Fifteen Years Ago: The Emeraldgate Scandal

 

Fifteen years ago early this month, Second Life's most popular then was collapsing, and the one that would replace it would be born as a result of it's demise.  In early and mid 2010, the Emerald third-party viewer had been the most popular one. But in August came a Directed Denial Of Service attack that was caused by computers using the viewer at the time, resulting in what came to be known as the Emeraldgate scandal. On September 1, 2010, Team Emerald announced it would soon be folding. Two days later, on September 3, former Emeraldgate member Jessica Lyon announced she had formed a new team and had made a new viewer "from the ashes of Emerald," Team Phoenix and it's Phoenix viewer. 

 

A few years later, the Phoenix viewer would be retired and replaced by the Firestorm viewer, the team having renamed itself Firestorm as well. Over the years, the team has faced a number of challenges large and small. And eventually Jessica would step down from managing on a daily basis. But Team Firestorm continues on. 

For more information, read the 2018 article on the subject, and an interview with then Firestorm team member Tonya Souther.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Thirteen Years Ago: The Emeraldgate Scandal

 

Thirteen years ago, Second Life's most popular then was collapsing, and the one that would replace it would be born as a result of it's demise.  In early and mid 2010, the Emerald third-party viewer had been the most popular one. But in August came a Directed Denial Of Service attack that was caused by computers using the viewer at the time, resulting in what came to be known as the Emeraldgate scandal. It would be thirteen years ago tomorrow, September 1, 2010, in which Team Emerald announced it would soon be folding. Two days later, on September 3, former Emeralgate member Jessica Lyon announced she had formed a new team and had made a new viewer "from the ashes of Emerald," Team Phoenix and it's Phoenix viewer. A few years later, the Phoenix viewer would be retired and replaced by the Firestorm viewer, the team having renamed itself Firestorm as well. 

For more information, read the 2018 article on the subject, and an interview with then Firestorm team member Tonya Souther.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Emeraldgate And Start of Team Phoenix, Ten Years Ago

It was ten years ago this month that the most popular third-party viewer used by Second Life residents at the time was blocked by Linden Lab as a result of a scandal, and soon after three of the more noteable members of the viewer team were either banned or vanished from the virtual world. But many of the team had already split away and formed a new team and a new viewer, one that would go on to become the most popular viewer. This was Emeraldgate, which would be the end of Modular Systems and the Emerald viewer, and the start of Team Phoenix and the Phoenix viewer, which would eventually become Team Firestorm.

Jessica Lyon, the leader of Firestorm would have a message on their website on their anniversary, September 3.

Ten years ago to this day, the Phoenix Firestorm Project was formed. The Phoenix was born a decade ago. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! How crazy is that? In human years, 10 years is long, but in Phoenix years… well, this bird is OLD!

The Firestorm Project is powered by people who are altruistic through and through. While we started this venture with just a handful of altruists, over the years our team has grown remarkably. Today we have over 80 amazing people from all walks of life behind us in what we do, and we do many things.

While our team has grown overall, we have also, sadly, lost many good folks along the way—some who were with us from day one. We miss them. I miss them. Whatever the reason for their departure, I thank them for their altruism and time with us. You know who you are … thank you.

Further details of what happened can be found in this 2018 article. In an interview a few weeks later, Firestorm member Tonya Souther would offer what it was like from the inside while Emeraldgate and the breakup of Modular Systems was happening.

Jessica would go on to say Firestorm's anniversary party was delayed, but would take place on Sunday October 18. The event will have three live performances: Savannah Rain, Maximillion Kleene, and Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs. There will also be gifts available. Stay tuned for further details.

Source: Firestorm

Bixyl Shuftan

Top Stories of The 2010s, Part One

The 2010's are almost over. Over the past decade, the Newser has reported on thousands of stories. But some stand out more than others. As time goes on and new residents show up, what was big news then becomes unknown or forgotten to more and more. So in this part of a miniseries, the Newser takes a look back at some of the major headlines in which residents were anxious to read on what happened next.

Read the first part of this look back in Extra.

Looking Back at Emeraldgate

Yesterday, Team Firestorm celebrated it's eighth anniversary party. All were happy with the celebration. But eight years ago, the team was rapidly formed in the middle of a scandal that was sinking the team behind the most popular viewer at the time: Emerald. Known as "Emeraldgate," it started in August 2010 when a key member of the development team took advantage of a weakness in the viewer code to launch a Denial of Service attack on the website of someone he didn't like. The aftermath was a drama in which one woman brought people together to lead a new team, while others ended up banned by Linden Lab.

Read the story in Events.

Team Emerald Heading to Utherverse/Red Light Center

In the week since the discredited Emerald Viewer was blocked from Second Life, the remnants of Team Emerald are heading off to another virtual world. Their departure, however, was conducted in a less than professional manner.

The day Linden Labs made their announcement, Team Emerald member Arabella Steadham, officially the Communications Manager, reacted badly. She wrote an angry post full of rants and insults, the professionalism she had shown up until then stripped away. She attacked rival viewers, she attacked her former teammates whom had defected to Phoenix, and she repeatedly attacked Linden Labs. She ranted the “dunderheaded buffoons” of the “pond-sized American company” had bullied them for no reason other than their viewer being more popular than theirs, and the blocking of it’s use was part of some underhanded conspiracy to force the users to use Viewer 2.0. Second Life, she branded, had no future among virtual worlds except as a backwater.

The following day, Arabella announced that Linden Labs had terminated her account. Banned. She made a few more words defending her rights and branding Linden Labs as dictatorial “Thought Police,” warning readers they could be thrown out for the slightest criticism. Then basically stated she no longer wanted to be part of Second Life.

According to an article in the Herald, Phox, the Team Emerald member whose refusal to resign led to several members quitting and forming Phoenix, was also banned. Fractured Crystal, the member who resigned following the Distributed Denial of Service Attack, was not banned but apparently vanished on his own.

So where did they go? Blue Mars? OpenSim?

A couple days adrer Arabella announced her banning, there was another announcement.
...Second Life isn’t the greatest virtual world software. The only thing that makes Second Life so great is the people! We think that all the same people will be able to enjoy better software, and a better viewer by moving over to a competing platform, the Virtual World Web.

The “Virtual World Web” is the platform of Utherverse. This virtual reality company offers users the ability to access “a Virtual World Web of interconnected 3D communities ” that they call superior to the Internet. Of these virtual worlds, only one, Red Light Center, has gotten much attention. I’ve only run into a few who used it, and none were particularly happy with it’s performance.

Modular Systems has been officially invited to participate with Utherverse, the company behind the VWW, in advising on new viewer features and possibly on future client development.

"This is an enthusiastic group of developers who also love spending time in virtual worlds. They know what a Viewer needs to do to make the user happy because they use it themselves," said Brian Shuster, CEO of Utherverse. "It's shocking that their talents weren't properly appreciated by Linden, but the popularity of their work speaks for itself. We are very happy to have started up a new relationship with Modular Systems developers."

The freind whom I’ve discussed Emeraldgate with often chuckled over Team Emerald going to what he called a third-rate virtual world, being among those I ran into who tried it. He felt Utherverse was so eager to get more users, they were not stopping to think of the potential damage that could be done. The chance that they could rise above being a backwater, to borrow Arabella’s word for what she saw as SL’s future, was just too tempting.

But he felt “the real battle is in SL,” reminding that there were still these Emerald viewers with “spoofers” to get around the Emerald ban. Depending on whether or not they continued to make them available might make the difference in whether or not Linden Labs would take legal action.

The Utherverse is offering incentives for those in Second Life to change over. But in my opinion, this is likely the last we hear of Team Emerald, at least for a long time.


Bixyl Shuftan

Emerald to be Blocked From Accessing Second Life, Phoenix and Emergence Approved for Linden Directory

In what many Second Life residents thought was just a matter of time, an announcement was made on the Linden Blog:

As of 10am PT Wednesday, September 8, the Emerald Viewer will be blocked from logging in to Second Life as a result of violations of our Policy on Third Party Viewers. Residents who have been using any version of the Emerald Viewer will need to use a different Viewer to access Second Life. ... We take Residents’ privacy, safety, and security very seriously and will take action to enforce the policies that help protect it. ... we have decided to block logins from the Emerald Viewer in order to protect our Residents. All versions of the Emerald Viewer will be blocked from logging in to Second Life as of tomorrow at 10am. Please be aware that attempting to circumvent our blocking to access Second Life with a banned Viewer is a violation of the Policy on Third-Party Viewers and may result in the loss of one's account.



It didn't take long for word to travel, a few groups I'm in discussing about it in chat. Someone put up a link explaining how to modify one's Emerald Viewer to avoid being blocked. This was quickly followed by an announcement from the group leader that Linden Lab was not fooling around, and would not think twice about banning someone trying to get around the Emerald block.

There were still a few people confused as to what was going on, wondering if trying to simply attempt to log in with Emerald would mean a ban. To those reading, the answer is no. Trying to log into SL with an unaltered Emerald viewer after 10AM SL time tomorrow will not mean a ban, just unable to log in. But modifying it to get around the block very well may get you banned.

What got less attention, but still talked about some was the change on the Second Life Third-Party Viewer Directory. Both the new Phoenix viewer from the team led by ex-Emerald Jessica Lyon, and the Emergence Viewer from LordGregGreg Back (whom had left Emerald before the scandal) had been added to it with no comment from the Lindens. In a sense, LordGregGreg and Jessica had been vindicated, and Emerald condemned.

So is this the end of Emerald? Not necessarily. There are reports going around of the last update of Emerald involving “spoofer” programing to allow people to sneak in. Diehard fans of Phox and Fractured Crystal may keep it around in small quantities for some time.

Chatting with a friend, he felt that the shenanigans by the troublemakers of Emerald very well could land them in serious trouble. The night before, he had listened to BBC Radio 5, which talked about Second Life and the Emerald Scandal, and knew that the next day Emerald would be banned (and Emergence & Phoenix placed on the TPV directory). Linden Labs could afford to be a little lax as long as the debate was within Second Life. But once this began hitting more mainstream media, it’s reputation was on the line.

What Linden Labs does with the troublemakers he felt depends on how defiant they remain. The Lindens have a lot of evidence against them from the Directed Denial of Service attack , to the Emerald code, and then the spoofer, which he felt was their way of telling Linden Labs off. He didn’t think they realized Linden Lab could call the FBI on them, whom could work with overseas police for those living abroad. What the Emerald Team troublemakers did, he felt, could easily be classified as cyber terrorism. Which means if Linden Labs decided to pursue the “nuclear option,” those involved face years in prison.

Or perhaps the judge will be lenient, and give them twenty years probation, but among the terms, they can never again so much as touch another computer.

Bixyl Shuftan

From the Ashes of Emerald ...

Just a few weeks ago, Emerald’s development team, officially known as Modular Systems, was doing very well. With Linden Lab’s official new viewer disliked by many in Second Life, they were the first, and most popular, of the third-party viewers. Probably about a third, some say almost half, of the residents were using the Emerald viewer. Having the respect and admiration of many, the few stories going around about the past of a few of the team members and possible code vulnerabilities got little attention.

Today, Team Emerald has fallen apart, and word on the Grid is it’s just a matter of time before Linden Lab blocks its ability to access Second Life.

Jessica Lyon whom resigned from team after what was branded a “hostile takeover” by the remnants, quickly organized a new one to produce a new viewer for Emerald fans.


A few days ago, I assembled a team of developers to work on a new viewer. Some who were originally Emerald developers, some who were not. All are respected reputable residents in the Second Life Community. The goal was simple, to provide users with what they want and do it transparently.

I’m am very proud to announce the launch of the Phoenix Viewer. This project, has started off simple, with it’s initial release of a safe clone of the Emerald viewer. Users want Emerald features, you shall have them.


It’s interesting to note Jessica included among the developers LordGregGreg Back, the developer whose resignation from the Emerald team marked the beginning of the end. So far, there is no conformation on his blog about his involvement, though he did hint he would be making another entry soon concerning Jessica’s actions.

Second Life Newser has already ran into a few people who have tried Phoenix and liked it. A peek at the comments suggested some have had a little trouble loading it. And of course there is the matter that Linden Labs has yet to give it its official seal of approval.

Here’s one review of the Phoenix viewer by “Natales” - Click Here

So will Linden Lab ban use of Emerald? Possibly, though pulling the plug on a popular viewer is a risky move. A fraction of the Emerald viewership refuses to let it go. It may be that they plan to let the word spread about alternatives to Emerald for a while, give the remaining Emerald users time to accept what happened and find a replacement. Then make an announcement they will block the viewer after a given amount of time.

Hamlet Au has had a few things to say about the Emerald mess. Among them, that the actions of Fractured Crystal bring up the debate on how to treat youngsters. He was reportedly 18. When 17 and 16 year old residents are allowed onto the grid, will they be allowed on development teams, and when they screw up will they be pilloried in the court of public opinion like adults? Then there’s the issue of Internet anonymity and business. Hamlet Au considered Linden Lab the only ones to trust in the mess as they were “an actual company with actual names.” Others feel this anonymity is still “the great equalizer,” allowing those with talent to succeed online even if in real life they’re a “horse-apple” shoveler. The issue will continued to be debated for some time.

As for Qarl Fizz, the former Linden who joined Emerald before the proverbial slop hit the cooling fan, he has yet to answer our request on his point of view of the team’s downfall. He may have just decided to stay out of sight for a while.

“This ain’t the end of Emerald, but you can see it from here.”

Bixyl Shuftan

Image of the Day: Die Emerald!

Found this in the SL Universe Forums, a photoshop of this picture, by Free Xu. With Team Emerald now discredited, there's been quite a bit of talk about whether or not Linden Labs will "kill Emerald" by no longer allowing its use (image also on New World Notes).

Will (Second) life imitate art? "To be continued."

The Emerald Team Part Ways

Yesterday, Arabella Steadham announced that the Emerald team would soon be folding it’s doors. Later, the post was amended, her saying there was “a hostile takeover was attempted by a portion of the Dev Team trying to gain unauthorized access to the Emerald servers without knowledge of the others,” Jessica Lyon fingered as leading this “takeover.” This was something of a surprise, as Arabella and Jessica appeared together on SL media to defend Emerald and give it's point of view together.

Jessica Lyon has started up her own blog, explaining her point of view.

* * * * * * * * * *

As of some time this morning, all access to the servers have been severed to all but Arabella Steadham and Lonely Bluebird. Neither me, nor any of the other Emerald Developers have the ability to put out releases at this time. Beyond the recent beta 2587, we also cannot certify the safety or validity of any future releases.

. . . . . . . . . .

Without access to the server and website, I am forced to make a very difficult decision as I will not allow myself to be held accountable to anything that happens from this day on in regards to Emerald.

With that said, I here by officially resign from the Emerald Viewer Project.

I no longer have access to post on the modular systems blog, so I have created a temporary personal blog here http://jessicalyons.wordpress.com . It will be on this blog where I will post future developments with myself and possibly the remaining Emerald Developers. We are considering, (only considering) the possibility of creating a new viewer, to be on the TPVD, picking up where Emerald left off. IF we do, you will have the same features as Emerald Viewer. The motivation for this would be purely to give the existing loyal Emerald users a TPVP compliant alternative with a fresh future.

I would like to thank, all of our dedicated and loyal users for your support through these difficult and confusing times. I would also like to thank our support team, for all of their hard work and relentless dedication to the emerald viewer project and to helping our users. Also to thank our beta testers who helped Emerald viewer be a quality product.

* * * * * * * * * *

The final (modified) Emerald Team post is Here.

Jessica's new blog can be found Here.

Both posts were soon followed by dozens of comments. Some were well wishes and thank you notes. Others expressed sadness that it ended this way, and wondering if there would ever be a viewer as good that they could use. And there were a few curses tossed in the direction of Linden Labs.

Unrelated to the team split, there was also an announcement in the Emerald blog of a griefer trying to "pervert the in world open Emerald viewer group. ... I tried to close the group down. Unfortunately, I could not do this in time, so many will now no doubt read disturbing notices put out ..."

Some residents vow to continue to use Emerald. Others are looking for alternatives, Snowglobe and Imprudence appearing to get the most attention (from my point of view). And there are those sticking with, or heading back, to the old SL viewer.

And so, the team started many months ago to provide an alternative to the official Linden Labs viewers, an alternative that won the hearts of many residents of Second Life, has come to an end. For now, the Emerald Viewer is still allowed to be in use. If or when this will change is unclear.

Bixyl Shuftan

BREAKING NEWS: "The End" for the Emerald Team

On the Emerald Blog today, the team posted that they had made the decision to fold. Two reasons were given, Linden Labs' demands that three "key members" of the team be dismissed, and an attempted (unsucessful) takeover from within. They stated before closing, there will be one final version of Emerald released, "the viewer we’ve been working on for the past six months. It would be a shame to let the efforts of the developers who put so many unpaid hours into this project go to waste."

This is the opportunity for a fork project to develop and create a TPV version of snowstorm, which is what Linden Lab really wants. I am aware of a number of small projects underway now, and I wish them the best, the very best in their endeavors.

For you, the user, what this means is that there will not be any further releases of the Emerald Viewer after today. The existing releases will continue to operate until Linden Lab decides to terminate their access and end Emerald once and for all.

This virtual world is ever changing and must be, otherwise it will stagnate. This incredible environment will continue.

To view more, Click Here.

More Developments on “Emeraldgate”

In the days following Linden Labs taking the Emerald Viewer down from its list of approved viewers, and the decision of Fractured Crystal to resign on Sunday August 22nd, the controversy has yet to die down.

Probably the most clear example of this was the “Tonight Live” talk show that evening. The show was plagued not only by technical difficulties, but there were also a number of likely griefers at the sim, judging by both Paisley’s observations of day-old avatars with replicating scripts, and my own when I got there of seeing what at times resembled a peanut gallery. Paisley ended up having to do the show in a secret location, with the studio audience facing a gray wall on the set labeled “REHEARSAL.” This was an action Paisley and her staff hated to, but as the hostess stated, “the show must go on.”



On Tuesday, Linden Lab finally ended its silence about Emerald since removing it from it's third-party viewer list without explanation. In it’s “Malicious Viewers and Our Third-Party Viewer Policy,“ It clearly labeled the action on Emerald’s rival a denial-of-service attack:

We have removed Emerald from the list of third-party viewers, and are now in touch with the Emerald team to discuss what can happen next. We did this to do our best to protect the safety and security of Second Life users. We will not tolerate a viewer that includes malicious code, nor will we tolerate development teams with a history of violating users’ trust or disrupting their lives.

We take privacy, safety, and security very seriously, and we will act to the best of our abilities to protect it. We have not yet disabled logins via the Emerald viewer, but will do so if we feel the software and the team behind it is not able to meet the standards we’ve set. ... The third-party viewer directory is designed to be largely self-policing, but we take our responsibility to act very seriously when problems come to our attention.

Contrary to some of the rumors flying around, Emerald users will still be permitted to use their viewers, at least for now. At worst, Linden Labs will block the use of Emerald viewers. Tales of users under threat of suspension for using Emerald are false.

Despite the problems, some residents continue to use Emerald. Others have switched to the new 2.0 viewer, but some of them doing so reluctantly and open to alternatives. One such alternative that keeps being mentioned is the “Imprudence” viewer, available in Windows, Mac OSX, and Windows. It’s been described as more useful to builders than the new LL Viewer, though not perfect. LordGregGreg, the ex-Emerald developer whose exit marked the beginning of the controversy, recently offered an alternative of his own, “produced in a way where all binaries are either provided from a well known trusted source (such as linden lab or openjpeg), or myself,” the “Emergence Viewer.”

Ex-Linden Qarl Fizz, who joined the Emerald team just before the denial-of-service attack, gave no response to a request to be interviewed by SL Newser. On New World Notes, he described himself as being “pleasantly surprised with how the Emerald people are handling the mess.”

Modular Systems, the creators of the Emerald Viewer, stated, they “received a large list of requirements and conditions from LL. ... At this point, I can safely say that we fully intend to address and fulfill ALL of them as soon as we possibly can. ... Although some of these conditions will be very difficult, we feel they are reasonable considering recent events. Due to that difficulty however, some will take more time than others to fulfill. It is a big list of things that we need to do and we will be providing LL with a time frame on each individual item ... Once we have completed these items to the full satisfaction of Linden Lab, we intend to re-apply.”

Sources: Linden Blog, Tonight Live, New World Notes,

Bixyl Shuftan