raging and calling for the removal of the Justice League from Second Life. And while everyone has their right to their own opinion, we do want to straighten out some misinformation which is being spread by various people and groups who were actually banned from SL, and are trying to get revenge on the League over our investigative reporting which have exposed their very real criminal actions.

  Our greatest concern is that people in general are being lead to take the word of a website which claims to be exposing the “evils” of the League. However when you actually read through the website, you’ll see they’re actually exposing their own true nature.

  The site in question is “TheListSL”, which claims to be targeting JLU members to expose them.  If one looks at this site’s history, though, the site has been exposing private information on Second Life users a long time before they decided to focus on the League, posting real world data on Second Life users, using obscene and abusive language to describe their hatred for the people whose Second Life and real life information they’ve linked and posted online for the world to see.

  While Linden Lab has publicly declined to involve itself in this matter, we are going to be up front and answer some questions on the material being “leaked”.

  

  Soft Linden's detective work pays off and proves the IP list is not only a forgery, but created by people already banned from Second Life themselves.

  The Big Lie

  The debacle started with what propagandists call “A Big Lie”.  People generally need to believe one another, yet also are on the lookout for falsehood. Most of regularly tell small lies and engage in minor deception, and so expect others to do likewise. When a big lie is told, this does not fit into our model of modest mendacity, and so we say ‘It must be true’.  In this case the Big Lie was that the League was somehow harvesting the IP addresses of users in Second Life and cross referencing them to discover and record people’s alternate accounts.  This Big Lie ran in various public forums unchecked for two weeks.  The debate was not begun by legitimately concerned residents of Second Life, but by people who, for the most part, had already been banned from Second Life and no longer had a stake in the outcome.

   

  Coincidentally, the day Tux Winkler was banned from Second Life for creating an avatar tracking system and using it to stalk people in Second Life, he proclaimed that his new system (a much better one) was already operational and gathered much more data than his previous one did.

  It doesn’t take much guesswork to figure out where the Red Zone style IP list had come from. The alt detection data being released on theListSL was, in effect, a forgery.  It was real data, but it was being used to perpetuate a massive lie – that the League had done it.  By this time two or three dozen people had joined the discussion and had become morally outraged over something that had never actually taken place, and we were off to the races.

  Once Soft Linden had actually analyzed the IP list and had determined that it had been produced by “a member of a group that has been banned from Second Life and told not to return”, the second part of the master plan was executed – the publication of supposedly unmodified data from the BrainiacWiki itself.  This is the evidence stage of a propaganda attack, called “Card Stacking”.  Evidence, even falsified evidence, can be very persuasive.  The attackers mixed just enough truth with the falsified evidence to make it sound “truthy”, editing information heavily to make it appear as though things said well over a year ago were said just weeks ago in an effort to support the already failing proposition that the “leaked” IP list was genuine.

  Is the information being posted on TheListSL real?

  Yes and no.   Some of what is being “leaked” is from our database., but large portions of it have been altered, and some of it has been completely fabricated, and other portions taken out of context or had the dates removed so that it appears that something was said recently when it had actually been said well over a year ago when Second Life rules were different than they are today.

  Is the public outrage posted on SL Universe real?

  We think some people are genuinely indignant or upset, but we also think they’ve been given a lot of false information in order to enrage them.

  In the SL Universe thread as of August 25, we note that an astonishing whopping 1036 posts were made by  members of the banned Second Life group, “The Wrong Hands” or the person posting supposedly un-doctored pages from our wiki (and in one case, someone whom we discovered to be impersonating a police officer and who has been trying to phish private  information from people within Second Life).  Regular readers of Krypton Radio should recognize most of these names already from previous Wrong Hands reports:

  Tux Winkler 201 (including the first-ever post of his own information anywhere on the ‘net)
  Ryokashi 153
  Robble Rubble 136
  TheListSL 96
  Cummere Mayo 91
  Economic Engineer 83
  Code Slacker 74
  Kiddoh Korobase 68
  Atlas Saintlouis 57
  Dontspill McGinnis 41
  charitystohr 36

  Remember that the first two weeks of this thread contained nothing but discussion of how abhorrent our IP harvesting system was – the one we weren’t actually running, based on falsified evidence presented by an anonymous attacker.  At the same time, a fake online petition was started by the same trolls.  The site featured no means of verifying that any of the participants were actually Second Life citizens at all, nor did it prevent people from “signing” the petition dozens of times each using different names, which a large number of people did – no one knows for sure how large.

  Also posting in this thread and doing his level best at rabble rousing is N3X15, the infamous leader of the Patriotic Nigras between 2007 and 2010 (there were sock puppet leaders, but they were largely figureheads – it was N3X15 ultimately pulling the strings).  Yet N3X15 hopes that everyone has forgotten that he led a group created simply to victimize everyone in Second Life, and to bring about the demise of the platform if possible.  The Patriotic Nigras web site was finally removed from the internet in June of 2010, though the weapons scripts archive lived on for a time on Tux Winkler’s web site.

  These are the “injured parties” who are crying foul the loudest, and the ones who hope we will all forget how all this started in the first place – with their own misdeeds and with them getting caught doing them.  Keep in mind also that if Tux Winkler was so very upset about his personal information being held in a place where nobody could see it, why did he post his own cirriculum vitae in a public forum for the entire world to see? Clearly the safety of his family is not his aim, or he wouldn’t have done this.  He’s after revenge, not justice.

  Over time it became clear in the threads that people claiming to be law enforcement were actually play-acting teenagers, and that people who claimed to file real world law suits against the League and its members had not actually done so.

  Was the information actually leaked by a disgruntled JLU member as they claim?

  We had originally thought that the information was stolen from our systems by a hacker, who managed to compromise the account of a (now former) JLU member , which was then used to steal the connection credentials necessary to breach our database. Linden Lab notified us that a member account was breached, and that they had detected spyware placed by that account in our in-world headquarters.  The chat spy devices (there were two) were active between August 3, 2011, when they was placed, and August 18, when they were removed (about fifteen days).

  We had received word that an alt of Cheergirl Allen, a Wrong Hands sympathizer, had managed to sneak a mole account into the League and had ready access to the BrainiacWiki over the span of about three month’s time – though at this point the source of the information is in doubt.  Our records do indicate that an account was shared with others who had no legitimate right of access – once again, the content was not “liberated”, or “reported”, but simply stolen.   Much of the information being “leaked” has been heavily modified from the original, and much has been simply fabricated from whole cloth.  Enough of it matches what we have, though, to show us that a major break-in and theft has occurred. Aside from this, Cheergirl is a member of the Robble Rubble Fan Club, and her use of the Neil Life client featuring sim crashing tools is well documented.  She was a major participant in a faked chat spy incident wherein a Thomas Connover radar system was moved to her land and “discovered” by a small group of the usual suspects.

  Linden Lab did not violate anyone’s privacy in notifying us of this. The spyware detected was transmitting chat and other information to a server that LL has been monitoring relative to activity by previously banned griefers who were using alts to bypass their bans.

  How much of what they’re posting is accurate?

  The Justice League has helped in uncovering actual crime in Second Life on more than one occasion, and yes, we’ve asked a lot of questions and dug to find proof of that. We function as a neighborhood watch group, and always have.  We have never exceeded our authority in this, and leave the real police work to the real authorities.

  Much of what has been posted is either heavily manipulated or simply convincingly synthesized.  These people have real material motives, and they’ve lost some substantial sums of real money (thousands of U.S. dollars) because they were banned from Second Life and lost assets.  It took them months to find a way to break into our wiki again, and this time it included hacking into  somebody’s account to do it.  They’re ready and willing to cross any line in front of them, legal or not. Don’t think for a minute that they’re not heavily motivated to doctor records before showing them to you.

  

  The "Sephora Mafia" gloats over server attacks.

  Who is behind the attacks on your wiki?

  We have a pretty good idea who our attackers are, and we’ll show you some stories from Krypton Radio  to build a history for you so you can more clearly see what’s going on.

  In the SL Universe thread, Robble Rubble explains how the entire original “wiki heist” was planned and executed – laid out exactly how he organized the original attack.

  They’re also gloating about it – Tux Winkler, Dontspill McGinnis and others are sending harassing emails and Skype messages to League members about it, mostly to gloat about how exposed the League is; and, we’ve learned from insiders in their group that this “mission” has been planned from since before the fall of Red Square a couple of months back, and that Pixeleen Mistral knew the entire time that this project was underway and neither reported the plan to law enforcement authorities, nor exposed the plan on the Herald as journalism,  nor did anything to stop it.

  10 January 2010, A group calling themselves “The Wrong Hands” at the direction of a person known in-world as Tizzers Foxchase, has an agent use social engineering to steal a partial copy of our wiki. This was done in response to one of our members interfering with a raiding party from the Woodbury University group while on its way to grief a Holocaust Survivor memorial in Second Life.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2010/04/17/justice-leagues-brainiacwiki-stolen-the-aftermath/

  20 April 2010, The Woodbury University group is perma-banned by Linden Lab.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2010/04/20/woodbury-university-estate-destroyed-again/
  http://kryptonradio.com/2010/04/28/linden-labs-woodbury-university-cleanup-effort-continues/

  17 May 2010, Woodbury University group, hacks third party websites.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2010/05/17/modular-systems-hacked/

  22 September 2010, Major players in The Wrong Hands are banned from Second Life.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2010/09/22/the-wrong-hands-gets-final-slap-from-linden-lab/

  10 January 2011, Woodbury group attempts to sneak back into Second Life and is exposed.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/01/10/woodbury-university-sneaks-back-into-second-life/

  10 April 2011, A new major player in the Wrong Hands is identified as Tux Winkler, and his establishment of a spyware network in Second Life.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/04/10/stark-reality-exclusive/
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/04/16/the-wrong-hands-lies-exposed/

  04 July 2011, A story we ran, showing a possible connection between Anonymous/Lulzsec members and Woodbury University/The Wrong Hands.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/07/04/dumpster-knights-the-true-face-of-hacktivism/

  18 July 2011, Woodbury University’s 3rd incarnation is along with various The Wrong Hands members, banned from Second Life.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/07/21/woodbury-banned-a-third-time-sl-bronies-take-a-hit/

  20 July 2011, Sephora Mafia appears on Twitter and shows it is orchestrating the Distributed Denial of Service attacks on Krypton Radio, corresponding images mocking the Krypton Radio site being down appear on Tux Winkler’s website. Along with other twitter feeds confirming that Second Life servers were being hijacked to attack our server.
  https://twitter.com/#!/SephoraMafia
  https://sl4.me
  https://twitter.com/#!/TRXLLVN
  https://twitter.com/#!/DockingAdolf

  25 July 2011, Linden Lab removes Tux Winkler from Second Life after they prove that he had indeed been operating a spy-ware network within SL, after a Linden Lab employee sees a story on Krypton Radio about our investigation uncovering it. He does his own investigation and finds that we were right, and brings the information to the Governance team.
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/07/25/krypton-radio-news-flash-the-last-of-the-wrong-hands-falls/
  http://kryptonradio.com/2011/04/16/the-wrong-hands-lies-exposed/

  04 Aug 2011, Sephora Mafia stops tweeting, and TheListSL on the same day, announces they are focusing their information exposing operations on the JLU/Krypton Radio. And also shows the first disclosure by listing the Second Life and Real names and private contact information of several of Krypton Radio staff members, along with birth-dates, home addresses, private email addresses, and phone numbers. This highly encourages identity theft, their site also shows other customers of Second Life who have their identities hacked and stolen in order to expose their private info.
  https://twitter.com/#!/thelistsl
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDBK7g1JUrQ

  10 Oct 2011, mass defections from the SL Universe threads begin, as people began figuring out that the IP address database was faked, and that warring factions within the griefer groups that had stolen the information in the first place were each releasing their own edited versions of the materials – it was becoming clear that they were manipulating the public for their own ends.  Major supporters withdrew in disgust as theListSL and its friends violated the privacy of more people than the JLU had been accused of doing by as much as eight to ten times in their efforts to get at us by any means possible.  A few stubborn trolls linger on, but the public by this time has turned away from the spectacle.

  Even in the event that information is removed or changed on TheListSL blog, Google can easily roll back the blog to an earlier state to reveal the information that was deleted.

   

  

  The source of the leaks started with massive violations of privacy of its own, and was already well established as a stalking site.

  Why are they doing this?

  The motivation is revenge – they don’t seem to understand that it isn’t just the League responding to their antisocial destructive behavior – it’s the entire community around them.  The League happens to be the most visible part of the efforts against them, so they picked us to strike out at.

  This is a similar event to the recent difficulties San Francisco’s BART had – BART police shot a man  on the train who was wielding a knife, so Anonymous decided to punish them by hacking and defacing their web site, stealing their database and exposing information on thousands of BART users, et cetera.  Then they staged a real life protest in the BART station on August 15 to protest the practice of cell phone and text message lockdown in BART stations during potential riot situations.  In all, only twelve Anonymous actually showed up – they’re very ready to commit cyber crimes such as this, but they’re not so keen on actually getting caught at it.

  In the BART case, just as with this one, the data exposed hurts the public rather than helps them.  It’s not being done in the name of the public good – it’s being done to hurt people, and specifically us, as much as they can. They know they’re in the wrong here.  That’s why the initial leak site has a banner across the top telling people how to find them in case Google bans them.

  They complain bitterly that the League was unfairly targeting them on their own private sim over the past year – but we hasten to remind the reader that the very fact that they had one was a violation of the Terms of Service, as they had been told by Linden Lab to leave Second Life and never to return. This latest incarnation of Woodbury at Red Square was their third time trying to sneak back in, and dozens of citizens’ watch groups in addition to our own were trying to figure out how to get them to leave Second Life as they were instructed by Linden Lab legal.

  A recent anti-League rally was attended almost purely by Woodbury ban-evasion alts.

  The perpetrators’ ties to Anonymous are self-admitted, so it’s not hard to see what’s really going on.

  An interesting side note, by the way, is that each time somebody buys one of those Guy Fawkes masks, they’re paying a royalty to Time Warner who owns the trademark, so they’re feeding the very establishment they’re protesting against.

  What is your response to TheListSL and others claiming that the JLU are stalkers and building a database of real world information on Second Life users?

  For one thing, that’s not even possible. We’ve seen the claims,  and it’s just not possible to build a database on every single Second Life resident. Have we ever at any point looked up real life information on anyone? Certainly – a few people we discovered were actual threats to other people’s safety in real life, but our sources were public, and found via Google.  No private information was  involved. Anything we found was kept for the sole purpose of turning over to law enforcement.  Our wiki no longer contains information of this nature – as we’ve passed it on to proper authorities, who are looking into the attacks on our server.

  What do you even have a private wiki for?

  We have the same rights anybody else does  to maintain a private wiki and put anything we want on it. We also are protected under certain laws and governed as members of the press and the media. As with any commercial news source, have the right to build a database for use as reference material.

  But you work as a citizen’s watch group in Second Life, how exactly does that work, being members of the Press at the same time?

  The Justice League started out over five years ago as a small group of friends who liked comic book heroes and what they stood for.  We began to be approached for help by SL residents because we looked like people who might be able to help.  In that situation you have two choices – you can either let it be somebody else’s problem, or you can step up.  We stepped up.  And we’ve been stepping up ever since.

  The League began helping people with security matters at first; we slowly built relationships over time and discovered we had a talent for helping fellow residents on a myriad of issues. From fund-raising to helping investigate security matters, we built the JLU up to what it currently is. In 2009, Krypton Radio was launched to help coordinate security matters on a big event in Second Life. What we discovered was that the radio station would be perfect thing to help us share our love of comics and related media with fellow fans.

  We started out as fellow comics fans and geeks, who decided to take a cool website and build it into an actual commercial venture. But we felt we couldn’t get away from our roots in SL, which included the Peacekeeping and trying to help people. So, for now we’ve maintained both and used Krypton Radio on occasion to help share news on major criminal activity in SL when it was appropriate.

  Admittedly it’s a balancing act.  Sometimes we can’t publish what we know because it might interfere with corrective actions that might be being taken.  But we do our best.

  Did we ever consider alt detection?

  We’ll be honest here – yes.  When it was still allowed by Linden Lab, we considered implementing it.  However, we found it was so unreliable and produced so many false positives that it was really useless, and we never did implement a system that did this. No version of our in-world security system “Phantom Zone” has ever been able to scan IP addresses, and it never will.

  But what about all the claims of massive privacy invasion?

  There has been no massive privacy invasion. Most of the information we have on the citizens of Second Life consists of:

  • Their avatar name
  • Their avatar key number

  In 99.95% of cases, this is all we have.  The remaining half of one percent are those where we have recorded some of the nasty things people do to each other – assault, sim crashing, intolerance based on religion, sexual preference or fandom rivalry, and theft being the main ones.  Occasionally this information must be handed over to real life law enforcement – but by this time, the person or persons involved has been banned from Second Life anyway.  No information beyond Terms of Service violations has ever been managed against legitimate citizens of Second Life, only people who have been removed from Second Life by the Linden Lab administrators in the first place.

  Of course, in some cases we make notes on people who have exhibited philanthropy or play significant positive roles in the virtual society.  These people deserve special assistance when they request it, because they are usually trying to make the virtual world a better place, so the League likes to keep tabs on these important people as well.

  Isn’t keeping records like that a form of harassment?

  Linden Lab provides us all with an abuse reporting system with which to report trouble makers in Second Life.  It is not a violation of the Terms of Service to use the abuse reporting tool – nor is it a violation to make notes on pattern violation, and report that to Linden Lab.  Claims of harassment by people who are causing the trouble in the first place are a smoke screen to distract public attention from the real problem.

  Additionally, every profile has a place for you to write down your personal notes on that person, so this is built into the Second Life experience.

  Who is telling the truth in all this?

  We can’t force you to take our side, or tell you what to believe. It’s up to you to decide for yourselves, however we do ask you to look at the tone of the information being presented. When you look at the people screaming and claiming that the JLU and Krypton Radio are stalking, and claiming its members are filing false abuse reports to get people we don’t like banned; you really have to look closely at that.  Before you accept the word of either side, look at their history and where they came from.

  We assert that TheListSL has committed several felony acts in the breach of an SL member’s account, and then the hacking attack on our database. The information stolen was then posted for the purposes of stalking, harassment, and possibly identity theft. If you read over the various stories on Krypton Radio, you’ll pretty easily notice we do nothing like that.

  If I wanted to join the League, how would I go about it?

  The League hand picks its members for demonstrated leadership and a track record in the community for helping others.  If you wish to join, first, strive to be a friend and an inspiration to others, and allow them to inspire you in return.  Be a beacon of hope.  Help those less fortunate. Be practiced at it. Develop a reputation for it, and pay it forward. Those are the qualities the League looks for in its members, and we’ll notice.

  What’s next for the League?

  At this point in time, we have some good options. We refuse to be bullied out of Second Life, or off the net by a gaggle of griefers who think that exposing some of our private information will scare us. Krypton Radio and the League of Heroes will be around for many years to come. During these trying times, it’s our accomplishments that remind us why we’re still in Second Life – accomplishments like achieving gold level in the Relay For Life fund-raising event for the third year in a row, or our new resident welcome center in Taber, or the establishment of Krypton Radio as a reliable and respected news source for the Second Life community, or the creation of citizens’ watch groups such as GridWatch, and the Assistance Notification Network, or our upcoming release of one of the safest, most effective and yet most ToS-compliant security services out there, the Phantom Zone!

  What’s next for the League?  We’re going to do we’re good at, and we’re going to keep moving forward!

  Update

  Stolen copies of the BrainiacWiki were distributed by several means, including MegaUpload.com. We recently learned that this site has been shut down by federal authorities, with seven people charged with conspiracy, and four being arrested.

  Site owner Dotcom Ortmann,  chief marketing officer Finn Batao, and developer Bram van der Kolk were arrested in New Zealand on January 19, 2012.   The FBI worked with authorities from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the UK and the Phillipines, and in concert with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the case.  The indictment charges that the “Mega conspiracy” has for more than five years operated websites that willfully distributed pirated movies, often before their theatrical release, and other illegal copies of copyrighted works, earning the company over $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue. Megaupload is also charged with money laundering by paying uploaders through an “uploader reward program,” and paying other companies to host the pirated content.

  This is one of the sites to which the operators of the Alphaville Herald directed its users during its participation in the piracy of the stolen BrainiacWiki materials from an earlier “Wrong Hands” theft in 2010.

  Links

  • Wikipedia – The Big Lie
  • CyberAngels.org – Coping with Cyberstalking
  • Second Thoughts – Interview with GreenLantern Excelsior
  • 3DBlogger – The Wrong Hands
  • Second Thoughts – Ryokashi Revestal, Robble Rubble
  • Oracle – Thinkquest page on propaganda definitions and techniques
  • Ex-KGB Propaganda Expert Explains the Subversion Process
  • Privacy Rights – what is real stalking, and what you can do about it
  • Reporting Internet Crime

  Incoming search terms:

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  • intake form for stalking victims
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• Second Life Peacekeeper Q & A August 12, 2011

  

  Editorial by GreenLantern Excelsior

  Here are my answers to some commonly asked questions about peacekeepers in the massively multiplayer online service Second Life.

  Q: I’m tired of griefers and I want to fight back against them. Can I join your group?

  A: If you want to attack griefers, then a peacekeeper group is the wrong group for you. Peacekeepers never attack anyone in non-combat areas, even if they are being attacked. To do so would be a violation of section 3 of the Community Standards. There’s a term for residents who attack someone in a non-combat area: they’re called “griefers.”

  Q: Why do you guys always show up in big groups? Isn’t it “gaming the system” to write large numbers of Abuse Reports?

  A: We write large numbers of Abuse Reports (ARs) because that’s what Linden Lab wants. The Second Life Knowledge Base guidelines on Filing an Abuse Report are very clear in stating that if many people are affected by a griefer’s actions, then they want to receive a larger number of ARs. The paragraph reads as follows:

  File reports on any abuse you witness in addition to abuse that targets you personally. Not every Resident is aware of the abuse-reporting system or remembers to use it, so please help out your fellow Residents! Reports from multiple people underscore the seriousness of an incident.

  Q: Okay, but why not let the people who are affected write the ARs? Why do you have to show up?

  A: If everyone would write an AR when they were attacked by a griefer, there would be no need for peackeepers. The problem is that when residents are attacked, most of them TP to another place or just do nothing. They might think it’s a waste of time to write an AR, or they might not know how to do it. Peacekeepers respond to the location of the attack and write ARs very rapidly, then stay until Linden Lab removes the problem. Residents might be shaken up by some of the disturbing images the griefers use during their attacks, and they want to talk to someone about it. That’s why we’re there.

  Q: Aren’t you guys just fascist Nazi Gestapo police wannabees? Who gave you permission to run around enforcing the Terms of Service?

  A: Peacekeepers never take any enforcement actions. All we do is observe and report, the same thing that any resident can do. We’re like a Neighborhood Watch in Second Life. We send in the reports and the Lindens respond and do the enforcement. The only difference between us and a regular resident is that we are disciplined, and we train our members in how to write ARs. That and the spiffy spandex uniforms.

  Q: What kind of training do peacekeepers get?

  A: Training is the common thread that runs through all the peacekeeper groups. The first training we get is on the Second Life Terms of Service and Community Standards. We all had to acknowledge that we had read them when we signed up for SL, but we may not be well acquainted with them. This training helps members to identify violations. We train on how to patrol, what to do when we respond to a griefer attack, and how to file an Abuse Report. We also talk about the group’s code of ethics, which varies from group to group (but not much).

  Q: I don’t see the big deal with a few porno cubes floating around. I think those are funny. People should be free to do what they want. Why do you guys have to stick your noses into someone else’s business anyway?

  A: Some people may think porn or photos of mangled corpses are funny. The problem is that in most parts of Second Life these things are violations of the Terms of Service. There are people who might be deeply offended at seeing such things. A new resident who gets into the middle of something like that may decide that Second Life is a place to avoid. Peacekeepers perform a service by having these items removed from the grid. There is also the issue of the broken windows theory [1], stated as follows:

  Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in run-down ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.

  Q: I [was assaulted by a Green Lantern] [saw Superman rez a porno cube] [was run over by Batman driving his batmobile]. Is that what peacekeepers do when they’re not writing ARs?

  A: These people are almost certainly not peacekeepers. Anyone can buy a superhero costume and fly around in Second Life. You should check the person’s profile and see if they’re a member of one of the established peacekeeper groups. If they are, then please report their actions to one of the group’s leaders.

  Q: Why do you bother writing ARs? Linden Lab never does anything about griefers anyway

  A: That’s not true. We’ve seen responses within 5 minutes of the first AR being filed. The response time depends on how many Lindens are available to respond and what else they have going on at the same time. It is very rare to write ARs and not see a Linden response.

  Q: How do you find out about griefer attacks so fast?

  A: Communication! There are several peacekeeper groups in Second Life, and many members are in several different groups, so when a major griefer attack takes place, the group channels come to life. Also, we have the Assistance Notification Network (ANN) and GridWatch to help in getting the word out.

  Q: What are Assistance Notification Network and GridWatch?

  A: These two groups were created at about the same time, late 2007 and early 2008. The membership of ANN is made up of peacekeepers and regular residents who want to help, but may not want to join a peacekeeper group for whatever reason.  The membership of Gridwatch is made up entirely of peacekeepers who were already active in that role and were invited to join.

  - 30 -

  Links

  [1] Broken Windows, Atlantic Monthly, March, 1982

  About the Author

  GreenLantern Excelsior has been an active participant in the Second Life online society since October 19, 2006, and is a member of the Justice League Unlimited / League of Heroes, owner and manager of the Assistance Notification Network and other citizen’s watch groups in Second Life.  He can be heard on Krypton Radio as “Captain Krypton” on his weekly show, “Sci Fi Roundup!”

   

  Incoming search terms:

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• Dumpster Knights - The True Face of Hacktivism July 4, 2011

  Krypton Radio Newswire
  (See also: Woodbury Banned a Third Time, SL-Bronies Take a Hit)
  

  

  LulzSec’s Dumpster Knights

  A Krypton Radio Editorial

  They’re like a bunch of garbagemen, trash-pickers who found a couple of old suits of armor in a dumpster and now think they’re knights.   A disorganized gang of Kabuki dancers, running in and out of endless doorways, changing costumes, changing masks, making everyone think there’s more of them than there is.  Angry, nihilistic college students, professors, and would-be entrepreneurs, guilty over their desire for success in a world where success is supposed to be a sign that you’ve sold out to the Dark Side.

  The hackers, so-called “hacktivists” that have been breaking into systems as diverse as Eve Online, Sony, the CIA, the US Senate, and the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, are lauded on one side as virtual freedom fighters, but seen by authorities as criminals and terrorists.

  These are the hackers who have been terrorizing the Net – and it may have started at least partially in the online service called Second Life, owned and operated by California based Linden Research, Inc.  A group calling themselves the Patriotic Nigras formed on 7Chan.org in December of 2006 and came to Second Life in an arrogant attempt to “own” it.  At least one of the members of the Patriotic Nigras went on to form a branch of the amorphous internet gang calling itself “LulzSec”.

  LulzSec has set their sights higher than dropping boxes in sims and telling furries to “Yiff in Hell”, but their attitudes haven’t changed all that much.  When it was the Patriotic Nigras begging for attention in the sandboxes of Second Life, it was almost amusing, when Eekdacat Ondeneko’s “Doomsday Gun” would send clouds of “Choppa Man” cubes reproducing and screeching like mad all over a region until it crashed.  But recently, the US Government has been reclassifying hacking as a potential act of war, something decidedly unamusing.  This is no longer rape cubes and particle zombies, this is deadly serious.  Too bad the hackers still seem to think it’s funny, some kind of video game, as an Anonymous IRC log seems to imply:

  Jun 03 15:05:41 storm    HACK US AND WE WILL BOMB YOU. – Obama
  Jun 03 15:05:48 trollpoll    didnt see nice lulz ye
  Jun 03 15:05:54 trollpoll    yes, this is not so lulz…
  Jun 03 15:06:03 storm    lol
  Jun 03 15:06:05 trollpoll    and the NATO doc too…
  Jun 03 15:06:12 storm    i didnt see it
  Jun 03 15:06:28 trollpoll    NATO document talking about anonymous
  Jun 03 15:06:29 *    storm gives channel operator status to Topiary
  Jun 03 15:06:35 storm    oh
  Jun 03 15:06:36 trollpoll    that must be prosecuted
  Jun 03 15:06:43 storm    yeah i saw that
  Jun 03 15:06:58 trollpoll    one of these days we will have tanks on our homes…
  Jun 03 15:07:19 storm    yeah no shit

  The “first strike” of the LulzSec boat appears to have been the recent breach of the Sony Playstation Network first reported on April 27 of this year.   The interlopers broke into half a dozen web servers, stole and posted proprietary source code owned by Sony on BitTorrent sites and even left messages inside the system identifying themselves not only as Anonymous, but a specific splinter group within Anonymous calling themselves LulzSec.

  LulzSec claimed that its attack on the Sony Playstation Network was an attempt to convince them to drop its charges against hacker George Hotz, who hacked his PS3 to “jailbreak” it.

  George, however,  is giving mixed messages on why Sony took exception to his bypassing the  security on Playstation hardware.  In one interview, he says his basic error in “making Sony mad”.  (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20028540-17.html) In another (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/226603/playstation_hacker_sony_has_only_itself_to_blame_for_breach.html) he issued a statement: “The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.”  But still other posts have him wanting to get on with life and put the lawsuit behind him, accepting a permanent injunction.  Even when unmasked, these people can’t stop shifting faces.

  The “hacktivists”, however, wanted to avenge him anyway, and attacked Sony’s Playstation Network on April 19 to defend his questionable honor, sort of like burning down a bank that had a bankrobber arrested for robbing it.  George himself doesn’t appear to be very grateful for his compatriots’ act of vengeance in his name.  On the Kotaku news site, in an article reporting a rise in PS3 systems being hocked following the shutdown of the Playstation Network, George (or someone using his usual handle) made the following statement in a comment:

  GeoHotz
  May 15, 2011 at 8:17 AM

  Anonymous Hackers Top number 1 site to blame
  http://www.somethingawful.com reasoning blameing 4chan site knowing it just to secret get FBI agentz off their legal hacks on interwebs & IRC channels
  http://www.woodburyuniversity.edu Mostly all Anon crowns who dose this & run 4chan go’s to this college :]
  http://www.Lindenlabs.com probably their at getting back at Sony Homes riping off ScoundLife Like how Tizzers Foxchase soviet russia group goted their butt kick by furries & W-Hat hackers

  Link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/05/retailers-ps3-owners-are-ditching-the-platform-migrating-to-360/

  Of particular interest are two names out of the entire post:  Woodbury University and Tizzers Foxchase.  Why on Earth would GeoHotz, the creator of the PS3 jailbreak hack, be mentioning Tizzers and Woodbury, much less Second Life, in a comment relating to the LulzSec phenomenon?  Tizzers is known to have provided support for the nascent Patriotic Nigras in the Woodbury group in 2007, and for other raiders in 2010, but why is a small time operator like Tizzers even worth a mention in this saga?

  Simply, all these people keep showing up over and over.  The “hacktivist community” would have us believe that there are thousands and thousands of hackers all over the world, a “hacker army” hidden in plain sight.  The truth is, there just aren’t that many of them. They show up over and over, wearing different clothes.  This is why Tizzers and Woodbury are noteworthy.  They’re a model in microcosm of the larger whole – but the whole is so concentrated, even someone as small as Tizzers can be a significant element.

  So we go back to Eekdacat Ondaneko, one of the founders of the Patriotic Nigras, whose first name is identical to that of a member of LulzSec.  A recent post on Pastebin.com, reported by several sources, has revealed EEKDACAT’s involvement in the sailing of the LulzSec boat.

  The PN and Woodbury in SL use a tactic in common when engaging in griefing.  A single entity could force multiply their effectiveness by building a large backup supply of throwaway accounts, already equipped with griefing tools from a safe repository in-world or from text files of scripts. The mask would change as the action progressed, even as the player behind the mask stayed constant.

  In this fashion, few can have the effectiveness of many, and can look like a small army.  If a machine can run more than one avatar at a time, this force multiplication by technology becomes even greater.  But more to the point, as Justice League investigators moved the focus of their attention from griefing group to griefing group, they found that it was the same players involved in each case.

  Operating through different masks, the griefers attempt to increase their apparent size and perceived threat, and to create the impression that we as a virtual society are literally drowning in griefers, and that the /b/tards outnumbered the normal citizens by some huge number.  It makes it easy to begin to assert that anti-social or borderline criminal behavior should be accepted because it has become the norm. We’re told the griefing is unimportant, because it’s all just a game, or some kind of digital dream. We are meant to believe that fighting back is hopeless, because the battle is already lost.

  Seeing the musical chairs approach for what it is dispels the smoke, and fogs the mirrors. The PN and Woodbury claimed to be legion, but knowing how they leveraged this illusion destroys it.  They were not legion at all.

  The LulzSec operation is little different.  We’re seeing many of the same players from other hacking activities, and still others are outing them. We’re seeing some familiar names, some from our own neck of the woods, and is it surprising?  We’re finding that the global hacker army is more of a global hacker platoon, playing musical chairs and trying to convince us they’re bigger and more dangerous.

  What makes them more dangerous is that they’re as much after each other as they are the businesses and institutions they’re trying to destroy, and they don’t care much about hurting people who get between them and their targets.  This includes the less clueful people they call “cannon fodder”.

  One of the better known methods of attack wielded by Anonymous is a distributed denial of service attack that can be directed at any target by anyone downloading their LOIC software.  LOIC stands for “Low Orbit Ion Cannon”, and runs on user’s machines.  When invoked, everyone who has it installed contributes some of their bandwidth to an attack on a web server, and anyone can select a target.  There’s only one problem: the LOIC does not hide your IP address when you use it, and every person with it installed reports their IP address with every packet it sends out.  LOIC users are cannon fodder.  If you’re caught, it’s just chalked up to “collateral damage”.

  This is nothing more than a turf war, waged on the Internet and on other people’s property – and it’s suddenly clear that this turf war is being played on a vastly smaller scale in terms of numbers than anybody had previously supposed, but with higher stakes than anyone had imagined.

  LulzSec hacked both the C.I.A and the United States Senate, and gloated about it.  Since the participants come from countries around the world, it’s no longer just a matter for the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation – now they’ve inspired changes to military rules of engagement, and an international effort is underway to find and capture the members of LulzSec.  Naturally, the members are now all saying they aren’t members, or were never members, and backing away from LulzSec as fast as they can.  But should we believe them just because they say this?

  Can they cause trouble?  Yes.  Should they be taken seriously?  Yes. Are they a world-class threat, a “nation” inside the Net, that should be warred against?

  No.  They’re a small, relatively insular group of the same faces over and over.  They’ve already succumbed to attack from other hackers who appear to have unmasked them.  This is the true face of Anonymous – they’ll give each other away, or give up (possibly involuntarily).  You can only make a handkerchief look like a bedsheet by cutting it up and rearranging the pieces for so long.  Eventually, someone will notice the gaps.

   

  - 30 -

  Update – July 4, 2011

  And now the music stops and the haxx04z take their seats…and a new group emerges…The Script Kiddies! New masks for the same bodies in a new arrangement!  A new group calling itself – and we kid you not – TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S – managed to hack into Fox New’s Twitter feed and announce that President Obama had died.  They’re not LulzSec.  They’re not the AntiSec group either (which was just LulzSec in a new fright wig) – they’re affiliated with AntiSec.  Their statement to Fox News:

  “We are a new group called The Script Kiddies. As i have stated in past interviews we do have connections to anonymous, however this does not represent them in anyway. personally I have been part of many hacks leading back to HBgary and #operationPyaback with anonymous. we will not go into details about how we have acquired Fox news twitter account. We do have several email accounts belonging to fox news. As far as our security i obviously can’t go into details, but i have faith that the members of the script kiddies will remain hidden. We have no announced plans for future attacks, we have brainstormed several ideas. we will be contributing to #antisec in the future but we have found nothing of value within fox to add to the leaks.The updates about Obama are the result of boards script kiddies members after we found no information to leak to anonymous“.

   

  They got some email addresses, and hacked a Twitter account. Bow down before the might of  – who were they again?

  Links

  • infosecisland.com – FBI has IP Address of Anonymous Hackers
  • thehackernews.com – LulzSec, Jester Expose Each Other
  • wired.com – LulzSec Hacks Sony Again
  • pcworld.com – UK Police Nab Teen Hacker, Suspected LulzSec Member
  • Fox News – Twitter Account Hacked by LulzSec Copycats

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• Open Letter to Linden Lab: 2.x Viewer Gets It Wrong June 11, 2011

  My Letter to Linden Lab

  by Frankie Antonioni
  

  First, a little history of this aricle. A few months back, I sent this letter to Oz Linden, on a note card, in Second Life. Of course I never
  got a message from him, saying what he thought about the letter,or if he had gotten the letter. So here is my letter. It’s not just to Oz
  Linden, but to all Lindens.

  Dear Lindens,

  I won’t be using viewer 2. I use viewer 1.23, because of the freedom. I can look at 2, or more profiles at the same time, and I can move them around. About mesh. My computer can’t handle mesh. I have had my computer since 2006. I can’t afford a new computer, or graphics card, right now. So if LL gets rid of viewer 1.23, I will have to stop playing Second Life. I rent 2 parcells in SL. What do you think will happen if I don’t pay my rent, and the person that owns the land, will try to sell the land? Or if the land dosen’t sell, the  owner abandons the land?

  I’m not the only one. There are many people leaving Second Life right now, and it is because of viewer 2.  But LL refuses to listen, and learn from their mistakes. What is LL going to do, when more people leave, and LL loses more money?

  LL needs to admit that they have screwed up big time. Next, they need to correct those mistakes.  Ask the people that play SL, what kind of viewer they want. Give the people a choice. I’m going to tell you something. And this goes to all employees of LL. If the people that play Seond Life, don’t like viewer 2, then they are not going to play. The new viewer is going to make Second Life worse, not better. It’s not just programmers, or coders that play SL. It’s people from all walks of life.

  Now, I have just recently found this out. People that are blind, can’t use Viewer 2. So, if a person is blind, they are SOL. So Viewer 2 not only sucks, and is sorry, but it does not comply with The Americans with Disabilities Act.  Does LL, want to exclude blind people from playing Second Life?

  I would like for you to look at these links.

  • http://secondden.blogspot.com/2010/10/everybody-knows-viewer-2-sucks.html
  • http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Viewer-2-0-General/VIEWER-2-SUCKS-SUCKS-SUCKS/td-p/209952
  • http://secondlifesecondchance.blogspot.com/2011/01/second-life-in-decline-identifying.html
  • http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2011/05/lindens-stealth-deprecate-viewer-123.html
  • http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2011/05/off-to-see-the-wizard.html

  These mention the same observations that I have presented to you. Read the links, and then look at the comments. It’s not just a few people, that feel this way. It’s lots!

  So, what should Linden Lab do?

  First Linden Lab, should not only admit it’s mistakes, but should correct those mistakes. Linden Lab should then give the members of Second Life a say in some of the decisions about Second Life. Like what kind of viewer, or how search should be done. I’m not talking about having elections in Second Life, or making financial, or business decisions. No, just the decisions that affect the viewer, or search.

  So let’s have it put up on the Second Life website, or on the JIRA, and let the people vote on it. By sticking to Viewer 2, Linden Lab is only hurting them selves. Will Linden Lab ever learn, from it’s mistakes? Have they ever learned?

   

  - 30 –

  ---

  Frankie Antonioni is a merchant in the Second Life online community and has been a member since January of 2007. Mr. Antonioni’s remarks were published because they are emblematic of a widespread dissatisfaction with the way Linden Lab has been managing the development of its new viewer. As with all content of an editorial nature, Mr. Antonioni’s views are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Krypton Radio or its staff.

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• The Griefer Mindset: Who They Are and Why They Do It June 9, 2011
   
  Editorial by Vagabond ‘Tony’ Carter

  We’ve all seen them… rezzing replicators, spamming regions with obscenities, flooding your screen with whimsical to pornographic images and sounds. Crashing sims and viewers for fun, and with countless other attacks they claim it’s ‘just a game‘ and “we do it for the lulz” – even using illegal computer programs to steal from legitimate real life (RL) businesses, and harass residents in-world.  Some going so far as to track down a resident’s real life information and make harassing or threatening phone calls, and in very rare cases a few have traveled miles to mock their victims at their doorstep with veiled or direct threats. Who are these people and what motivates them? While the term is used in nearly all multiplayer online games,  in Linden Lab’s Second Life and other MMO’s we call them Griefers.

  I’m not going to pretend this is simple. This is a complex subject, and  the motivations of griefers and griefer groups do vary from person to person. However,  there are some common threads which are found in the behavior of griefers all over, and it is those I will examine here. Later, I will delve into the serial griefer.. a much darker subject. To begin, let us look at a few unfortunate un-truths:

  No one Begins as a Griefer

  Oh how I wish that were true, I could stand around in Help Island showing off the wonderful things that can be seen and done in Second Life. Offering suggestions on how to deal with conflicts in a safe and sane way when they do arise and there would never be another Woodbury, PN, Troll Manual, or Plastic Duck again. The Patriotics Nigras were born on the 4Chan boards, after ruining Habbo Hotel for thousands of users. The question was posed as to whether Second Life was similarly ‘raidable’, and in December of 2006 they staged a raid on three of Second Life’s sandboxes with a raiding party of some 26 members.   It was the largest operation Second Life had seen up to that time.  By March of 2007, the 4Chan group in Second Life was disbanded with the aid of the very person who had founded it once she realized what the group had become.  The Patriotic Nigras would go on to torture Second Life until their demise in June of 2010.

  Woodbury began in a university communications class room with Dr. Edward Clift pulling the strings of  then-student Jordan Bellino, the person who would later become known as Tizzers Foxchase. Both groups are now persona non grata, PN having been removed from SL back in 2005, and Dr. Clift and his students had even received notice from Linden Lab Legal Dept. that they were not to have any further presence in Second Life in April of 2010.

  The evidence here suggests that with groups at least, yes people have and do create initial accounts for the sole  purpose of griefing. This is not always the case,  and there are those for whom a little guidance would go a long way. Unfortunately for them Lindens guided tutorials focus more on the functionality of Second Life than the social interaction side of things. It is here that citizen groups like the Justice League Unlimited /League of Heroes,  **Police Department** and others can make a huge difference.

  In other situations a person may ‘become’ a griefer by choice, though usually this stemming from a personal conflict with another resident. Some use failed relationships with groups over clashing ideologies or xenophobiaas an excuse; in the case of relationships it may start as simple hateful or angry IMs and escalate to other nastier forms. Those sort of griefs tend to be targeted and otherwise leave others ‘out of it’. In cases of xenophobia (note I do not use homophobia as that is really just a subclass of the same), the targeted group is perceived as ‘strange’ or aberrant and rather than let them be and simply avoid contact, the offender chooses to harass and torment the group in question with similar escalation.

  Griefers are simply misunderstood,  and are creative people who ‘push the boundaries’

  No, an avante guard artist ‘pushes the boundaries’. A griefer outright breaks the rules. These rules are clearly stated in the Terms of Service and Community Standards documents available to all users and agreed to on initial log in – in fact log in is impossible without checking off the “I Agree” box presented by the client, a statement that the user has indeed read and agreed to the rules. While art may be thought provoking and may anger some viewers, the difference is the intent. The intent of rezzing Nazi emblem baring megaprims in a public sandbox, for example,  is not artistic, but is intended to disrupt its normal use and trigger as much drama and  discord possible.

  Peacekeeping Groups Create Griefers

  This is a cyclical argument and fails logically, the idea is that griefers attack sims in order to get a response from peacekeeping groups. Considering the actions of legitimate peacekeeping groups are limited to filing abuse reports with as little actual interaction with the offenders as possible, this falls on its face. All this does is get Linden Lab’s attention on the offenders and their accounts banned, and there is no generative  force at work here.

  Now to be fair,  I should mention that peacekeeper groups should not be mistaken for what I like to call ‘sand box militias’.  These are other groups which make the mistake of using the griefers’ own tactics against them, usually and ultimatey violating Terms of Service in the process themselves.  They are really no more than griefers themselves at that point, perhaps with delusions of nobility, but the ends do not justify the means here.  Three years ago these sandbox militia were very common, but the League has set a new standard for peacekeeping, and militias are all but unknown now.  There are still some so-called “police” groups, but apart from the **Police Department** these are as much roleplayers as genuine patrolmen.

  This notwithstanding, peacekeepers do not create griefers.  This is like saying, “If there were no law enforcement in the world, there would be no criminals.”  This line of reasoning does not even stand up under the most casual inspection.

  *****

  Myths out of the way, we are left with the question of motivation. Why would someone do this sort of thing. It rolls down hill to effectively one concept : POWER.

  Ask a griefer why they for example , filled a sandbox with dancing Marios and sound spam and the answer, after the usual rants and abusive remarks, is almost universal: “for the LULZ“.  Well, what does that mean? Clearly in Textspeach LOL means ‘laughs out loud’, and the word “lulz” is a 4Chan corruption of this, but what is so funny? A sim full of Marios and sound spam is far more annoying than funny. The sim is effectively useless to anyone during such an attack, even to the griefers. The laughs, sadly, come from the reactions from other sandbox users, the sight of other residents fleeing the sim, or shouting / swearing at the griefers over what the griefers view as ‘just a game‘.

  Just a Game…

  Games have a number of elements to be considered games,  this comes in something called Games Theory which I will summarize here as best I can,  comparing these to Second Life.

  1. Games have players: Check, Second life has players/residents.
  2. Games have rules: Check, Second Life has rules (the Terms of Service and Community Standards).
  3. Games have Goals, with clearly defined winners and losers (less clearly defined in non zero sum games) : ok… here we have a problem. Second Life has no set goals.

  Second Life is not then by strict definition a Game, it is best described as a platform on which many activities including games can be held. So, what is the game griefers speak of? It is their game, they have set their own goal, one of control. When a griefer or griefing group has effectively rendered a sim useless , they claim to have Control over it. This is nearly universal, a griefers “lulz” usually run along the lines of “I did THIS! – I have POWER!” If this sounds familiar, it should as this is tied very closely to bully mentality and has similar roots.

  As with dealing any bully, this power can be removed by largely ignoring them. Shutting off particles or sound, sitting on the ground and continuing whatever you were doing as if nothing were happening (while of course filing an abuse report).

  But while this is true in most cases, some griefers are so focused on what they’re doing that they don’t really care whether you react or not.  They’re going to keep going, until in some cases they crash the sim you’re on, escalating the stakes until ignoring them is simply impossible.  There is a type of griefer who is so desperate for attention that they absolutely will not stop until they have caused you so much financial, emotional or physical damage that ignoring them becomes dangerous in and of itself.  Griefers like this have a pathological drive, and cannot be educated, “calmed down” or reasoned with.

  The need here is for personal empowerment and peer approval, this is why a number of griefers will post their deeds on YouTube as if to say “Look what I can do!” . The average real life age of griefers is between 13 and 17, a period when most of us  not in the ‘popular crowd’ were feeling unappreciated or put down by our peers. There are obviously more constructive means of acquiring peer approval and personal empowerment , but these seek the fastest and most destructive path. Typically this ends when they are faced with consequences in Second Life, this means a ban.

  Chillingly this leads to the worst of the worst… the Serial Griefer.

  In the exact words of once such griefer, Robble Rubble, posted on this very website:

  “Being banned is a liberating thing sometimes, when before you would approach a
  situation with the idea “oh I could be banned for this, I better not do it.” But
  after you have been banned you stop really caring as much about being banned leading
  to more freedom and risk taking. Nothing is really making me hesitate when I do
  horrible things anymore. It’s not a hard process to reset my router and run a program
  to change my hardware ID, it takes only a couple of minutes and I am back.”

  These are the words of a criminal mindset. Rubble here (and other serial griefers like him) has given up on caring about consequences. In the same way a hardened criminal might say “So what, I get arrested I do my time and get fed and housed for free, then I’m back with a new fake ID”. This really should frighten, as it does as this sort of sociopath leads in but one direction, and it isn’t pretty. Unless this mentality changes this direction manifests in two possible outcomes in the end if taken all the way to its logical conclusion: prison, or death. In the end this sort of person is mourned, not for their loss, but for the wasted potential – unless somehow they manage to awaken before they actually take that final plunge off the cliff and turn their lives around.  Not all do, and I’m quite serious about the death part.  Some of these guys end up dying as an indirect result of some of the poor life choices to which they are led by their self-destructive, nihilistic personal philosophies.

  That may seem a harsh assessment, but compare this situation to real life laws. In animal abuse cases, for example, the question is often raised “If this person is willing to do this to a defenseless animal, what exists in their mind to prevent them harming other persons?” I offer the following echo of that, “If this person cares so little for consequence in a virtual setting, what barrier exists to prevent them doing harm in the real world?”

  The answer is very often, and very chillingly the same: “None”.

  - 30 -

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• What is a Griefer in SecondLife? May 11, 2011

  an Editorial by: Vagabond 'Tony' Carter

  All to often the word “griefer” is used as almost a blanket term for someone you don’t get along with. This I cannot help but feel is in error, far too broad a brush used far too often. So I’d like, if I may , to examine closely the meaning of the word.

  Wikipedia defines it as “.. a player in a multiplayer video game that purposely irritates and harasses other players.”
  Wiktionary, a cousin of wikipedia, has this to say ” griefer – One who griefs: a player who plays a game primarily to reduce other players’ enjoyment of it.”

  Second Life requires a bit of a refinement here. SL is not a game by definition, but is rather more akin to a platform in which, among other things, games are played. Second Life has clearly stated Terms of Service and Community Standards agreements which further clarifies matters. Applying this logic we arrive at the hybridized definition of:

  “Griefer, one who habitually, intentionally, and maliciously acts to disrupt the usability and enjoyability of the virtual world for other users or residents, these acts are usually in direct contravention of ToS/CS agreements as historically and currently enforced by Linden Labs.”

  This statement provides a good litmus test for whether or not the term griefer should apply in a given situation, so it is quite important to be accurate when applying the term.

   

  A few examples:

  A person or group of persons who openly object to or protest the actions of a person or group but do so peaceably and in a nondisruptive manner : not griefers.

  A similar group that resorts to use of defamatory material, attacks or harasses the target person or group, and or uses third parties without their knowledge or consent to harass attack or defame the target person or group : griefers.

  A person who is otherwise content to let others enjoy SL as they would, who gets into a single fight in a moment of anger : not a griefer

  A person who habitually attacks or harasses other residents : Well that’s a bit obvious , griefer.

  Here’s one that may prove a bit harder:

  A member of a group, said group is known to harbor other griefers and may even supply members with tools used in attacking or harassing residents, but said individual has never been directly observed involved in such an attack: did you guess griefer? Well, you might be wrong there. In several cases it has been shown that while such a person may be worthy of keeping an eye on, this alone does not strictly imply that they are a griefer.

  There are numerous other examples but the above, I personally feel, covers the majority of cases. Now, all that being said it is also important to understand what is and is not an attack or harassment. As these things can come in innumerable forms I will provide here a list of a few things often mislabeled as such.

  Documenting or observing online status or location: While a bit creepy, is not by itself an attack. If that information is thereafter used to harass , or is obtained by means of subterfuge that is of course a different matter.

  Documenting actions done in a ‘public location’: When in public locations (e.g. sandboxes) there is no assumption of privacy, the same can be said to apply to ‘open’ areas of privately owned ‘land’. The aforementioned note about subterfuge still applies, it is for this reason that covert chat relay type devices are forbidden by the Second Life Terms of Service and Community Standards.

  Filing truthful abuse reports, even in groups: note the the emphasis on the word truthful here, Linden Labs has and continues to suspend accounts for false reporting, as they should. This is often misattributed to groups like the JLU/LoH and PD. The root cause of this is an assumption that Linden Labs employees do not do their jobs in accordance with their own rules which state: “If the reported incident violates Second Life’s Community Standards or Terms of Service, we will take appropriate action. We will investigate each report independently.”

  In short, an Abuse Report is never taken at face value, is investigated, and action is taken only if warranted by evidence. Linden Labs requires that abuse reports be filed only by witnesses to the event and thus the policy of  abuse reporting in groups often used by peacekeepers is in line with this. More eyes means more points of view and more accurate information for Linden Labs to use in investigation.

  The point is that the word “griefer” is all to often misused. It doesn’t apply to someone you just don’t like or disagree with, their words or actions, but rather someone who poses a genuine threat to the enjoyment and utility of Second Life to others.

  An epilogue here: Remember, Linden Labs runs the show in Second Life, it is their playground, their rules, if you do not trust them to follow their own rules well… there really is only one option isn’t there, cross the bridge and try to find your greener grass.

  - 30 -

   

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• Playstation Network attack signed 'Anonymous' May 6, 2011

   

  an editorial By: Vagabond "Tony" Carter

   

  Sony’s PlayStation network was compromised late last month exposing the personal information of around 77 million users world wide. As has been reported both by myself and others, Sony kept the lid on this until they could get a handle on how the crime was perpetrated and how much damage was done. Recently another fact has emerged, placed into the network’s servers  at the same time of the attack was a file named ‘Anonymous’ containing the plain-text “WE ARE LEGION”, tying the PlayStation network attack to other acts by persons using the Anonymous meme.

   

   

  Why a meme?

  Anonymous is not a centrally regulated group in any sense of the word, but rather a banner under which any person or group might choose to act. What began as a grassroots movement against organizations such as the church of Scientology has evolved into an internet meme such as those used by 4-chan and the like.

  Who uses it?

  Use of this meme is the ultimate in astroturfing ( giving the appearance that many are involved, when it may in truth be only one or a handful) . As such it’s users are typically individuals who feel they have been slighted, or in more public cases self declared “hacktivists”, whose actions are non the less still illegal. In the case of the PlayStation Network it appears to be centered on one user who felt they were ‘unfairly banned’ from the network.

  Isn’t Anonymity a Shield?

  One might think so, but anonymity only goes so far until someone in authority chooses to start keeping records. One of the tenets of the Anonymous meme provides that “leaderless we are invulnerable”. This is an error.  As Anonymous users have no central leadership,  the actions of one of them affects them all.

  As evidence to this, other users of the meme have denied association , but the damage is done.

   

  Links:

  • A brief history of ‘Anonymous’
  • ‘Anonymous’ denies hacking Sony
    
  • Sony’s announcement on the break-in

  Stay tuned to Krypton Radio as this is a developing story!

  -UPDATE-

  Later it turned out a hacking group calling itself Lulz-Sec claimed responsibility, this broke them from the perceived protection of the Anon meme. Rule one of claiming Anon is you do not later unmask yourself for the fame of it , needless to say this has angered other users of the Anon meme. What comes of this, remains to be seen.

   

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• Who Watches the Watchmen? January 25, 2011

  An Editorial by Kalel Venkman

  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

  The phrase is Latin, and is literally translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?”

  In other words, “Who watches the watchmen?”  I have encountered this for years, and I finally figured out the answer to that question.

  And it’s a real answer.

  The real answer to “Who Watches the Watchmen?” is, “We watch ourselves.  We are answerable to our own conscience, ethics, morals and sense of duty. We can trust no one else’s more than our own.”

  And that implies that we are being asked to follow somebody else’s ethics and morals without questioning them. Which we are, by people who ask “Who watches the watchmen?”

  This argument is almost always used not in the search for truth, but in the obstruction of it.  It introduces a self-referential logical conundrum that cannot be solved, thereby stopping any reasonable discourse in its tracks. By attempting to declare that there is no clear acceptable answer, the speaker implies that the opponents are intrinsically wrong, and this is a logical fallacy. An unknown solution does not imply incorrect action. It’s basically a false dilemma fallacy, similar to a complex question — “have you stopped beating your wife?” or “Are you going to admit that you’re wrong?”

  Those who stand up for the good, the innocent, the right and the just are often publicly attacked by those seek to set themselves on a throne and tell others how to think, feel and act – or worse, seek simply to do society harm and not be caught at it.

  The next time you hear someone ask “who watches the watchmen”, think about why they’re really asking this.  The answers may surprise you.

  - 30 -

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