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I've been reading quite a lot of blog posts on the topic of copybotting recently. For those who don't know, copybotting is the blanket term used to cover Second Life piracy. Its name comes from the process where an automated avatar (bot) systematically inspects and then replicates an in-world item - although it now tends to refer to any method of SL piracy. It seems that this has become a particularly hot topic over recent months and there's a huge amount of heated discussions on SL forums and blogs.

The point of my post today, however, is not to debate the philosophical or ethical issues of piracy. That's done substantially elsewhere - I'd recommend Sapphire's article for one interesting read, as well as this one by Botgirl,or this early one that outlines Linden's official stance. The point of my blog post is to expose piracy not as a problem itself, but rather as an undesirable solution, and one that could probably be dealt with in a similar way to how designers would treat Human Error.

So before going gung-ho at the problem of copybotting in Second Life, we first need to clarify it. Sure copybotting is the issue, but is it actually the problem? My suspicion is no, people after all, don't go out copying things left, right, and centre just for the sake of it - that would be pointless. If you look at it more analytically - there's much more to it. Consider, for example, what it means to be a copybotter. First of all there's an element of risk that needs to be taken - ranging from social retribution from other members, account bans from Linden Labs, and even real life legal action. All it takes is for just one person with a strong anti-copybot stance to discover what you've done, and you're screwed. Second, there's the process itself - the means and methods don't exactly fall into your lap - they need to be sought out and researched. Your average copybotter is putting a lot on the line, and going to a lot of trouble doing it. It's not the act of piracy itself that's the problem here, but rather the factors that are motivating the individual. Maybe it's issues relating to item permissions, the fact that the default avatars aren't particularly attractive, or that some items are simply too expensive. Whatever the motivational factors are, they are ultimately the things that need dealing with.

Second Life piracy is the product of a design problems with the system, even if in this case that system is an incredibly complex social world. When talking about human error, human factors psychologists tend to go with the idea that it doesn't exist, rather that it's actually a normal mode of functioning that is best interpreted as user operation outside of the limits intended by the system designers. That is essentially what copybotting is, an undesirable mode of operation, but nonetheless a normal one. Just as it's down to the developers of a system to permit certain functions, so too is it their job to prohibit others. By discovering the motivational factors, these 'intentional human errors' could feasibly be dealt with using the same myriad of techniques already available to deal with standard 'human error' issues.

The problem for Linden Labs is that Second Life is a complex web of psychological, sociological, and technical threads, weaved through years of development. Normally this kind of analysis and subsequent intervention is carried out during the initial development of a system where it can be done easily, and without disruption to the user. Trying to implement changes now is going to be far easier said than done.

(Hopefully) Related posts:

1. Second Life and Poor User Centered Design Yes­ter­day I wrote a post about how copy­bot­ting can essen­tially be seen as the con­sequence of bad design, I spoke about how the design...
2. Initial Impressions of SL Viewer 2.0 So the next iter­a­tion of Second Life viewer has come along, and it’s look­ing mar­velous! I’m actu­ally really impressed. Here’s my quick run down...
3. Virtual World Design Guidelines Courtesy of Microsoft Between 1995 and 2001, Microsoft developed and oper­ated it’s own social vir­tual world. Named V-Chat, the ser­vice allowed users to cre­ate their own text-based,...
4. Avatars United — A Sticking-Plaster Solution for Networking in Second Life So I guess almost every­one who’s going to read this post is aware of Linden Labs pur­chase of Avatars United and the assim­il­a­tion of...
5. Telepresence and Second Life Predictions for 2010 OK, I’ll be hon­est with you, I’m prob­ably not the best per­son to make pre­dic­tions. I say that because I’m not hugely up to...